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Elected government leaders, through their decisions, goal-setting and use of public funds, brought change to every North Pinellas city in 2003.
But Clearwater set a dizzying pace that no other Pinellas community could touch.
How surprised that city's seasonal residents must be as they return to a place that has seen so many changes in one year. Clearwater is buzzing with activity. Projects started in 2002 have been completed. New ones are under way or plans have been approved for them to start soon. Only a portion of the projects are publicly funded. The private sector, taking its cue from the energy emanating from City Hall, has responded with its own long to-do list.
A very busy new Clearwater Mall is open at the intersection of U.S. 19 and Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard, where this time last year portions of the old mall still stood on a dusty, deserted tract. New restaurants and other businesses have opened on the streets nearby, having anticipated the new customer base that would result from that corner's revitalization.
The city is only weeks from opening a new baseball spring training stadium on U.S. 19 north of Drew Street in the place where a home improvement store stood until late 2002.
The new Memorial Causeway Bridge is in its final months of construction, and passers-by can't help but gawk at how tall and how wide it is.
On the high bluff that overlooks Clearwater Harbor, the new main library is expected to open in the spring. It is no longer necessary to imagine what that signature building, with its initially controversial design by famous New York architect Robert A.M. Stern, will look like perched on the bluff - it's there.
Not far from downtown is another new library. The new North Greenwood branch library, with attractive architecture, more space and a bigger collection, opened last January. On a nearby corner is a new city aquatics center. And both new buildings overlook a new streetscape with palm trees, flowers and a traffic circle - improvements that some North Greenwood residents probably never expected to see completed in their community.
The massive fountain in the middle of the Clearwater Beach roundabout was demolished by the city in December 2002, a decision that was hard to make because so much money was spent by a previous administration to build it. However, the move has greatly improved visibility in the accident-prone circle and restored the view of Pier 60 Park. The city continued to tinker with the roundabout in 2003, adding a truck apron and making other minor changes while still mulling how to landscape the now-grassy center of the roundabout.
New condominiums tall and small are springing up all over Clearwater Beach, and traffic moves smoothly now along Mandalay Avenue, where the city completed a streetscaping project in 2003.
City officials finally reached a deal with a private landowner for a new parking garage that will sit just off Mandalay Avenue, though the city's goal of attracting developers who can build a south beach parking garage and a new resort hotel remains out of reach.
Throughout the city, roads have been rebuilt or resurfaced, either at city expense or by the state Department of Transportation, and sidewalks have been repaired. Work has begun on the new overpass at Drew Street and U.S. 19. New city fire stations are being built. A nicely landscaped dog park is a new addition to Crest Lake Park, and the fountains are sprouting clear water in the new Town Pond downtown.
This breakneck pace may not slow much in 2004, if plans on the table are any indication. City officials are organizing an effort to attract a first-run movie theater to the city. The new bridge will open and Cleveland Street will become a dead-end city street, opening up the opportunity for the city to launch its plans for sweeping redevelopment downtown, including a new waterfront park.
With a stronger economy could come new hope for that Clearwater Beach resort the city has been seeking, and work could then begin on the city's planned Beach Walk, a remake of the S Gulfview Boulevard strip that will turn it into a wide public plaza overlooking the sand.
City commissioners have announced that City Hall, which sits on valuable property on the downtown waterfront, is on the market for the right price and project.
The Long Center, a recreational facility on Belcher Road, will be refurbished now that the city has taken ownership of it, as will Ross Norton Recreation Center. The conversion of the old Glen Oaks Golf Course into a soccer park and water retention area will begin. A 14-story, mixed-use development is expected to be built, pending final city approvals, at Station Square downtown, its developers excitedly predicting that Clearwater "has the opportunity to become another Sarasota."
No Clearwater elected official has announced a goal to remake the city into another Sarasota. However, most have expressed the wish to end the moribund period that kept Clearwater from participating in the boom of the '90s and to launch their built-out city carefully and well on the path toward redevelopment.
If 2003 was any indication, city officials have accomplished those goals, in spades.