Sundays at Riverfront Park mean relaxing times and community for thousands who gather. Organizers call it a positive event, unlike in the past.
By BRADY DENNIS
Published June 13, 2004
TAMPA - It's Sunday evening, and the park on the river is showing signs of life.
Smoke from charcoal grills rises in the air. Basketballs thump drum-like against the concrete courts.
Freshly washed cars - tricked-out Chevy Impalas, lowriding Hondas, shiny Ford Expeditions - turn in off North Boulevard.
Young men in NBA basketball jerseys check out young women, braids drawn tight or afro haircuts trimmed to perfection. Mothers push babies in strollers. Kids pedal bikes along sidewalks.
Everywhere, music. Music from cars, music by the grills, music on the basketball courts.
But the loudest music drifts across the park from the concrete amphitheater, which grows more crowded by the minute.
There, a deejay works the sound board. The bass thumps. The beat is tight.
John Young, wearing sunglasses and letting his dreadlocks hang free, grabs the mike.
"Welcome to Riverfront Park, everybody!" he shouts. "We gonna do this every Sunday!"
When he says "do this," he means get together. Be together. As a black community.
And that's exactly what thousands of people have done each Sunday for several months at Riverfront Park, just west of downtown and surrounded by urban neighborhoods and Interstate 275. They come from Tampa, St. Petersburg, Lakeland, Orlando, Jacksonville, Cocoa Beach and other places, too.
They range from babies to grandparents with wrinkled faces framed by gray hair. Teenagers come. So do middle-agers. Some people call it Family Day In The Park.
Others just call it the block party.
* * *
To hear John Young and Gerald Hunter tell it, the gathering started in March with seven friends, two barbecue grills and a perfect Sunday afternoon.
Those friends told more friends, and the crowd began to grow.
It has grown to an estimated 3,000 people most Sundays and likely will keep going strong through summer.
"It's all about community," said Hunter, a 32-year-old Tampa welder. "It's somewhere to be together."
So far, the event is a laid back affair with little structure. People show up in late afternoon starting about 5:30 p.m. They cluster in groups around the park or stroll back and forth to see and be seen.
Young, Hunter and others have started a weekly talent contest, and they want to add organized kickball and softball to accompany the pickup basketball games.
In the meantime, people seem pleased just to have a place to gather and relax.
"It's an ease of tension. It brings people together," said Mike Rattson, 28, as he cooked chicken wings and turkey on a Weber grill during a recent Sunday with his friend, Tony Brown, 26.
They sat on a park bench, watching pretty women walk by and a baseball game in the distance.
"This should be a mandatory thing," Rattson said. "It's like a day at the beach."
Not far away, 21-year-old Naomi Hargrove stood on a sidewalk, waiting for her cousin to show up. Hargrove tries to make it to Riverfront Park each Sunday.
"You meet people. You see people you haven't seen since way back in the day," she said. "If you like music and you like people and (you like) to eat, you might as well come."
* * *
The event isn't a new idea.
Old pictures show the gatherings at Riverfront Park from more than a decade ago. The amphitheater is full, the park crowded.
But the weekly gatherings didn't last, mainly because of frequent fights and the presence of gangs. This time the mood is different, say Young and Hunter.
"We're trying to show (the city) we can do it without violence," Young said.
Said Hunter: "We're trying to make a way for young kids to come here and have a good time. We want everybody to have something to do (and) keep the violence down. It's for the kids."
Even so, the weekly gathering seems to represent different things to different people.
To some, it's a chance to relax and grill chicken and take in a summer afternoon with friends and family. To others, it's a business opportunity, a chance to pass out flyers and demo CDs.
Still others see it as a chance to party, as evidenced by the cups of beer, the glass bottles left behind in parking lots and the occasional smell of marijuana that drifts through the air.
Young and Hunter, two of the event's main organizers who have insisted they want a nonviolent, drug-free place for the community to gather, have their own troubled pasts.
Both have Florida arrest records stretching back to the 1980s, and both have spent time in the Hillsborough County jail since December.
State records show Young has been arrested 21 times since 1986 on charges including possession of marijuana, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, aggravated assault with a weapon, burglary, vehicle theft and stalking.
Records show Hunter has been arrested 14 times since 1989 on multiple cocaine and marijuana charges, as well as charges of firing a weapon, battery on a law enforcement officer, burglary and larceny.
Both men say they have learned from their pasts and feel motivated to steer children in a different direction.
"We've straightened up our lives," Young said. "If younger kids see what we're doing positive, then they'll want to do something with their lives."
The two men have won praise for organizing the Sunday gatherings and working to make the event grow.
After Tampa police showed up on a recent Sunday wielding bean bag guns and circling the area in a helicopter, Hunter, Young and others spent time convincing city officials that the event is a positive gathering.
They've pulled the proper city permits and gotten nearby Tampa Preparatory School to agree to provide extra parking beginning June 20.
They've won the support of City Council member Kevin White.
"I think it's great," White said. "It's moving in the right direction. It's important to give people an outlet where they feel comfortable going."
The organizers say they've even invited Mayor Pam Iorio to see it for herself.
"She should be willing to see what's going on," Young said.
So far, Tampa police Chief Steve Hogue said he likes seeing the park used, as long as the gatherings remain peaceful.
"I'm glad to see it. In the past that park has been underutilized," Hogue said. "The organizers have been very good. It's been a good event."
Hogue said the only problem so far was a man arrested for bringing a gun to one gathering.
"For the most part, it's been a very orderly, well organized (event)," he said. "I'm familiar with its past reputation. But I'm not sure this event can be associated with the past reputation.
"Everyone I've talked to is not interested in having those problems."
* * *
Weather permitting, the block party will roll on today. About 6 p.m., people will fill every parking spot. They will set up grills, play basketball, lounge in the shade and watch children pass on bikes.
Chances are they will form a line outside Huey Johnson's food truck - Shakilla's Take Out Deli - and order corn dogs, french fries and bottled water.
Johnson will work up a sweat and talk about how the gathering "has really blossomed" and how "it's more popular than Michael Jackson right now!"
People will flock to the amphitheater by the river, listen to the deejay spinning and let the beat move them.
And when an adorable, shirtless 6-year-old boy named Charles Moore III hops on the concrete stage and starts to dance, they will clap and holler and dance right along with him.
And the beat will go on.
- Staff writer Brady Dennis can be reached at 813 226-3386 or dennis@sptimes.com
