Herman Massey Park reopens in downtown Tampa

TAMPA — Once a little downtown corner mired in controversy, the quaint Herman Massey Park finally reopened to the public on Monday.

This time, city officials hope, the half-acre park will attract all types, including downtown workers who want a pretty place to eat their lunch, condo residents who need somewhere to walk their dogs, and joggers who simply want to stop and smell the donated roses.

"At one time, this was a pretty quiet park," said Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, who spoke in front of the park's iron fence Monday. "Now we have this great pocket park for everyone to enjoy."

The 20-year-old park may not have been as quiet as the city preferred before closing it off with a chain-link fence in August 2005. In 2004, the park made headlines on separate occasions after people were arrested for feeding the homeless.

The homeless people who often slept in Massey Park felt even more alienated when the city fenced off the grounds, lending it as a staging area for the construction crews building condos.

After $83,700 in renovations — plus a new rose garden, courtesy of the Tampa Rose Society — the city staged a grand reopening, with Iorio and other city officials taking the first public stroll through the new Massey Park.

An ornamental iron fence now surrounds the park, and it will be locked between dusk and dawn. The granite benches, formerly cracked and damaged by skateboarders, were replaced and dotted with raised metal frogs that will put a damper on skater tricks. A dog waste bag dispenser is available, encouraging downtown residents to visit with their pets.

"The more active parks are, the better it is for the upkeep of the parks," said Tampa parks and recreation spokeswoman Linda Carlo. "And active parks tend to discourage behavior that is inappropriate for our downtown."

Emily Nipps can be reached at nipps@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3431.