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Rebuilding of a community

By DEMORRIS A. LEE
Published December 20, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Douglas R. Clifford] The homes at right are among eight new homes on Tangerine Street at N Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, which has become dubbed the Greenwood Park subdivision. Community leader Isay Gulley is proud of the project, which was completed by the Clearwater Neighborhood Housing Services.

CLEARWATER - It takes solid neighborhoods to sustain a community, Isay Gulley says.

And when that community goes into decline - through a mix of things such as drugs, alcohol and unemployment - then the streets, homes and parks that nurture the area's youth must be rebuilt.

Gulley, president/CEO of the Clearwater Neighborhood Housing Services, says areas are rebuilt "one block at a time."

And as she stood before a home on Tangerine Street in Clearwater's North Greenwood community last week, she beamed with excitement.

The home represented the completion of an eight-home, $1.8-million subdivision dubbed Greenwood Park. Five of the three-bedroom, two-bathroom homes have been sold.

The land where five of the homes sit was once home to a couple of dilapidated apartment buildings that were a haven for drugs and crime, Gulley said.

"It's really about revitalizing the communities we serve," Gulley said. "Every time we can complete a partnership project, it furthers our accomplishments toward that goal.

"Reversing blight is one of the major ways to move a community forward, and it's done block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood through a partnership approach."

The homes on Tangerine Street are the newest of the 260 homes that the neighborhood housing group has built in partnership with the city of Clearwater.

Formed in 1979, the agency works to revitalize communities by building affordable, quality homes and then helping buyers move into them.

"It's about building wealth," Gulley said. "It's about having something of quality that you can call your own."

Clearwater Neighborhood Housing Services is affiliated with federally funded NeighborWorks America. Created by Congress in 1978, NeighborWorks America works toward neighborhood revitalization.

Much attention has gone into the North Greenwood area. In 2002, the organization shepherded the rebuilding of the rundown Greenwood Apartments along Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.

Through a partnership with Bank of America and other investors, the 192-unit apartment complex was purchased and renovated, stimulating more than $14.6-million in reinvestment activities.

In 2003, the agency, with the help of the city and NeighborWorks, purchased a bar adjacent to the apartment complex for $125,000 because it was a nuisance, officials said. The building was gutted and a business development center replaced it.

* * *

Just a block from the new Greenwood Park subdivision, at Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Tangerine Street, is a vacant lot consisting of three parcels.

It is littered with broken beer bottles, empty beer boxes, trash, and - sometimes - used drug paraphernalia. There's a tree on a corner, known as the "crab tree," where people often gather. Sometimes, it's where the homeless sleep.

Evelyn Tensley has worked at Big Jim's Bar-b-que for 20 years. The small restaurant sits right beside the vacant lot on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. She said the restaurant owner pays people to clean up the lot, which is also directly across the street from a police substation.

"But they come back and throw stuff down again," Tensley said. "I just don't know what to do. It's clean compared to the way it used to look."

Jeff Kronschnabl, Clearwater's director of development and neighborhood services, said the city "needs to take the appropriate action to clean the corner up and we are going to do that."

Kronschnabl said the owners of the three properties came before the city's code enforcement board last month and were found to be in violation.

He said they must clean up the properties by Dec. 29. Otherwise, the owners will be fined $150 a day.

According to the Pinellas County Property Appraiser's Office, two of the parcels are part of the estate of Celia Harmon, in care of Teretha Pugh of Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.

The third parcel is listed to Crescenzo Land Holdings Inc., in Tampa, though the contact was a William Crescenzo in Delaware.

The property owners could not be reached for comment Friday.

Kronschnabl said representatives for the Harmon property are scheduled to meet with a code inspector early this week to discuss what they will do to either correct the problem or to sell the property.

* * *

Longtime North Greenwood resident Talmadge Rutledge, 65, said buying the land would essentially snatch it from the community.

Rutledge once owned a ice cream shop in North Greenwood. His family owned a grocery store at LaSalle Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue for 50 years. He still lives on LaSalle Street.

"It's a gathering spot for people," Rutledge said of the corner. "Who's complaining? Who said it's a problem? If drugs are a problem, a lot doesn't sell drugs. People do. Instead of buying the lot, they should go and get the drug dealers."

Michael Jones, who lives in one of the new houses at 1111 Tangerine St., said, "People knew what the situation was when they bought a house in the area."

"It would be nice if the corner was different, but you can't force change," Jones said.

"You can't force some things overnight. What happens up on the corner happens on the corner."

Gulley said you can ride through America's urban core and you will find these vacant lots.

She said there's nothing wrong with gathering and socializing.

"However, the desire to socially interact should not be done in a way that it brings a negative impact upon the community and lower values of property," Gulley said.

"Talk on the corner, but don't throw your beer bags and sandwich wrappers on the ground."

Times news researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this story. Demorris A. Lee can be reached at 445-4174 or dalee@sptimes.com.

About the group:

Clearwater Neighborhood Housing Services was formed in 1979 to revitalize communities by building affordable, quality homes and then helping buyers move into them.

The group forms partnerships with the city, financial institutions and is affiliated with NeighborWorks America, which was created by Congress in 1978 to work toward neighborhood revitalization.

To date, it has built 260 homes in partnership with the city of Clearwater.

[Last modified December 20, 2006, 06:25:38]