Tampa City Council member Gwen Henderson, is passionate about preserving Black spaces and institutions so they are not lost to history.
In a wide-ranging interview on WMNF WaveMakers with Janet & Tom on Tuesday (8/20), Henderson bemoaned the city’s decision to kick a historically Black little league out of West Tampa so the land could be used for private development.
The ballpark was important to the neighborhood, she said, and rooted in Tampa’s Black history. As the Tampa Bay Times reported, “The Yellow Jackets were founded in 1967, the same year a white Tampa police officer killed a Black teenager. Segregation had long locked Black residents out of opportunity. The killing was a boiling point. Days of unrest left Central Avenue, the Black economic hub, in ruins. “We rose from the ashes,” Wright told the Times.
Then-Mayor Bob Buckhorn recommended the Yellow Jackets Little League be relocated to a city park in Tampa Heights. The Tampa City Council voted unanimously to do just that. Henderson said that was a mistake. The city should have insisted the ballpark be incorporated into the redevelopment plans.
What’s galling to Henderson is that a decade after that decision, the old ballpark has yet to be redeveloped while the new ballpark is rundown and in need of improvement.
“Having a park there would have been ideal,” said Henderson. “It was perfect where it was.” Now Henderson is pushing her City Council colleagues to amend the development agreement with the Related Group to require the developers to pay to improve the new ballpark. The council has already amended the agreement at the request of the developer, so turnabout is fair play, she said.
As long as she’s on the council, Henderson said, she will be a voice to preserve Black spaces. That includes city-owned land near the predominantly Black Carver City neighborhood used for sanitation trucks. Developers are eying the land for redevelopment. It’s located near the booming Midtown and Westshore areas and values are rising. But Henderson said it should not be sold off for gentrified development that does not benefit Carver City, which had to put up with the sanitation site for decades.
“Black spaces in the city of Tampa are almost not existent,” Henderson said. “We have historical markers saying what was once there.”
Henderson also discussed her work as chair of the Community Redevelopment Agency, including efforts to build workforce housing, and her involvement in the Black sorority Delta Sigma Theta, one of the “Divine 9” that includes the sorority of Kamala Harris and the late Shirley Chisholm.
Hear the entire conversation by clicking the link below, going to the WaveMakers archives or by searching for WMNF WaveMakers wherever you listen to podcasts.
