Reality clouds vision for neighborhood

St. Petersburg officials are optimistic about the future, but crime and drug concerns may hinder progress.

[Times photo: Jamie Francis] Children head home after shopping at Harold's Food Store, where someone recently threw small explosives at officers.

By LEANORA MINAI, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 10, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- When Mayor Rick Baker tours the city's Midtown area, he sees more than the new street lights and landscaping on some main thoroughfares.

He sketches a future that could include a renovated performing arts theatre. A neighborhood bank. A full-service post office. Maybe even a roller skating rink.

But in Midtown, the present doesn't look as bright as the mayor's vision.

The area has 32 percent of the city's violent crime arrests and only 9 percent of the population. As complaints about illegal drug activity increased last year in many Midtown neighborhoods, drug arrests declined by 21 percent. The violent crime rate also continued to rise, although not as fast as the city's overall increase.

As Baker and Deputy Mayor Goliath Davis III embark on an ambitious plan to revitalize Midtown with new industry and jobs with benefits, they face the same problem that has plagued these poor neighborhoods for decades: the widespread perception that parts of the area aren't safe, and some crime statistics that support that notion.

Baker prefers to dwell on the positive.

"It's important to look at what direction the crime's going," he said. "Over the last five years, our overall crime rate and our violent crime rate have gone down considerably. I think that's positive."

Police Chief Chuck Harmon says people simply "mischaracterize" Midtown as dangerous.

"People who live there and work there are good people," Harmon said. "What we have is a situation where it's gotten a bad reputation."

But others say Midtown's problems are more than a matter of perception.

"We have a problem, and it's deplorable," said Darryl Rouson, an attorney and president of the St. Petersburg NAACP.

Change slow to come

Midtown's 5.5 square miles have 22,295 residents. It's smack dab in the middle of the city with plenty of vacant property and potential. There are schools, parks, historical buildings, places where Ray Charles performed, clay courts where tennis champion Chris Evert got her start.

But the area is pockmarked with boarded up and dilapidated cottages, empty businesses, trash-strewn curbs, notorious crack holes.

While violent crime has dropped 22 percent in the area since 1996, Midtown still accounts for about one-third of all of St. Petersburg's violent crime. City officials say change comes slowly.

"We will not see overnight the type of change and progress that some people might want to see," said Davis, the city's former police chief and deputy mayor for Midtown economic development.

Last year, violent crime rose just 1.1 percent from the year before, far less than the 8.6 percent increase in violent crime citywide.

Still, half of the city's 21 murders in 2001 were in Midtown. All of the killings that were motivated by drugs -- at least four -- were in Midtown.

"The nexus is guns, gangs and drugs, and when you get that nexus, you've got a lot of violence," said George Kelling, faculty chair of the Police Institute at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

St. Petersburg, like most cities, has high-crime areas, said Frederick Sails, president of the Central Florida chapter of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, or NOBLE, and a lieutenant in the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

"When you get into an area of this nature, it doesn't make a difference if it's black or white," Sails said. "If you have a run-down area, it tends to lead to a crime element coming in."

So how does an economy grow?

What should city leaders tackle first: the crime rate, so light industry and technology are attracted to Midtown? Or do they go after new business first and expect that adding jobs will reduce crime?

Baker and Davis say jobs with benefits and opportunities for new and expanded business must continue while the city fights to lower crime.

"The truth is, economic development has an impact on crime reduction," said Davis. "When individuals are able to work, they don't commit crimes."

David Jackson, 34, believes that, too. He said his friends in Midtown cannot land jobs because of criminal records.

"These guys need jobs," said Jackson, a Clearwater firefighter and St. Petersburg native. "There's a lot of good people around here. It's just that a lot of people need help."

But Kelling, the Police Institute chair, said potential investors are first concerned about the safety of their employees. He is best known for co-pioneering the "broken windows" theory, the idea that strict enforcement of laws against public drinking and prostitution, among other misdemeanors, causes violent crime to decline.

"When you have high levels of crime and disorder, that's a disincentive for business and corporations," Kelling said.

The fact that Midtown hosts such a disproportionate share of violent crime is not promising, he said.

"It's going to tell other people that it's not a very safe place for investment under those circumstances."

Arrest decline questioned

In Midtown, drug arrests dropped for two straight years. Drug arrests were down 21 percent in the area last year, compared to a 19 percent drop citywide. The decline has triggered questions about the Police Department's efforts to fight illegal drug use.

There were 737 drug arrests in Midtown last year, down 192 arrests from the year before.

"I think that's a huge drop," said Sharon Russ, 41, a Bartlett Park resident for 21/2 years. "I guess that explains the murder rate going up."

Sails, the NOBLE chapter president, said the community should be concerned with a drop in arrests only when violent crime goes up. "It would mean someone is taking a hands-off approach to doing their job," he said.

Bill Proffitt, who retired from the Police Department a year ago after serving as vice and narcotics major and assistant police chief, said drug arrests are down in part because of staffing shortages, second-guessing by high-ranking police officials and the treatment of officers in some neighborhoods.

Last month, people twice tossed small explosive devices at police officers in Midtown. In one case, a device was thrown at narcotics officers after they arrested a suspect for dealing crack cocaine.

"If I were a cop, and I was going to get stoned when I made an arrest in certain neighborhoods, I think I would be less aggressive about making those arrests," said Alfred Blumstein, project director of the National Consortium on Violence Research.

Some businesses have been able to survive in Midtown.

The explosive devices were thrown down the street from Steve Atari's store, Harold's Food Mart, at 12th Avenue S and 12th Street. Despite the area's reputation, his business has been robbed only once in four years, he said.

"I like this neighborhood," said Atari, 48, who came to St. Petersburg from Brazil.

Chief Harmon said he is not concerned about the decline in drug arrests. Search warrants are being done citywide, Harmon said. When you take away drug suppliers, he said, street dealers are hurt.

But there's no way to measure that. His administration last week could not provide the volume of drugs seized from search warrants in 2001. And a review of search warrant inventories revealed that most St. Petersburg investigators do not list drug quantities on inventories.

Although drug arrests in Midtown are down, the area still accounts for 38 percent of all city drug arrests.

"It doesn't surprise me," Harmon said. "That's what the neighborhoods wanted us to work on."

Neighborhood needs vary, Harmon said. Snell Isle residents call about speeding; Bartlett Park residents call about drugs.

Residents such as Rouson, the NAACP president, want laws evenly enforced. He called on neighbors to step up.

"We've got to do better in policing our own communities," Rouson said. "I don't care how many white folks bring -- through their ownership of planes and boats -- dope into this country. We don't have to accept the assignment of selling and distributing it."

-- Leanora Minai can be reached at minai@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8406. Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.

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