The neighborhood association has initiated a number of successful projects. The Bartlett Park Community Garden initiated the Paris Garden Project to transform the environment, appearance and economy of our community at a time when city leaders were merely talking and asking for symbolic gestures. Dr. Deborah Clowers Flanagan has been a driving force behind Your Place, a center for young men coming out of jail and trying to reestablish themselves.From the NAACP program:
The Bartlett Park Neighborhood Association was organized in 1991. Residents came together to build a sense of community and eliminate serious problems. Early projects involved grant funding for new sidewalks, street trees, and a computer lab for our Frank Pierce Recreation Center. A nighttime street survey led to new and repaired streetlights.
Our Community History Project reached out to older residents to document our history on a CD and web site. Resident and union leader Joseph Savage was interviewed for an oral history. The Bartlett Park Community Resource Center was opened providing an office for association members, community police and V.I.S.T.A. volunteers assisting this organizing effort. The Newton Avenue Model Block led to affordable new homes and elimination of blight from the entrances to that block.A Community Garden now grows where drugs were sold and volunteers painted over the signs of the former adult bookstore.
Paris Gardens are transforming front yards into beautiful sustainable green spaces. Paris Avenue is becoming another model block with renovated homes and a restored sense of pride. With its proximity to downtown and the waterfront, newly renovated park and tennis center and dozens of affordable homes this neighborhood remains the best kept secret in St. Pete.
Becoming a safe neighborhood takes commitment from residents. A little help from outside goes a long way toward motivating residents to take that leap of faith. We learned that the worst corners had the fewest calls to police. People were afraid, apathetic, or just assumed that police knew what was going on, resulting in a violent drug business that claimed many lives before we drove it away. We also learned that street drug sales could be suppressed by bringing groups of citizens to physically occupy locations where drugs are sold. Our presence discouraged drug buyers from returning, and without customers drug sales move elsewhere.
Door to door outreach to those most impacted by street drug sales has increased the number of calls to police, helping them keep this dangerous crime out of our neighborhood. We can help train others so that these simple actions spread to the rest of the south side. We ask community leaders, pastors and others who know our residents to help us recruit members and homebuyers.
Contact:
Mrs. Betty Hayes, President
642 22nd Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33705
727-826-9774
Website: http://www.bartlettpark.net/
Last year the NAACP helped residents organize a protest march through the neighborhood to call for an end to street violence.
http://www.thegabber.com/stories/043009/front1.html
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