Tribune Highlights "Crime and Grime" in Port Tampa

Today's Tribune featured a story by Dulcinea Cuellar headlined Help Sought To Fight Crime, Grime. I scraped myself down off the ceiling after about my third read through, having become just a little agitated that our whole neighborhood might be painted with the "crime ridden" brush. Even though Cuellar used terms like "little pockets" that have problems ,and was very specific in which blocks of Kissimmee and Mascotte are involved, I'm sure there are some people who will think all of Port Tampa is "ghetto." Now that I've settled down I'd like to share a few details and some observations not in the article.

Details:

Cookie Wideman, a concerned citizen quoted in the piece, is a dynamo who brought her concerns about criminal activity to the attention of the civic association. The city transportation department has already started working the issue of people parking on a corner that includes a bus stop, apartment mail boxes, and poor sight lines. This is important to the crime prevention, in addition to the traffic hazards, because criminal activity is being conducted out of parked vehicles in front of the apartments closest to Commerce Street. Hidden behind an empty building the occupants feel safe from discovery, and thus arrest. (See Street Parking to End on Block of Kissimmee from the Tribune.)

CAPT President Jill Buford has representatives from TPD coming to the June civic association meeting. She'd like to start the revival of the Neighborhood Watch group then, rather than delaying action by waiting to have an additional organizational meeting. If you want to volunteer to participate in the Neighborhood Watch, attend the meeting at 7:00PM on Tuesday, June 20th at the Rec. Center on Lancaster or email president@porttampa.org. She already has volunteers committed to be "block captains" on S. Morton Street south of Commerce.

Observations, all my personal opinions:

I am a little peeved with the undertone of helplessness voiced by some of the apartment building owners. I think Mary Ann Hoffman, owner of a building I have written about before said it best. As quoted by Cuellar, "It's just something that's been allowed to go on for a long time. And it's time we stand together to do something about it."

This is a critical time for Port Tampa City. We can wait for gentrification alone to clean up this corner, but lose some much needed affordable housing. Or we can "stand together" to make the buildings attractive to law abiding residents and unattractive to criminals. I'm a big fan of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPED) and hope that building owners will make some improvements out of enlightened self-interest.

Finally, though I mentioned this block of "unfortunate" buildings before, Port Tampa the blog, will not be posting pictures of them in their current state. The other day when I was taking pictures of vacant property across the street I was going to swing my camera around but there was a group of children waiting for the school bus. I simply do not have the heart to take pictures of their homes, then hold them up as an example of "Crime and Grime."