Ordinance bars new centers for homeless downtown

By ANDREW MEACHAM

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 23, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- Designers of a new ordinance restricting homeless shelters and soup kitchens downtown call the legislation a compromise with the neighborhoods. To homeless advocates, the ordinance doesn't go far enough to protect the disenfranchised and will inconvenience them unnecessarily.

The City Council passed by a 7-0 vote an ordinance that prohibits in the downtown area -- roughly Tampa Bay to the interstate and Fifth Avenue N to Fifth Avenue S -- any new food centers or drop-in sites where the homeless can shower or change clothes. Such services are pushed into primarily commercial or industrial districts west of downtown. Existing centers for the homeless can stay put under a "grandfather" clause.

A 27-member task force meeting since August of last year drafted the ordinance, which broadens -- or restricts -- the definition of a "social service agency" according to where it is located.

Single-use commercial or industrial zones are acceptable sites for shelters or food centers, but not multi-use districts such as downtown that feature a combination of residential and retail. Supply pantries, which dispense groceries, can remain downtown under a newly created "office" category.

Nearly two dozen citizens urged the council to permit more food centers and drop-in sites downtown where, they contended, most of the city's homeless live. Many speakers assailed corporate greed and invoked religious teachings about charity. One woman read part of a T.S. Eliot poem.

Churches and volunteer groups already feed 200-400 people a day in Williams Park or out of a parking lot on the north side of City Hall, said Eric Rubin, an organizer for Tampa Bay Action Groups, a coalition of mostly volunteer organizations. Many of the homeless are physically or emotionally handicapped and have difficulty traveling even a few miles, Rubin said. "For some people, it really is a question of life and death," he said.

Two downtown agencies currently serve food to indigents: St. Vincent de Paul Society, 123 Eighth St. N, breakfast and lunch; and Beacon House, 2151 Central Ave., dinner. But St. Vincent de Paul soon will be moving to 375 15th St. N.

Backers of the ordinance say it does not take anything from the homeless. Supply pantries are still allowed downtown, and a new food center or shelter could be located as close as Central Avenue and 19th Street.

Task force members researched a nationwide trend in creating the ordinance, said city planner Shrimatee Ojah-Maharaj. "It is imperative that we have good social services as well as good neighborhoods," she said. "We need to strike a balance for them to coexist."

The council also adopted by a 6-0 vote a similar ordinance limiting probation and parole offices to commercial areas.

Crescent Heights plan okayed

After hearing from flustered proponents and a handful of last-minute dissenters, the City Council approved the Crescent Heights neighborhood plan.

Contractor Norman DeRoche, who said he attended the original planning meeting two years ago but has been a no-show ever since, passed out a petition Wednesday, the night before the council vote.

"Four people got 42 signatures in two hours," DeRoche said. "Ninety percent of those people had no clue what the plan was about."

The petition asked for a delay in the voting so that all of the neighborhood's 600-plus members could read a finished copy of the plan.

Crescent Heights president Stephanie Pitts countered that while the plan may not have been hand-delivered to all residents, the newsletter announcing its progress was. The plan, heavy on lighting, landscaping, traffic calming and sidewalks in the neighborhood between 22nd and 30th avenues N and Fourth and Dr. M.L. King (Ninth) streets, had been in the works for two years. Organizers tried to enlist help from residents through a survey, fliers, the association newsletter and the St. Petersburg Times, Pitts said.

"Here we are at the very, very end," she said. "We want to say, "Where have you been for the last two years?' "

The council agreed by a 6-0 vote.

Group backs 90-minute parking

North Downtown residents don't mind visitors, so long as they don't overstay their welcome.

In the third of three meetings earlier this month on traffic, the North Downtown Neighborhood Association is urging that two-hour parking slots be reduced to 90 minutes. The resolution is aimed at future moviegoers at the new Baywalk cinemas. The association took several votes that have no legal authority but are intended to send a message to city officials.

NoDo also recommended:

That downtown trolley routes be expanded to take in more neighborhood residents and downtown workers.

That downtown traffic be converted from one-way to two-way, especially along First and Eighth streets N.

Two-way traffic is also the subject of a public meeting to be held Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon. Registration (there is no fee) is at 7 a.m. The meeting, scheduled by traffic officials, will examine two-way traffic along one-way sections of Eighth and Dr. M.L. King (Ninth) streets. The site is the University of South Florida's St. Petersburg campus, Davis Hall, Room 130, 140 Seventh Ave. S.

Special furniture pickup slated

Curbside or alley pickups for furniture, carpet or appliances are scheduled for tomorrow and the following Monday in the Central Oak Park neighborhood. Sanitation workers will pick up these items July 24, between First and Fifth avenues N and 34th and 49th streets.

On July 31, pickups are scheduled between First Avenue N and Fifth Avenue S and 34th and 49th streets.

An announcement about these pickups in last week's Neighborhood Notebook was incorrect. Anyone living in either of those areas who put items out for pickup last week can call sanitation at 893-7398. Pickups will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Meetings

COQUINA KEY: Tuesday, 7 p.m., at the clubhouse. Topic: hurricane preparedness.

GRAHAM-ROGALL: Wednesday, 7 p.m., 325 Dr. M.L. King (Ninth) St. S. Open forum.

GREATER WOODLAWN: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., Woodlawn Presbyterian Church, 2612 12th St. N. Speaker: Florida House of Representatives candidate Margo Fischer. Topics: home security, neighborhood grant.

LAKE MAGGIORE SHORES: Thursday, 7:30 p.m., Enoch Davis Center, 1111 18th Ave. S. Topic: traffic, neighborhood plan.

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