retired business consultant who first moved to the area in the 1990s
Green lived in multiple condos throughout her time in St. Petersburg, but ended up building her own home in Campbell Park
Sounds like your typical uppity yankee, coming in and telling YOU what your local history is. But no worries, if she keeps sticking her nose in other people's areas and making a spectacle of herself in Campbell Park, she'll pay the toll soon enough.
It is one of those historic black neighborhoods that got decimated to make way for the interstates, hospitals, ball field, and apartment buildings that transport, house and entertain all the wealthy white liberals who moved in. It was nice once, but became industrial and crime-ridden when eminent domain bulldozed all those people's 100 year old houses. The people who live there did not forget their history, and typically hate white liberal do-gooders like the tour guide in question. People like her have been coming in for years with promises of help and revitalization only for things to get worse.
Was it a historic Black neighbourhood though? Cause those are usually just neighbourhoods Whites built and got driven from by said Blacks and their violence. Then when the Whites try and reclaim them (gentrify), you hear this crap about it being a Black neighbourhood.
Normally ai would agree with you but in this case, those areas in St Pete, and other places in Florida and around the South were established as black communities. Pinellas county was very agricultural at one point, lots of orange groves and cattle ranchers (who were the real Crackers, a name that is now a slur). A lot of shipping and rail came through. Big hotels like The Vinoy and The Detroit were built, and all these industries needed workers. Black people were historically in agriculture, labor, and service before the elites told them those jobs were beneath them...which displaced them and led to our current state with increased crime, violence, etc.
Oh sweet! I've heard a bit about how St. Pete the city just takes what they want from the older black neighborhoods, and on the other hand how the younger residents act like their grandparents weren't compensated by businesses that bought their land. It's quite the tale.
Yeah, it's a mixed bag. On one hand, the city did take over properties for the interstates, Tropicana, and the hospitals and what was left started to disappear in the late 2000s to make way for private development. But they did that to everyone that didn't push back. My grandparents house was demolished in Tampa. The old orange growers say the government infected their groves with blight so the trees would fail, they'd lose agricultural tax exemption, and be forced to sell. This really happened and we have heard stories of men in suits with briefcases lurking around groves at night.
Sounds like your typical uppity yankee, coming in and telling YOU what your local history is. But no worries, if she keeps sticking her nose in other people's areas and making a spectacle of herself in Campbell Park, she'll pay the toll soon enough.
I take it Campbell Park is considered part of Darktown?
It is one of those historic black neighborhoods that got decimated to make way for the interstates, hospitals, ball field, and apartment buildings that transport, house and entertain all the wealthy white liberals who moved in. It was nice once, but became industrial and crime-ridden when eminent domain bulldozed all those people's 100 year old houses. The people who live there did not forget their history, and typically hate white liberal do-gooders like the tour guide in question. People like her have been coming in for years with promises of help and revitalization only for things to get worse.
So yeah, bad move.
Was it a historic Black neighbourhood though? Cause those are usually just neighbourhoods Whites built and got driven from by said Blacks and their violence. Then when the Whites try and reclaim them (gentrify), you hear this crap about it being a Black neighbourhood.
Normally ai would agree with you but in this case, those areas in St Pete, and other places in Florida and around the South were established as black communities. Pinellas county was very agricultural at one point, lots of orange groves and cattle ranchers (who were the real Crackers, a name that is now a slur). A lot of shipping and rail came through. Big hotels like The Vinoy and The Detroit were built, and all these industries needed workers. Black people were historically in agriculture, labor, and service before the elites told them those jobs were beneath them...which displaced them and led to our current state with increased crime, violence, etc.
Oh sweet! I've heard a bit about how St. Pete the city just takes what they want from the older black neighborhoods, and on the other hand how the younger residents act like their grandparents weren't compensated by businesses that bought their land. It's quite the tale.
Yeah, it's a mixed bag. On one hand, the city did take over properties for the interstates, Tropicana, and the hospitals and what was left started to disappear in the late 2000s to make way for private development. But they did that to everyone that didn't push back. My grandparents house was demolished in Tampa. The old orange growers say the government infected their groves with blight so the trees would fail, they'd lose agricultural tax exemption, and be forced to sell. This really happened and we have heard stories of men in suits with briefcases lurking around groves at night.