The time Tampa amost ceased to exist (and how we became the Capital of the Impossible)

If you live in the Tampa Bay area, which has been my home for the past dozen years, you already know we’re a weird, beautiful, heat-soaked paradise of chicken-walking Ybor streets, Cuban sandwiches, unapologetic swagger, and no small amount of Florida weirdness. Also, it’s the long-time home of the reason I’m here: Anitra! But if you want to understand why this town exists at all, grab yourself the largest cafe con leche you can get your mitts on and watch (or listen to) Paul McAllister’s excellent 40-minute deep-dive video, The Most Impossible Rise of a City Ever: Tampa, Florida. It is a glorious love letter to the absolute absurdity of Tampa history. Here’s the TL;DW summary of how a mosquito-infested swamp went from a ghost town to the center of the universe. 1869: The ultimate civic rage-quit In 1869, after surviving Seminole Wars, yellow fever outbreaks, hurricanes, and the Civil War blockade, the 180-ish residents of Tampa looked around at their bankrupt village and did…