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Seven years and millions of dollars of investment are showing results in a community too long neglected.
By JENNIFER FARRELL, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 5, 2003
CLEARWATER -- For decades, it was the city's forgotten quarter.
Hidden largely from beach-bound tourists and used as a parking lot by spring training fans headed to Jack Russell Stadium, the city's historically African- American community languished, passed over, while other areas saw reinvestment.
As the years crept by, North Greenwood became a blemish on the sunny image of "sparkling Clearwater."
If not for a small group of stubborn neighborhood activists, the slide might have continued.
But plans to put a giant wastewater tank in their back yard galvanized residents and spurred them to action. With the city's help, they formed a task force and set to work on a wish list, starting with a pool and recreation center.
Nearly seven years and more than $23-million in public and private investments later, the neighborhood has experienced a renaissance.
The dilapidated North Greenwood Apartments have undergone a massive overhaul and, next door, the city built a new branch library and a huge pool and recreation complex. Next month, road work and reclaimed water service will complete the facelift along Martin Luther King Jr. Ave.
It's about time, say residents.
"You just can't forever keep it on the back burner," said Mayme Hodges, a longtime North Greenwood resident and former city commissioner. "It's just time."
North Greenwood was one of four areas of the city targeted for redevelopment under former City Manager Mike Roberto's "One City. One Future" plan. Now that those plans are becoming reality, city officials, who have endured residents' doubts they would follow through, are proud of the transformation.
"It's one thing to talk about it, it's another thing to do it," said Jeff Kronschnabl, city director of development services. "We did exactly what we said we would do, and then some."
Newlyweds Charles and Sharon Norwood found North Greenwood on the Internet.
Married last year, the couple looked at condos in Temple Terrace before falling in love with a two-bedroom, two-bath yellow stucco near the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Eldridge Street.
The house was in their price range, with a garage for Charles' motorcycle, so they bit, despite some enduring challenges with drugs and crime in the area.
"It's not the greatest neighborhood yet," said Sharon Norwood, 29. "But there is potential for it to get better. We can be patient for a while."
Norwood, a graphics designer, is working on her master's degree in fine arts at the University of South Florida. Her husband is a math and technology teacher in Pinellas County.
The couple keep a tidy house, with hanging plants on the porch and a neatly manicured yard. Life in North Greenwood, they said, has been frustrating at times, with unkempt yards nearby and noise and unusual crowds at a house down the street.
They assume the traffic is drug-related.
But the Norwoods are keeping their fingers crossed that a vacant lot next door will be developed soon.
"We're the only ones on the block that seem to care to get it shaped up," said Charles Norwood, 27. "If we get another house, then we'll get more people that care."
Longtime North Greenwood resident Muhammad Abdur-Rahim said the Norwoods represent the neighborhood's future.
"The proof is in the pudding when you put young people into the community making an investment," he said. "Five, 10, 20 years ago, there is no way in the world that they would be looking at making an investment in North Greenwood. It shows progress, it shows a turnaround."
Abdur-Rahim, 47, said standards in the community are changing for the better and he credited longtime community activists who fought for improvements.
"People start looking at it as a safer place to live, a place to come back to," he said. "That brings vitality and life back to a community."
With all the renovations, property values are bound to increase, said Jonathan Wade, president of the North Greenwood Association.
"It just says that the community is on the upswing and it looks like the rest of the city," he said. "It's a long time coming."
The next step, according to Wade, is finding effective strategies for economic development.
On Tuesday, the city will hold a public meeting at the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Complex, 1201 Douglas Ave., to discuss business options in the area and potential uses for Jack Russell Stadium after the Phillies move to their new spring training home next year.
Isay Gulley, executive director of the nonprofit Clearwater Neighborhood Housing Services favors a broad based approach.
"We need to really look at those slumlords, because all of them are not with the program yet," she said. "I don't think we should be comfortable in saying we've done enough."
Gulley said she is proud that the neighborhood may finally shake the perception that it is home to slum and blight.
"Much too long North Greenwood has worn those stigmas with many hard working, law abiding and good citizens," she said.
Gulley said any successful strategy for improvement will address crime and economic development.
"We are headed in the right direction," she said. "But we are not there yet."
Hodges said cooperation among residents and the city is essential.
"You can't stop when you say, 'I've accomplished this,"' she said. "You can't forget that there are other issues that you have to attend to."
-- Jennifer Farrell can be reached at 445-4160 or farrell@sptimes.com ">farrell@sptimes.com .