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Survey Seeks Wants, Needs

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By KATHY STEELE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 15, 2007

EAST TAMPA - A neighborhood coalition wants to know whether residents want restaurants, clothing stores or auto repair shops in the community, and whether they know where to find job placement and Head Start programs.

Those are some of the answers the East Tampa Community Revitalization Partnership hopes to collect from about 900 to 1,200 surveys.

"We'll be asking the community what they want," said Maxine Woodside, chairwoman of the partnership's health, education and social services committee. That will help the partnership and city to set goals and craft redevelopment projects, she said.

The partnership is a coalition of neighborhood groups that advises the city on redevelopment projects within a 7-square-mile area bordered by interstates 275 and 4, Hillsborough Avenue and the city limits. A portion of the area's property taxes are reinvested in the community.

About $55,000 in property taxes are earmarked for the survey project, said the city's East Tampa redevelopment manager, Ed Johnson.

Among other organizations supporting the project are the county's Central Healthy Start Program, the Children's Board, the Lee Davis Neighborhood Service Center and 13 East Tampa neighborhood associations.

This is the first such survey since 1993, when the Lee Davis Neighborhood Development Coalition - now the Corporation to Develop Communities in Tampa - collected more than 2,100 surveys. The corporation used that data to develop programs for affordable housing, job placement, business training and youth activities.

To kick off the 2008 project, focus groups will gather Jan. 19 with civic, social and neighborhood associations.

Woodside said University of South Florida student volunteers and East Tampa residents, who will be hired at $10 a survey, will canvass the neighborhoods beginning Feb. 1. Training in collecting data will be provided Jan. 14-18.

USF staff will analyze the data and provide results to the partnership, the agencies and organizations included in the survey and the mayor's office.

Consulting company URS also will gather economic data on businesses in the community, Johnson said. URS is working with the community to develop a five-year plan for commercial redevelopment.

A preliminary survey report will be ready by April 30 and a final report by Sept. 30.

For information or to apply for a survey job, call Woodside at (813) 248-6548, Ext. 223.

Reporter Kathy Steele can be reached at (813) 835-2103 or ksteele@tampatrib.com.

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