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Bartlett Park feels tug of two factions

Many newer and older residents have different approaches to crime and code issues.

By CRISTINA SILVA, Times Staff Writer
Published January 2, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - The young black men walking down Julie Richey's street called her "Cracker" as she tended the front yard of her new Bartlett Park home.

She was robbed within her first year in the predominantly black neighborhood. She has grown accustomed to the sound of gunshots.

Despite such tribulations, Richey soldiered on, convinced that she and other caring neighbors could transform Bartlett Park into the safe, diverse and amiable place they all wanted it to be.

That's when the bickering over how to move forward started.

"All they want to do is argue," she said of some of the neighborhood's longtime activists. "We want to get things done."

Bartlett Park, often cited by community leaders as a blossoming neighborhood within one of the city's poorest areas, is going through growing pains.

As property values have gone up and crime rates have gone down, bickering between newer and older residents over issues that span racial and economic lines has escalated. The result has divided the struggling neighborhood at a time when city leaders say the area needs to work together to succeed.

Some residents, especially many of the newer, predominantly white homeowners, want the neighborhood to take a tough stance on crime and code violations. Longtime residents, for the most part, agree, but say their new neighbors are too demanding and pushy.

"They didn't come here to work with us," said Addie Williams, a black woman who has lived in the area for a little more than a decade. "They come in here trying to change everything around on their own."

New group is born

In late December, fed up with the constant spats, a group of newer residents formed their own neighborhood within Bartlett Park called the Buena Vista Neighborhood Association. The two groups will potentially compete for government funding and members, creating a situation that will most likely complicate and confuse efforts to revitalize Bartlett Park, city officials said.

"It's a power struggle over who is going to be in charge," said council member Earnest Williams, whose district includes Bartlett Park. "But they have to realize that there is strength in numbers. They will be better off by working together as a neighborhood."

The new neighborhood association "essentially creates two pockets of Bartlett Park," said Susan Ajoc, the city's neighborhood partnership director. "They are neighbors. They should be talking."

'Frivolous complaints'

Tensions first flared when newer residents suggested that their neighbors call the city's codes and police departments at the first sign of a violation. Longtime community leaders said they preferred that residents be more judicious when reaching out to City Hall.

"You can't call the Police Department about every little thing," said Charles Payne, a former resident who manages the Bartlett Park community resource center. "We don't need that here. Everybody on the street corner is not selling drugs."

Then, Bartlett Park Neighborhood Association president Tom Tito sent an e-mail to several residents that a stream of complaints to the codes department highlighted a "white takeover" of Bartlett Park. Many newer homeowners protested that the e-mail was racist.

Tito, a white man who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years, said he was just expressing the opinion of some of his neighbors.

"We all want the neighborhood to be clean and orderly and quiet and safe," he said. "But there seems to be a lot of frivolous complaints."

When several of the newer residents decided to hold neighborhood crime watch meetings in their homes instead of at the community resource center, which sits on a rough, poorly lit street, some of the longtime residents perceived it as an effort to seclude them.

"We had signs in the front yard and we passed out fliers to everyone in the neighborhood," countered Lindsey Myers, who hosted a crime watch meeting at her house before helping to start the Buena Vista association.

An increase in property values has also caused some longtime homeowners to worry that their children and grandchildren soon won't be able to afford to rent, much less buy a place in Bartlett Park. A home purchased for $30,000 a decade ago can now yield $80,000 to $220,000, according to Pinellas County property records.

Race, class divisions

The area's racial tensions have a long history.

For decades, Bartlett Park was predominantly white and middle class. But eventually, drug dealers who were forced out of other neighborhoods set up shop there. Many whites moved out; more blacks moved in.

After notorious crack dealer Ronald Eugene "Romeo" Mathis' arrest in 1991, city officials pledged to clean up the neighborhood, but it wasn't until a housing boom drove up prices across the Tampa Bay area around 2004 that new residents began to move to the area, encouraged by affordable property values.

They found a neighborhood that was slowly getting better, but they wanted change to come more quickly.

"People said, 'Oh, the police don't come to this neighborhood,' " said Scott Swift, a community activist who was shocked by the crime and violence he saw when he moved to the area two years ago. "I told people, 'If you don't call the police, they won't come.' The neighborhoods that log the most calls to the police department, that's where the police are."

Police records show that violent crimes in Bartlett Park declined from 175 in 2005 to 127 in 2006. But the number of total crimes rose slightly last year, largely due to an increase in burglaries, larcenies and auto thefts.

Most recently, many residents were stunned in September when Mandy M. Sampson, a 27-year-old mother of two, was found shot and killed by robbers in a Bartlett Park apartment known for drug activity.

Addie Williams said she and other neighbors have called the city to complain about irresponsible landlords and drug dealers for years. Now, she feels that her new neighbors are trying to take all the credit for how far the neighborhood has come.

"They act like they're prejudiced," she said. "When the black people ask them to do something, they got so mad and angry."

But Myers, who is afraid to walk her dog by herself on her own street, said it has nothing to do with race.

"They say things have gotten so much better," she said. "But it could still be a lot better. We just want to make it better for everyone."

Cristina Silva can be reached at 727 893-8846 or csilva@sptimes.com.

[Last modified January 1, 2008, 22:40:57]