Finally, A Downtown Tampa Building With Great Bike-commuter Storage

I have visited a lot of downtown buildings with a bicycle in Tampa and many other cities and it's often the case the building manager gives you a frosty reception if ask to securely store and lock the bike inside the building.

Forget about bringing the bicycle inside and I'm often relegated to finding some utility pole on the sidewalk to lock up the bike. People can mess with the bike -- and rainy weather can mess up the bike, too.

But not at the Tampa City Center building at Jackson and Franklin. Building manager Sandy Ballestra showed me the spacious storage rooms -- yes, plural as in two rooms -- where bike commuters who work in the Tampa City Center can safely park their bikes and not worry about anyone messing with it.



And there's even this backroom that Sandy showed me.


I met Sandy at a bike commuters meeting at the HOK offices on the 18th floor. Several HOK employees met with the local bike gang of Karen Kress, Jim Shirk, David Luppino, Karla Price, myself etc. to see what can be done to enhance bike-commuting and bicycling in the downtown Tampa area.