Promoting Tarpon’s History to Promote Tarpon’s Growth

I spent this past week in the oldest city in the United States, St. Augustine. Even before the past election, I have always had a habit of going on vacation or visiting a city and examining the things the city is doing better or worse than Tarpon Springs. I have been guilty of putting Tarpon Springs into the Dunedin category and look often to Dunedin to try and figure out what Tarpon can do to entice visitors and locals to our shops and eateries. After visiting St. Augustine, my view has changed a lot on this. I believe Tarpon Springs can more readily identify with a city like St. Augustine, despite what most people think here in Tarpon Springs. St. Augustine and Tarpon Springs have a lot of crossover with our eclectic shops, art community, history (although St. Augustine’s is admittedly much older), and cultural emphasis. I examined a lot of what St. Augustine has done to successfully grow and develop, yet, keep its history very well intact. I believe a good mix of proper zoning and regulation, road development, walking and biking accessibility, cohesiveness, and history has helped St. Augustine grow even more in recent years. While we may not have the 500 year old forts, I believe we can look to what this city has done and learn from their successes. In this blog, I am going to present some of my observations and ideas I hope you will find interesting, and hopefully can be put in place to help bring new small businesses and help existing businesses grow.

St. Augustine and Tarpon Springs both share a rich history, but the difference is how each community advertises it and uses it for the benefit of the local small businesses and citizens. I noticed a few changes we could use in Tarpon Springs to attract people to our rich historical locations, and to our shops and restaurants. We have very few plaques and outdoor photos of how Tarpon looked throughout the years. Marking places like Meres Park (now the Meres Parking Lot) and placing plaques on certain buildings with a little history of the building, who owned it, and a little story about a significant event there can create a whole new experience for visitors. I noticed a plaque like this on about 1 out of every 3 buildings in downtown St. Augustine, and as a visitor they were very interesting to me. Tours were conducted bringing you to these locations with small exhibit like structures showing pictures and histories of these locations, and it really helped to keep us in the downtown area. So while we explored the history, we spent money in the meantime at local merchants for lunch, dinner, and mementos. In conjunction with the historical society, I believe it would be in Tarpon’s benefit to do this in all parts of our community. I think once the Safford Ave. and Live Oak corridor are done, it will make it a lot easier to recruit a walking tour or trolley tour company to show visitors the history of the community. These plaques in the public sphere keep people in the community, bring them into the buildings, and give them more of an experience than just shopping and eating; An experience they will want to continue to come back to learn and explore more, and bring family and friends to explore the history and stories of Tarpon Springs.

There are of course many well-known key destinations in St. Augustine like the Fort and the Catholic Mission, but there are also a lot of unknown historical locations that you learn about only through deeper research, or by actually being there. The main brochures may not advertise these areas but they are well advertised on the roadways. I really am into history, so I have bought some books on the history of Tarpon and gone to some of these locations and museums, but we cannot think most tourists will act like this. I am not typically a huge proponent of government spending, but as property values slowly rise, we need to invest in advertising our historical locations. Driving through Tarpon Springs, most people would have no idea the Safford House, Saint Michael’s Shrine, or most of our historical locations even exist. It is very disappointing that these sites are not frequented often, but I don’t think that can be blamed on the visitors themselves; instead, the blame lies with the City for not investing money wisely into advertising these properties. I think allowing private business to still operate in the buildings, but being sure to mark them and advertise them is a wise move and does not intrude on the market. As mentioned, I am very wary about government spending, but locally, it is our job to encourage community growth and local business. Plus, the money we invest now, I believe, will turn into future revenues for the city by bringing more people here. That last statement makes it seem like I am only talking about promoting history, but let me be clear, we must also make it easier for businesses to come in to truly grow and develop for existing small businesses. Never the less, we must promote these locations, particularly the locations we have invested so much in, to help promote the city. I love our history, and I know if our visitors were guided to that part of the community they would love it too.

The city has been working very hard with the “smart code” and other tools to create a walkable community. We are still making great strides, including the Live Oak and Safford Ave. corridor, but we must continue that and expand on our idea. St. George’s St. is most comparable to our Dodecanese Blvd. It is a place with a lot of art and unique shops. The culture of the Spaniard founders is also most predominant here, with Spanish music and dancers performing on the weekends. Since we are talking about doing a facelift for the Sponge Docks, we need to think about the Dock’s walkability and cohesiveness. First, we may want to consider closing Dodecanese at nights on the weekends, like our “Night in the Islands,” but maybe every weekend. Having music, food, and a unique culture on display will really give visitors something to do and a reason to spend an entire weekend in Tarpon Springs. Now, I can already hear the criticism from the shops past Athens St., but what I am talking about is expanding that Night in the Islands on the weekends and growing it. If businesses want to be successful, they need to work these events. Working with the Chamber and Merchants’ Association to encourage businesses to participate is not only important but vital to the success of that feat. Secondly, cohesiveness was huge in St. Augustine. They have a very cohesive downtown, with similar façades and signs. Once again, I know this opinion will not be popular, but it did a lot to add to the feel of that area. One of the biggest arguments against any cohesiveness like that is that we will look like Disney and lose our identity. I actually was on that side of the argument before my visit to the oldest city. While the downtown is cohesive, it is a collective identity the shops share. I think going extreme with the Sponge Docks renovations either way is wrong, it is about finding a good balance between the two. I don’t think anyone who gives a visit to such an old city like St. Augustine that has kept such a rich history for almost 500 years while modernizing and keeping a cohesive community feel can make that blanket argument.

Tarpon Springs is a unique town, with unique cultures and histories, but that does not mean we cannot learn from what has been successful for other communities for economic development. St. Augustine really reminded me of Tarpon Springs, a lot more than Dunedin does. I think we cannot just be concerned with history or economic development, but use our history to encourage economic development. I am making an argument to learn from the oldest town and how they have successfully marketed their rich history, and I believe Tarpon can do the same thing. I think people want a full experience when visiting an area, free historical landmarks and exhibits that spark their interest in the past, and shops, restaurants and tours that satisfy their consumer desires. The combination makes a full experience and I believe will help launch Tarpon Springs into more than a one day stop, but into a destination community. The City cannot do it all, but it can help by starting with the advertising and plaques, helping to give our Economic Development Manager broader tools to recruit small businesses, and entice them to come to Tarpon Springs. If you do not know much about Tarpon history but are interested in finding out, visit the historical society at the Train Depot and learn about how Tarpon grew from its founding and about some of the locations I mentioned here that you may have not visited yet. We live in a great, unique community, and we need to show the world why this is the best city to live and visit.