January 16, 2004
County Commission Kills Civitas?
The SP Times is reporting that the Civitas deal is be dead, but I’m not holding my breath. Secret meetings are still taking place, and lots of promises are being made. Don’t be surprised if a last minute deal is announced with much fanfare and confusion on Friday or Saturday.
A sweeping redevelopment project that promised to revitalize one of Tampa's poorest and most crime-ridden neighborhoods appears to be dead.The Hillsborough County Commission refused Thursday night to agree to terms that developers, the head of the Tampa Housing Authority and Mayor Pam Iorio said they needed to apply for a $20-million federal grant to redevelop Tampa's Central Park area.
Without the vote, the project cannot go forward, they said.
Developer Ed Turanchik said afterward his company will withdraw its proposal.
"I think we may not have the maturity to be the kind of community that people say they want us to be," Turanchik said.
See, if we were a mature community, we’d be open to being raped by a bunch of white developers while they displace all of our coloreds to anywhere but downtown.
As of now, it looks like the Tampa Housing Authority will apply for a grant on its own. They still plan to raze the downtown projects, and they still plan to “temporarily” move residents during reconstruction. Questions need to be asked:
Will the Housing Authority strive to provide clean, safe housing to Tampa’s poor, or will it be business as usual, locking out many residents, and forcing those lucky enough to get a roof over their head to dodge rats and bullets on a daily basis?
Unfortunately, the latter is the more likely answer, and once the abhorrent conditions become apparent, they will once again be used as an excuse to move the undesirable class out of sight.
Posted by Norwood at January 16, 2004 06:10 AM