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Dreaming the possible for streets of broken hope
© St. Petersburg Times Rick Baker's burgundy Ford Explorer is the kind of car you needed for a day like the one we spent together last week. The rain fell in a constant drumming. The streets of St. Petersburg were flooded. I could hear the water sloshing over the Explorer's big wheels. This tour was Baker's idea. We went out in the rain to show me that he was as good as his word. There has been, since he was elected mayor almost two years ago, and during his campaign, a boatload of talk. I wanted to know what had happened to it, to his plans for Midtown, the mostly black neighborhood south of Central Avenue where people have demanded relief from the city's years of neglect. The first stop was what might be St. Petersburg's most desolate stretch -- the Dome Industrial Park pilot project, the one piece of the dream aimed at creating jobs in Midtown. The industrial park project is example No. 1 of why people like me wonder what's happening. It has taken all these months for the city to buy up 19 acres of land next to the industrial park and to clear it. Next month, the city will formally invite firms to apply to open shop there and hire local people. Because this is a government-sponsored project, the firms will be chosen by competitive bidding. That's another reason things are taking so long. Jobs may not be available until mid-2004. From the park, Baker drove south to Jordan Park. He wanted me to see Jordan School, a boarded up brick building that once was for black students only. He's not sure what he wants done with the building, but he wants it restored, the way the empty Mercy Hospital will be. (The hospital will become a neighborhood clinic.) "I want to bring it back to its (original) 1920s style," Baker said of the school. "I've actually put boots on and gone inside to see it." The heart of the neighborhood lacks a grocery store, a bank and a full-service post office. Baker has made a pitch to postal officials and has given this tour to bank and supermarket executives, to show them the neighborhood. But they have to make their own decisions. "It has to be market driven," Baker said. For a moment, he sounded like the Republican he is, talking about market forces reshaping the Midtown landscape, not the long meddlesome hand of government. But if it weren't for government -- if it weren't for Baker -- nothing would be happening in Midtown, unless you count the sin of omission that is further neglect. Baker is a Republican playing the social activist role usually associated with Democrats. He doesn't seem bothered by the contradiction. He is nothing if not earnest, almost to the point of boyishness. He drove with his big frame half hunched over the steering wheel, when he wasn't pointing at something through the windshield. He maneuvered the wide streets and narrow avenues of Midtown with such familiarity you might have thought he lived there. The rain colored the neighborhood in drab grays and dirty whites, as if to emphasize just how hard it would be for a dream to come to life and thrive here. But maybe not. Most of Baker's plans -- and I only named a few -- involve government funds and social services. But the plans have this to recommend them. They are not grand. They are small enough to be doable, yet big enough to establish that the city is done turning its back on Midtown. I thought that Baker would counsel patience during this process. But he wants change as much as anyone. "I'm not patient . . . I want to see results." Then he uttered words politicians rarely say. "Hold me accountable," Baker said. Residents of Midtown should pay attention. The mayor said it. He must have meant it. Keep watching. Hold him accountable. -- You can reach Mary Jo Melone at mjmelone@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3402.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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