Chunky Sunday: R.I.P., neighbors say

'Tis the season, but there's no sign of a giant pack of partiers in the Bartlett Park neighborhood.

By JON WILSON

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 10, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- Springtime Sundays are coming and going -- and life remains tranquil for residents around Bartlett Park.

Chunky Sunday, the seasonal gatherings that could attract several thousand people to mingle with friends, show off cars and hear music, apparently has moved away or fizzled.

The event is gone.

"As far as I know, it is," said Theresa McEachern, president of the nearby Harbordale Neighborhood Association. "And it shows no signs of resurrection."

A kind of movable party, Chunky Sunday peaked in the spring of 1998, when as many as 6,000 people -- mostly teens or 20-somethings -- got together at the city's oldest community center, on Seventh Street S between 18th and 22nd avenues.

It was mostly a see-and-be-seen party. Many came from out of town, from as far away as Tallahassee and Miami.

Neighbors complained to the city about mobs that generated loud music, littered, smoked pot, drank and clogged traffic on residential streets. City officials began meeting with police Chief Goliath Davis and parks and recreation officials.

To give the Bartlett Park neighborhood relief, officials rotated Chunky Sunday to Campbell Park, about a mile northwest near Tropicana Field.

For a while, large crowds appeared there, but the park off 16th Street S did not prove as popular. Some partygoers said they believed it was harder to find and more confined than Bartlett.

In 1999, it became clear that Chunky Sunday's appeal was dwindling, at least at those two sites.

This year, five weekends past the start of Daylight Savings Time, the traditional beginning of Chunky Sunday season, no crowds have appeared at either park.

But no one has yet proclaimed the event a dead issue.

"I'm going to give it until the end of the month," said Dell Holmes, St. Petersburg's parks director.

"I think it's gone if May comes and goes."

Holmes has put in place a strict permitting process for disc jockeys and vendors in the parks. Jamaica Funk, a group of disc jockeys that provided music, had become one of Chunky Sunday's prime attractions.

"Gentlemen from Jamaica Funk came in and talked. Basically, what I told them was that they either had to be a profit or non-profit organization and go through the same process" as any other group putting on an event, Holmes said.

Moreover, said Holmes, "They will have to pay for cleanup, fencing (and) police officers needed."

And the group will have to wait 30 days after an event before getting a permit for another.

The resources required to serve Chunky Sunday crowds put an extra burden on the city. "You're talking almost like a co-sponsored event," Holmes said. "This is not 200 people at a family reunion-type thing. We're talking about thousands and thousands of people."

Jamaica Funk representatives could not be reached for comment.

The dynamics that make parties movable are vague. Large, casually planned weekend gatherings in St. Petersburg -- and in other parts of Pinellas County -- have been a longtime tradition.

"It can be unpredictable," said police Maj. Cedric Gordon, who has monitored the Chunky Sunday history. "It just kind of moves around from popular location to popular location."

At present, Sunday gatherings -- though they haven't been dubbed Chunky Sunday -- are taking place in Clearwater's Cherry Harris Park.

As in St. Petersburg, neighbors have taken their concerns to City Hall. But crowds have not been as large as in St. Petersburg, and on Sunday, little activity was reported, Clearwater police said.

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