\u201cIt feels more old school than the pier \u2014 more industrialized. Bring it more back to life,\u201d said one local resident.<\/p>\n
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Just a few blocks south of the bustling St. Pete Pier lies Port St. Pete \u2014 a quieter, more industrial part of downtown that many residents feel has been left behind. Now, community voices are growing louder, calling for the city to give the area more attention.<\/p>\n
Kullee Dimis, a lifelong Florida resident, remembers when St. Pete looked very different.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack in 2008, St. Pete was kind of rugged. It was older, not much money put into it,\u201d Dimis said. \u201cBut now it\u2019s beautiful. The St. Pete Pier is great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, he points out the stark contrast just a short drive away at Port St. Pete.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels more old school than the pier \u2014 more industrialized. Bring it more back to life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Many locals share that sentiment. They want to see the area made cleaner, safer and more family-friendly.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Ziemak, a mother who frequents the pier with her daughter, said she would love to see similar investments at the port.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they could do more family-friendly things, just like this pier, and continue the development down there \u2014 include restaurants and activities for families \u2014 I think it would be wonderful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
One amenity she especially wants back? The ferry service.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to see where they could redevelop and have the ferry come back. I think it was vital to the area and missed by the public,” she said.<\/p>\n
City leaders say they\u2019re listening. St. Pete City Council member Corey Givens Jr. said he believes the time is now to reimagine the port.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity for us to do more shipping from this access point. The port master plan hasn\u2019t really been updated in 25 years. I think the sky\u2019s the limit when it comes to opportunities and possibilities,” he said.<\/p>\n
Givens noted the port has significant untapped potential, highlighting its large footprint with a 1,200-foot wharf and about 400 acres adjacent to waterfront property.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But while some push for progress, others \u2014 like Dimis \u2014 hope it\u2019s done with balance.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t block everything with a bunch of high rises. We have the bay here \u2014 it\u2019s beautiful,” he said<\/p>\n
As conversations continue, the future of Port St. Pete may soon reflect the energy and growth seen across the rest of downtown, but only if it reflects the voices of the people who live there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt feels more old school than the pier \u2014 more industrialized. Bring it more back to life,\u201d said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-75588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}