TAMPA HEIGHTS — Talks of turning Tampa Heights into the next Hyde Park date back to the early '90s, when city and real estate officials touted the historic neighborhood as the next fancy district.

The inner-city blight and crime would fade as more young professionals and well-to-do families took ownership of their streets. Vacant homes with boarded windows and weedy, trash-strewn yards would be restored with beautiful paint, lighting and white picket fences. Vagrants would stay away as homeowners held porch parties, yard sales and festivals in parks.

It was a nice dream, and some people bought into it. People like Jim Hartnett, who moved in nine years ago and learned to live with drunks across the street and uneasy feelings when he spent time on his porch.

So when will their promised land arrive?

Some believe it already has.

This is the beautiful new Tampa Heights — half-million-dollar homes and business professionals, homeless people and crumbling houses and all.

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On Tampa Heights' neighborhood Internet message board, the topics of conversation range from "Community Garden" to "New Cafe on Columbus" to "I was threatened with a gun."

On Tampa Heights' streets, it's common to find a rundown $40,000 home with a family of eight next door to a freshly painted $400,000 home occupied by a young, wealthy couple.

And on some Tampa Heights corners, families riding bikes or well-dressed men walking dogs after work might cross paths with more than one panhandler.

To some, such diversity might sound awful. But others think it makes the neighborhood more interesting, and even pleasant.

"Some people might be put off by the changing elements," said 32-year-old Tampa General physician Kurt Morrison, who recently moved to the neighborhood with his wife. "But I think there's a lot of character and quality here. It feels like a diamond in the rough."

Over the summer, Morrison moved into the Sanctuary Lofts, an old church on Ross Avenue that was converted to artists lofts and apartments. The neighborhood reminds him of the more interesting places he has lived, like post-Katrina New Orleans and Miami, only friendlier.

"Just being out and walking the dog, we've met so many people," he said. "I was just saying to my wife, 'I don't know how we became so involved.' We've never been this intimately connected to any community we've lived in."

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Hartnett remembers taking a bit of a gamble when he moved here in the late 1990s. Nice homes were sprinkled throughout the neighborhood, a 3.5-square-mile patch that stretches west to the Hillsborough River, east to Ybor City, north to Seminole Heights and south to downtown.

The civic association was strong, even back then. But he also recalls the "dull roar" of homeless drinkers who hung out across the street near Lee's Grocery Store and other sketchy activities that took place near his home.

"It was real uncomfortable for about a month or two until I got in tune," Hartnett said. Then he learned to deal with, and even appreciate, the homeless crowds, whom he said were like "10 pairs of eyes" on his house, deterring potential criminals.

"It was like having a camera system installed," he said. "It turned out to be a fine thing."

But things have changed, which is just as well for Hartnett. Lee's Grocery recently got a new manager who discourages people from congregating outside. More and more homeowners and developers, whom Hartnett thinks grew bored of suburbia, brought their ideas and energy and enthusiasm to the historic neighborhood. Crime watch groups and community officers became more aggressive about weeding out culprits.

Hartnett, however, thinks Tampa Heights will always be a mix of old and new, rich and poor, activists and criminals.

And maybe that's okay.

"Some of those issues are never going to go away," he said. "It's just an inner-city, south-side style of living."

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A local real estate Web site that shows listings for Tampa Heights seems to have something for everyone. Early this week, the cheapest was a $39,900 three-bedroom home on Virginia Avenue. The most expensive was less than a mile away, on Elmore Avenue: a four-bedroom, two-story mansion for $499,900.

Tampa Heights hasn't necessarily been immune to the housing market woes of recent years, but real estate agent Heather Frankel feels the area has healthier sales activity than most.

"All of the appraisers I talk to seem to think Tampa Heights is more stable than other neighborhoods because of its uniqueness," said Frankel, who has lived in Tampa Heights for 11 years. "When homes do come up for sale, they tend to go quickly."

Still, she realizes that some are turned off by the potential for crime and the depreciation in home values that can come with living near homeless shelters and rundown lots.

"I know there are some people that won't even consider living in our area," she said.

Police officers who patrol Tampa Heights say it may not be as bad as people think. Officer Clethen Sutton and his partner, Officer Brian Bishop, say crime in Tampa Heights has decreased over time, especially when compared to areas like Sulphur Springs and the University area.

Auto burglaries are common, Sutton said, but they're common everywhere. Problems related to the homeless — disorderly conduct, urinating in public, trespassing — are also common, but residents have become extremely active in reporting such crimes.

"I like patrolling the area because of that," Sutton said. "Everyone looks out for each other."

Sutton lives in nearby East Tampa and has been impressed with the transformation in Tampa Heights.

"I wouldn't have lived here 18 years ago," he said, "but I'd definitely live here now."

Today, Hartnett says, his neighborhood is finally moving out of that "transitional" stage that it has been in for decades.

"We've all been waiting for that stage to pass," Hartnett said. "You no longer have to be an urban pioneer or a visionary to see past the issues and want to live here."

Emily Nipps can be reached at nipps@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3431.