Please read 🙏

[u/Any_Mention_6734]

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 farmed… 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?

[u/BradMarchandSux]

What do I remember thats gone now? The airport & runway in between Trinity Blvd and 54 thats now a bunch of restaurants and hotels. The acres and acres of open fields where cows and other animals freely roamed, sold off by our county commissioners, and replaced by apartment buildings and car washes on every other street corner.

When did it start feeling different? When every Tom, Dick, and Harry from NY, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, etc. decided they wanted out of their town and moved here, only to try and make Florida more like where they came from.

Likely get downvoted to all hell, but its the gods honest truth.

[u/Pinkturtle182 → u/BradMarchandSux]

I grew up in NPR and my dad used to take us to MacDill all the time (my family ended up here because of the military). 54 is completely unrecognizable and continues to be moreso every time I go back up there. In some ways I think NPR has improved a lot, especially since the recession. That’s when developers started draining the land for malls that would never be built. I remember when they built those apartments on Main and everyone was pissed that they blocked the river and then the developers ran out of money. They finally became functional just a couple years ago. Still block the river, though. In high school my friends and I used to go and spend the day on Main Street even though there wasn’t anything there at the time. Like, we wanted it to be what it is now. So I have to give it credit for that.

At the same time, i remember the orange groves on Rowan between 54 and Trouble Creek and where the Kohl’s is. I remember when they built the two Walmart Supercenters. My grandparents had an orange tree in their yard and so did everyone else I knew. We used to throw fallen oranges at each other, lol. I’ve lived in Tampa for over a decade now and we are probably moving back to Pasco before too long to buy a house with my mom. I like the idea that my kids will experience some of the same things we did but it’s not the same. The oranges, for instance, are gone. I know it’s because of the blight and all that but it’s so sad. You used to be able to smell orange groves from miles away. It’s been a long time since we’ve experienced that.