Tampa’s West Shore area has the largest concentration of office space in Florida — and the cold and congested environment to prove it. Nobody thinks of the area as a place to walk, bicycle or sit at a sidewalk cafe. But that could change in the years ahead under a master plan being put forward by the area’s business leaders. Tampa and Hillsborough County should take reasonable steps to turn the idea into reality.
The plan, a year in the making, looks to transform the look and feel of a business district where 100,000 people work. It seeks to better marry the office environment and the hotels and restaurants that cater to it with the long-established neighborhoods in the West Shore area. Along the office corridors, the measure calls for widening and landscaping the sidewalks, reducing the speed limits and adding benches, shade screens, bike racks and other amenities to make the main roads more pedestrian-friendly. New mass transit also could help accommodate growth while sparing the neighborhoods from further traffic congestion.