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Archive for the 'Clearwater' Category

Things could be worse…

Are you looking for the abolutely best rock-bottom price on a new home? Do you want to take advantage of the deflating real estate market? Here’s what you do:
Get in your car; drive across the Howard Franklin Bridge or the Courtney Campbell Causeway until you get to Tampa; head for the airport; get on a westbound flight; and don’t stop until you get to Phoenix, Las Vegas or San Francisco.
THAT’S where the real deals are.
According to the Standard & Poor Case Shiller home price index, western housing markets are where the real market collapses are taking place.
According to the index, home prices in the Tampa Bay area declined 18.5 percent between September 2007 and September 2008. That’s a lot, but compare that number to these:

• Phoenix: 31.9 percent
• Las Vegas: 31.3 percent
• San Franciso: 29.5 percent
• Miami: 28.4 percent
• San Diego: 26.3 percent

The national average is 16.6 percent, not really that far away from the Tampa Bay decline. So we should count ourselves lucky. I guess.

Counters

Tags: mortgages

Things you didn’t know about waffles

Alain Guillaume serves up some waffles

I thought I knew something about waffles until I met Alain Guillaume at the Clearwater Farmer’s Market. Alain and his wife Patricia are waffle experts.
Waffles are usually listed as “Belgian waffles” on American menus. But since Alain and Patricia are actual real Belgians, I listened carefully when Alain started talking about his own beloved waffles.
Here is what I learned:

• There are actually several different kinds of waffles in Belgium.
• Here, waffles are usually breakfast food; in Belgium, they are sold as snacks by street vendors and bakeries.
• The waffles we often consume in the U.S. are known as Brussels waffles, just one of several kinds of Belgium waffles that vary in shape and taste according to the region of Belgium where they are made.
• Since Alain and Patricia are from the city of Liege, they are partial to the Liege waffle — a small oblong waffle that is sweeter and denser than the more-familiar Brussels waffle.
• Alain and Patricia’s Liege waffles can be served plain (that’s what I had), or they can be served with various toppings — fruit, whipped cream, or even chocolate.

Alain and Patricia are the owners of the Belgian Pearl, a Dunedin-based waffle company that markets products through farmers’ markets, special events of one kind or another and through their website, http://www.thebelgianpearl.com/
They make their own waffle batter from a special recipe that they have developed. I had one of their Liege waffles with a cup of coffee, and it was GREAT!
The waffles from The Belgian Pearl are a find. Check them out!

Tags: farmer's market, Liege waffles

Clearwater farmers’ market

Clearwater farmers' market

Not every community has a farmer’s market, but there seems to be more and more of them springing up. I enjoy them because they are good places to find locally grown, fresh produce, and there’s often several unique vendors who sell all kinds of food items or artsy-crafty products of one kind or another.

The city of Clearwater has been hosting a farmer’s market for a while now, on Wednesday mornings from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. To tell the truth, I haven’t visited the market before because by the time I remember that it’s held on Wednesday mornings, it’s usually Wednesday afternoon.

This time, however, I remembered. I drove down to the location (right in front of City Hall in downtown Clearwater) and rambled around for the better part of an hour, and I had a great time chatting with some of the vendors and taking pictures. Yes, I bought a few things, too.

On this Wednesday (the one right before Thanksgiving) there were the usual fruit-and-vegetable sellers. But there was also a photographer selling some of his prints; a lemonade stand; a man selling honey; and a stand selling Belgian waffles (there will be more on this vendor in the next post). Papa Gino’s Pizza even had a stand which seemed to be hawking its catering services rather than actual pizza slices.

All in all it was a very enjoyable hour and I think you’d enjoy the visit, too. Remember, though, that this is a small farmer’s market; if you go expecting big crowds and scores of vendors, you’ll be disappointed.

Tags: Clearwater, farmer's market, real estate

Can you stand another tax story?

I don’t know whether I can or not, but people are sure interested in what’s going on around here property tax-wise.

Anyway … the city of Clearwater isn’t avoiding the great property tax debate. Tonight, city commissioners will meet (that’s Thursday night, September 21) to talk about budget issues for the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. And they are likely to lower the tax rate a bit more. Earlier, the commissioners lowered the millage rate from 5.75 to 5.42, and it looks now as though the council will be lowering the rate some more, this time to 5.25.

The council is expected to meet again in the near future to discuss whether some city services will have to be cut because of the property tax cuts. City officials have pointed out that the city is dealing with increased costs like everyone else, costs that include higher fuel costs, higher insurance rates and increases in city pension contributions.

Tags: Clearwater, taxes

Good news from Tampa Bay’s other airport

The downside of all that praise is that it tends to overshadow Tampa Bay’s other airport, St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, which sits in Pinellas County on the other side of the bay at the western end of the Howard Franklin Bridge, in St. Pete.

St. Petersburg-Clearwater is no slouch when it comes to size — it sits on about 2,000 acres, is fully-certified and has three runways, including one 8,500-footer. It is also home to the most active Coast Guard station in the world.

Things were going really well for St. Petersburg-Clearwater, and the facility hosted 1.3 million passengers in 2004. But then, the airport losat its two biggest carriers, and that number has declined drastically, to about 400,000 passengers this year.

But now there’s good news for the airport. Allegiant Air, a discount airline that serves travelers mostly in the Midwest and East, has agreed to bring a number of new flights to St. Petersburg-Clearwater, starting in November. The first flights will come from Allantown, Pa., Lansing, Mich., and Rockford and Peoria, Ill. There will be more flights from other smaller cities after that.

The new Allegiant flights are expected to swell passenger numbers at the airport by about 250,000 flyers per year.

Tags: airport tampa bay clearwater

Jill Mulry’s photos at Clearwater Fine Arts Festival

Jill Mulry is a photographer who lives in Seminole, and she will be one of the artists whose work will be on display at the Clearwater Fine Arts Festival at the Harborview Center this weekend.

Here is what her website has to say:

“A self taught photographer embracing a wide variety of interests, Jill Mulry is pleased to present her refreshing visions to the world of art.

“Arriving late to the art scene after a full time career as an educator, Jill has combined a lifelong passion of photography with her love of travel. Jill introduces us to the inspiration and surprises of nature through her pictures of flowers and animals, distant mountain and rainforest trails, architecture in its elegant and simplistic forms, and the emotions expressed by her people of character.

“All photographs, some of which have been slightly enhanced through the digital process, are printed by the photographer. To ensure the highest archival permanence of her prints, Jill uses the finest quality archival inks and papers.

“Jill Mulry’s photographs are on display in galleries, botanical gardens, fine shops and tea rooms on both the east and west coasts of Florida.”

You can see examples of Jill Mulry’s work on her website, www.jkatchcreations.com.

Tags: art, Palm Harbor

Who took “affordable” out of Affordable Housing?

Many people have benefited very nicely as property values in Pinellas County have moved upward. But higher values also cause problems, and people who live in inexpensive housing often pay the biggest penalty.

One example that we see in Pinellas County is what happens to mobile home parks — and to the people who live in them — as prices move upwards.

Some of the most affordable housing in this part of Florida can be found in mobile home parks. Many of these parks were founded more than 20 years ago, and some of them are considerably older than that. Many of them started operations when the surrounding land was little more than orange groves.

But as development has grown up around them, the land that these parks occupy has become more and more valuable. Many of those park owners come to realize that the most profitable path is to sell the parks to developers, who can turn them into commercial developments or even into enclaves for upscale homes.

Residents of these parks, who may have lived there for 20, 30 or even more years, have little recourse. They usually own their mobile homes, but they rent the land that they sit on. If a park owner decides to sell, there is usually little that the residents can do but move on. If they are lucky, they may be able to find a vacant lot in another park, and pay to have their mobile home moved. But empty lot spaces are rare, and many of the mobile homes are too old to be successfully and safely moved, anyway.

The latest example of all this locally is Lakeside Mobile Home Park, a 28-acre site that sites at the intersection of Gulf-To-Bay and Belcher Road in Clearwater. That is one of the busiest intersections in North Pinellas, with around 80,000 vehicles buzzing by on either of the two roads every day.

The owner of the park has notified its 200-plus residents that they must get out by the end of 2006. The landowners say they are not selling the land to nayone else, but they are also not saying at this point what their plans are for the site.

Whatever happens to Lakeside, the people who live there will have to go elsewhere. And they are not alone. Every year, more mobile home residents in Pinellas County learn that they will have to move. Some end up having to move to less developed (and less expensive) areas of Florida, because they have been pretty much priced out of Pinellas.

It’s a tough reality for residents, many of whom are elderly, retired and living on fixed incomes.

Tags: affordable housing, mobile homes, pinellas county