From Salt Creek to Preston Avenue to Paris Avenue

This past Saturday was a great day in Bartlett Park. After working in the park cleanup I stopped by to admire the work on the newest Paris Garden planting on Preston Avenue and then went by the Bartlett Park Community Garden on Newton Avenue where a large group was busy working. I was amazed by all the activity on one hot summer morning. So much progress from so many dedicated volunteers tells me the future is bright.

Also busy helping the neighborhood are crime watch members who continue to patrol every block. They have been together at least once a week for the past two months. Please give an hour next Thursday to keep our neighborhood safe.

The cleanup was a continuing educational effort sponsored by the Bartlett Park Neighborhood Association, the Bartlett Park Community Resource Center, the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, SWFWMD and Keep Pinellas Beautiful. Volunteers from Raytheon joined neighborhood association members in cleaning litter from the Salt Creek shoreline. We were able to clean about 3 blocks of the west creek bank, from 22nd Avenue north to the new dock.

Much more needs to be done but the progress is impressive. The volume of trash collected is much less than last year when we filled a large dumpster about half way up.

Pepper trees cut to the ground exactly one year ago are back to 6 -8 feet tall. Where the stumps were dug up they did not come back. Association member David Schroeder removed 25 truckloads of pepper tree from the edge of the mangroves during the month before last years cleanup. We need to keep them from regrowing and spreading seeds.

City Council is moving to change the name of Preston Avenue to Paris Avenue, a symbolic action designed to remove the stigma of the tragic murder of Paris Whitehead-Hamilton. Adding beautiful landscaping and preventing the return of gang violence by patrolling will do more to restore this block.

The garden on Preston is the third of many planned to give our neighborhood sustainable, drought tolerant landscaping. Residents can grow food with efficient water conserving irrigation and use native low maintenance plants to replace high maintenance water thirsty lawns. Here are links to a news story about the new garden, and the FOX 13 story on Bartlett Park Community Garden

The park is cleaner, Preston Avenue has new landscaping and the Bartlett Park Community Garden continues to grow.