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Stop putting off Central Park

Tampa's housing authority should do this week what officials have promised to do since 2000: Commit to a date to replace the horrid Central Park Village housing project.

The 28-acre complex in downtown Tampa is a barren, dilapidated, crime-ridden slum where 1,300 residents live in squalor because the government cannot get its act together. Four times in the past four years, Central Park residents were told to wait - better living conditions were on the way. But Tampa didn't win the Olympics bid that was to transform the community. Then Hillsborough County killed the Civitas downtown redevelopment deal. A fallback plan to use federal grants was rejected by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Last fall, the housing authority withdrew the latest plan to allow Mayor Pam Iorio time to pursue a larger redevelopment for the surrounding area.

Meanwhile, nearly 500 families wait. They have heard the promises and endured the delays and still sleep every night in homes the authority has said are "not worth rehabbing." When the authority meets Friday, it should set a timetable for rebuilding Central Park. After half a decade, it's time the interests of these residents came first. If developers want to rebuild the entire neighborhood, the value of the downtown site should be clear. It has taken too long to reasonably address this housing, health and safety problem.

[Last modified February 24, 2005, 00:54:17]