The Historic Gas Plant District was an African-American neighborhood in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was the second African-American neighborhood in the city. The neighborhood was located along Ninth Street South and south of First Avenue South.
The neighborhood was dismantled in the 1970s when the interstate was built through it. In the late 1980s, the city displaced the neighborhood to make way for the construction of the Tropicana Field stadium.
The Historic Gas Plant District is 86 acres of publicly-owned land in the middle of St. Petersburg. The city of St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, the Tampa Bay Rays, and Hines Development team have agreed to move forward with a new state-of-the-art ballpark.
Tropicana Field is scheduled to be demolished in 2028. Developers will reestablish the street grid west of Booker Creek, including east-west bridges across the creek. This process is expected to take 18 months.
The $600M public subsidy is coming from part of the city hotel bed tax that is mostly used for beach upkeep apparently. More info and statements pro/against linked below:
"How St. Pete and Pinellas County will fund plans for new Rays stadium"
https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/inves ... 9b02d905b8
Also, to clarify, the $1.2M is just for the ballpark. The city estimates that the total investment in the district 'could' reach $6bln but I'd be curious to see that how that math maths. $50m in community benefits, neighborhood input included, etc.
https://www.stpete.org/residents/curren ... d_site.php
[Also freeways destroyed our cities, grossly harmed low-income and minority communities, and created massive challenges we still deal with today]
