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Both candidates have served the community, which they see as moving in the right direction.
By AMY WIMMER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 24, 2002
GULFPORT -- It's election season in Gulfport, but the candidates aren't acting like it.
"She and I are both new at this," said Harry Brodhead, referring to his City Council opponent, Iris Manley. "I've never done this before. I don't think she has, either. We just both want to do some good for the city."
Both Brodhead, 47, and Manley, 68, come from a background of community service and volunteerism. Brodhead helped coordinate a joint crime watch between St. Petersburg and Gulfport in the 49th Street area that divides the two cities. Manley is a fixture at Gulfport Elementary, where she has volunteered for 29 years.
Both admit that they haven't scoured city records or canvassed their neighborhoods to find out what Gulfport is doing badly. They both like their city, think it is moving in the right direction and want to be part of the momentum.
Manley says her big issue is safety, especially on the sidewalks. She wants to see the city repair cracked and damaged sidewalks to make the city safer for walkers such as herself.
She mostly wants to see the cracks fixed and the fire ant hills removed. And, in an attitude indicative of the rest of her campaign, Manley makes no demands on the city to install more sidewalks.
"Some places, it's feasible," she said. "Some places, it's not."
Manley is pleased with how the city has managed its waterfront business district, likes what it plans to do on 49th Street, and is excited about the plans for Tomlinson Park.
"We must be doing something right," she said.
Brodhead, apologetic for not giving reporters a more exciting campaign to write about, said he became active in Gulfport after he and his girlfriend started fixing up their home at 5824 Seventh Ave. S. In keeping with the trend that has come to define Gulfport, neighbors in the immediate area became interested in sprucing up their own homes.
"It seems like we started doing some major work on our place and other neighbors started working on theirs, and the whole thing kind of spread," Brodhead said.
Brodhead also has been active in the neighborhood crime watch, particularly with efforts to reach across 49th Street to neighbors in St. Petersburg. "When it comes to crime and things like that," he said, "there really is no city line."
He thinks Gulfport's longtime city manager, Bob Lee, does a great job. He is eager for the city to add a police substation to 49th Street, and he is pleased that the city is debt-free.
"Things are really pretty good here," he said.