ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The city of St. Petersburg announced it has applied for a grant that would look for some of the most effective ways to bridge what many see as a physical and economic barrier created by I-175 along the south side of Tropicana Field.
Keyon Jenkins, for example, is the next generation to run his family’s Big C’s Chopped BBQ on MLK in South St. Pete.
The business is poised for even greater success, he says, if only the interstate didn’t separate his business from the boom taking place on the north side of I-175.
“It's definitely overdue, because, like I said, we got a good amount of traffic,” Jenkins said. “But if we could start having traffic come our way, I think it would open up everything for us.”
Now – a step toward removing that barrier. One of the goals of the redevelopment of the 86-acre Historic Gas Plant District site.
“Today, adjacent neighborhoods remain cut off by the walled, limited access highway and several one-way streets,” St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch said.
Welch and Congresswoman Kathy Castor announced the city has applied for a $1.2 million federal grant.
The money, if allocated, would help study the best ways to improve, ease and promote traffic flow between the north and south sides of the city.
“When you look here – at what happened here in St. Petersburg, it just screams out for a re-examination of a way to reconnect the neighborhoods,” Castor said.
“I want there to be not only to be a northside and a south side, I want there to be a whole St. Petersburg,” Jenkins said. “So, you know we can all enjoy it as a community.”
One of the top ideas to make that happen could be converting one-way traffic to two-way traffic along 8th Avenue and MLK, including widening of bike lanes and sidewalks to improve the flow.
“Oh, that would help us a lot,” Jenkins said. “That would help a lot of businesses back this way a lot.”
Jenkins says he likes that idea, hoping to erase barriers that have divided the city and allow everyone to share in the prosperity of what's to come.
“The flow of the traffic would make this perfect for the whole town to know that Big C's BBQ, we're on the map,” Jenkins said.
Application for the federal grant took place in September. They expect to hear back about whether it has been granted in the next two or three months.
A study would then last about a year and a half, with a goal of changing traffic patterns in a few years, coinciding with the redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District site.