A new night club is opening in Ybor City replacing the old Empire Club on 7th. It is called Dream but will it become a nightmare? The Empire Club had many shootings, 1 shooting death inside and closed last November. St Pete Pride Parade has come and gone. It is interesting to see the attendance counting from the news agencies. Fox network reported 40k there. Channel 10 CBS reported 80,000 as did Tampa Bay Times, Channel 28 ABC & Watermark magazine reported 100,000. There is such a disparity in attendees among the media. Is it to early to clean up Tampa for the RNC convention? Trees and shrubbery are being planted and new paving jobs are in the works on the Tampa downtown streets. Are the private building owners being responsible and cleaning up and painting their historic frontage structures? The Code Enforcement officers in Tampa told us they have been warned. The biggest convention in Tampa’s history, the GOP National Republican Convention is just 1 month away!
People R Talking
A new night club is opening in Ybor City replacing the old Empire Club on 7th. It is called Dream but will it become a nightmare? The Empire Club had many shootings, 1 shooting death inside and closed last November. St Pete Pride Parade has come and gone. It is interesting to see the attendance counting from the news agencies. Fox network reported 40k there. Channel 10 CBS reported 80,000 as did Tampa Bay Times, Channel 28 ABC & Watermark magazine reported 100,000. There is such a disparity in attendees among the media. Is it to early to clean up Tampa for the RNC convention? Trees and shrubbery are being planted and new paving jobs are in the works on the Tampa downtown streets. Are the private building owners being responsible and cleaning up and painting their historic frontage structures? The Code Enforcement officers in Tampa told us they have been warned. The biggest convention in Tampa’s history, the GOP National Republican Convention is just 1 month away!
The only tri-lingual (Spanish-Italian-English) newspaper in United States is La Gaceta located in Ybor City and is celebrating its 90th Anniversary. The newspaper started in 1922 by Victoriano Mantiega, a lecturer at Ybor City cigar companies reading to the hand making cigar rollers. Congratulations to editor/ publisher Patrick Mantiega.
GaYBOR Member of the Week –PFLAG Tampa – John & Nancy Desmond
Tampa Bay has had a number of PFLAG’s (Parents & Friends of Lesbian & Gays) organizations start and close. But because of these 2 devoted individuals John & Nancy Desmond, they have started a new Tampa chapter, which generated a great awareness to the Gay youth right here in Tampa. They have been active members of GaYBOR District Coalition and recently had booths at St. Pete Pride and the First Pride Event held at the VA Hospital in Tampa
Mark & Carrie’s Nephew/Niece of the Week – Natalie & Ryan
We are proud to say that our niece, Natalie and boyfriend, Ryan are our featured nephew and niece. We just love Natalie’s go get’ em energy! Natalie graduated from USF and stayed with us during her off times. And yes, she has hundreds of friends here in Tampa because she brings them all over to our house! Our little Space Shuttle niece was working at Kennedy Space Center and is now at Patrick Air Force Base in Satellite Beach. She is also the Satellite Beach High Swimming Coach and dance instructor at a Greek Church group in Melbourne. She got us passes to see the last space shuttle last summer. She is in a High Security position! We don’t ask and she can’t tell!
You Just Can Not Make This Stuff Up..The names have been changed to protect the innocent! Kinda – Sort of…LOL
The Pianos of Ybor was a social & art exhibit. We purchased 10 pianos had them tuned and then had 10 artists paint the pianos. The pianos were then placed throughout Ybor City in public spaces. Everybody was encouraged to play the pianos. At the end of 6 weeks not one piano was damaged not even the piano benches! The pianos were then auctioned off and the moneys were given to charities. On the 1st day we were moving the pianos into locations, the pianos were on top of a moving platform. As we were moving down 15th street suddenly Stephen Moss started to play the piano. Who knew he studied classic piano! More surprises came everyday as dancer Mica & even the mailman were great pianists.
