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In the shadow of Olympic dreams
By BILL VARIAN
© St. Petersburg Times,
She watched her own grandchildren grow up from the same porch on W Spruce Street. The money she made as a school cafeteria worker paid the note on the two-bedroom house. For these reasons, Stanback, 70, has trouble catching the Olympic spirit. That's because her home of 23 years would be razed to make way for an athlete village if Tampa wins the 2012 Summer Games. "It's not fair," Stanback said. "I've worked hard all my life for this place. Now they want to take it away." Stanback is among about 5,000 residents -- most of them poor or of modest means, and black -- who would be displaced by Olympic construction if Tampa wins the Games, census figures show. So far, hers is a quiet voice of dissent. Olympic boosters and housing officials are calling the bid a golden opportunity for urban renewal. And even some of Stanback's West Tampa neighbors say amen. Most of those neighbors live in some form of subsidized housing, much of it aged, dilapidated and crime-ridden. Fully 1,133 families live in three Tampa Housing Authority projects that would be leveled if the Olympics come to town. Pearly Gordon is among those who welcome the wrecking ball. A little more than a stone's throw from Stanback's single-family home, but a world apart, Gordon huddles in a one-bedroom turquoise apartment within the North Boulevard Homes complex. Gordon, 67, pays $155 a month for the public housing apartment. She has called the complex home for 40 years. The low rent is not without cost: a view of drug deals, peeling paint and property managers who tell her she can't block the entryway to her apartment with plants, she said. "You can't go to the store after dark without someone knocking you on the head and taking your stuff," Gordon said. "They need to tear the whole mess down." At Central Park Village, between Ybor City and downtown, Olympic boosters envision a 110,000-seat Olympic stadium. Rose Allen welcomes the change. "Even if they don't get the bid, they're supposed to tear these down anyway," said Allen, 47. "This is progress." But many residents, particularly the elderly, worry about being uprooted and relocated to more costly new digs. "I'd rather stay," said Mary Stephens, 74, who lives around the corner from Gordon in North Boulevard Homes. "I'm 74 years old. Where would I go?" The Tampa Housing Authority endorsed the plan last week. On Thursday, the Tampa City Council signed an agreement with the housing authority and Florida 2012, spelling out plans for demolishing three housing project and relocating the residents. Critics, including some who spoke up at Thursday's council meeting, worry there are insufficient assurances to protect displaced residents. The Florida Sentinel-Bulletin, a black-oriented twice-weekly newspaper, questioned the plan in an editorial last week. The editorial found it "amazing that all of the Olympic venues in Tampa will destroy black Tampa as we know it" and called for a panel of black residents to be appointed to address the issue. Jerome Ryans, executive director for the housing authority, said reaction from residents has been favorable. He has held several meetings about the plans, though he acknowledged they have been sparsely attended. "I can understand the hesitancy of some residents," he said. "They want to know, "Where am I going to live? Am I going to be able to afford it?' " Under the plan, new housing would be built, with every unit demolished replaced with a mixture of housing types. Some of the residents could return to athlete dorms erected as an Olympic village. Others would be moved to new houses or apartments within 2 miles. The housing would be built through still-sketchy public-private partnerships, and all dwellings would be turned over to the housing authority debt-free. Many residents, particularly those in North Boulevard Homes, would have to move twice -- once before the Games and once afterward to the converted athlete dorms. Elder residents of nearby Bethune Hi-Rise would move once. Ryans said the agreement pays the cost of those moves, if not the inconvenience. He sees it as a way to replace shabby housing when no money is available to do the work. "Even if we rehab these places, at the end of the day, you've still got something that looks like public housing," Ryans said. None of it might happen. Tampa is one of eight cities vying to be the United States bid city for the 2012 Games. If it wins that next year, it competes internationally, with a host city chosen in 2005. Next week, the U.S. Olympic Committee visits to evaluate the Florida 2012 bid, which sprinkles venues around the state, mostly in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Orlando. Ed Turanchik, who leads the local bid committee with almost boyish optimism, said residential redevelopment near downtown is a strength. "The Olympic committee is not the Department of Transportation or some private developer," Turanchik said. "You're on the world stage, so you've got to treat people better. We will treat them fairly and provide them with ample compensation to live in a better place than where they are now." The areas to be leveled are centered in two places. One is in West Tampa bordered by Interstate 275, North Boulevard, Rome Avenue, Columbus Drive and the Hillsborough River. Here, Florida 2012 would build an Olympic village to house about 17,000 expected athletes, and stores and restaurants to entertain them. About 3,000 people live in the area, many in the North Boulevard and Bethune public housing projects, but also in the Columbus Court Apartments and Westport Commons, and in scattered private housing. The area is also home to Garland Stewart Middle School, which would be renovated, government buildings that would be relocated, and Rick's on the River restaurant. An Olympic map shows no Rick's, only the marina outside it. Turanchik said the restaurant could be reconfigured or relocated. He hasn't talked to the restaurant's owners yet. Owner Ken Brackins -- his father is Rick -- said he's eager to hear what Florida 2012 has in mind. "I'm waiting to see what happens like everyone else," he said. Near Ybor City, Florida 2012 proposes a stadium and park, mostly straddling Nebraska Avenue. Central Park Village sits on the proposed stadium site while the privately run Tampa Park Apartments occupies land that would become an Olympic park. Nearly 2,000 residents would have to move. Sam Horton, president of the Hillsborough Chapter of the NAACP, said he is watching closely to ensure fairness. The group has met several times with Olympic organizers and is trying to secure an agreement that would enable the NAACP to file a legal challenge if Florida 2012 breaks its promises. With the poor and minorities bearing much of the burden, he wonders why mostly white and affluent Davis Islands near downtown isn't in play. "I tend to be very skeptical before I get optimistic," Horton said. "We see some potentially good things from the Olympics. But we are not ready to go on an iffy, iffy situation. We agree on the principles, but the details are what's to come." Stanback said she will be watching, too, from her front porch on W Spruce Street. She'll be watching for some people from the Olympic committee to tell her how their plans affect her. She acknowledges she'll be a hard sell. "If you went to their homes, and told them they had to move, I bet they'd be upset about it too," Stanback said. - Times staff writer Matt Waite contributed to this report.
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Headlines From the Times local news desks |
TAMPA -- From the front porch where she is perched most days, Helen Stanback looks out over lilies and roses she planted and passing neighborhood children who call her "Granny."
