Meeting sought on Omni, street

Pinellas and Largo officials want residents of mostly white Taylor Lake and of mostly black Ridgecrest to discuss proposed recreation and road changes.

By ERIC STIRGUS

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 24, 2000

LARGO -- County Commissioner Calvin Harris says he thinks the folks in Largo's Taylor Lake subdivision have got it all wrong about planned improvements to a nearby recreation complex and the extension of 119th Street N into their neighborhood.

The planned 500-seat football field outside the Omni Center is not going to be a "stadium," as some residents have heard, Harris said. Additional lighting for the field will not shine into Taylor Lake homes like Times Square on New Year's Eve.

"It's not going to be a lot different from what is going on (at the Omni Center) now," Harris said.

Harris also said the unincorporated neighborhood of Ridgecrest, where the Omni Center is located, is not overrun with drug dealers, as some Taylor Lake residents have suggested in letters to the County Commission.

Harris says he hopes to organize a meeting within the next month to ease such concerns among residents of the mostly white Taylor Lake subdivision about Ridgecrest, which is a predominantly African-American neighborhood. Ridgecrest residents have said the fears among some Taylor Lake residents are based upon racial prejudice.

Although no date has been set for the meeting, Largo Mayor Bob Jackson said he would like to attend.

"We really don't want to see the communities apart," Jackson said Monday.

Currently, the county plans to spend $3.5-million to build, among other things at the Omni Center, the football field, an outdoor pool, a baseball diamond and a computer lab.

Harris said he thinks the improvements will benefit residents from both neighborhoods.

"I was elected to represent all of the people," Harris said. "I'm not looking at it as a racial issue. I'm looking at it as a way to to get people together to understand that everybody will benefit from this."

Residents of Taylor Lake, which is within Largo, gave Largo commissioners a petition with about 150 signatures this month, demanding the city help give them a say in the planned improvements to the Omni Center. The county has received 25 letters from Taylor Lake residents opposing the plan. It also has received 17 letters from Ridgecrest residents urging the county to forge ahead.

As for the extension of 119th Street N, county officials have said it needs to happen primarily so emergency vehicles have another north-south route from Ridgecrest to Largo.

"It is really needed for safety," Harris stressed. "When you make these types of improvements, everybody will benefit."

Ridgecrest residents and community activist Tasker Beal said he is looking forward to the meeting. He remembers similar concerns about crime from some folks in Taylor Lake when the county built the Pinellas Trail in the early 1990s.

"That hasn't happened," Beal said of crime in Taylor Lake. "And I don't see that happening because of this field."

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