Upgrades sought on untidy trail

The Pinellas Trail hasn't done much to improve Safford Avenue, a fact Tarpon officials hope to change.

By KATHERINE GAZELLA

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 30, 2000

TARPON SPRINGS -- If you ride, walk or skate along the Pinellas Trail here, you'll see a variety of sights.

Next to a vacant corner, a rusty shopping cart lies on the ground. A few well-maintained businesses are scattered between weedy lots and ill-kept houses.

Along Safford Avenue, where the trail runs down the middle of the street, there are a few signs of the area's potential: a cute antiques store, a newly painted home. But for the most part, city officials say, the property bordering Safford Avenue has not been used to the greatest advantage.

"There's so much of nothing there," said Kathy Monahan, the city's community affairs administrator. "It isn't a real positive impression."

Monahan and others in the city want to change that. With the help of grant money and observations from consulting firms, the city plans improvements along Safford Avenue that will make the area more attractive and will draw new businesses.

The city wants to fix the streetscape with grant money administered by the county. Improvements will range from new street lights to more parking. To improve the section of Safford Avenue south of Tarpon Avenue, the city will apply for grant money for the next five years.

A consulting company is looking at ways to improve downtown as well as the northern portion of Safford Avenue. The RMPK Group of Sarasota is examining that section of the trail as part of an overall plan to unite the downtown area with the Sponge Docks.

Some city officials have talked about turning the Safford area south of Tarpon Avenue into an ethnic restaurant district. They say a variety of restaurants would draw people from surrounding communities and cities into Tarpon Springs.

But such plans are preliminary. For now, everything is in the planning stages and most changes probably won't start for at least a year or two.

Some people say they welcome the changes that are coming to Safford Avenue, but they wish the improvements had been made years ago.

City Commissioner David Archie noted that when the Pinellas Trail opened, it came with the promise of new businesses.

"The trail has been there 10 years now, and nothing's really happened," he said.

From her vantage point inside her antiques shop, Gillian Lock thinks the trail is a wonderful place to run a business. She watches people walk and ride past, reads a book during slow times and talks with patrons about the chairs and paintings in the shop.

Every now and then, she said, a trail user will come into the shop, which is just north of Tarpon Avenue. Sometimes people roll into the store on in-line skates. One customer bought a glass piece, then secured it on his bicycle and continued down the trail.

"I really quite like being on the trail," said Lock, who opened Gillian's Antiques & Curios a year ago.

She said she'd like more shops to open on the trail, such as stores that sell ice cream and beverages for the overheated athletes on the trail.

There are few stores along this section of the trail. Next to Gillian's is a framing shop and a restaurant is down the road. Most of the stores are gathered near the intersection at Tarpon Avenue.

Other stores along the Safford section of the trail have not always fared well. The city recently demolished Brothers convenience store, which was damaged by fire late last year. Police said the store was a center for drug activity.

Another business, Johnnie'$ Sports Bar & Grill, has caught the attention of police. The Police Department videotaped drug deals and violent acts near the establishment and plans to show the videotape at a City Commission meeting Tuesday night.

City officials say they want to make the area along Safford Avenue attractive for higher-quality businesses.

City Manager Ellen Posivach said she's heard from residents and trail users who want businesses like gourmet ice cream shops and ethnic restaurants along Safford. She said the city's consultants will look at those and other ideas for the trail.

"Whatever would be a draw," she said.

Some Tarpon Springs residents want to make sure people from the Union Academy neighborhood are included in discussions for improving S Safford Avenue.

"The city needs to try not to dictate what kinds of businesses need to be there," former city Commissioner Glenn Davis said.

City officials said they and their consulting firms plan to gather suggestions from people in the area.

Davis also said the area should be lined with businesses, not with homes.

"I don't think it's conducive to residential," he said. "I would like to see something that's going to benefit the property owners."

City officials say the upward swing has already begun. Besides Brothers, the city plans to demolish other structures near Safford. Clearwater Neighborhood Housing has purchased some lots and plans to build affordable housing. Students from the middle school painted a house on the corner of Safford and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, improving the look of that corner.

"I think most people feel pretty good about the direction we're taking," said Tarpon Springs police Officer Ed Hayden, who has worked on demolitions and other efforts in the Union Academy neighborhood.

People in Tarpon Springs acknowledge that some trail users have a bad impression of that section of the trail.

"I'm sure it's very intimidating," Monahan said.

Within a few years, she said, the trail will look completely different.

"I think it'll look really upbeat, clean. Lots of shade trees, interesting shops," Monahan said. "I think it's exciting we're finally getting to this."

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