YBOR CITY, Fla. — A team of community leaders and business owners in Ybor City say it’s time to start shining a positive light on their neighborhood. Artists, hosts and venue owners came together Monday for the There’s Good in Ybor fundraiser show and community rally with the goal of uniting positive people in the community and keeping the neighborhood safe.
The event was held Monday evening at The Crowbar and featured live music, art performances, guest speakers, lives painters, raffle prizes and giveaways.
Proceeds will go towards the Andrew Joseph Foundation, which supports grieving parents of lost children and puts on programs that help fight community violence.
The community rally also served as the official launch of a series of programs focused on risk mitigation, first aid and crisis management as a way to provide people who frequent Ybor City with the skills needed to respond in case of emergency.
“The negativity that surrounds Ybor is just a small small crumb compared to the positive growth potential,” event organizer Dennis Amadeus said. “I don’t think there’s anywhere else in the city that has that pure culture that Ybor does have.”
The There’s Good in Ybor rally was filled with sights and sounds all meant to showcase what Ybor City is and means to so many.
“Ybor’s still, you know, the great, really fun place it’s always been – you know, diverse,” said Georgina Martinez, owner of Ybor City Food Mart on East 7th Avenue.
Martinez said she probably wouldn’t make it to the event because she had to work at the store. But she said the district’s nightlife and tourism contribute to the bulk of her customer base. While she’s owned the food mart for five years, Martinez said her family goes way back in Ybor.
“My grandfather was born here in 1908. Him and his brothers and sisters and my grandparents – great grandparents – were all cigar rollers when it was the cigar hub down here,” Martinez said.
She told Spectrum Bay News 9 that since the October shooting, her sales have been cut in half.
“The only thing I can kind of compare it to is COVID,” she said. “You know – you can’t plan for it, it happens unexpectedly, and you kind of have to just, hopefully, push through. Ybor’s been through a lot, and we’ll come back. We’ll come back better than ever.”
Tom DeGeorge, co-owner of The Crowbar, said Tampa Police, city council members and the GaYBOR District Coalition were among the community partners invited to Monday’s event.
He said in addition to supporting a good cause and celebrating Ybor’s culture, another goal was bringing people back to the district.
“The past six weeks, they’ve been challenging,” DeGeorge said. “To show the other people who might not be coming right now that we are a safe community, and we’re just as safe as any other community that has been impacted by a senseless act of violence.”