‘Voices from the Corridor’ workshop shapes community vision

Residents, business leaders and community advocates gathered Tuesday night to participate in a discussion about future improvements to parts of the city.

The City of St. Petersburg launched Voices from the Corridor, a series of community workshops that are part of the Imagine the Deuces initiative, in February. This effort was created to honor the history and culture of 22nd Street South, known as the Deuces, and encourage residents to help shape its future. At its peak in the 1960s, this corridor was a thriving hub with more than 100 Black-owned businesses, entertainment venues and professional offices.

The first Voices from the Corridor meeting was held Feb. 11 at the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg’s Center for Health Equity in South St. Pete. A second workshop was held Feb. 18 at St. Petersburg College Midtown Campus, and a third was held Feb. 20 in the Warehouse Arts District. The series also included a walking tour of The Deuces.

Tuesday’s fourth and final workshop at the Center for Health Equity was a chance for attendees to review the suggestions that came from the first three workshops and prioritize what should be recommended to the city as the community’s top suggestions.

The goal was to bring together stakeholders to co-create the future of the Deuces Corridor and Warehouse Arts District. These workshops offered participants an opportunity to provide input on the next chapter of South St. Pete’s revitalization, learn about progress made since the 2018 Action Plan and hear updates on current projects within the corridor.

The participant data was gathered by Keys Consulting Firm, which conducted the workshops in collaboration with city staff. LaShante Keys, owner of Keys Consulting, said the cooperative mindset between the Warehouse Arts District and Deuces advocates was on full display at the first three workshops.

“There was a lot of collaboration and conversation happening, with a lot of questions coming up,” Keys said at Tuesday’s event. City leaders also noted that the goal isn’t to make the Warehouse Arts District and Deuces exactly alike, but rather to invest in improvements that make the districts cohesive while preserving their unique history and character.

Community recommendations were identified for the Deuces corridor in the following areas: 

• Cleanliness and landscaping
• Public seating, gathering spaces and placemaking
• Sidewalks and accessibility
• Street safety and traffic calming
• Crosswalk and pedestrian safety
• Bike lanes and alternative transportation
• Lighting and electrical infrastructure
• Parking and road maintenance
• Signage
• Zoning and land use
• Public art and cultural preservation

The goal was also to identify projects that can be completed in a one-to-three-year time frame. Keys noted that much of the conversation in the first three meetings centered on zoning changes, lightning and electrical infrastructure.

LaShante Keys, owner of Keys Consulting, presents community improvement ideas gathered at previous Voices from the Corridor workshops to the crowd at the final meeting Tuesday.

“There were some unique ideas that came out of this, and that’s what we were looking for,” Keys said.

One of the most popular recommendations was installing solar lights to illuminate the pavilion at Deuces Park. For both the Warehouse Arts District and the Deuces, bringing in a grocery store and developing more affordable housing were top priorities.

Several public art and cultural preservation recommendations were also topics of discussion, including refreshing the murals under the I-275 underpass and collaborating with Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) to make bus stops into public art that provides shelter.

While the topics for Tuesday’s meeting were determined by community input from the previous three workshops, some in the audience Tuesday felt the priorities didn’t match what they’d like to see for the future of the area.

“When do we talk about how we help the business that are already there [in the Deuces]?” said one audience member, who identified herself as a South St. Pete resident. “Because they may not be around to be able to take advantage of all these beautiful improvements, and if history repeats itself, that’s exactly what will happen. While we go through these extensive and expensive community engagement processes, we somehow always miss the target of the people that are there that should be benefiting.”

Keys reminded the audience that these new recommendations are an addendum to the current Imagine the Deuces initiative, which was created in 2018, and noted that the priorities are shaped by new funding that targets specific initiatives.

“The City has worked to secure almost $5 million in forthcoming grants from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) for 22nd Street, from First Avenue North to 18th Avenue South,” added Cheryl Stacks, Transportation Manager for the City of St. Petersburg. “So we’ll still need to work with FDOT to get their approval to officially incorporate those specific elements within the grant-funded project.

“The city has also recently been awarded a federal grant for safety demonstration projects, and that grant-funded project includes a crosswalk on 22nd Avenue and Fairfield, so that’s forthcoming. It also includes solar-powered lighting for the Pinellas Trail.” 

The Imagine the Deuces initiative also includes redeveloping Tangerine Plaza, reopening the Manhattan Casino and redeveloping the Histroci Gas Plant District. More details about the plan are available at stpete.org/imagine.

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