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Ceremonial Demolition Makes Way For New Homes
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Published: August 1, 2007
TAMPA - Veronica Cail Rodriguez used to climb a mango tree on India Street, the main access road into Central Park Village, to shake fruit off the limbs.
Her family was the first in 1954 to move into the then-sparkling public housing property adjacent to Tampa's thriving black business corridor on Central Avenue.
So many memories, both good and bad: Siblings being born at the property. Her parents, Martha and Frank Cail, organizing weekly Saturday night dances. The 1967 riot, which divided the community, after a 19-year-old youth was shot and killed by Tampa police.
On Tuesday, decades after her family became part of history by being Central Park's first tenants, Rodriguez took pictures with her cell phone camera as Tampa Housing Authority officials helped demolish an exterior wall at the now-dilapidated and vacant 28-acre housing site.
Soon, all of the buildings will be gone, razed to make room for another sparkling housing effort - Encore, a mixed-income, mixed-use neighborhood of affordable and market-rate housing that is expected to begin construction in early 2008.
'We know progress is coming in,' she said. 'Who knows, maybe we'll be back.'
Praise And Prayer
In all, it was a day for praise and prayer, as one by one - from former residents to federal officials, poets to pastors - 14 speakers took time to reflect on Central Park's lasting legacy to the neighborhood between Ybor City and downtown.
Earlier, it looked as if thunderstorms might dampen the activities. But most who spoke used the overcast skies and sporadic drizzle of rain as a motif to explain the change, both physical and spiritual, coming to the community.
'The seed of change being planted here is being watered from above,' said Karen Jackson-Sims, the Tampa field office manager for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Fred Hearns, a local historian and retired city employee, talked about the fertile ground that gave birth to The Scrubs, the area's first black neighborhood, founded by former slaves and island refugees after the Civil War.
He reminded the crowd that the first building to be knocked down - Armwood Court - was named for one of Hillsborough County's first prominent black families, the Armwoods.
'Harlem Of The South'
James Tokley, the city's poet laureate, read two poems, one written especially for the ceremony. He called the former black business district the 'Harlem of the South' and talked of the rich musical history there. Legendary soul artists such as Ray Charles and James Brown performed and stayed near Central Park Village when the city was still segregated.
The Encore development plans to incorporate aspects of the musical heritage into its design. The first two buildings planned are the Tempo and the Ella.
Bank of America officials, who are partnering with the housing authority on the project, said the first affordable housing units will open in late 2009. The five-year project, which includes plans for a grocery store and possible hotel, is expected to be completed in 2012.
As the ceremony wound down, the Rev. Frank Williams Sr. of the adjacent Paradise Missionary Baptist Church asked to speak.
Williams, for years, has operated a black history museum inside the church. Redevelopment plans, however, call for another nearby church - St. James Episcopal - to be refurbished and converted into a black history museum.
Williams, a longtime critic of the redevelopment effort, stood up Tuesday and praised the neighborhood's history even as he cast mud at the plans. He said his museum was being excluded, and he questioned whether the new Encore development would really welcome back housing residents, especially black residents.
'We don't seem to want the people who live here,' he said.
Williams caught the audience off-guard by shouting out a racial slur twice to make his point before being asked to step away from the microphone.
Housing and bank officials have said for more than a year that former residents will receive first-option to move back.
Reporter John W. Allman can be reached at (813) 259-7915 or jallman@tampatrib.com.
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