Courtesy Tampa Bay Times Tara McCarty (fourth from the left in red pants) and the design team kick up their heels
ST. PETERSBURG – It’s quiet and dim in the cluster of desks for the design team at the Tampa Bay Times. It’s a typical day for them – another deadline, another design – except for one thing: Most are wearing brightly colored pants.
One of them is Tara McCarty, 24, a Times designer since April 2013. Adorned in bright red skinnies, a basic black-and-white striped top, and a statement necklace, she types away at her keyboard, staring at her computer with a bright smile on her face.
“I was interested in newspaper design when I became involved in my high school newspaper at St. Petersburg High School,” she says. “And I ended up being involved with it as well at my college newspaper,” the Crow’s Nest at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.
Working in Adobe InDesign, McCarty moves quickly, making everything look simple. Page by page, she makes sure text is aligned, images correspond to each story and the layout is aesthetically pleasing.
“I work in programs such as Adobe InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop,” says McCarty. “We also use our data center and InCopy, but that is mostly for editors.”
McCarty designs the sports section on Mondays, regional news sections on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and the B section on Saturdays and Sundays.
With such a busy work life, McCarty seeks diversion with her boyfriend and family, especially her niece, who can be seen in photos spread around her desk.
At USF St. Petersburg, McCarty majored in mass communications with a concentration in journalism. She was also in the honors program.
She did well in her writing classes, she says, but they weren’t the focus of her schooling. “I enjoyed my design classes like magazine design and visual communications.”
While working at the Times printing plant and preparing her senior thesis, titled “50 things I learned without going to design school,” McCarty caught the attention of a design editor at the paper, who offered her an internship.
Now, a year and a half later, McCarty chats with the East Hillsborough bureau chief, Ernest Hooper, about a photo she needs for his story in the Brandon section.
She says she’s glad she majored in journalism, not design.
“It’s better to major in journalism with a background in design, than just major in design,” she says. “You learn hierarchy and the importance of deadlines.”
Another deadline looms. Smiling broadly, she begins to work the next story into the layout.
Kim Doleatto | NNB Vendors sell clothes, jewelery, fruit and more.
BY KIM DOLEATTO NNB Student Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG – “Hallelujah! He comin’! You won’t have to wait much longer!!”
The bishop’s voice blared from speakers outside the tiny church on 22nd Street S.
“They have a real good sound system,” Veatrice Farrell said with a resigned chuckle.
She is the project manager of Deuces Live Inc., a nonprofit committed to revitalizing Midtown’s main artery – 22nd Street S, otherwise known as “the Deuces.”
It’s 10 a.m. Sunday. The service at the Refuge Church of our Lord, at 920 22nd St. S, is in full cry.
Meanwhile, in the clearing across the street, Farrell helps vendors set up for the Deuces Live Market. From 1 to 6 p.m. every Sunday, vendors sell clothes, jewelry, smoothies, barbecue chicken, homemade pies and more. There is a DJ, too. (The market is closed for the summer until Sept. 14.)
Edith and Antonio Trejo unpack their colorful bounty: peaches, oranges, watermelon, lettuce, jalapenos and more.
Theirs is the only produce stand and they are the only Latino vendors. But they don’t feel left out.
“We can really feel the city supports this market. Here, everyone helps each other,” he said.
Since its April 6 debut, the market has been part of Deuces Live Inc.’s mission to “provide redevelopment services to the area,” Farrell said.
But it’s not just business; it’s personal. Volunteers are the backbone of the market.
Elihu Brayboy directs people setting up tables and umbrellas where shoppers can enjoy market goods.
“Instead of young black men being noticed for being in trouble, here they are setting up for market,” he said.
He has stock in the future of the once-thriving, now-struggling area. He and wife Carolyn – vice president of Deuces Live Inc. – bought four buildings adjacent to the market. Public records show the Brayboys spent close to $500,000 buying the properties, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
They have since transformed the spaces – boarded up for 30 years – into an ice cream shop, consignment clothing store, art gallery, hair salon and other small businesses.
The Brayboys grew up in Midtown and remember when 22nd Street was a thriving center for the African-American community.
Carl Lavender also has close ties with the area. He braves the hot sun to wave people toward the market and direct parking; he helps bag-laden customers to their cars. “How are the kids? How was church this morning?” Lavender asks them.
He’s the Deuces Live Market maitre d’, but he used to be the director of the Boys and Girls Club at the historic Royal Theater down the street. It opened in 1948 to serve St. Petersburg’s African-American community during segregation. It closed in 1966. It now serves the Boys and Girls Club, where Lavender was executive director for many years.
Kim Doleatto | NNB Empress PJ Crosby performs poetry and sells T-shirts.
One of the vendors knows all about it. Empress PJ Crosby produced a CD there with teen musicians from the neighborhood. It’s for sale at her stand: Romantic PJ’s Jewelry Booth, along with other handcrafted items.
Since developing a nerve condition, Crosby said, she wanted to “stay constructive and keep her hands going.”
She fashions tie-dyed hair wraps, earrings and T-shirts. One says, “nails, breasts, hair—all mine.” Another, “Irony is….ugly.”
Crosby is a teacher of spoken word and poetry. Through the arts program at the Royal Theater, she helped create the Poetic Colla’ge Youth Society and has performed at poetry and spoken word festivals in the U.S. Virgin Islands and throughout Florida – all funded by the Royal Theater Boys and Girls Clubs.
Crosby will take her poetry program to the Virgin Islands for the summer while the market is closed for the summer.
“It’s so hot to be hanging around outside in the summer; plus, a lot of the vendors like to tour the local events that need vendors,” Farrell said.
Crosby will be back, though. “It could be a good day or bad day, I always love it here,” she said.
Although 22nd Street S has suffered the effects of neglect over time, some residents have never abandoned the memory of what it once was and is today: their home.
At the market, “you have everything you need,” Farrell said.
“Home is where you live.”
If You Go: The Deuces Live Market is closed for the summer. When it reopens Sept. 14, shoppers can visit from 1 to 6 p.m. every Sunday on 22nd Street S and Ninth Avenue, rain or shine.
Matthew Liddell | NNB The cemetery was established when graveyards were strictly segregated.
GULFPORT – It was Mother’s Day 2010, and families and friends gathered to visit the graves of their loved ones. Some of them were stunned at what they found:
Lincoln Cemetery was in shambles.
Six-foot-tall grass and weeds. Broken headstones. Graves that could not be found. The historic African-American graveyard, established in 1926, was once again a victim of shameful neglect.
How could someone let this happen?
That is what St. Petersburg City Council Member Wengay Newton intended to find out. Newton heard about the cemetery’s condition from Bay News 9, which reported the Mother’s Day debacle. Residents contacted him in hopes that he would take an interest in the issue, since he was the only African-American council member.
“People think it’s a political thing, but it’s not,” Newton said. “For me, it’s personal.”
Newton’s mother was buried at Lincoln Cemetery in 1985. To hear that the cemetery had gone downhill again was disappointing. He wanted answers just as much as everyone else.
The cemetery, 9 acres at 600 58th St. S, was established during the Jim Crow era, when graveyards were strictly segregated. Over the years, 6,000 people were laid to rest there – military veterans, civil rights leaders, prominent people and ordinary folks.
The cemetery has changed hands several times, and charges of shoddy maintenance go back for at least half a century, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
In 2009, ownership passed to Sarlie McKinnon III, whose father and grandparents are buried there. He also received more than $100,000 in state-mandated “perpetual care” funds for maintaining the cemetery.
Most of that money was spent, according to Gulfport City Manager Jim O’Reilly. “And once perpetual care funds were gone, we had to take action.”
The city of Gulfport is now mowing the cemetery twice a month, but there is still more to be done.
A number of people have found a reason to get involved. Many have joined because Emma Booker, the namesake of Booker High School in Sarasota, is buried there. The Daughters of the American Revolution has helped maintenance efforts because more than half of the 6,000 graves hold veterans.
But it’s not as simple as getting some volunteers together to fix everything. If everyone cleans up, Newton said, then they’re doing McKinnon’s job for him. If they let it go and don’t touch the cemetery, then they are neglecting the legacy of their loved ones.
In the cemetery today, it’s plain to see that little has changed since 2010. Palm trees and bushes have grown in front of some headstones, obscuring the names and epitaphs. Large tree branches have fallen and crushed other headstones. Ground-level graves are covered in weeds, leaving barely any sign that someone rests there.
The conditions seem even more shameful when looking just to the north, where Royal Palm Cemetery appears immaculate and pristine compared to Lincoln Cemetery.
“It’s a mess, it’s a mess,” Newton said. “It’s in better shape than it was, but not where it needs to be. It’s an ongoing journey.”
Newton said that McKinnon is no longer selling plots in the graveyard. The only people being buried there now are those who bought plots years ago.
People who want to buy plots now “call often, and it goes as far back as 2011,” Newton said as he pulled out an inch-thick pad of papers. “I just keep them, hang on to them, and let people know that we’re working on it.”
Unfortunately, all they can do is wait until McKinnon makes major changes or gives up the cemetery. This seems even more difficult since McKinnon now lives in Georgia.
The veterans “deserve a better resting place than this,” Newton said. “We just need to get it in local hands to make things better.”
There may be hope for Lincoln Cemetery, and it might happen soon. Rev. Clarence Williams of the Greater Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church recently conducted a funeral at the cemetery, and he was appalled by what he saw, Newton said. Williams decided to take action and contacted McKinnon.
McKinnon agreed to transfer the cemetery to a nonprofit organization run by Williams, Newton said. It seemed that change would be coming.
“I attended a meeting (about the transfer) with Newton,” O’Reilly said, “and then what happened was I haven’t heard anything since.”
Williams and McKinnon could not be reached for comment.
Newton said he is hopeful that the transfer will happen by late summer, but there is still the fear that things may fall through.
“This is an issue we’ve tried not to consider at the moment,” O’Reilly said. “We are hoping that the agreement would work out between them, because at this point, to keep doing what we’re doing, we’re not going to let it get any worse than it is now.”
For now, Lincoln Cemetery is stuck in limbo, with an owner who is neglecting it and a community that hates to see it languish any longer.
Information from the Tampa Bay Times was used in this report.
Who’s buried in Lincoln Cemetery?
An estimated 3,000 military veterans
Elder Jordan, a prominent developer in the area around 22nd Street S.
Fannye Ayer Ponder, a stalwart in education and civic activism
Robert Swain, a dentist, businessman and civil rights activist
C. Bette Wimbish, a civil rights activist and first black elected to the St. Petersburg City Council
Ralph Wimbish, a physician and onetime president of the NAACP Source: Tampa Bay Times
Courtesy of Heart Gallery of Pinellas and Pasco Tiffany Faykus, executive director
BY TAYLOR WILLIAMS and IAN MacCALLUM NNB Student Reporters
ST. PETERSBURG – On one side of the window, a woman and three small children were digging through a dump outside an abandoned factory.
On the other side, a woman with a gin and tonic in her hand sat by the pool of a five-star hotel.
Until that moment 14 years ago, Tiffany Fakus was happy with her life as a $100,000-a-year executive for a multimedia software company. She was taking a break from a conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, when she happened to look out the window.
“I looked away and tried to ignore it,” said Faykus, now 43. But when she returned to the conference she couldn’t shake the image of the woman, the children and the dump.
“What am I doing on this side of the glass?” she thought to herself.
“It was so profoundly impactful,” she said. “Nothing felt right after that. The little things that didn’t use to bother me now did.”
The glance out the window in Baku became a look into Faykus’ future.
Within a few months, she had resigned from her corporate job and begun an odyssey that eventually brought her to St. Petersburg, where she is executive director of the Heart Gallery of Pinellas and Pasco, a nonprofit organization that matches foster children with adoptive families.
The Heart Gallery showcases the pictures and stories of hard-to-place children in the belief that “there’s a family out there for every kid,” Faykus said.
It is her job to raise money and public awareness. “It’s all about spreading the word,” she said.
Over the last five years, she said, 176 children have been adopted through the Heart Gallery. Watching a judge preside over an adoption is the most rewarding part of her job.
“I played a part – however small, I played a part,” she said. “There’s one judge that says, ‘It is my pleasure to make official what love made true.’ ”
Many of the matches don’t lead to adoption, however. The Heart Gallery’s children are generally older. Some have physical disabilities or emotional problems. Some have siblings and they can’t be separated. There is, Faykus acknowledged, “a 40 to 50 percent fail rate.”
“When kids don’t get adopted, it’s the worst part of my job,” she said. “When I tuck my (own) kids in at night, I think, Who is tucking in those kids?”
Courtesy Heart Gallery of Pinellas and Pasco Over the last five years 176 children have been adopted through the Heart Gallery.
Faykus grew up in a religious family that believed in giving back to the community. Although they frequently moved, her mother found causes to champion at every stop – Meals on Wheels, a wheelchair sports camp, a national charity organization for mothers and daughters.
“I remember playing in the church library while she was cooking the meals,” said Faykus.
Her parents started a foundation they called WGG (for With God’s Grace), she said. “That says my family. That’s how I was raised.”
As a teenager, Faykus dreamed of a career in theater. That carried her to New York City, where she majored in theater and history at New York University and appeared in several off-Broadway plays.
It was in New York that she met her husband, Preston, who was there on an internship. They lived in Russia and then Budapest, Hungary. That’s where she landed the corporate job that eventually took her to Baku and what she calls her “aha moment” – the sight of the woman and children in the dump.
When she, her husband and their three children – now 12, 10 and 8 – moved to St. Petersburg several years ago, Faykus said, she was not enthusiastic about the city.
That changed as they got settled and joined a church and she began volunteer work. In 2012, she became executive director of the Heart Gallery.
Now Faykus looks at the world through a different window.
When a promising adoption falls through, she said, she tries to remain upbeat. She sees value in serving a cause she embraces passionately. The biblical guidance her mother and father stressed still rings in her head:
“To whom much is given, much is expected.”
NNB reporters Jennifer Nesslar and Jaime Luna contributed to this report.
The Heart Gallery of Pinellas and Pasco is at 100 Second Ave. N, Suite 150, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.
Telephone (727) 388-2910 or (866) 388-0790 http://www.heartgallerykids.org/
Taylor Williams | NNB Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum, 2240 Ninth Ave. S.
BY TAYLOR WILLIAMS NNB Student Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG – She spent months helping create a lush, beautiful garden out back for meetings and parties. At Christmas time, she and friends took 12 little girls to have lunch with the mayor, get their hair and nails done and spend the night at a downtown hotel. And now Terri Lipsey Scott stands by the museum fence to chat with a little boy.
For Scott, chairwoman of the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum, building community is as important as showcasing history and art. So the little building at 2240 Ninth Ave. S has become both a museum and community center.
“Museums no longer reflect what they use to,” said Scott. “They used to be stale and for just looking at art, but have evolved into a more social area.”
But some prominent people don’t share her vision for the museum.
The executive director of the St. Petersburg Housing Authority, which owns the building, has said it should be a fully functioning museum and less a social gathering place. He also said it is the “fiscal responsibility” of the Housing Authority to consider “increasing revenues or decreasing expenses” there.
This spring the authority invited St. Petersburg College to consider leasing the building and opening its own museum there.
The chairman of the college’s board of trustees, which is quadrupling the capacity of its Midtown campus, has said the school would welcome the opportunity “to embrace and enhance” the museum.
The future of the museum came to a boil in May, when Scott and colleagues on the museum board were incensed to learn that a possible change was afoot.
In the weeks and debate that ensued, the future of the museum has put a spotlight on three organizations and their leaders, who are all prominent in the city’s African-American community:
Scott, the former office administrator to the St. Petersburg City Council, said she and the museum board were blindsided. They went to a workshop thinking the issue was a possible partnership between the board and St. Petersburg College. Instead, they learned the authority was proposing to hand management of the museum to the college.
“It’s disrespect by both SPC and the Housing Authority,” Scott said, “and I will say ‘disrespect’ because no one’s talked to us.”
She said the museum has handled its limited resources well, noting that it has not gotten the sort of taxpayer support enjoyed by three downtown museums – the Dali, the St. Petersburg Museum of History and the now-defunct Florida International Museum.
Darrell Irions, the CEO of the Housing Authority, also cited money. He said the authority gets 8 cents per square foot in rent from the museum board while the tenants of “similar properties” pay rent ranging from $4.70 to $6.75 per square foot.
Although the museum board’s lease was set to expire May 31, the Housing Authority “had received no communication from the museum board about their future plans,” Irions said.
“After listening to SPC’s presentation, it appears that SPC has many more resources to offer than the current museum board does,” he said. “They mentioned investing $250,000 into building improvements and getting accreditation. This type of commitment could not be discounted.”
Deveron Gibbons, the chairman of the St. Petersburg College board of trustees, said the college was asked to submit a proposal for taking over the museum. The college already manages the Leepa-Rattner Museum on its Tarpon Springs campus, he said.
SPC president Bill Law, who seemed taken aback by the controversy, emailed Scott in late May to say the college would not pursue its proposal until the boards of the museum and the Housing Authority resolve their differences, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Since then, both Scott and Gibbons have said they would be open to a partnership at the museum.
“At SPC, we aim to offer our students the best educational resources,” said Gibbons, an executive at Amscot Corp. and onetime candidate for mayor of St. Petersburg. “SPC has an opportunity to partner with the museum to enhance its current offerings, expand financial capacity, while increasing exposure to the rich culture and history of African-Americans to the general public and SPC’s student body of over 65,000.”
That sounds good to Scott. “Everything they (SPC) presented is what the Woodson needs. We are not disagreeable to a partnership,” she said.
The possible partnership may be discussed when the Housing Authority board meets June 26.
The museum, which opened in 2006, is in a building that used to be the rental office for the adjacent Jordan Park public housing complex.
“It was a notorious place for crime and the objective was to condense the crime,” Scott said. “The residents wanted a place to preserve African-American history.”
Courtesy Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum Legacy Garden
The Legacy Garden behind the museum was a project of the museum, the city Midtown Economic Development Initiative and the Leadership St. Pete class of 2008 at the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce.
Transforming the area into a lush, beautiful garden was no easy task, said Scott. “It was like Baghdad out there. I spent many nights crying on the back step, but knew with every vision, there is provision.”
For Scott and the staff of the Woodson, preserving history has meant many long, volunteer hours. “It’s passion, not profession,” she said.
The Woodson museum has paid for only two of the roughly 16 exhibits that have been showcased. The rest of the exhibits came from local artists and curators who donated the pieces for a month. “Most of it has been on the backs of volunteers.” Scott said.
Information from the Tampa Bay Times and Weekly Challenger was used in this report.
If You Go: The Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum at 2240 Ninth Ave. S is open Tuesday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m. Museum space is available to rent for events, meetings and weddings. Call (727) 323-1104 for details.
Karlana June | NNB Mayor Rick Kriseman (center, in tie) and nonprofit CEO Lew Schulman cut a ceremonial ribbon.
BY KARLANA JUNE NNB Student Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG – The streets are quiet. Moisture hangs heavy in the morning air and dark clouds loom on the horizon. Many houses in this neighborhood are dilapidated, their paint peeling, their yards neglected.
A small group gathers in front of a humble blue and yellow house. Its windows are boarded up, and a stale stench wafts out the open door. Mayor Rick Kriseman stands on the steps, flanked by local dignitaries. Three police officers and a representative from the sheriff’s office casually look on from a distance.
What is so special about this unassuming little house at 4200 14th Ave. S?
It is one of 68 houses in the city’s Midtown and Childs Park neighborhoods that a nonprofit called Builders of Hope bought earlier this year from Fort Lauderdale’s Dalland Properties. Some of the houses will be renovated and sold to low-income families. Some rehabbed homes will provide affordable, safe rentals.
The North Carolina-based organization is a national leader in affordable housing and urban renewal. Its plans coincide with the city’s drive for housing upgrades in pockets of poverty – a campaign promise of the new mayor.
Kriseman joined City Council member Karl Nurse and Builders of Hope officials on June 11 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony and optimistic talk about things to come.
“My goal is that everyone has a safe place to live,” said Kriseman.
Builders of Hope has dedicated nearly $2 million to this project, between $24,000 and $26,000 for each renovation. Three homes have already been rehabbed, and the goal is to complete the rest in the next four months. All the work is done by local contractors and builders, using local materials.
The little blue house on 14th Avenue will get a new roof, an efficient heating and cooling system, new flooring and, of course, a new paint job. Built in 1940, the 836-square-foot home has three bedrooms and one bath. The frame molding around the front door has character, with a diamond centered at the top.
The partnership between the nonprofit and the city began about a year ago, with the instrumental efforts of Nurse growing from a conversation and a dream.
“This couldn’t have happened without the mayor,” said Nurse. “The future (of this neighborhood) is better because of this.”
There is hope that other nonprofit and for-profit organizations will soon be working on similar projects in the same vicinity, creating a better place for low-income residents to call home.
“We want to support the local community,” said Katie Spalding, the sales and property management director at Builders of Hope. “There is a sense of pride, when a local builder can drive by one of these homes and say, ‘I worked on that house!’”
Jennifer Nesslar | NNB Officers Rich Thomas and Gina Hartzig
BY JENNIFER NESSLAR NNB Student Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG – The front window of the house was shattered. Broken glass lay piled around an upside-down bucket, which made neighbors believe the vacant house has been broken into.
When Gina Hartzig, St. Petersburg police District 1 officer, entered the house with colleague Ryan Clark, she noticed a tarantula on the floor. Clark checked to see if the tarantula was real, and he jumped back quickly.
Hartzig screamed.
Then Clark smiled. The tarantula was plastic.
The intruders were leaving fake rats and spiders in the house, according to the homeowner, who doesn’t reside there. Clark used the situation to play a joke on Hartzig.
Broken glass, spider webs and dead roaches – real ones – littered the house.
Encountering problems with vacant homes is common to officers of District 1 – the area extending from U.S. 19 east to Tampa Bay, and Tropicana Field south to the Sunshine Skyway.
District 1 covers some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, where crime rates are high, and some of the nicest, with high-valued waterfront real estate.
Hartzig works in the 20 zone of District 1, which means she is the first called to respond in the area between 20th to 30th avenues.
In the 20 zone, “we have lots of vacant properties,” Hartzig said. “Kids go in to hang out and smoke marijuana.”
Hartzig, 36, moved from New York to the Tampa Bay area when she was 23. She started at St. Petersburg College, in order to get her 30 credit hours to transfer to the police academy. Policing was a natural choice for her.
“It’s just something I always wanted to do,” she said.
Hartzig, a single mother, works the day shift so she can come home to her 4-year-old daughter, Taylor.
In March, Hartzig celebrated 10 years with the department. She’s spent the years working as an officer and training other officers.
Hartzig and Clark have worked together in the 20 zone since Hartzig trained Clark, 22.
The jokes began early. During training, Clark would attach his paperwork to the police cruiser visor with rubber bands. When Hartzig closed the visor, the bands would snap her in the face.
Clark regularly adjusts the mirrors on Hartzig’s car when she isn’t looking. Hartzig teases him back.
But Hartzig’s job doesn’t always allow her to joke with her colleagues.
In 2011, she and a trainee responded to a call for backup. Officers had gone to 3734 28th Ave. S. to serve a domestic battery warrant. They discovered that the suspect, Hydra Lacy, was armed and in the attic.
Over the radio, Hartzig heard loud gunfire.
“One of the officers was saying, ‘Get us out of here’ in a low voice,” Hartzig said. “It was just unreal.”
Two sergeants, Tom Baitinger and Jeffrey Yaslowitz, were fatally wounded. Hartzig went to the hospital with Baitinger.
Hartzig notices a tension between police and some of the residents of District 1. People are often dishonest with the officers.
A boy caught for stealing a scooter lied about his name. A woman lied about a man living with her. But officers can usually figure out the truth by asking around.
“Around here, everybody knows everybody,” Hartzig said. “As much as they don’t want to help us, they help us a lot.”
Not all District 1 residents resent the police. At Munch’s Restaurant & Sundries at 3920 Sixth St. S., the waitress knows Hartzig always orders sweet tea and her coworker Rich Thomas orders water. The restaurant gives the officers half off on their meals – even though Hartzig wrote a waitress a traffic ticket in a car accident.
“I kept apologizing,” Hartzig said, “but our policies make us do it.”
During their lunch breaks – and whenever work is slow – Hartzig meets up with Thomas and Clark. Meet-ups usually involve laughter.
Hartzig pointed at Thomas. “He’s my work husband,” she said with a laugh. Both officers are single, but they are not dating each other.
In her free time, Hartzig shops with Taylor. She goes out to dinner with Thomas every few weeks, and they frequently argue over who picks up the check.
“My daughter loves him. I don’t know why,” Hartzig said.
“You know why,” Thomas said. “’Cause this!” He pulls out his phone and shows a picture. Taylor is resting her head on Thomas’ shoulder.
ST. PETERSBURG – “Call me from booking, baby! I love you!”
Police officer Rich Thomas looked up momentarily, then resumed putting Edelmiro Nadal into the back seat of his cruiser.
Nadal, 53, was being arrested on a warrant for outstanding drug charges. The snitch who turned him in? His wife, Nellie, who was now calling out endearments to him.
She did not want to call the police, she said, but she is desperate for her husband to turn his life around. “I didn’t want to do this, but he needs the help.”
It is rare – but not unheard of – for one member of a family to turn in another, said Thomas, 50, a 26-year veteran of the Police Department.
“Family members get tired of putting up with their bad habits and eventually turn them in,” he said.
During his career, Thomas said, he has seen a lot: spikes in cocaine use, child abuse, murders and domestic abuse.
For all but one of his years on the force, Thomas has patrolled District 1, which covers most of the sprawling south side of the city.
The district includes some of St. Petersburg’s nicest neighborhoods: Tropical Shores, Lakewood Estates, Bahama Shores, Pinellas Point and Broadwater.
It also includes low-income neighborhoods like Midtown, where drug use and gang violence are problems and police officers grow accustomed to the hostile stares of some residents.
Thomas’ patrol shifts have been as trying as they have been rewarding, he said. He knows that any time he is dispatched he could be heading into a tense, life-or-death situation.
In 26 years, he “has practically heard, done and seen it all,” he said. But he has never had to fire his weapon.
He plans to retire in five years. He knows those years will be bittersweet as he finishes living out his boyhood dream of being a police officer.
His plans for retirement? “Nothing,” he said.
Fair enough for a man with 32 years in law enforcement.
Emily Evans | NNB Virginia Bautista threads her way through 12 hour days.
BY EMILY EVANS NNB Student Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG – In a quaint corner toward the back of the consignment store, there’s a fashion mannequin wearing the latest work-in-progress blouse. An electric sewing machine ticks away and spools of color-coordinated thread line the walls.
Virginia Bautista hunches over the sewing machine, with hands weary of needle pricks, working away at a black, short-sleeve peplum top for the wife of a St. Petersburg minister.
The 70-year-old seamstress has become a fixture in the consignment shop and thrift store at 913 22nd St. S, one of four buildings that Elihu and Carolyn Brayboy are restoring on the street known as “the Deuces.”
“I originally came to the Deuces Live (Sunday) Market looking for a table to sell my crafts, which is another hobby I have,” she said. “But I ended up speaking to Mr. Elihu Brayboy, who told me there was a need for a seamstress. And here I am.”
The consignment shop is in a building that also has an ice cream shop and an art gallery.
The building has housed a variety of businesses since Clarence Moure, a hired African- American carpenter, and his contractor, Peter Primus Perkins, built it more than 50 years ago, said journalist and historian Jon Wilson.
Bautista moved to St. Petersburg from San Antonio, where she found herself living the dream. She was a shop owner and a vocational coordinator, teaching immigrant children ages 12 to 17 the life skills to make it in the U.S. – speaking fluent English, networking and finding a job.
“I had my own shop, called Virginia’s Fabrics to Fashions,” Bautista said. “I would take bigger-sized clothing and make it smaller, into something that the customer could wear and love.”
After her daughter fell ill, Bautista moved to St. Petersburg to help take care of her daughter and five grandchildren. But she also wanted to turn her love for crafting and sewing into a job.
From men and women’s clothes to custom-made wedding gowns, Bautista said, she is always busy. She works from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Time is not an issue for her. The black peplum top she is working on will take her two to three hours. A custom made-to- fit wedding gown will take two to three weeks.
With so many customers buying their clothing from brand-name retail stores, she said, the economy for hand-made clothing is shrinking.
“At my shop in San Antonio, I would charge up to $60 for a blouse,” Bautista said. “Here at this shop, I would charge maybe $30. There isn’t a demand for hand-made clothing.”
Taylor Williams | NNB Dunedin Blue Jays play by play announcer Tyler Murray
By TAYLOR WILLIAMS NNB Student Reporter
DUNEDIN – Light rain sprinkled from the dark gray clouds billowing over Florida Auto Exchange Stadium on a humid summer night.
On the field, the Dunedin Blue Jays were playing the Daytona Cubs.
In the broadcast booth, play-by-play announcer Tyler Murray was calling the game with one eye on the diamond below and the other on the weather radar on his laptop computer.
Then came a text message. Murray passed the announcing to his assistant, took off his headset and ran down to the field – for tarp duty.
Murray, 23, wears many hats. As the Blue Jays’ broadcasting coordinator, he is the principal play-by-play broadcaster, media relations guy and jack-of-all-trades. And when it rains, he helps the grounds crew and other staff members cover the field with a tarp.
Like the players on the field, Murray hopes to make it to the big leagues someday, to be a voice heard by millions. But for now, he said, he is living the dream.
“I have my dream job right now,” he said. “Maybe not the dream fan base, ballpark or salary, but our fans are loyal, the team is great, and I make enough to break even on rent and food every month.
“I’m doing everything I can to advance up the ladder. Just like the players, our dream is to make it to the bigs. For me, it’s all about staying in sports and staying on the air.”
Murray was born in Riverside, Conn., and moved to Medfield, Mass., when he was 7. “I was a New York (Yankees) fan in Boston territory,” he said.
Murray’s passion for sports journalism began when he was in high school. “Everyone always says, ‘We love sports, but we’re not good enough to play,’ but I’ll do you one better,” he said. “I’d go home every afternoon and read the daily Yankees news written by Mark Feinsand.”
Murray graduated from Boston University with a degree in journalism. He started with a concentration in writing because of his love for English and writing in high school. People started telling him he had a good radio voice, however, and he enjoyed hanging around the school’s radio station. So he switched his concentration to broadcast journalism.
After college, Murray worked as the assistant director of broadcasting and media relations for the Daytona Cubs. His supervisor, Robbie Aaron, helped Murray get the position with the Dunedin Blue Jays, the Class A-Advanced affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays.
In Dunedin, a typical day at the ballpark for Murray begins at 10:30 a.m., roughly eight hours before the first pitch.
Murray arrives at the stadium and starts by printing lineups and putting together game notes. He calls it the “bare minimum to start. Every day something else pops up like a graphic, press release, promotions schedule, etc., etc.”
At 3 p.m., game notes and lineups are distributed. Al Hernandez, the assistant coordinator of broadcasting and media relations, goes to the home and visiting clubhouses and the press box to drop them off.
“After the game note prep, we can get to the fun stuff,” Murray said.
From 4 to 5 p.m., he and Hernandez put the scorecard stats together and interview a player. They split this task and after batting practice one goes into the clubhouse to catch a player. The interview takes four to five minutes, depending on the player.
“Usually it’s a hot hitter,” said Hernandez. “Tyler (Murray) doesn’t like to interview someone too good because he doesn’t want to jinx him. Sometimes interviews last longer, especially when they’re talking to Tyler; he’s good at shooting the s—.”
During this time, Murray prepares his scorecard by looking up each player on both teams to reference during the broadcast. This helps him offer details about each player – height, weight, when they were drafted – while they’re at bat.
At 6:15 p.m., Murray and Hernandez begin the play-by-play, which is aired online and broadcast on WTAN-AM 1340 every Saturday.
For most game broadcasts, Murray does the play-by-play for the first three innings. Hernandez takes over until the seventh inning, and Murray finishes off the broadcast. Both chat and joke during lulls in on-field action. But as soon as something happens on the diamond, the chat stops mid-sentence, to be finished after the action is reported.
During a game in June, Murray and Hernandez were on alert for the possibility of rain. Other teams in the area were having rain delays and rainouts.
Murray got the signal and went to sit by the tarp while Hernandez held down the broadcast. When Murray returned a few innings later, Hernandez went down to the field to replace him. The radar on Murray’s computer showed the bay area covered in rain, but for the night, the stadium stayed dry.
After the game, Hernandez went to do an on-field interview and Murray wrapped up the broadcast by playing highlights and giving a preview of the next day’s game.
He finished his day at 10 p.m. and headed home. Tomorrow he’ll do it all again.
