The soul of St. Petersburg in 30 minutes flat

The walk from the Vinoy Hotel to the Unitarian Church in downtown St. Petersburg took only 23 minutes but might as well have required a trip on Space X. 

On the Friday before Christmas, I had two freelance writing assignments: an interview with the Vinoy’s general manager and a ceremony at the church to eulogize those from the county’s homeless population that had died in the past year. The official count is 117 but not every homeless person that passes is known to the coroner’s office. 

The contrast between the two – and, for that matter, the two St. Petersburgs – would be obvious to anyone who has known or lived in this or any other city. There are haves and have nots and many in between. It’s just that the in between don’t get covered as much in the news. 

Vinoy General Manager Vanessa Williams is regal, gracious and down to earth all at once. That afternoon, Williams escorted me to the mezzanine, just beyond the walls of photos where the ups, downs and Lazarus-like resurrection of this crown jewel of the city’s waterfront are displayed. While we chatted, a hotel docent was giving a History Tour & High Tea to about a dozen guests who then noshed on tea and snacks. It looked like a lovely way to start a holiday weekend. 

Williams discussed the recent renovations and how the Vinoy was now firmly entrenched as a luxury brand. She commented without apology that the demographic of the hotel’s clientele would rise commensurate with the hotel’s improvements. 

Looking past the hotel’s pink exterior, she also extolled the many luxurious residential towers being built, opining – correctly – that an expanded tax base would benefit city residents. 

But the message on the other end of my 23-minute journey was very different. 

“Why in a country with billionaires do we not have enough food,” asked the Reverend Ben Atherton-Zeman of the Unitarian Church. “Why in a country with skyscrapers that scrape the sky do we not have enough affordable housing.” He referenced the country but anyone who follows the city knows that the struggle for St. Pete’s soul puts this dichotomy front and center. 

I have only lived here 10 months and still have a lot to learn about St. Pete and that struggle. A close friend and native discussed that with my wife and I before we moved here and it has not taken long, as a resident or a local writer, to see that struggle play out. 

Exhibit A? The Gas Plant District, also downtown. I cannot speak fully to the 40-year-history of this neighborhood that has been agonized over by residents, city officials and builders. What is clear however is that the gap between what residents want and what officials say about the coming redevelopment make it obvious that whatever gets built, there will be plenty of arguments along the way. 

At a public hearing to discuss the plans a few weeks back, I listened as 20 of 22 speakers said, basically, that public financing for private ventures is a bad idea. One of the two that spoke for the project was St. Pete Chamber of Commerce President Chris Steinocher who, while admitting concern, said “I can’t look at the parking lot for 10 more years” in reference to the sea of parking spaces splayed out from Tropicana Field, the Tampa Bay Rays’ current but not future home. 

The lack of patience voiced by Steinocher spoke volumes since patience has been in short supply for so many that were disenfranchised and/or displaced when the Trop was approved and built in time for the Rays’ inaugural season in 1998.

How money – whether it’s from public, private or other sources – gets spent in a city is much more complicated than comments made via public hearings, social media or the opinion pages. Moneys from different sources are earmarked for different things whether people like it or not and it’s never as simple as shifting funds from Project A to Project B. 

When I was living in Philadelphia in the early 2000s, the city was about to tear down Veterans Stadium and build separate homes for the Philadelphia Eagles and Phillies. The Vet – nostalgia notwithstanding – was a bad stadium for football and an abomination for baseball (yes, before the Trop, there were many horrible baseball stadiums littering our landscape). 

My hometown - no stranger to the plague of poverty - became a cauldron of disenchantment and disagreement over the plans to build new playgrounds for millionaire team owners and athletes in a city where the poverty rate frequently hovers in the 25% range. I don’t remember all the details 20+ years later but I recall clearly that when rational people wrote or spoke about it, it was clear that moneys earmarked for the stadiums were not going to simply be redirected to fight problems that still, stubbornly, exist almost a quarter century later.  

As a huge fan of my football and baseball teams, in a city where those teams are an integral part of the civic fabric - very different than the Rays’ fan base I must add – The Vet had to go and the experience of attending games improved exponentially. I never would have wanted the city not to build those stadiums because I knew that money wasn’t going to be used to build more affordable housing or to feed those on the hunger spectrum. I felt I was an honest, rational citizen, not an uncaring one. 

And I doubt my experience in St. Pete will be any different. A new Rays’ stadium will probably be built and – presumably – make for a much better baseball viewing experience. Residential towers will continue to be built and well-heeled residents will shift from their current area homes or come here from elsewhere to buy them. There will probably be affordable housing built and it will probably not be enough. 

The soul of St. Pete – as close to a northeast US urban center as Florida will allow - will probably be retained in many nooks and crannies of the city. There will still be great arts, coffee shops and local stores with wares from local craftspeople. It will never be perfect. If you retrace my walk from the Vinoy to the Unitarian Church you might pass by the homeless in Williams Park surrounded by bars, restaurants, hotels and, yes, new housing. Whether it becomes too much disruption for the soul is something we’ll all have to decide, block-by-block, with however we react to what we see as we stroll.