Does a park that celebrates Tampa’s Black history need more love?
As part of downtown’s major makeover, Tampa has created big city parks with bona fide bragging rights.
On the east bank of the Hillsborough River sprawls Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, busy with concerts, holiday ice skating and festivals including the yearly St. Patrick’s Day dyeing of the river green. If graffiti appears on the Riverwalk at the park’s edge, it does not stay long.
Across the water, Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park thrives with rowing and weekend events, including this year’s Gasparilla Festival of the Arts.
Not far away on the east side of downtown is Perry Harvey Sr. Park, a place rich in history.
The area was once called the Scrub, where freed slaves settled, and later part of the bustling Central Avenue Black business and entertainment district. Then came construction of a new interstate and urban renewal. Unrest over the police shooting of 19-year-old Martin Chambers, who was Black, and the desegregation of lunch counters and other businesses that drew Black customers from Central Avenue, contributed to the end of an era.
Supporters of the park built there fought for years to replace its run-down basketball courts and dry grass fields, and in 2016, the park debuted an arty $6.95 million makeover.
Today some say the park — stretching across a dozen city blocks with giant music-themed sculptures, a festival lawn, a history walk and a leaders’ row — doesn’t seem to get the same maintenance and events as other downtown venues. Park supporters also want to know what happened to plans for an amphitheater, recording studio and senior center there, and expressed concerns about the aging recreation center for kids at the park’s edge.
“We need some love at Perry Harvey Park,” said Fred Hearns, a retired city community affairs director whose great grandfather arrived here in around 1900.
Questions about maintenance
A recent tour of the park showed several faded letters scrawled by vandals on artwork, some of it on the faces of leaders pictured in the art.
In another part of the park, one of the tiles that helps create a pictorial history had been vandalized and broken. That tile has been gone all year, Hearns said.
“It’s like having a tooth missing,” he said. “It really stands out.”
Sonja Harvey McCoy, a retired teacher who is the granddaughter of the park’s namesake, said that while the park is “relatively clean,” it’s also one of the city’s “most neglected.”
*It needs some work,” she said.
Tampa Parks and Recreation Director Sherisha Hills said in an emailed response to questions from the Tampa Bay Times that Perry Harvey Sr. Park “has a dedicated maintenance staff and receives the same maintenance as every other downtown park.”
Regarding the interactive fountains that park-goers said had not been working for weeks, Hills said they were down due to a software issue but the fountains are running again.
Though on a recent weekday afternoon Curtis Hixon had plenty of foot traffic even in the blistering heat, only a few people sat at Perry Harvey Sr. Park.
Events at the park
Events at Perry Harvey lately have included the Tampa Bay Caribbean Carnival and the 5K Black History Month Walk for Education. But some observers say the biggest events don’t seem to make their way to Perry Harvey Sr. Park.
Hills responded via email that promoters select the location where they want to go. “We offer all locations including Perry Harvey as an option,” she said.
Newly-elected Tampa City Council member Gwen Henderson, the board’s only Black elected official, has taken an interest in the park’s future. She wants to see the area revitalized back to its thriving heyday, including affordable space for minority owned businesses.
“Absolutely it’s underutilized,” she said of the park.
Henderson says she plans to create an exploratory committee “to reimagine Perry Harvey Park in that space.”
The question of an amphitheater
From the beginning, McCoy said, they thought the park was getting an amphitheater and that the old Kid Mason Community Center just across the street would be replaced with a new facility in the park. The amphitheater was mentioned during the park’s dedication, she said.
“We’ve been through several administrations trying to get this thing going,” she said.
A white semi-circle of concrete in the park shows where an amphitheater was expected to rise.
Hills told the Times that an amphitheater was never promised, although a raised stage was contemplated in the initial planning phase. The Housing Authority found another location for a senior center and a recording studio that had been talked about for Perry Harvey Sr. Park, she said.
Hills said the Kid Mason recreation center was recently approved for “a complete renovation” to begin after this summer. That will include a computer lab, kitchen renovation, fitness area, game room and a new fenced area for “play elements,” she said.
According to the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser website, the building, described as a clubhouse, was first built in 1948.
McCoy said she appreciates the acknowledgement of the legacy of her grandfather, a civil rights leader and longtime head of the longshoreman’s union.
“I have mixed feelings about the park itself,” she said. ”I would like it to be maintained to the level of other parks ... I just feel more should be done.”
Hills told the Times the city appreciates hearing concerns about the park, which she said they “will evaluate and address as appropriate.”
