Jordan Park demolition can go on, judge says

By Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 6, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- A federal judge ruled Friday that the demolition of Jordan Park should continue, despite a last-minute lawsuit meant to stop it.

The demolition of the 25-acre public housing complex was already well under way when a group of Jordan Park residents sued the St. Petersburg Housing Authority last week.

The group asked for an injunction to end the demolition. But on Friday, U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. turned them down because the demolition has already gone too far to stop. More than half of the roughly 60 buildings have been torn down.

The residents waited too long before suing, the judge ruled: "They are simply too late."

However, the judge added that he might have ruled differently if the residents had sued earlier.

The group that filed the lawsuit, the Residents' Management Corp., alleged that the Housing Authority engaged in a pattern of deception and intimidation to accomplish its plans to redevelop Jordan Park.

The RMC's attorney, Jonathan Alpert of Tampa, was disappointed but not surprised by the judge's ruling.

"For us and our clients, this is not the end. It's the beginning," Alpert said. He's planning a class action lawsuit asking for damages for residents who have been moved.

For its part, the Housing Authority says no one is being hurt by the redevelopment project.

The authority plans to replace Jordan Park with a new, less densely concentrated collection of apartments, duplexes and single-family homes. Even though fewer people will live in Jordan Park itself, there will be more housing units available for poor people than before, authority officials say.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.