Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

East Gateway getting a closer look

One of the Clearwater's oldest neighborhoods will soon receive some much-needed attention.

By MIKE DONILA
Published October 29, 2006

CLEARWATER - It's not quite 10 a.m., and Brian Thompson takes a short pull from his warm beer. He clutches a cigarette, his fingers shake.

The 52-year-old Vietnam veteran has been at this for a while, "trying to get over a girl," he says. He's homeless again, sitting in a parking lot off Cleveland Street.

A block away, a 20-year-old who identifies himself as Bo Hope is hanging out near the Wanna Save convenience store. "People come here to chill," he says, patting his right front pocket.

A few blocks from him, 68-year-old Rose Flores begins her morning ritual: a bowl of oat bran cereal, a cup of coffee and the crossword puzzle. She also feeds the squirrels that run around her driveway.

Welcome to East Gateway, one of Clearwater's oldest neighborhoods.

And one of its most blighted.

This 175-acre corridor just east of downtown is riddled with drugs, prostitution and homelessness. In 2005, the area generated more calls to police than any other part of the city.

It's home to mostly rental properties, struggling businesses and outdated strip malls. Some motels rent rooms by the hour, and many homes are run down.

"This is a screwed-up area," Thompson says.

City leaders agree.

"There's been a lot of general disinvestment for a long time," says Geri Campos, director of the city's Economic Development and Housing Department.

But East Gateway also is a main traffic artery to downtown Clearwater. And as millions of dollars are spent on downtown's revitalization, city officials know well that East Gateway eventually will need attention.

The city recently decided to spend $20,000 to hire a consultant to work with economic development officials and East Gateway's large Hispanic community to create a five-year action plan.

"The health of this area improves the overall health of the downtown," Campos says.

Once, it was vibrant

The East Gateway is bound by Drew Street on the north, Highland Avenue on the east, Missouri Avenue on the west and Court Street on the south.

Some residences date back more than 80 years. Old photographs show it once was a vibrant area. It's unclear how long it has been "in transition," as city leaders say.

To be sure, the Gateway does have some pockets of stability. It's home to a number of offices and antique shops, a Hispanic grocery store and a Catholic school.

And not all the houses are run down.

"My view used to be hookers and drug dealers," says Flores, who lives in a well-kept ranch-style duplex off N Evergreen Avenue.

To block out the men who troll for prostitutes and drugs, she built a trellis next to her small concrete patio. Now, she sees birds and butterflies.

Flores says police seem more responsive now when residents call to report suspicious characters, but the characters still out number the cops.

Police are a regular presence in East Gateway. From January to September, more calls were answered here - 1,092 - than in any area in the city. Among the reports: trespassing, drugs, armed robbery, auto theft, battery, prostitution, public intoxication and gang activity.

"It's been a neighborhood in decline for many years," said Deputy Chief Dewey Williams, who oversees the area. "It definitely needs a facelift and I think the city is going down that road."

City officials and residents agree on a set of core strategies they envision as part of the upcoming action plan: attract more businesses, enforce code violations and reduce crime by assigning more police patrols.

"If the police were to ever come here and clean up, they'd make so many arrests their heads would be spinning," says 50-year-old Donna Lopes, who lives in an apartment on Park Street.

East Gateway's time

What it comes down to, city officials say, is a matter of priorities. The East Gateway simply hasn't been one.

City Manager Bill Horne says that because Clearwater's economy is tourist-driven, the first focus has been the beach. Next was the downtown, and then its outskirts, particularly the east side.

City leaders say they didn't ignore East Gateway, but it could look that way.

Five years ago, the city tried to crack down, issuing strongly worded clean-up-or-else warnings to property owners. But nothing happened. The city didn't follow up on its threats.

"We just didn't have the resources at the time," said Horne, who promises the city will do better this time.

The five-year action plan, he said, is the key.

"We're going to be working from the ground up," said the consultant, Awilda Lopez-Cepero, director of Tampa-based ALC Development Group.

Lopez-Cepero plans to form neighborhood focus groups by next month and host community forums early next year.

By March, the City Council should have the consultant's recommendations and estimates of how much it will need to spend to get results.

Will it ever change?

When the sun goes down, activity in East Gateway picks up.

By 10 p.m., Kenneth Kirisits, a 59-year-old disabled veteran, has consumed plenty of beer. He relaxes on a bus stop bench at S Evergreen Avenue and Cleveland Street.

Homeless for 10 years, the former New Yorker laughs when told of the city's plans.

"When I came down here 20 years ago, the lights were flashing everywhere like a real holiday, and now it's a dump," he says.

"But how you going to clean it? You've got every drunk in the world here. They need to leave us alone ... let us drink our beer. We're not hurting anyone."

East Gateway does have two magnets for the down and out: a soup kitchen and a homeless shelter.

"It's been this way for years," says Hope, who started his day hanging out on a corner near the Wanna Save market. "It's about to be 2007 and they want to change it? This (expletive) has been going on forever."

[Last modified October 28, 2006, 20:17:28]