Keystone and Cops

Though their purposes were unrelated, Tuesday's CAPT meeting brought TPD and Keystone Homes together on the same agenda. TPD was there to present the Neighborhood Watch Program and get contact numbers for volunteers. To come is dividing Port Tampa into manageable watch areas for Block Captains and patrol volunteers, and training. Recent "crime and grime" issues have brought renewed interest in Neighborhood Watch and other community policing efforts.

Keystone Homes' plans may have a bigger impact on crime in the blighted area around the library than TPD or Neighborhood Watch could ever do. Unveiled at the CAPT meeting were the plans for a mixed use development of retail with living quarters above, and a row of townhomes, to take up the block near the library now occupied by vacant lots, vacant buildings, and run down rental units. Assembling the parcels to complete the development could be an issue as this isn't a situation where a developer can come in and buy an entire apartment complex and "take it condo." Residential property in Port Tampa is often purchased one 50X100 lot at a time. I wasn't at the meeting, but the husband reports that the response to Keystone's proposal was very positive. Port Tampans want to maintain a small town feel, but a bit of gentrification on a bad block is a welcome alternative to having our crown jewel of a library surrounded by illegally dumped sofas.