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Council to discuss Gasparilla changes

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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE

cwade@tampatrib.com

Published: October 21, 2009

TAMPA - Drunken partygoers fighting, destroying property and urinating in backyards.

Those were among the complaints voiced by neighborhood groups after this year's Gasparilla Parade of the Pirates, which brought more than 350,000 revelers to downtown Tampa.

During the past several months, event organizers have met with neighborhood groups, local business owners and city officials and have come up with a strategy they say should curtail the bad behavior without putting a damper on the city's signature event.

At a workshop on Thursday, the Tampa City Council is expected to discuss several planned changes to the annual event, including:

•Increase the number of police officers in neighborhoods and enforce a zero-tolerance policy for underage drinking, open containers and public urination.

•Double the number of portable toilets from 800 to 1,600.

•Reroute the parade so it finishes on Ashley Drive, extending it about three blocks to Curtis Hixon Park to thin the crowd in residential areas.

Council members said they were besieged by calls from angry residents after this year's festivities, urging them to make the annual pirate invasion more neighborhood friendly.

"Clearly, in the past couple years it's gotten out of control, particularly in the Hyde Park area," Councilman John Dingfelder said. "We demanded that the groups involved with this event get a handle on it and I believe they've come back with a plan to do that."

Organizers hope that adding four blocks to the parade route will spread spectators over a larger area and help reduce foot traffic in the residential neighborhoods.

The parade's final leg will be altered by sending it across the Hillsborough River at the Brorein Street Bridge and north through downtown along Ashley. It will end at Cass Street. The old route crosses the river at Platt Street, then follows Florida Avenue.

In another change, bleachers will be removed from a half-mile of the route on the bay side of Bayshore Boulevard between Howard and Rome avenues. That space in recent years has been reserved for paying spectators but will be opened to the public.

Organizers say that will reduce the size of crowds in the neighborhoods.

"We're very sensitive to what goes on in the residential neighborhoods and believe that these changes will go a long way to address the community concerns," said Jim Tarbet, executive director of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla, which sponsors the parade.

The workshop begins at 9 a.m. in city hall at 315 E. Kennedy Blvd. in downtown.

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (813) 259-7679.

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