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This time, smooth sailing for St. Pete's south CRA grants

 
Published Sept. 27, 2017

ST. PETERSBURG — After a controversial debut, the city's second year of distributing grants for the South St. Petersburg Community Redevelopment Area proceeded much more smoothly. The City Council recently approved the latest round without much debate.

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The $658,812 in grants were ranked and recommended by a review board composed of council members Karl Nurse, Lisa Wheeler-Bowman and Steve Kornell and four members of the city's volunteer CRA advisory board.

Last year, the grants were chosen by staff with final say from Mayor Rick Kriseman's office. Critics charged that too much of the money ended up in Kenwood and the Warehouse Arts District instead of poorer areas of the CRA, which encompasses much of Midtown and Childs Park.

So, instead of helping predominantly black neighborhoods, which was the original intent of the program, the first round of grants instead helped businesses in already up-and-coming areas. One example that has been oft cited is the $531 grant to spruce up the county's Democratic Party headquarters at 2250 First Ave. N.

There was no such level of controversy this year. The lone point of dissent among council members at the Sept. 21 meeting was a $50,000 grant given to the Sundaze motel, 1590 34th St. S. The grant was to help the motel complete a $135,000 project to repave its parking lot, replace doors on its units, paint the building and put on a new roof.

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Kornell said the motel's clientele was mostly people on the verge of homelessness who were being charged roughly $30 a day, keeping them from being able to scrape together enough money for deposits on an apartment.

The city shouldn't support a business that preys on poor people, Kornell said.

"It's a program to make buildings look nice," he said, "it's a program to reduce poverty."

Council member Charlie Gerdes had a different take. He said removing blight raises property values of nearby residents and businesses.

"It does have an economic benefit to other folks," Gerdes said, who said he didn't agree with the motel's business model.

And council member Karl Nurse said the motel — unlike more notorious counterparts along the 34th Street corridor, like the former Mosley Motel — didn't attract crime. Calls to police were rare, he said, a fact confirmed by city officials.

"Often in this job, I'm reminded that the choices in this job are sometimes gray," Nurse said about allowing the city to support rehabbing the motel. "Will the city be a better place or a worse place? Clearly it would be a better place."

City Council member Amy Foster did not agree.

"It doesn't sit right with me," she said. "I recognize the goal is to remove blight and it achieves that goal, but I have concerns with the idea that they're using city dollars to profit off of vulnerable people."

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The council voted 6-2 to award the grant to the motel, whose owners couldn't be reached for comment. Foster and Kornell voted no. Foster against all of this year's grants but did not say why.

The CRA grants are funded with tax-increment financing revenue collected within the borders of the district from rising property values.

Contact Charlie Frago at cfrago@tampabay.com or (727)893-8459. Follow@CharlieFrago.