Drugs, code violations top concerns in Childs Park
Residents meet with police and express frustrations with a rental culture they say gives rise to problems.
By ANDREW MEACHAM
Published October 24, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - Residents and police shared views last week in an effort to hash out a common problem: the drug traffic and other crime in Childs Park. That's a problem no one has been able to solve.
Through the public meeting, police Chief Chuck Harmon issued as many qualifications as reassurances about his department's ability to change an underground industry. Residents complained about their own failed efforts to report suspected crimes or codes violations, or being told by someone in the city to call someone else.
Panelists in the 90-minute discussion blamed a rental housing culture enabled by absentee landlords, allowing drug addicts and dealers free rein of the neighborhood.
Childs Park runs from 34th to 49th streets, between Fifth and 22nd avenues S. Outside the Childs Park Recreation Center at 4301 13th Ave. S, where the meeting took place, a driver passes by clusters of young men, some of whom seem eager to make eye contact.
Police in 2002 made 149 drug arrests between 11th and 18th avenues S in Childs Park. That number reached 217 in 2003, nearly half again as many in a year many police officers were diverted from normal duties to look for guns and drugs. As of Tuesday the total was back down to 126, on pace with 2002.
"We're locking folks up that are selling drugs, but that's not going to solve it," Harmon told the group.
Several longtime residents told police that men apparently selling drugs had threatened or harassed them. Nancy Harold said that she has weathered people jumping in her swimming pool to evade sniffing police dogs. Prostitutes and their clients have used her carport as a quickie motel. And someone dumped a truckload of trash in the vacant lot next door.
"I am a tax-paying citizen," Harold said. "But I cannot live in the comfortable neighborhood I am used to living in."
Maj. Tom Carey told residents that some dealers rely on steady customers.
"Then when someone unusual comes in - for example, if we have an undercover detective or a confidential informant, and they wanted to try to buy - they may not sell to that person because he's not part of the regular clientele."
Chronic codes violators came in almost as high on the problem chart. As with drug problems, residents and police in part faulted Section 8, a federal housing subsidy.
City Council member Rene Flowers said Childs Park has the largest concentration of rental properties in the city.
Armanda Lampley, president of the Childs Park Neighborhood Association and the meeting's organizer, said residents and city departments need to move beyond talk.
The association has struggled over unresolved codes and crime problems. Lampley said police and residents cannot solve problems by themselves. "One of the reasons that folks are not being involved is because they have not seen the commitment from the city."
Deputy Mayor Mike Dove, who supervises the city's Neighborhood Partnership, said later that he did not understand Lampley's remarks.
"There has been a complete commitment to the neighborhood. We've tried to do everything that we can and everything that has been asked of us, and will continue to do that in the Childs Park neighborhood."
Spooky trails
The St. Petersburg Youth Council, always a prime purveyor of Halloween fright, will try to outdo past performances with a Haunted Halloween Trail from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Boyd Hill Nature Park, 2900 31st St. S. Admission is $3. The event, themed "Mutiny," promises storytelling around the campfire, and, of course, the trail. The Central Florida Pirate Festival will supply the theatrics. Tickets are $3 at the event or $2 in advance at Spartan Restaurant & Pizza, 1059 62nd Ave. S; Beef O'Brady's, 4775 34th St. S; Bob Evans Restaurant, 4900 34th St. S; or the Fantastic Sam's hair salon at 5002 34th St. S.
Crescent Lake invites neighbors to its Halloween Harvest Festival from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday on Eighth Street N, between 19th and 20th avenues. Scheduled events include plenty of activities for children, a costume parade, hayrides and a pumpkin-carving contest. Methodist Town residents are whipping up food, games and fun for the neighborhood's second Halloween block party. The event runs 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Dwight Jones Neighborhood Center, 1035 Burlington Ave. N.
Groups aid storm victims
Fruitland Heights and Casler Heights, which have worked together as one neighborhood association, reached out to victims of a storm-filled September with a $200 donation to the Red Cross. Physician Frederic Guerrier hopes to charter a plane to take food, clothing and other supplies to Gonaives, Haiti, which was devastated by a succession of hurricanes. Guerrier said he still needs money to pay for fuel. Donors should make out checks to the Haitian Association of Tampa Bay and mail them to Frederic Guerrier, M.D., 500 10th Ave. S, 33701.
Meetings
BAYOU HIGHLANDS: 7 p.m. Thursday (6:30 p.m. social). Skyway Resource Center, 1065 62nd Ave. S. The Rev. Dwane Craig, on volunteers for the ARC after-school program; Barbara Grassey, on identity theft.
CAYA COSTA: 7 p.m. Wednesday. Rampart Properties, 10033 Dr. M.L. King Jr. St. N, second floor. Open forum.
EUCLID HEIGHTS: 7 p.m. Thursday. First Alliance Church, 5000 10th St. N. Resuming business interrupted by storm.
HISTORIC UPTOWN: 7 p.m. Wednesday (6:30 p.m. Crime Watch). The Sunshine Center, 330 Fifth St. N. Codes supervisor Mike Vold.
LAKEWOOD CIVIC: 7 p.m. Tuesday. Lakewood United Church of Christ, 2601 54th Ave. S. Identity theft.
LAKE MAGGIORE SHORES: 7 p.m. Thursday. Enoch Davis Center, 1111 18th Ave. S. Open forum.
OAKWOOD GARDENS: 7 p.m. Thursday. Norwood Baptist Church, 1818 29th Ave. N. Open forum.
