Recycling urban spaces

The practice of recycling, renovating, and developing old urban neighborhoods has become widespread in contemporary America. Ybor City, a once marginalized and forgotten immigrant neighborhood in Tampa, Florida, has been recently “re‐discovered” and is currently being transformed into a popular nightclub district and tourist attraction. The current development of the neighborhood has prompted reflection among residents and visitors alike about the significance of the past and changing meanings of “home” and “community.” This essay entails an ethnographic analysis of identity of Ybor City by analyzing the work and stories of two neighborhood artists. The contemporary musical practice of “sampling” serves as a metaphor for understanding how the artists appropriate and recycle images and artifacts of “home” from the past into their art. The analysis reveals how the artists simultaneously resist and reproduce the dominant narrative of Ybor City development.