St. Petersburg residents are reasonably concerned with the city’s questionable water supply. The history of Tampa Bay’s warm, shallow waters is murky with pollution from dredging, industrial emissions and wastewater. A question up for vote on the city election Nov. 3 is addressing the issue with increased protections to seagrass beds.
Referendum question No.1 asks residents to decide if the City Council should be allowed to establish permanent development restrictions over city-owned, aquatically-located lands near North Shore Park. The restrictions would prevent any development or construction projects near or on the area’s seagrass beds. These protections are intended to support and enhance seagrass beds that can be used to improve the city’s water quality and surrounding ecology.
Tess Chibirka, a volunteer at the Suncoast chapter of the Florida Sierra Club, said that poor water quality is a result of overdevelopment.
“That’s great that our city is growing, but we don’t have enough infrastructure to handle it,” said Chibirka.
Currently,any decisions regarding the placement of protections on seagrass beds must be approved through a referendum. Christian Haas, a member of the Old Southeast Neighborhood Association, said if the referendum passes, the City Council will no longer have to wait annually for each election toadd future protections for seagrass beds.
“Every time they (City Council) want to change (add protections), they have to go through referendum,” said Haas. “This is a permanent reservation, so changes can happen without a city-wide referendum.”
Researchers are noticing a correlation between seagrass bed populations and water quality. Carlos Frey, an engineer for the City of St. Petersburg, says seagrass beds and water quality benefit from each other in different ways.
“One of the things that we use as a measure of our success is the amount of seagrass out (in Tampa Bay),” said Frey.
According to Haas, seagrass beds filter out toxins in the water and aid in erosion and filtration.The Bay’s water clarity also allows for sunlight to reach seagrass beds rooteddeep below the surface.
“Seagrass needs light,” said Nanette Holland O’Hara,the Public Outreach Coordinator for the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. “If it doesn’t get light, it can’t grow.”
Groups like the Tampa Bay Estuary Program and The Nitrogen Management Consortium are already working to increase the number of seagrass beds in the Bay. According to O’Hara, the amount of seagrass beds grew from 20,000 acres in 1990 to 40,295 acres this year. The number exceeds the 38,000 acres of seagrass that existed in the 1950s.
The ordinance for the referendum does not clarify which parts of North Shore are protected. While some speculate the referendum only applies to seagrass beds between the Coffee Pot Bayou Canal and the Pier, Haas believes the initiative will affect the city’s overall water supply.
“It doesn’t help a specific district, it helps all of St. Petersburg,” said Haas.
Though referendum one may enhance the city’s water quality, the full impact of the ballot will only be determined when its perimeters are clearly established.
BY BRIGITTE TOULON and CHOYA RANDOLPH NNB Reporters
MIDTOWN– Nearly 21,000 people have walked through the doors of the Pregnancy and Family Resource Center in Midtown, and received help with more than they anticipated.
Originally built in 1992, the center received grants and donations from the community and Suncoast Baptist Church to help them help the community.
The Resource Center is a place where individuals can receive information on preventing pregnancies, contraception, alternatives to abortion and general counseling for individuals in these kinds of situations.
“The center is orientated around the value of life, parents understanding their roles and love for babies, before and after the womb,” said Carole Alexander, director of the center.
Before becoming a resource center, it was a condemned house that was donated to the Suncoast Baptist Association. The church allowed the fire department to use the home for fire drills. After being burned down, the land was cleared and built into the center in 1992 and began serving the community in 1994.
Prior to the building being completed, the center began serving people through Pleasant Grove Baptist Church off 9th Ave S, for about a year. The center went from serving roughly 600 people in its first year to now almost 1,000 people a year.
The center now offers programs such as the Gaining Opportunity and Achieving Life Success (GOALS). This program teaches families about hard work by having members earn points through activities including group activities, one on one’s, watching DVDs and participating in other programs. The points earned could be used at the Mother’s and Baby’s Boutique for parents to buy diapers and other necessities.
Another program offered is the Baby Love Support group which is a six-week program for parents to bond with the child and each other and learn about prenatal care. For parents that have received abortions and may have lingering feelings about the experience, the center provides the Post Abortion Recovery Ministry.
In 2010, the center began to struggle fiscally and was about to shut down because of the economic recession. Due to a letter the center sent out to the community which stated their financial needs, they were able to keep their doors open due to the flood of support and donations they received.
“We give to the church, and the church gives to us,” said Alexander.
The church provides help by way of financial donations and by encouraging their members to volunteer at the center. In turn, the workers of the center give back by volunteering for the church at different functions, in particular by giving vital information to the members of the church.
Alexander, has a personal connection to the centers’ work, partly because she was faced with an unplanned pregnancy in her youth. Due to the lack of resources prior to her pregnancy, she is now committed to helping others understand the importance of life.
“Here’s our vision, when we’ve accomplished and done all that we’ve been called to do, we want to see vibrant families in communities, whole and complete lacking nothing through Christ,” said Alexander.
John Joyce, 83, walks 2.5 miles to mow the lawn at the Norton’s house. They started a GoFundMe to get Joyce a truck. Photo GoFundMe.
John Joyce is getting a truck.
Joyce, 83, has mowed the lawn at Robert Norton’s house for eight years and after recently getting sick and spending three months in the hospital, his truck broke, according to USA Today.
When his daughter is not able to give him a ride, Joyce walks the 2.5 miles to mow the Norton’s lawn.
“That broke my heart, especially when I found out how he was getting here to do what he was doing,” Nikki Norton said to WTSP.
So the Nortons set up a GoFundMe to buy a truck for Joyce. The account has raised more than $6,200, more than the $4,000 goal, since it started two weeks ago.
“I think anybody who is 83 years old who works as hard as he does, as loyal and faithful as he is, his work ethic and character, should have a vehicle to drive and do his work in,” Robert Norton said to WTSP.
ST. PETERSBURG – “Many people remember the 50’s and 60’s, but not a lot of people, especially not children, remember the times before it as well. So, I think that the boards are great to preserve information that could have been lost or forgotten in case they were not there,” said Kimberly Hinder, Historic Preservation Planner for the City of St. Petersburg.
The African American Heritage Trail Map of Boards [Photograph Courtesy of St.Pete.org]The idea of the trail was first initiated by former Mayor Bill Foster of the City of St. Petersburg. Foster established an advisory committee that the board members, consisting of involved and interested community members, to discover the important places, people and events that shaped the surrounding neighborhood.
This helped board members establish the themes for the corridor such as focusing on the commercial corridor with the African American businesses during segregation, Civil Rights, education and the role of family, clubs and religion.
“We had to gather the initial list of places and people through the advisory board meetings and public meetings but the detailed information on the boards was found through interviews and archival research.” said Hinder.
The African American Heritage Trail Board titled End of an Era. [Photo Courtesy of StPete.Org]The City of St. Petersburg applied for a grant offered by the State Division of Historic Resources. Once the City was granted the award, St. Petersburg City Council approved the grant agreement. This grant was available to municipalities with historic preservation programs approved by the state as a Certified Local Government.
The grant could not be used for future maintenance, only initial development and installation, said Hinder.
“The boards are graffiti resistant and sun damage proof – we tried to get the best materials that last as long as it can possibly last for. The materials are the same materials that the National Park Service uses. The boards are warranted for ten years from the manufacturer so damage will be replaced if necessary,” said Hinder.
David Mourra, from left, Steve Harris and Greg Keller place African American Heritage Trail Board in front of the Carter G. Woodson African American History Museum. [Photo Courtesy of Melissa Lyttle of Tampa Bay Times]The African American Heritage Trail became a public walking attraction in October 2014. The two-mile trail is located at the main point of the Carter G. Woodson Museum at 2240 9th Ave. S. A trail of 10 boards run along the North and South of 22nd Street South, while the intersection of 9th Avenue includes another 10 boards along the East to West of Midtown.
The Trail received the Meritorious Achievement Award in 2015 for its preservational value.
The 20 detailed boards include background information and illustration of the African-American heritage that has flourished in the city of St. Petersburg; this attraction is a walking tour provided by the City of St. Petersburg in an area where black culture is embraced. They are placed in front of areas in Historic Midtown such as the Manhattan Casino, the Johnnie Ruth Clarke Center, formerly known as the Mercy Hospital, and the Royal Theater.
These boards are titled as the “Faith, Family and Education” on 9th Avenue which includes rich African-American heritage details that consist of the community, schools, organizations, religious centers and enrichment of the black society starting from the Jim Crow-era. There are approximately nine religious centers on this side of the trail, where the board focuses on such details of the now restored Jordan Elementary School.
The Logo used for the African American Heritage Trail. [Photo Courtesy of Melissa Lyttle of Tampa Bay Times]The boards are titled: “Community, Culture and Commerce” on the 22nd Street trail, which includes the important and history-making information about racial segregation.
The shops and places that are featured on these trail boards include information pertaining to the places where African-Americans couldn’t shop, sit, enjoy, contribute to or receive services during the time of racial segregation in America. These boards elaborate on iconic figures such as Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles and James Brown as their jazz music was a significant factor in placing a board in front of the Royal Theater and the Manhattan Casino.
The African American Heritage Association wants to found more boards though it will require another grant. There are many other sites in St. Petersburg that have potential for these markers including the South Mole, which served as a beach for African Americans in St. Petersburg; the Gas Plant, Pepper Town and Methodist Town.
“Little remains of these African American communities,” said Hinder.
Where: Downtown and Midtown St. Petersburg. Tours of the African American Heritage Trail are part of the event-filled week. For more information visit: http://keepsaintpetersburglocal.org/localicious.
St. Petersburg, Fla. (Oct. 5, 2015) Tampa Bay Times investigative journalist, Michael LaForgia and data and digital director, Adam Playford shared some tips about finding stories, collecting useful data, and the importance of patience in regards to investigative journalism with Neighborhood News Bureau students Wednesday, Sept. 30.
“Find a body and discover why it’s there,” said LaForgia.
LaForgia and Playford admit that investigative journalism isn’t easy. It takes time, focus, and organization for the story to come together. While discussing Failure Factories, their current investigative project dealing with systemic deficiencies at some Pinellas County schools, LaForgia mentions finding and poring over records can be the most time-consuming element, but is also the most important. Getting the documents can also become expensive.
Tampa Bay Times Award Winning Journalists Adam Playford and Michael LaForgia. Photo by Eric Vaughan.
“We requested millions of records for this story. We have spent $8-$9,000 in records requests and will probably spend more,” said LaForgia.
When it came to gathering personal stories of affected students for the Failure Factories project, LaForgia and Playford admitted getting parental buy-in was tough. Parents weren’t as forthcoming as they had hoped, especially given the controversial topic of the schools their children attended being labeled as “failure factories.”
So how did they get the families to go on the record?
“We just kept showing up,” said LaForgia. “We appealed to their sense of justice and righteousness.”
Eventually their patience and persistence paid off as they were able to gather compelling stories from multiple families.
Investigative journalists must remain patient and thorough throughout working on any assignment. Understanding that some details require a bit of persistence and endurance is key to gathering important data, and eventually having a successful story to tell. There are a lot of stories that still need to be told, LaForgia said.
“All you have to do is think about what might exist in the world,” LaForgia said. “Everybody has to live someplace, everybody makes and spends money.”
LaForgia and Playford discuss the importance of data collecting to NNB students
About Neighborhood News Bureau
Neighborhood News Bureau is a working newsroom, staffed by University of South Florida St. Petersburg undergraduate and graduate students under the guidance of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies faculty members. The newsroom opened in Midtown, St. Petersburg March 2006. Its mission is to serve the Midtown and surrounding communities of St. Petersburg. For more information, visit http://www.nnbnews.com/ or email nnb@usfsp.edu.
Award-winning Tampa Bay Times photojournalist Lara Cerri. Photo by Eric Vaughan.
St. Petersburg, Fla. (Oct. 2, 2015) – Student journalists with the Neighborhood News Bureau got the chance to learn photojournalism techniques and skills from a professional Wednesday, Sept. 23.
Lara Cerri, Tampa Bay Times photojournalist, shared her years of knowledge and experience with these students at the USFSP campus. With these tips, NNB will continue its mission to serve the Midtown area and surrounding communities of St. Petersburg through the practice of journalism.
‘Times Talk’ is what these students call it, and photojournalism was the topic of the week.
Photojournalism is the practice of communicating the news by the use of photographs and images. Photojournalists are the visual storytellers of the story, and Cerri was more than happy to express the important and impactful role photojournalists play.
“I have wanderlust,” said Cerri. “I have always had wanderlust.”
According to Cerri, it’s that curiosity that makes for a great photojournalist. She stresses the importance of trying to get the essence of what the story is about. The job is more than just taking photos. It is finding the story, writing the captions, and getting to know the sources.
“Part of the joy of my job is getting to know these people. If you got time, show an interest,” said Cerri. “It is first about human relationships.”
Lara Cerri discussing tools and techniques needed to become successful as a photojournalist. Photo by Eric Vaughan.
Photojournalists must be confident, patient, and compassionate. Being able to put yourself in the shoes of the another person and share a part of yourself builds trust and relationships. Any and every situation can be an opportunity for a great story, so always be ready for the unexpected.
Cerri’s Times Talk inspired these future journalists. View the entire ‘Times Talk with Lara Cerri’ video provided where she touches on topics including photographing children and funerals, how to approach people and finding story-telling moments.
Neighborhood News Bureau is a working newsroom, staffed by University of South Florida St. Petersburg undergraduate and graduate students under the guidance of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies faculty members. The newsroom opened in Midtown, St. Petersburg March 2006. Its mission is to serve the Midtown and surrounding communities of St. Petersburg. For more information, visit http://www.nnbnews.com/ or email nnb@usfsp.edu.
ST. PETERSBURG – It was just another night where the sound of music and laughter filled the air of this vibrant community. It was Midtown in the 1940s bringing out the African-American culture. But, it was not always that way. It took brave and valiant individuals to build the lively and joyful culture of Midtown. Then, Sidney Harden and his grocery store was one these individuals, and today, it is Elihu and Carolyn Brayboy.
Sidney Harden’s advertisement on the outside of the grocery store’s wall. Published in St. Petersburg Historic 22nd Street South by Peck and Wilson, 2006, 68.
In 1942, Harden opened ‘Sidney Harden’s Grocery Store’ on 22nd Street South. It was the place to get cultural food and resources throughout the community, according to the St. Petersburg Times. The grocery store also served local residents in times of need and comfort.
Harden was a neighbor and hoped the best for his community. According to a staff report from the City of St. Petersburg Community Preservation Commission, when local residents didn’t have enough, he gave and was known to hire residents for minor labor in exchange for food. He is remembered for his donations to different charities in the hope to make Midtown a better place for those in the community.
In the 35 years since the closing of Sidney Harden’s Grocery Store, that same passion and determination can be seen in Elihu and Carolyn Brayboy, better known as Mr. B and Mrs. B, and their hope to build a stronger and diverse Midtown. Despite a tough start and individuals’ perception of Midtown as being a rough place, the Brayboys decided to start their own business. They even have a reply for those with a misconception of Midtown.
“We’re putting the neighbor back into the hood,” said Elihu Brayboy. “Therefore it is a neighborhood.”
The café was renovated to meet modern day demands while keeping the design and layout of the historical Sidney Harden’s Grocery Store.
Although it was not what they intended, it became a place they now hold dear and true. Like Harden, the Brayboys are trying to invigorate the community. With just the start of a café, the Brayboys hope other businesses will see the opportunity Midtown has to offer.
“We value it and our view is it’s a great area and all it needs is love,” said Elihu Brayboy.
Named after Elihu Brayboy’s mother, Mary ‘Chief’ Brayboy Jones, a native of South Louisiana who catered to many celebrities such as Teddy Pendergrass, the Chief’s Creole Café serves a taste of Creole dishes including shrimp and grits, spicy jambalaya and Creole gumbo. Along with a delicious meal, customers have a choice of a spacious, elegant and vintage dining room or the outdoor patio setting to enjoy.
Chief’s Creole Café celebrates their first year anniversary on Nov. 1. The celebration starts with a momentous ribbon-cutting ceremony on Oct. 30 with Mayor Rick Kriseman. The event leads into the ‘Masquerade Under The Stars’ with live entertainment and dancing.
“We are ready for the storm,” said Kenny Roberts, a restaurant employee. “We know it’s coming.”
This is just the start of a new and diverse Midtown. The Brayboys and their employees are definitely excited, but so are those in the community.
“I really think that it’s a real treasure to this community,” said Cumberbatch. “For what (the Brayboys) are providing I think it’s really something good to help in the resurgence of this community to getting back to those memorable iconic places that so many residents in this community are familiar with.”
Alexa Burch | NNB Because their work is sensitive, Charity Jackson and other technicians in the property and evidence unit had to pass a rigorous background check and a polygraph test.
BY CAITLIN ASHWORTH NNB Student Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG – On the floors above Charity Jackson’s department at the St. Petersburg police station, all is commotion and bustle as sworn officers and civilian employees move through their day.
But on the windowless bottom floor, things seem more subdued as Jackson, 40, and other property and evidence technicians process and store the bodily fluids, drugs and ominous looking instruments of mayhem that are key to numerous cases, some going back five decades.
Five technicians and a supervisor, Melvin Brathwaite, work in the property and evidence section. To be hired, they must go through the same rigorous background check, including a polygraph test, as sworn officers.
“Just Be Nice,” reads a sign over the counter that Jackson stands behind.
She handles so-called “general evidence,” such as hats and watches, and has been a civilian employee at the Police Department for 12 years.
The evidence is housed in several rooms, and Jackson walks through them, describing each one.
When she unlocks Room 3, there is a faint whiff of marijuana. Instructions posted on the wall describe how to test and handle drugs. Blue lockers lining one wall contain drug-related evidence. A small refrigerator keeps urine and blood samples fresh.
Guns have a room of their own, from assault rifles to BB guns.
General evidence is stored in gray lockers down the hall while “bulk evidence,” such as lawn mowers, sits in a garage unit awaiting pickup by a private company that buys and sells booty that was seized by police and is no longer needed in the prosecution of crimes.
“I have one more room,” says Jackson. “The homicide room.”
That is Room 8. When she unlocks the door, chilly air seeps out. This room is kept much colder than other evidence rooms to help ensure that DNA left on the evidence is preserved, Jackson says.
A collection of murder weapons sits in an organized but jumbled fashion. Amid brooms and mops lined against a wall is a black samurai sword, an icon of Japanese history that is often dramatized in movies.
This sword is not mounted on the wall in prestige and glory, however. It is just another piece of evidence, with a case number written on the brown paper wrapping.
According to the department, St. Petersburg police closed 86 percent of the city’s 2014 homicides, ending the year with three cases unresolved and evidence waiting.
The department’s property and evidence staff processes and stores more than 22,000 new items and disposes of more than 17,000 items each year, according to the department’s website.
Items that have been cleared for release by the investigating officers sometimes go back to their owners. Some items are sold to the private company that then resells them. All firearms are destroyed.
On rare occasions, evidence is lost, said police spokesman Mike Puetz. “But it is extremely rare; there are a number of checks and balances that prevent that from happening.”
In June, the department created a full-time “cold case” team of five officers and civilian investigator Brenda Stevenson to focus on 213 unsolved murder and missing person cases going back as far as 1968.
A month earlier, the department finally identified a 16-year-old runaway from Virginia who died in 1973 after she was pushed in front of a vehicle in the 800 block of 11th Avenue S.
Stevenson persuaded the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner’s Office in 2010 to exhume the unidentified teenager and two others from their unmarked graves to get DNA samples – a staple of modern investigations that did not become widely available until the 1990s.
The DNA helped the department determine the teen’s identify and notify her younger brother in North Carolina. The brother, who had searched for his sister for years, told reporters he planned to have her remains shipped to him so “she will finally be with me.”
Information from the Tampa Tribune and Tampa Bay Times was used in this report.
Emily Wehunt | NNB The Manhattan Casino (left) is back, but empty lots now dominate the street, which was divided by Interstate 275 (background) in the late 1970s.
ST. PETERSBURG – For decades, they had to sit in the back of the bus.
They couldn’t eat at downtown lunch counters, couldn’t catch a movie at one of the big theaters, couldn’t sit on the famous green benches. They couldn’t even try on clothes before they bought them at downtown department stores.
Why? They were black.
During the 1920s, along a dusty trail that became 22nd Street S, blacks in St. Petersburg began creating a town within a town where they could safely live, dine, shop and attend school during an era of white supremacy, segregation and hate.
Candice Reshef | NNB Entrepreneurs Elihu and Carolyn Brayboy, who grew up in Midtown, have spent $800,000 to buy and restore four buildings along 22nd Street.
In time, their town got a nickname: “The Deuces.”
In its heyday in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Deuces was a thriving neighborhood of homes and more than a hundred businesses. There was a hospital where black doctors could treat their patients, funeral homes where the bereaved could mourn lost loved ones, a movie theater where families could be entertained, and a dance hall – called the Manhattan Casino – where famous black musicians like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington could perform.
“A black person could be born, live and die on 22nd Street,” said Jon Wilson, a former Tampa Bay Times reporter and author of three books on St. Petersburg history. “Some residents never left the neighborhood.”
But now, he said, the Deuces is “just a bare shadow of its former self.”
Most of the buildings are gone or boarded up. Most of the people who lived there have died or moved away. The roar of overhead traffic on Interstate 275, which in the late 1970s effectively cut the neighborhood in two, makes conversation difficult for the people below.
Nikki Gaskin-Capehart, the city’s director of urban affairs, said the interstate dealt a “death blow” to the Deuces. “It cut us off from each other,” said Gaskin-Capehart, 40, who grew up in the neighborhood.
By then, however, the Deuces was already in decline. When the legal and unofficial barriers of segregation began falling in the 1960s, its residents started living, shopping and attending school in once-forbidden places. The black hospital, which opened in 1923, closed in 1966. So did the theater. Two years later, the Manhattan Casino hosted its last concert.
Drug trafficking – especially crack cocaine – also staggered the Deuces. “When crack hit the neighborhood (in the 1980s), everything changed,” said Gaskin-Capehart.
Where others now see only decline and decay, however, Gaskin-Capehart sees opportunity. The St. Petersburg native, who fondly recalls what was, now stresses what could be.
As the city’s urban affairs director, she is the point person in Mayor Rick Kriseman’s campaign to put renewed economic development emphasis on Midtown – a cluster of predominantly black neighborhoods, including the Deuces, where poverty, unemployment and crime rates are high.
“We want to take it back to what it should be,” she said.
The challenges are daunting.
In June 2014, Gov. Rick Scott stunned city leaders when he vetoed $1.6 million in the state budget for St. Petersburg’s antipoverty 2020 Plan. The money would have gone to programs designed to help young job-seekers and small-business owners.
Other parts of the plan, developed by a private group and embraced by Kriseman and City Council members, aim to reduce poverty throughout the city by 30 percent. Those will continue without the state money.
Spurred in part by riots that shook the area in 1996, government and private enterprise have already spent heavily on improvements in Midtown and nearby Childs Park. Between 1999 and 2012, the city estimates, government and private interests invested $207 million in Midtown.
A post office, a credit union, a grocery store, a library and a federal Jobs Corps training facility have opened. The theater on 22nd Street has been modernized, air-conditioned and turned into a home for the Boys and Girls Club. The old hospital building has been expanded into a public health center. St. Petersburg College, which opened a Midtown campus in 2003, is expanding into a three-story, $15 million building that has four times the space, far more students and a greatly expanded agenda.
Lauren Hensley | NNB Jake Pfeifer spent a month as artist-in-residence in the studio and gallery of Duncan McClellan, a renowned glass artist who moved his operation to Midtown in 2010.
Meanwhile, the city and Pinellas County have approved a so-called tax-increment financing district for the 7.5 square miles that include the Midtown and Childs Park. Annual increases in city and county property tax revenue generated there will be spent there on improvements in housing, health care, economic opportunities and education. The financing plan is expected to generate up to $70 million over the next 30 years.
Private organizations are investing as well. A North Carolina nonprofit has bought 68 homes in Midtown and Childs Park and begun restoring them. A Naples-based investment firm has bought 40 homes for restoration. Habitat for Humanity has begun a program to help Midtown homeowners make substantial repairs, energy efficiency upgrades and landscaping improvements to their houses.
Elihu and Carolyn Brayboy, who grew up in Midtown, say they are spending $800,000 to buy and renovate four buildings along 22nd Street. Those buildings now house a Creole restaurant, a barbecue stand, an art gallery, a beauty salon and a fitness center.
On Sunday afternoons, the empty lots behind one of the Brayboys’ properties at 22nd and Ninth Avenue become the Deuces Live Open Market, which offers baked goods, produce, plants, fine crafts, home goods and live entertainment.
Meanwhile, along the northern and western flanks of Midtown, other businesses have taken root, among them several craft breweries, a couple of distilleries, a pet shelter and a monthly vintage market for secondhand goods.
More than 200 artists now work out of studios in a former freight train depot and nearby warehouses that offer ample space and low rent. Some of the artists in the Warehouse Arts District have formed a nonprofit that has bought six old buildings at 22nd and Fifth Avenue that will be turned into rent-controlled studios.
In the heyday of the Deuces, its crown jewel was the Manhattan Casino. It was the home of dances, teas, wedding receptions, fashion shows, club meetings and high school programs.
Candice Reshef | NNB The famous Manhattan Casino, crown jewel of the Deuces in its heyday, closed in 1968. It was restored by the city and reopened in 2013.
A who’s who of famous black entertainers – Armstrong, Ellington, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan – were barred from white venues in segregated St. Petersburg. But at the Manhattan, they played to packed houses that sometimes included white fans. Across the street, in the parking lot of the Sno-Peak drive-in, crowds gathered to listen to the music coming through the Manhattan’s open windows.
In 2002, the city bought the long-empty building and then spent nearly $3 million restoring it. In 2013, a branch of Harlem’s famous Sylvia’s Queen of Soul Food Restaurant opened on the ground floor. There’s a gospel brunch there every Sunday, a jazz brunch on Saturdays and other events during the week.
The ballroom on the second floor, where the greats of jazz, soul and rock once played, is again a venue for parties, wedding receptions and group meetings.
Do the return of the Manhattan and the stirrings of change elsewhere along the street portend better days for the Deuces? Some people are betting that they do.
NNB reporters Karlana June, Jennifer Nesslar and Andrew Caplan contributed to this report, which also includes information from St. Petersburg’s Historic 22nd Street South, a book published in 2006 by Rosalie Peck and Jon Wilson, and the Tampa Bay Times.
If You Go
Sylvia’s Queen of Soul Food Restaurant and the Manhattan Casino are at 642 22nd St. S. Call (727) 823-4240 or (727) 423-9825 for information and reservations.
![The African American Heritage Trail Board titled End of an Era. [Photo Courtesy of StPete.Org]](http://www.nnbnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Screen-Shot-2015-09-27-at-12.01.49-AM.png)
![David Mourra, from left, Steve Harris and Greg Keller place African American Heritage Trail Board in front of the Carter G. Woodson African American History Museum. [Photo Courtesy of Melissa Lyttle of Tampa Bay Times]](http://www.nnbnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Screen-Shot-2015-09-26-at-11.57.12-PM.png)
![The Logo used for the African American Heritage Trail. [Photo Courtesy of Melissa Lyttle of Tampa Bay Times]](http://www.nnbnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Screen-Shot-2015-09-26-at-11.59.38-PM.png)
