Each slide represents a different political race that will be on the ballot. Follow the flow chart through each ‘Topic’ section. Tally up the stances you agree with (Candidate A or Candidate B). Once you reach ‘Results’, see whether you had ‘Mostly A’s’ or ‘Mostly B’s’ and discover which candidate you match with.
Tag: midtown
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Lead results in Midtown homes raise health concerns
By Andrea Perez
The Environmental Protection Agency says that lead levels below the action level don’t require public action, but 45 homes in the St. Petersburg Midtown area tested positive for lead in the water.
Most of the homes that were tested contained very low traces. However, according to the EPA, any amount of lead is dangerous, especially for young children under the age of six.
A journalism class, the Neighborhood News Bureau (NNB), class from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg (USFSP) St. Petersburg worked with students at Academy Prep to conduct the testing in the fall of 2016. Each student took home vials to collect water with specific instructions based on a protocol developed by the same Virginia Technological University’s laboratory that tested the water of Flint, Michigan during the water crisis.
The analysis was conducted by Kelly Quinn, a research associate at the USF College of Marine Science. The chosen method was much more rigorous than St. Petersburg’s program, which tests 50 homes at random every three years based on a contested EPA protocol. St. Petersburg was one of the cities exposed by a report published by The Guardian on June 2, 2016 as one of the cities “cheating” on water testing protocols.
Academy Prep students visit the Oceonagraphic Recent Center in USF St. Petersburg to learn more about the process for water testing the samples they gathered in their homes. Neighborhood News Bureau. Students at Academy Prep were asked to acquire three draws from their homes and their neighbors’. The first draw required the water to be unused for six to eight hours, which gives an accurate indication of how much lead accumulates in the water as it sits in the pipes. The other two draws measure lead levels after water has been flushed.
Kevin Riskowitz, the interim manager of the city’s environmental compliance division said that the city’s lead testing program only takes one draw. The EPA typically only tests water using the first draw as well.
The EPA says that concerned homeowners can test their own homes, which ranges from $20 to $100 in cost.
“As Midtown fits with the characteristics of most of the communities affected by lead poisoning in their tap water, I believe that it would be good to make sure children (and adults) were not in danger”, said Dr. Bernardo Motta, a USFSP assistant professor who initiated the collaboration between the Neighborhood News Bureau class and Academy Prep.
Sources of the toxic metal can be found in water that travels through lead pipes, which are common in old homes, and in pipes that contain parts made of or welded with lead, which can be found in homes built until 1986. The natural corrosion of these pipes compounds the issue. The result is water containing a trace amount of lead in consumable tap water.
To alleviate the problem, John Palenchar, the interim director of St. Petersburg’s Water Resources says that the city uses corrosion control. This method of water treatment creates calcium buildup in the pipes. Calcium helps to slow the corrosion process.
Palenchar attributed the problems in Flint, Michigan, to the lack of proper corrosion control.
In 1986 lead piping installation and repairs nationwide were banned under the amended Safe Drinking Water Act, but many homes in St. Petersburg still have old piping systems held together by lead solder.
Seven of the homes tested by Academy Prep students that came back above 1 part per billion were built before 1986.
At 2.1 parts per billion on average, the amount of lead found in St. Petersburg’s water supply is low. The EPA’s guidelines mandate that action is taken if levels are found to be above 15 parts per billion.
Even the house with the highest amount of lead in the water tested below the EPA’s action level with 13 parts per billion in the first draw.
Per EPA standards, the city must take action if five or more of its 50 samples come back above the action level of 15 parts per billion.
According to the EPA, in children, low levels of lead exposure are linked to damage to the nervous system. Symptoms and permanent health effects include learning disabilities, impaired hearing and impaired function of blood cells.
“It doesn’t matter what level is found on the sample tests, my main concern is always numbers,” said Cynthia Keeton, a lead poisoning prevention coordinator for the Florida Health Department in Hillsborough County.
Although blood lead concentrations below five micrograms aren’t recognized as threatening to the body, Keeton believes that such levels should be lowered to zero in all children’s cases.
The Academy of Pediatrics recently reported that cognitive deficits and behavioral problems can occur at blood lead concentrations below that level, making the case for preventive measures at home even more urgent.
“Food is the thing that gets the lead out of a child’s body. They need to eat rich foods in iron and calcium. You have to put that back in the body. There’s no quick fix unless this child’s blood lead level gets to be 45, they have to go to the hospital. Otherwise, a crucial diet is the solution,” Keeton explained.
Children enrolled in Medicaid receive a blood lead screening test at 12 and 24 months, and those who are between 3 and 6 years of age must also be tested if they haven’t before.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, blood tests that monitor for lead levels range from $10 to $75.
Young children, in many cases, tend to be picky eaters, which makes the absorption of lead higher, due to an empty stomach. Keeton details that in the end, her main responsibility is to educate parents as key players against lead poisoning, even if it’s challenging.
“You got to get parents to do their part. It takes a parent who has had a lead poisoned child, and knows what it does to the families, to take action sometimes,” she said.
The city’s Community Redevelopment Plan (CRA) currently offers funding programs to property owners who want to upgrade old plumbing systems. Only properties that are considered “affordable housing,” or where an income by a number of people living in the household is between $33,050 to $69,856, can qualify to receive the grant. According to the Funding program, the minimum investment must start at $10,000.
Based on data collected by Neighbourhood News Bureau student’s in 2016 and 2017 last year, many properties can be individually eligible for the grant. However, in order for seven house pipe systems, built before 1986, to be replaced, homeowners would have to invest in the project privately. To apply for the grant, homeowners need to have the full money for the job and then use the grant for reimbursement.
Moreover, replacement of corrosive pipelines may also be covered by an income-based mortgage loan through the city Housing and Community Development division, which has primarily worked on roof repairs, lead-based paint mitigation, and electrical hazards.
There are many options besides pipe repair and replacement to reduce the amount of lead found in water. For most homes with low-level lead-contaminated water, a filtered pitcher will suffice. According to the EPA, one of these simple pitchers costs about $20 but requires maintenance at various time intervals to ensure that the filter’s quality doesn’t degrade over time.
In October, Keeton visited A Perfect Start Early Learning Childcare Center located in Tampa, as part of the National Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Week program. Children between the ages of four and six asked her about the toxin, as she guided them through preventive steps to take in their homes and avoid consuming lead at all costs.
Although she’s currently the only staff member of the Childhood lead poisoning and healthy homes program visiting child care centers in Hillsborough County, and orienting children and parents about prevention methods, she explains she’s able to work efficiently because the County facilitates a lead poisoning screening map that identifies 25 zip codes across high-risk areas.
“Inner cities always have more lead because of the age of the houses. The zip codes tell me exactly where I need to be going. I target certain zip codes at certain times of the year too, like in the summer when children are more prone to be outside, they are very much exposed to lead”.
According to Hillsborough County’s Reportable Diseases Frequency Report, powered by the Florida Department, 79 cases of lead poisoning have been confirmed in 2018. Last year a total of 132 cases were reported, and four were identified in minors varying from newborns to four-year-olds.
Unlike the Hillsborough’s preventive program, the Florida Department of Health in Pinellas does not follow up with lead cases based on screening maps.
“For children normally pediatricians routinely screen for lead at their 12 and 20-month visit”, explained epidemiologist Rebecca Bohinc. According to Bohinc, who’s in charge of all reportable lead cases through the County’s Disease Control and Health Protection Division, even if a child lives in a high-risk area that isn’t monitored, pediatricians will normally conduct blood tests.
In Pinellas County, between 2017 and 2018, 23 cases have been confirmed and only two cases of lead poisoning have been traced back to newborns up to the age of four.
Keeton’s recent visits to the Tampa neighborhoods coincide with a recent amendment of the Lead-Safe Housing for Kids Act of 2017 (S.1854). The bill, which excludes lead found in tap water, aims to protect children living in federally assisted housing from lead-based poisoning.
The bipartisan bill, if passed, would require Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to ensure mandated risk assessments for lead-based hazards in low-income housing constructed prior to 1978 before a family moves in.
The Childcare Center on East 21st Ave is neighboring with older houses built pre 1978 that have lead-based paint, as Keeton explained. Three blocks south from the Center, two uninhabited houses showed noticeable paint chips and lead dust on their walls and railing.
“If I were to go up here and touch this area, that’s where the lead is. A family probably lived here, in this condition and moved recently”, she said referring to an uninhabited house on 14th Ave, just a few feet away from the highway traffic of I-4.
Pinellas County, however, has not been nearly as proactive as Hillsborough. Pinellas doesn’t have a counterpart for Keeton’s position or a process for mitigating lead poisoning that resembles Hillsborough’s current program.
Ryan Callihan and Evy Guerra contributed to this story.
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Cooking with Chef Collins: BBQ Cooking Class
By: Alyssa Fedorovich
At the St. Pete Culinary Center, Chef Patrick “PT” Collins was the guest chef at their BBQ cooking class. Chef Collins is an entrepreneur and owner of Deuces BBQ in Midtown, St. Petersburg. As guest chef, he taught the students the importance of cooking as a trade as well as the art of cooking of BBQ. The program is designed to help at-risk youths learn a trade that is in demand as well as assist them in finding a job in the culinary industry. The video covers Chef Collins class as he taught the youths to cook BBQ.
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Campaign revolutionaries: Two radical candidates hope to shake up St. Pete politics
By Indhira Suero Acosta
Eritha “Akile” Cainion, running for City Council 6, and Jesse Nevel, for Mayor, addressed the Tropicana Field’s future and housing issues during a rally held on April 9, 2017, at the St. Petersburg Uhuru House.
Eritha “Akile” Cainion, a 20-year-old activist who works as a cashier at a local shoe store, launched her campaign for St. Pete City Council’s District 6 seat on March 6 in front of the recently shuttered Midtown Walmart Neighborhood Market.
Jesse Nevel, the national chair of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement — a group of white activists that supports the efforts of the African People’s Socialist Party (a.k.a. the Uhurus) — entered the race for mayor, on March 8, 2017, standing in front of Tropicana Field.
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Academy Prep Sixth Grade Students on Water Conservation & Lead
Academy Prep St. Petersburg (APSP) sixth grade students tested the water in Midtown St. Petersburg to check for the presence of lead in the water. They made a few discoveries and wrote a water conservation article in Steam Magazine and broadcasted their reports.
“Lead is severely dangerous. It is dangerous because it can hurt people in many ways. For many adults, lead can cause high blood pressure and memory problems (“Lead Poisoning and Health,” 2016) For children, this can cause behavior disorders, effects on brain development, anemia, and hypertension (“Lead Poisoning and Health,” 2016). Lead can be found in paint and water. It is dangerous when found in the water because people cook and drink the water. Water needs to be clean because that’s the main resource and used to keep people healthy and hydrated.”
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Having the ‘Talk’: Help Us Help U provides sex education to young adults in poor communities
Listen to the audio file here:
By Devin Rodriguez
Pinellas County is ranked number one in Acute Hepatitis C in Florida. It’s ranked number seven for HIV infections, according to the Florida Department of Health.
Sexually transmitted infections disproportionately affect low-income areas, like Midtown or the greater Southside of St. Petersburg, in part because of poor education and a lack of consistent health care.
Two employees for Help Us Help U, an education program in Pinellas County, are trying to reach out to young people and provide them with reasons to care about their health.
Loreal Dolar (left in photo above) and Maureen Oginga (right in photo above) often visit community centers, like local public libraries, with food to draw young people into an educational workshop they call ‘Say It Straight.’ Not only do the two discuss proper STD prevention, but also provide information about positive relationship behaviors. These workshops are targeted to people 13-24 years old.
“We really believe that that is a really important age group because they’re the one’s that can start from the ground up and learn more from the community,” said Dolar. “We really want to help them make a better stance in the people that they interact with and encourage more educational behavior when it comes to health education.”Help Us Help U works in part for the Pinellas Substance Abuse HIV Awareness Responsibility Program (SHARP). SHARP provides both HUHU and the Pinellas Ex-Offender Reentry Program (PERC) which provides education and community resources to people recently released from correctional facilities.
Dolar and Oginga said that they have seen first-hand the need for these programs in poor communities. While education is an important resource for prevention, HUHU also provides testing and information about living with an STD.
One of the biggest issues we’re facing is when individuals end up testing positive, they have a hard time finding health care services and health resources,” Dolar said. “A lot of them may be uninsured; some don’t know where to go.”
Health care has drastically improved over the past decade, but HIV infections are still rising, according to the CDC. HUHU and the greater Pinellas SHARP program consider educating youth in the community to be paramount to lessening the chance of infection.
“Our biggest goal is [to reduce] the cases of substance abuse for HIV infections. So, increase HIV testing and basically pushing for prevention within the community,” Oginga said.
Both Dolar and Oginga are USF alums. Dolar was a graduate student, and Oginga an undergraduate who was recommended to apply by a professor she kept in touch with. Oginga said that she is excited about the responsibilities.
“This is my first job doing actual public health work,” Oginga said. “I didn’t know anything jumping off my degree, and this falls way above my expectations. I’m working with youth and doing outreach, also the analytical side of public health, so I got way more than I expected.”
The hardest obstacle, Oginga said, was connecting with youth. Since the two center their message on health education and behavior, it can be difficult to draw in young adults.
“Youth, they’re not particularly too excited about learning about their health. That’s always a challenge, finding people who are kind of standoffish,” said Oginga. “That’s a very big challenge, we try to do as much as we can, show our face every so often, go to different locations to make those type of connections. Initially, it’s kind of challenging but once we get past that barrier, it becomes [easier] to deal with.”
To find out more go to huhuinc.org.
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NNB in the media: Midtown comes into focus as USFSP students share neighborhood stories
NNB was featured on 83 Degrees Media in a story by Janan Talafer and photos by Julie Branaman. Please read the full story here.
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Voting tomorrow? See how candidates address Midtown’s concerns
BY MOLLY CURLS
Neighborhood News BureauST. PETERSBURG — As the unprecedented presidential election takes the nation by storm, coverage of local politics is suffering.
On Tuesday’s ballot, several races will have profound and immediate effects on St. Petersburg’s Midtown community. This year, Republican incumbent Marco Rubio, who fell out of favor with Florida in the presidential primary, is running against Democratic candidate Patrick Murphy for the U.S. Senate. Incumbent Rep. David Jolly and former Florida Governor Charlie Crist are battling for Florida’s 13th Congressional District. At the local level, Democratic candidate Darryl Rouson and Republican John Houman are campaigning for Florida’s District 19.
Based on a series of interviews with community members, candidates and information on local forums and events, the Neighborhood News Bureau condensed the most discussed issues into three categories: education, the high cost of living, and reform in law enforcement.
Education
The right to a fair and unprejudiced education is not the reality for many children in Midtown, according to community members. Parents are concerned with the disappointing experiences in their children’s education and poor curriculum standards.
“How do we have a say in what is taught in our children’s schools?” Tonya Givens, an audience member at Midtown by Midtown, a discussion forum hosted by the Neighborhood News Bureau, described a disturbingly misleading narrative that has been introduced to her daughter at Campbell Park Elementary. “My daughter came home and was taught that Africans came to America as migrant workers.”
Among the candidates for the U.S. Senate, Rubio has voiced his support of education reform several times in the past, saying that education should be handled at a local level and “if a parent is unhappy with what their child is being taught in school, they can go to that local school board or their state legislature, or their governor and get it changed”.
His opponent, Murphy, who did not respond to emails or calls requesting an interview, states on his campaign website that schools should have “additional support and services” from the government.
Watson L. Haynes, President and CEO of the Pinellas County Urban League, said “children of trauma” is a key term used when discussing obstacles students face as instability at home prevents successful learning. Parents and children experiencing issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, long-term imprisonment, unaddressed mental health problems, and unemployment in their families may affect the children’s development. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, can be detected not just in veterans returning from war but in children who endure one or more of those issues as well.
Jolly discussed the need to create a more accommodating environment for students who find themselves in these sorts of situations.
“Let’s move towards more individualized curriculums, recognizing not every student learns the same way. We can do that in the public school system. For a parent who is trying to save their kid from a failing school, let’s give them choice. Let’s keep our opportunity scholarships in place,” he said at a civic forum held at the Rock of Jesus Missionary Baptist Church on Oct. 13
“Every student is different; every community is different. The responsibility of government is to make sure that the resources are available in the communities that need them most.”
Crist echoes this sentiment and believes the answer lies in investigating failing schools in the area and investing in those schools, providing equal funds to every school in the district.
During the forum at the Rock of Jesus Missionary Baptist Church, Rouson spoke about a situation he found himself in, where he visited a local school and found a young girl in time-out because she “couldn’t think [that] day.” Her mother had been arrested for drugs the night before. “Education must become more creative… more responsive,” he said.
Maria Scruggs, President of the NAACP’s St. Petersburg branch, says that she constantly speaks on behalf of the importance behind quality early childhood education.
“The research clearly supports that when children receive a quality early childhood education, the better prepared they are to enter a public school. Many times it’s too late by the time they’re in first grade,” said Scruggs.
Rouson supports parent involvement and small class sizes, as well as fully funded education from the state. This includes early childhood education programs. In his statements on policy reform, he claims to fight for at-risk children by working with the legislature to increase funding for pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten programs for jeopardized children.
Houman’s stance on education remains vague. “Education is the backbone of our society. State and local communities have to work together to improve our educational system,” he said during a phone interview. He has primarily emphasized specialized and higher education, with not much mention of the early fundamental education Midtown is lacking. He supports implementing training grants in manufacturing, healthcare services, IT, and agriculture.
Police Reform
There has been established discomfort surrounding local law enforcement in the area, reflective of the same sentiments felt nationwide. The community has continued to demand amendments and reform throughout the police department.
The main concerns raised by the community are advanced police training to properly handle situations involving citizens with mental health issues; restorations of rights, and accelerating the process of released convicts of non-violent crimes; the cessation of racial profiling; fostering good community relations between police officers and residents; ending private prisons.
When asked about the state of relationships between local law enforcement and the community, Ashley Green, Labor Organizer at SEIU-FL and Movement Organizer with Dream Defenders, said, “The answer is no. The [current] policies do not foster good relationships with the community.”
The U.S. Senate race between Marco Rubio and Patrick Murphy has heated up on the topic of police reform. Their stances vary in multiple degrees.
Republican incumbent Rubio does not support the legalization of drugs in any capacity, and claims that doing so would be a “great mistake.” He also does not encourage the reduction of prison sentences for drug charges and discourages leniency in such situations. Rubio explicitly does not call for the end of privatized prisons.
Brother John Muhammad, president of the Childs Park Neighborhood Association, joined Scruggs and Haynes in the discussion surrounding Midtown and spoke to the current conflict surrounding privatized prisons.
“We have a whole generation of black people that are in prison for minimum mandatory sentences for petty drug crimes,” he said.
Democratic candidate Murphy calls for the automatic restoration of rights for nonviolent ex-felons. He claims to support reintegrating those who have responsibly served their time back into society. This support includes banning barriers on employment applications and credit checks to expand job opportunities to released nonviolent offenders.
Murphy authored the Tracking Reputations Upgrades Societal Trust (TRUST) Act to increase cooperation between police and the communities they serve by measuring community trust in the local police force.
High Cost of Living
The high cost of living in Midtown shows it’s face on many streets on the south side of St. Petersburg. Many can no longer afford increasing rent prices due to gentrification of the community. Access to jobs, healthcare, food sources, and housing have become increasingly difficult in the midst of the community renovations.
One of the largest Community Redevelopment Areas, or CRA’s, in the state of Florida, is sitting on the south side of St. Petersburg, beginning at its approval in 2015. Occupying 4,700 acres of land, including Greater Childs Park, more than twenty neighborhood and business associations, and most of Midtown, the CRA has been highly contested by residents.
CRA’s goals are typically associated with redevelopment of urban areas to promote new business and additional housing projects, various opportunities, and commercial revitalization,
The problem, according to Akile Anai, an audience member at Midtown by Midtown, is “the gentrification and building of Midtown is pushing out the African American community.”
These claims stem from accounts of housing and rental prices being raised as the CRA further develops in the community. Gentrification is the process by which middle and upper-class people take up residence in a traditionally working-class area of a city, changing the character of the city.
“The CRA is a development tool to suppress community,” said Scruggs, describing the lack of coordinated or strategic focus of how one single plan supports the work of the bigger picture: developing Midtown.
Rouson has said in his campaign strategies that he believes small businesses are the real engine of a community. His plan to grow small businesses into flourishing marketplaces includes providing incentives for creating new, good jobs.
“It is so difficult and so challenging [for small businesses to get a loan.]” Crist testifies to the hardship the Midtown community faces in the midst of attempting to produce small businesses and expand local job opportunities. Aside from the CRA, he believes there are alternate solutions.
“I believe that there are things that Washington can do, to free some of that capital up. And from what I hear, here in St. Petersburg, it needs to happen to get more minority owners.”
Republican opponent Jolly does not advocate for an arbitrary hike of minimum wage but believes that a gradual index in doing so is safer for jobs in the long-term.
“We need to index it [the minimum wage], create wage growth, but also protect jobs. [And] figure out in a bipartisan way how we do that.”To find local sites visit votepinellas.com for more information. Polls are open 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. on Tuesday, Nov. 8.
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A Community on the Verge of Extinction
Filmed by USFSP student, Tracy Darity, this video shows her concerns regarding “concerning gentrification, the Warehouse Arts District,” and the lack of entertainment options in Midtown, St. Petersburg. According to Darity, “as a person of color, I believe this is a very important topic, and it saddens me that black community has grown numb to what is taking place around them.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPTvoA2eAsw
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When baseball stars came to town, they stayed with him
BY DAVID STONER, Neighborhood News Bureau
Most people know that Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargel, and Frank Robinson are three of the greatest baseball players of all time. What people may not know is that these ballplayers, along with others, were a part of Midtown history.
During the late 1950’s and 1960’s, many of the teams in major league baseball conducted spring training in St. Petersburg. This era was a time of racial tension and segregation. Baseball was not exempt from these divisive issues. During spring training, most teams typically stayed at one of two hotels in St. Petersburg; the Vinoy and the Soreno.
Segregation issues resulted in the minority players being denied the right to stay with the team in those hotels. Instead, the minority ballplayers sought housing in St. Petersburg’s African-American community. Paul Stewart, whose grandparents housed some of the ballplayers, remembers the era well. “Here were these guys making all of this money and they couldn’t even go downtown and sit to have a meal. Can you imagine having all this money and you couldn’t spend it because you can’t go places. That stuck in my mind then and now. They had to live in our house and couldn’t live with all ballplayers in a hotel.”
Local families around the Midtown community invited the ballplayers into their homes for lodging and meals. It was not unusual for those Midtown homeowners to have every available room filled with mattresses and rollaway beds to accommodate the visiting ballplayers. Players were invited to share meals with the host families. They were treated like family.
Beatrice Harper and her husband, along with their grandson, Paul Stewart, opened their homes for lodging and meals at 1739 18th St. S. in Midtown to several famous ballplayers, including Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargel and Frank Robinson. Stewart recalls his experiences he had with the visiting ballplayer Roberto Clemente. “I had twin beds in my room, and Roberto Clemente used to be my roommate when they came up.”
The hosts and their families had unique opportunities to interact with the famous ballplayers. One such opportunity, Paul Stewart remembers was helping Robert Clemente learn English in the evenings, in his room, after practice. “He was just learning English and what we would do at night was we would sit up in the bed and he would try to explain to me different events that happened to him during the day and he wanted to know what should he have said, so I would try to give him the English version of what he should say in certain situations.”
The neighborhood children also enjoyed special opportunities to play impromptu baseball games with the baseball superstars. In the backyard, behind the Harper home, the neighborhood kids fashioned a baseball diamond where the big leaguers would come over and play with them after returning from practice. “My buddies and I cut the grass with lawnmowers. We had our own little baseball field back there. It was big enough to hit the ball as long as we wanted”, said Stewart. Some of the players who joined in in the games were Clemente and Stargel. Stargel was known as the clown of the group and kept everyone laughing.
Despite having to endure the injustice of segregation, the ballplayers presence in Midtown enhanced the already deep and proud history of the area.
Listen to the interview recorded during the “Telling Tampa Bay Stories: Midtown” event in partnership with WUSF.
https://soundcloud.com/user-523497906/interview-with-paul-stewart-recorded-by-david-stoner-neighborhood-news-bureau-reporter/s-k0BPr
You can also listen to the version of the story that was aired on Florida Matters.