Every Friday morning, students from Plant City’s Hillsborough Community College campus are pounding the pavement, hitting four blight-ridden neighborhoods surrounding the Midtown district near downtown. Badge identify them as being with the Community Development Corporation. They drive their own personal cars and snap pictures of dilapidated properties. A few loiterers take notice, wondering what these strangers are doing on their streets.
What they’re doing is trying to help.
The group is working on the CDC’s behalf by conducting surveys and creating a database of out-of-code and vacant properties and empty lots for the Midtown Neighborhood Revitalization Project. The project will be used to collaborate with the city and property owners on how to better the four areas: Gilchrist, Lincoln Park, Madison and Historic District.
“The viability of Downtown and Midtown is at least as dependent on the sustainability of the neighborhood, home ownership and the income of those who live in areas who can walk downtown and interact commercially,” said Ernest Barefield, CDC executive director. “They also dictate what should be downtown.”
Barefield has been involved with the CDC since its inception in 2005. The CDC partners with the City of Plant City and the Hillsborough County Affordable Housing Department to develop and construct homes in Plant City and help people become homeowners through assistance and self-help programs.
After assisting 23 low- to moderate-income families get into homes and constructing 10 homes near Laura Street and on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Maryland Avenue, Barefield turned his attention to another focus.
He put together a team of students from HCC to help him find out what the needs of the four neighborhoods are and create a database of properties that need help. They started last fall with surveys in Gilchrist. Now, they are completing one in Lincoln Park. The next survey will be in Madison, followed by the Historic District.
“(The neighborhoods) simply need to know and be supported in particular programs,” Barefield said. “That’s what we’re here for. Also, to let the city know people are here and what their needs are.”
Some of the dysfunction the group has seen in the neighborhoods is a lack of organization, safety, joblessness, homelessness, drug abuse and a lack of returning educated professionals. Many of these reasons can be linked to the youth. There are limited number of place for kids or young adults to congregate within town.
Christine Molinowski has spearheaded surveying, learning first-hand about residents’ concerns.
“We’re trying to figure out how to make (Midtown) functional for young people,” Molinowski said. “It will be a new area with new jobs that these kids can walk to … it just flows right along.”
The group hopes to have the neighborhood surveys completed by the end of this fall so they can start working on the technical side of the database.
“All of us working on the project have a great passion for the community,” Molinowski said. “We want to bring people back here and show it’s a great place to do business, it’s a great place to live, it’s a great place to raise families.”
But, the CDC and student assistants can’t do it by themselves.
“The neighborhoods can only be helped if the neighborhood asks,” Molinowski said. “They need to come together as a unit.”
Barefield shares the same sentiment and believes with a little assistance and organization, the areas can enact change.
“People can understand things can come together around them and they need to commit to it,” Barefield said.
Neighborhood Characteristics
The Community Development Corporation is focusing on four different neighborhoods surrounding the Midtown district.
Area One: Gilchrist
Gilchrist is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Plant City. Situated adjacent to the college, it exists within specific boarders: south of Interstate 4; north of Baker Street; wast of Park Road; east of Wheeler Street. It features a core group of neighbors who are aging. Organization could be a problem facing the aging population. Regardless, new homes are still being built.
Area Two: Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park exists within specific boarders: south of Baker Street; north of Alsobrook Street; west of Park Road; east of State Road 39. It’s shining gem is a park. But it is underutilized by the neighborhood. It is used by outside sports teams. Barefield said this might cause some resentment within the community. Lincoln Park also experiences its fair share of violence and crime.
Area Three: Madison
Madison exists within specific boarders: south of Baker Street; north of Alsobrook Street; west of State Road 39; east of Alexander Street. It is similar to Lincoln Park in many regards. But it doesn’t have as much development as Lincoln Park. An influx of people and new construction is also occurring just outside of Madison, near Grant Street.
Area Four: Historic District
The Historic District exists within specific boarders: south of Interstate 4; north of Baker Street; west of Collins Street; east of Alexander Street. Many have come into the area to renovate already existing homes. Barefield said some younger couples, however, feel there isn’t enough support from the community or the city to sustain a growing family after initial attraction.
LOVING THY NEIGHBOR
Troy McDowell was living with his aunt in Tampa and making the long commute to Plant City every day to work at K’nat’s Barber Shop. It was at the South Evers business that he met CDC Executive Director Ernest Barefield. Barefield told him about the CDC’s self-help homeownership program.
“I just always wanted to be a homeowner,” McDowell said. “I thought the program fit my lifestyle.”
So, McDowell took up Barefield’s offer to complete the program and get his first set of keys — ones that would belong to him.
The process wasn’t easy. McDowell was scheduled to move into one of the homes on Laura Street. They were being built at the time McDowell was going through the program. As part of it, McDowell and other aspiring homeowners would go in after the contractors and clean up the worksite. They called it “sweat equity hours.”
“(What I learned) was to persevere,” McDowell said. “It took some time. Not everything went as planned. But not one of us got distracted. We kept going.”
After 18 months, McDowell finally got those set of keys for his one-story, three-bedroom, two-bath home. He moved in fall 2007.
“It was a great feeling,” McDowell said. “It took a long time coming to get to that point. Turning that lock was awesome. I got the key.
“All the people that took time out and giving their time to help everyone — Mr. Barefield and city officials — thank you,” he said.
