North Greenwood beautification to take root

The City Commission is expected to approve funding for the design of landscaping and a reclaimed water line.

By CHRISTINA HEADRICK

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 17, 2000

CLEARWATER -- About a decade ago, the city planted palm trees along N Greenwood Avenue and promised someday to do more to beautify the street, the heart of the predominantly African-American neighborhood's business district.

Since then, there have been plenty of plans, talk -- and little visible action.

But this week, the City Commission is set to approve spending about $357,000 to design a street beautification project for N Greenwood Avenue. The money will also pay to design a reclaimed water line on the street.

Nearby homes won't be able to tap into the water line and use the reclaimed water just yet. The water will flow to new landscaping that will be installed along N Greenwood Avenue, and then south to IMRglobal Corp., which will receive the city service.

Neighborhood residents are glad that the city is finally working on the projects, said Muhammad Abdur-Rahim, the president of the North Greenwood Association.

"It's been a while in coming," said Abdur-Rahim. "Since 1993 even, when there was a study done that recommended some of these things, the community has been ready and hyped, and wanting to see some action on this. But there was never any money. Now it is time to see it happen."

But Abdur-Rahim, a city streets department employee, says he thinks Clearwater officials should seriously consider extending reclaimed water service to more areas of his neighborhood. After all, North Greenwood residents have had to live with the unsightly and sometimes smelly Marshall Street sewage treatment plant, where the reclaimed water is produced, Abdur-Rahim said.

North Greenwood as a whole isn't slated to get access to reclaimed water until 2018, assuming enough reclaimed water is left to serve the neighborhood after most other city neighborhoods tap into the service.

North Greenwood was one of four areas of the city targeted for redevelopment under City Manager Mike Roberto's "One City. One Future" plan. Besides the renovation of Cherry Harris Park, most of the projects were not started until this year.

The beautification of N Greenwood Avenue will likely include new tropical landscaping, decorative lighting and safer crosswalks. The project will span a half-mile between Seminole Street north to Beckett Street.

The project might also include placing decorative monuments to announce the entrances to N Greenwood at either end of the street. Nearby residents and business owners will be consulted on the appropriate designs of the elements at a community meeting.

The redesign also could make the street safer. City engineers held nightly meetings last week to discuss how to tackle traffic problems in North Greenwood, and they heard plenty of complaints about speeding cars on the avenue.

The North Greenwood neighborhood has the highest number of accidents involving pedestrians and cars in the city, city engineer Mike Quillen said.

To make the avenue safer, the city could bump out curbs at intersections to give pedestrians a shorter distance to walk, install medians, which tend to make cars slow down, and add more distinctive crosswalks.

"We want it so the road is not looking like a drag strip," said Abdur-Rahim. "We want to make it look like a gateway to our community."

The city has $750,000 to spend on beautification, Quillen said, and $868,000 to lay the reclaimed water line all the way to IMRglobal. Half of the reclaimed water project is being paid for by a grant from the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

The N Greenwood Avenue project is scheduled to be finished by early 2002.

Planning started in earnest this year to accomplish the other items on the city's "One City. One Future" list for North Greenwood. Among them:

City planners are reviewing the results of community surveys to determine how to design a $4-million recreation and aquatics center in North Greenwood. The proposed design will be presented to community groups in about a month. The center is slated to be completed by summer 2002.

Clearwater will spend $1.2-million to build a new North Greenwood branch library with an expanded African-American collection and computer training area by summer 2002. The major question is location: Some residents do not want the library squeezed in with the recreation center and pool, as city officials plan. Officials want to resolve the issue within a month.

The city is reasonably assured of receiving $4.4-million in state, federal and local funding for a major dredging to improve the water quality of Stevenson Creek. But the city still needs to raise about $3.4-million to proceed with the murky waterway's cleanup.

Also, Clearwater engineers have begun a comprehensive study to determine the source of pollutants and sediment that have mucked up the creek. The plan is to be completed by next summer, with some small-scale cleanup projects starting next year.

"I'll get happier when the developments actually happen," said Abdur-Rahim. "But the more we see things happening, the better people are going to feel."

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