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Pinellas Park, I sing your praises

By ERNEST HOOPER
Published January 26, 2007

A horse trail winds around million-dollar homes and through a youth sports complex.

A horse corral and exercise ring share space near a youth baseball field. Farther along the trail, picturesque stables nestle under canopies of trees. It's a setting typically found far away from the city, but if you're thinking Ocala, you're wrong.

The idyllic scene is part of Pinellas Park, which began as a farming town in 1914. The Helen Howarth area of the community of 16 square miles is a nice example of how a city can grow and develop and still keep a few rural roots.

It's enough to make me a little envious.

A month after publishing an unfair and unnecessary wisecrack about Pinellas Park, I'm seeing the city in a new light, thanks to council member Rick Butler.

The joke doesn't bear repeating - let's just say it was a reckless comment about wrecked cars and front yards - and I wanted to take it back the moment the column went to press.

Luckily, Butler offered me a chance at redemption with a tour of the city. We drove around in his pickup truck for nearly three hours, and Butler's only regret was that I didn't have two more hours.

There were tidy redevelopment efforts in neighborhoods like Orchard Lake, where owners are being given the chance to replace aging mobile homes with permanent homes, thanks to city incentives.

There were historical landmarks like the 95-year-old Brennen House, a Sears and Roebuck Craftsman home purchased from a catalog.

There were city improvements like the $3-million Park Station, a Victorian-style train station that now houses the city's art and historical societies, a gourmet sandwich shop and the Pinellas Park Mid County Chamber.

Most of all, there was pride in the voice of the lifelong Pinellas Park resident. He concedes that at times Pinellas Park is a small town with big city problems like homelessness. He knows it's not perfect, but it's perfect for him and a lot of the 49,000 folks who call it home.

De Cosmo's, where Butler eats lunch every day with his wife Carol and his friend Jerry Mullins, is as much a second kitchen as a restaurant. Consider this: Carol had a meatloaf sandwich made from leftover meatloaf she dined on the day before.

Ask this group why they love Pinellas Park, and they may mention that it's centrally located between Clearwater and St. Petersburg, Tampa and the beaches. But they're more apt to talk about People Helping People doing good deeds.

Or they highlight the Park Dance Reunion, where every five years folks who danced the night away at the City Auditorium in the 1950s and '60s return to rekindle the magic of simpler times.

Or they brag about code enforcement officers who hand out fines, but then volunteer to clean up the yards of the less fortunate so they don't get fined again.

Like proud residents of any city, their first inclination is to boast about tangible amenities and marked improvements. What true Pinellas Park citizens - or Parkers, as they're known - teach us is that a community's greatest asset is the love shared among its people.

That's all I'm saying.

Ernest Hooper can be reached at hooper@sptimes.com.

[Last modified January 26, 2007, 00:40:22]