Palmetto Beach residents welcome multi-million dollar improvements

As Palmetto Beach gets ready for extensive transportation and stormwater improvements , longtime residents are sharing what that will mean for their historic neighborhood.

Carmela Luva Martinez has deep roots in her community.

“I’ve been here all my life,” she said.

She and her family have lived in the Palmetto Beach neighborhood for over 40 years.

“Now I want my grandkids to enjoy it, to keep enjoying it, to be safe, for us to keep being here,” said Luva Martinez.

The area has a rich history and is one of Tampa’s most historic communities.

“Largely constructed over 100 years ago based upon the cigar industry in Ybor City where people immigrated from all over the world to live and work in the cigar factories, cigar box factories, and Palmetto Beach was kind of their neighborhood,” said US Representative Kathy Castor during a press conference last week.

Tom Reynolds is a 4th generation resident of Palmetto Beach, now with the Palmetto Beach Community Association.

Tampa Bay History Center

He reflected on the area he calls a hidden gem.

“When we look at what was here before the I-4 crosstown corridor happened back in the late 1990s, 22 ^nd Street was a thriving work, play, live environment,” said Reynolds. “You had people that would come up here and play at the park or anywhere else in this area. You would have their businesses, whatever it may be, on the 22 ^nd , and they live maybe just a few houses down or a couple blocks over. When that got closed off, and all the traffic went to 20 ^th Street, traffic finally just started dying on 22 ^nd . That caused a lot of the families to move out.”

Over the decades, leaders admit it didn’t get the investment that it needed.

Tampa Bay History Center

Now, with the announcement of more than $30 million worth of improvements coming to the area, ABC Action News asked the longtime residents what it means for the neighborhood they know and love.

“You’re going to see hopefully more people investing, more people looking at us, and it’s going to look pretty, and it’s going to look nice,” said Luva Martinez. “I just hope that they don’t forget the people that actually live here. I just hope that with all that improvement, they consider that the ones that live in the streets, down the streets, not just the ones that live across Bermuda.”

For Reynolds, he said this is a revitalization.

“It’s going to take four or five years, but with that money that’s coming in, it’s going to then spur other investment to come in and try to make this back to a family community again, a real work, live, play area again,” said Reynolds.