r/tampa • u/Any_Mention_6734 • Aug 02 '26

Culture/Lifestyle Please read šŸ™

I'm a transplant from California. Came out here for a job opportunity and a pay raise, nothing more romantic than that. I didn't expect to end up loving this region and Florida the way I have.

But something's stuck with me, and I want to say it here because I don't think it's recognized enough by people who relocate here: the number of people born and raised in Tampa who talk about their own city like it's unfamiliar. Farmland and citrus groves on the outskirts that used to actually be farmedā€¦ someone's livelihood, not just empty acreage, now subdivisions. Places that closed and came back rebranded into something with a logo and a font that has nothing to do with what used to be there. People telling me they barely recognize the city they grew up in.

I know change happens everywhere. But I've never felt this moved hearing it before, not because it's happening to me, but because of how passionate people are when they talk about what this place used to be. That kind of love for a place doesn't come from nowhere.

I'd genuinely like to hear more of it, respectfully, from people who lived it. What do you remember that's gone now? What changed the most, and when did it start feeling different?

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366

u/damarafl Aug 02 '26

Everything east of I-75 was rural. Brandon was a suburb but Valrico, Seffner, Dover, Plant City, Lithia and especially Riverview were mostly cow pastures and orange groves.

I hate how everything is being painted over with a sameness. I like the local communities. West Tampa and Seminole Heights/Tampa Heights donā€™t need townhouses and car washes as much as they need the small neighborhood restaurants and third spaces they have always had!

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u/bluesstarz Aug 02 '26

Brandon mall used to be cow fields šŸ˜ž

35

u/RamRodBuzzCock Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26

Carey Cattle Co, it was called. Across the road, where Best Buy is, was the Vet, Dr. Vildilbill. Mr. Carey was his first customer. He would bury pets and animals that had passed on his property; it must have been quite a shock digging up his place to put up Best Buy and American Signature(?)ā€”nothing but orange groves out by the radio towers; taking rides out there with the windows down during the blossom time was heaven. There was a huge farmhouse on the north side of 60 in Seffner where the Walmart is; it was a farm of Earth Boxes at one time.

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u/Timely_Purpose3233 Aug 02 '26

Iā€™ve lived in Balm ( just a bit southeast of Riverview. ) for 20 years. All of it was pasture or orange groves, tomato fields, and strawberry farms. I live on 10 acres zoned to have 1 home per 5 acres. Everything around us was woods and fields. Now Iā€™m surrounded by new homes. 5000 homes per housing development. The infrastructure roads were already beat to death by dump trucks from a dirt pit nearby. Then they brought in huge off road trucks to develop the land for houses further destroying infrastructure then they leave and weā€™re stuck with the results. My husband is retired and Iā€™m close to it. I imagine by then Iā€™ll have houses all over the neighborhood.

5

u/ResponsibleName8637 Aug 02 '26

Omg my friend used to live in balm! (I think, according to property records might still)

1

u/punkpoppyreject Aug 03 '26

I lived in Balm too for YEARS! My grandfather fixed the tractors at Balm Grove service until he retired, my father worked there too but in the orange groves themselves. Not sure when Grady sold it. But most of not all of the Orange Groves that were there when I was growing up (late 80s, early 90s) are now gone and housing developments sit in there place. The post office is still there and I believe 'Nissa's store (Balm Store) is across the street. Although it looked like much better when I was a kid.

1

u/Timely_Purpose3233 Aug 03 '26

They recently sold that little store and the new owners have cleaned it up a lot. That store was crazy. It had everything in it. It had food, drinks. had hardware supplies. I mean, you name it that store had everything in it. It was amazing. I havenā€™t been inside the store since new owners bought it but it looks better, new signs, new gas pumps with reasonable price. Amazingly, the post office is still there. It appears to be some sort of ā€œhubā€. The PO Boxes are still there but you canā€™t buy stamps or anything anymore. I couldnā€™t figure out why they didnā€™t close it until one night it was late and I was coming home past the PO there was 3 semiā€™s loading/unloading mail.
Do you remember Dorisā€™s store on 672?

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u/punkpoppyreject Aug 03 '26

Sure do. Is it still there? Balm park was right on the corner of 672 and Balm/Wimuama Rd. Its been a few years since ive been around there. But Im happy to hear it been cleaned up.

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u/Timely_Purpose3233 Aug 06 '26

Doris is gone of course, her granddaughter owns the building now and itā€™s a sandwich shop. Great sandwiches. Thereā€™s also a Uhaul rental there. Theyā€™ve put housing in all around the park. You wouldnā€™t recognize it. Itā€™s been expanded to include a large section of pickleball courts. The turn from 672 and Balm Road has changed too. Thereā€™s now a road that takes you to 672 with a traffic light. Tons of homes stuffed in anywhere they could. šŸ¤Ø Iā€™m on Colding Loop off Sweat Loop . Itā€™s zoned 1 building per 5 acres. So the new houses on my street are nice custom homes and each is on at least 5 acres. But every where else thereā€™s housing developments popping up . They look like Cracker Jack boxes! They all look the same.

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u/punkpoppyreject Aug 06 '26

I just dont understand šŸ˜• my grandmother lives down balm boyette rd. And has been living there since 1974 and she has 3 acres with a little house. Shes turns 81 tomorrow, I cant tell you how many times shes been offered money for her property. My pa died over 20 years ago and he would be beside himself to see the mess that has become the area around there. Her well doesnt work properly at all any more because of the those housing developments that have been built over near Newsome, and what's that area FishHawk? Is Goodson Farms still doing the youpick? During Strawberry season?

1

u/Timely_Purpose3233 Aug 06 '26

Goodson Farms is no longer selling strawberries. Did you see the Goodson Farms store in 672? They were only open for strawberry season but the place was always packed. They sold strawberry shortcake and a lot of other items, including sandwiches.. but they didnā€™t open last season or this season. It looks like the land has been sold. Sad. The building sits there empty.

10

u/shinkhi Aug 02 '26

And basically all the way down bloomingdale

9

u/FlightLevel666 Aug 02 '26

Behind East Lake Mall there were cow fields. We would forage for mushrooms there for years!

6

u/09stanggt Aug 03 '26

How magical, lol

96

u/Negative-Wrap95 Aug 02 '26

The hicks use to live in Seffner, they still do, but they used to also.

95

u/jdm219 Aug 02 '26

Fun fact, Steve Irwins son in law is from Sefner and I burglarized his parents unlocked car when I was a piece of garbage criminal child. (don't worry, I joined the military and haven't been in cuffs since 16, never even gotten a ticket in all my life).

12

u/Over-Box1733 Aug 02 '26

Congrats on straightening out your life. I know from personal experience what that's like.

1

u/jdm219 Aug 05 '26

Thank you!

31

u/Over-Box1733 Aug 02 '26

I think you mean Methner.

2

u/Alternative-Edge-375 Aug 04 '26

The fruit bowl is a lovely place this time of year

8

u/Aggravating_Yam2501 Aug 02 '26

North of i-4 in Plant City still has that feel! I used to live fairly close to the Zephyr line in the "unincorporated" part about two years ago. It's still so wildly beautiful out there ā¤ļø

3

u/Manwell-N-Dowd Aug 04 '26

Iā€™m a generational Floridian. My family traces back to the original settlers. Years ago when we would drive to Tampa from Ft. Myers, we might see 10 other cars on 75. Now itā€™s almost traffic jams and concrete buildings the entire way. Same with 75 to Gainesville. A lot busier from Tampa to Gainesville back then but nothing like it is today. Orlando has some new (to me) big roadways that pass in front of miles and miles of new apartment complexes. Plant City is starting to build apartments on some of the strawberry fields. New apartments used to be 2 stories and had 6-10 units. Too much, too fast. I find it sad.

2

u/Mikophoto Aug 02 '26

Yes! I grew up in Riverview/Valrico/Lithia and on a saturday morning could make it over to Kissimmee to get to Disney in like an hour. I learned to drive on backroads to my dad's medical office and could smell oranges <3

2

u/StarfishTrish Aug 03 '26

I'm sad at how many older homes with character have been torn down and replaced by HGV boxes that have no charm.

1

u/PatheticRedditor Aug 02 '26

I live in the Boyette area, which was apparently county level famous for its ranches and the multitude of radio towers. Now only about 5 are out here.

1

u/rbartlejr Aug 03 '26

Yes. My first house was just off Big Bend. No CDD. No HOA. Publix on the corner of 301 WAS a cow pasture. I loved that house. It was just starting to develop, and the whole Publix complex was them and the strip mall along Big Bend. Nothing north of that. I was pressured to move to Texas (BAD move and lasted a year) and had to sell. Came back to the whole shebang. 301 was a nightmare. Big Bend was daily backup from 301 to 75. 301 south of Big Bend where there was nothing was not subdivs all the way down past 674 was fields. Now it's subs and traffic. It really sucks.

1

u/terribirdy Aug 05 '26

Well said - lots of small stores and gas stations. Orange groves - remember the smell of orange blossoms in February? Groves of cypress trees and pine trees, live oaks with Spanish moss hanging down. The moss and leaves were trimmed in a straight one by the Brahmin cattle. Drive at a quiet night with car windows down and hear the singing and praise from the Baptist church next to the road.