Insight
Catalyze 2020: Stephanie Gularte
This holiday season, we asked some of St. Pete’s best and brightest citizens to share one catalyzing idea for making St. Pete a better place to live. We asked not for lists of problems, but for meaty, actionable and impactful solutions, no matter how big or how small.
Stephanie Gularte, CEO and Producing Artistic Director of American Stage
At a time when national divineness is at a fever pitch, what if St. Pete was the exception? In this moment in our history when it is difficult to hear one another amid all of the distraction and noise, what if ours was a city where the people who live and work feel as though their voices are valued? And, as we enter a year when we are all being asked to choose a “side,” what if, together, we choose the side of community?
My wish for St. Pete in 2020 is that we make a choice away from discord and instead, cultivate an identity distinguished by its ability to create a foundation of common ground in order to build an inspiring future made healthier, more resilient, and more prosperous through the power of our diversity. This year, may we embrace the opportunity to focus the incredible energy brimming throughout our city to promote the intersection between innovation and inclusion.
May our political, business and arts leaders be standard-bearers, shining a light on St. Pete as a city defined by its culture of progress and possibilities. In 2020, I’m rooting for us to make the choice to rise above the fray and to become an even more connected community.
S. Rose Smith-Hayes
December 1, 2019at11:55 am
As long as needs of the African American community are ignored or given ‘lip service’ St. Pete will not become a United city. The African American community is being destroyed bit by bit. The Southside CRA is not meeting it’s purpose in my opinion. Federal monies for blighted communities has historically been used for other areas of the city. Recently the ‘Edge district’ received the funds. They put some trees on 16th Street South and considered their work done. The owners had to scrape together funds to paint and improve their own buildings. This was done hoping Tropicana traffic would be rerouted that way. Promises never kept. Do not let me start about the promises before Tropicana was built.