Tampa Bay Area More Financially Distressed Than Detroit?

A national agency says Tampa-St. Petersburg has the nation's most financially distressed consumers due to high unemployment and difficulty paying for housing. Just how bad is it out there?

High unemployment and difficulty paying for housing are the major reasons Tampa-St. Petersburg consumers are the most financially troubled in the United States. Tampa Bay is the most distressed major metro area in the nation — worse than Detroit, Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta and Los Angeles, according to CredAbility, a national nonprofit credit counseling and education agency.  Are you feeling financially distressed? How bad is it in Clearwater? Tell us in comments below. Households in Washington, DC, are the most financially healthy, followed by those in Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Honolulu and Dallas-Fort Worth, according to the agency. Those are among the key findings of the latest CredAbility Consumer Distress Index, which tracks …

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Help Wanted: Patch is Hiring a Sales Associate

Have experience in sales and advertising? Patch has an opening for a Community Field Sales Rep.

If you have a passion for sales and love working in Pinellas County, Patch just might have a position for you. We’re currently looking for a sales associate to provide top-notch service to the businesses in Clearwater, Largo and the Gulf beaches. About Patch Communities use Patch every day to make navigating local life easier and more informed. We provide the neighborhood news and information you must know; the best things to do; ways to buy, sell and save money; and a platform to connect and share with your neighbors. And we need your help. Area: Sales With our commitment to serving both local residents and businesses, Patch Sales leverages our platform to help connect the two, offering creative solutions that meet customers’ advertising …

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Taco Tuesday

Taco Tuesday: Tequila’s Mexican Grill & Cantina

The new spot near downtown offers a large lunch menu full of traditional Mexican meals.

Yecid Cardenas knows he is in for a challenge by opening a new restaurant on the fringe of Clearwater’s somewhat sleepy downtown district, especially in this still recovering economy.  But he hopes that by offering tasty, traditional Mexican meals and all day 2-for-1 drink specials, people will soon flock to his Tequila's Mexican Grill & Cantina at 401 S. Fort Harrison Ave., a spot that was home to Harrison’s Grill for many years.  “We serve authentic Mexican food with the focus on lunches, since we know we have a good lunchtime crowd around here,” Cardenas said. “We have 22 different dishes for lunch at special prices, and you can get them seven days a week.”  Cardenas has made many sacrifices to open the restaurant. He moved with his …

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Downtown Business Owner Has 'No Intention of Failing'

Sylvia DeWall believes her upscale events venue, The Sage, can help breathe life into the Cleveland Street district.

After a stint in the Air Force, raising three kids and running a successful painting business for the past 12 years, Sylvia DeWall was ready for a change.  But she never expected her desire to move in a new direction would lead her to a place she had been before — 22 N. Fort Harrison Ave. in Clearwater, a building she had painted during one of its numerous nightclub iterations over the past few years.  Yet here she is, just five weeks removed from signing a lease on the property, trying to revitalize the Cleveland Street district as the operator of The Sage events venue, a 4,800-square-foot party palace right in the heart of downtown.  “I had been thinking about opening a bakery down here, but my landlord talked me out of it,” she said. “…

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Coffee Compound Earns City Innovation Award

The city earned an “Outstanding Achievement in Innovation” award for substituting an organic industrial byproduct for a chemical to treat wastewater.

Rob Powers is the industrial pretreatment coordinator for the city’s public works department. Part of his job is to evaluate limits of the industrial byproducts in the wastewater stream. Too much of them can upset the biological plant process. One part of this is using carbon to remove nitrogen. Too much nitrogen can disrupt water environments. Powers recognized that an organic byproduct that coffee syrup manufacturer Monin was throwing away was similar to a chemical the city used to remove nitrogen levels when treating wastewater. “The idea to use an alternative chemical is not uncommon in our industry,” Powers said in a release. “What is new is that our new carbon source is a processing byproduct of one of our local industries and not …

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Checkers to Reopen on Missouri Avenue

After a two-year absence, the iconic burger joint will return to south Clearwater.

Following a two-year hiatus and after nearly a year of behind-the-scenes wrangling with the city, Checkers, the Florida-based fast food franchise, will reopen its location at 1595 S. Missouri Ave. by the end of the month.  The company, which is based in Tampa and used to have its headquarters in Clearwater, retook ownership of the Missouri Avenue branch after the previous franchisee failed.  “We had an opportunity to get back in that location, and we knew it was a strong location … so we’re excited,” Jennifer Durham, Checkers VP of Franchise Development, said by phone.  Are you excited Checkers is returning to south Clearwater, or have you moved on to other fast food joints in since it closed? Let us know in the comments below. Checkers …

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Should Pinellas Trade the Rays for Tampa's Cruise Business?

A county commissioner has floated an idea that could benefit both Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, according to the Tampa Bay Times: Send the Rays across the bay in return for Tampa's cruise ship business.

Here's an interesting plot twist in the ongoing conversation about where the Tampa Bay Rays' next home should be. Hillsborough County commissioner Victor Crist threw out this idea, according to the Tampa Bay Times: Send the Rays to Hillsborough County in exchange for Tampa's cruise ship business. According to the Times, the newest cruise megaships are too large to squeeze under the Sunshine Skyway bridge. Hillsborough County is trying to figure out how to accommodate them, possibly with a new terminal outside Tampa. Meanwhile, the Rays have proposed to move out of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, where they are currently contractually obligated to play through 2027. As reported in the Times, a coalition on the issue explored moving the …

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Beach Hotel's Giant Mural Proposal Clears Another Hurdle

Developers have worked for more than a year on a 10-by-50-foot mural for the Pier House 60, Clearwater Beach Marina Hotel, which is designed to showcase the island as well as meet the city’s stringent sign code.

When hotel developers thought of a mural to meet the city’s public arts ordinance for the east side of their building, they wanted something purely Clearwater Beach. For more than a year, the designs were developed for the hotel, which faces Memorial Causeway traffic.  An early iteration of the mural featured a vista of the beach including iconic Pier 60. Unfortunately, because the hotel name is now Pier House 60, Clearwater Beach Marina Hotel (at one time it was going to be a Hampton Inn), the design would not fly in Clearwater. That meant scrapping the original Silas “Beach” Clifton Gatewood III design for something that would not violate the city’s stringent sign code. So developers commissioned Beach and Johnny “Castleseed” Schunck to …

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Who Serves the Best Tacos in Clearwater?

With Cinco de Mayo coming up this weekend, we're pitting our past Taco Tuesday destinations against one another to see who serves the best taco in town.

Cinco de Mayo is Saturday, and Mexican restaurants across Clearwater will be hosting celebrations and offering specials on food and drink. We're celebrating the occasion by hosting the ultimate Taco Tuesday.  Clearwater Patch has visited 17 respected taco-serving establishments since our Taco Tuesday feature began last year, reviewing local restaurants' tacos based on taste and value: Which of our Taco Tuesday contenders is your favorite? And where should we go next?  Cast your vote in the poll below, and let us know in the comments if we need to put your favorite taco spot on our to-do list. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

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