Buy Your Holiday Party Tickets Now!

Join us for a night of festive fun and celebration at New World Brewing Tampa.

Get ready to mingle and make merry with your fellow OSHNA members. This in-person event promises to be a blast, so mark your calendars and come ready to spread holiday cheer. Don't miss out on this opportunity to connect with old friends and make new ones. Let's make this holiday season one to remember at the OSHNA Holiday Party 2024!

Admission includes Food and 2 drinks.

$15 for Members

$25 for New Members (includes 1 yr membership)

$5 more at the door

When: Saturday, December 7 from 6 p.m. — 9:30 p.m.

Where: New World Tampa, 810 E. Skagway Ave., Tampa, FL 33604

Neighborhood Developments

A number of long awaited safety improvements have come to Old Seminole Heights!

OSHNA requested the city restore the four-way stop at Central and Henry that had existed during stormwater project work, and while Nelson Construction had done the prep work for transforming the intersection the city had yet to follow through on actually installing the four-way stop. Thanks to former OSHNA board member and current Tampa City Council member Lynn Hurtak for staying on top of this for months to make sure it got done, and to former OSHNA president Tim Keeports for being a conduit of communication for us.

Furthermore, the intersection at Hanna and Central has also been turned into a four-way stop. We were told this would be happening "at some point in the future" several years ago, but the future has apparently arrived. This is in coordination with the greenway development that members of OSHNA's Highways & Byways committee (and other committees, with a lot of help from Mauricio Rojas!) have been working on for years. From FDOT:

Tampa, FL – Beginning the week of November 25th, traffic signals at two Central Avenue intersections (Hanna Avenue and Lake Avenue) will be programmed to operate in red flash mode for approximately 90 days. During the flash operation, drivers are required to come to a complete stop and yield appropriately before proceeding through the intersection.

In early 2025 (at the end of the 90 days), these two intersections will permanently operate as four-way stops as part of a new bikeway project.

Currently, the Florida Department of Transportation’s contractor, Blacktip Services, Inc., is adding new pavement markings (sharrows) to the existing roadway to accommodate a new bikeway on Central Avenue from 7th Avenue to Florida Avenue in Tampa. Additional traffic calming elements to help protect bicyclists and pedestrians include installing bulb-outs to on-street parking for pedestrian safety, improving crosswalk striping, modifying sidewalks and ADA ramps, adding new rectangular rapid flashing beacons, and installing new wayfinding signage.

This project is being done in partnership with the City of Tampa’s Mobility Department.

Finally, we have news to report regarding the development on Paris Street between Ashley and Ola. Neighbor Marcus Lienhard alongside THAN—the Tampa Homeowners' Association of Neighborhoods—have advocated well regarding the properties that were built there with the apparent wrong build-to lines. Yesterday, a judge sided with the City of Tampa against the developer who had filed to force the city to issue certificates of occupancy for the properties.

The issue is still within the appeal window, so it isn't over—but thank you to Marcus and THAN for working so hard to protect our neighborhood integrity.

For just $10 a year—or $25 for businesses—you help your neighborhood association represent neighbors' interests with the city, provide outreach to local businesses and organizations, and keep these newsletters flowing!

Volunteers Needed!

Can you talk on the phone or, better yet, visit our neighborhood businesses? The Home Tour Committee needs you! In preparation for our 25th Annual Home Tour, we need your help contacting potential sponsors. Please email hometour@oldseminoleheights.org if you're available to help out, or if you'd like to be a sponsor yourself!

Don't like talking on the phone or visiting people? OSHNA needs a new Communications Chair! Becky Gleason has been our queen of Instagram and Facebook, but is moving on to a new phase in life so the position is open! Email president@oldseminoleheights.org if you'd like to help us on the social media side.

This Month In OSHNA History

If you live in Old Seminole Heights, there's a decent chance your street used to have a different name. Due to the haphazard and mostly lawless manner in which Seminole Heights developed, our streets don't form a perfect grid and their names were mostly up to whatever developer was paving them.

As Seminole Heights prepared for a vote on annexation held this month 101 years ago, and in recognition of neighbors' thanks for extending U.S. Postal Service delivery to our neighborhood, it was this month in 1922 that many of our streets gained new names either to prevent conflict with existing ones in Tampa or to better align them with streets along the same parallel in "Tampa proper."

If you live on Lambright, know that your street was named after the Postmaster—whose tenure was soon to come to an end. Who replaced him? We'll talk about that in January!

Hosting the monthly OSHNA Porch Party is one of the easiest and most fun ways to get involved in the neighborhood. With the Neighborhood Involvement Committee volunteers handling most of the arrangements, they aren't much work, either! To sign up to host, check out the link to the form in the button below.

As always, check our events calendar on Facebook or OldSeminoleHeights.org .