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The City of Tampa cut the ribbon on a new 48-acre park in South Tampa. The 51-million dollar project is more than a park — it also provides flood relief.
City leaders celebrated the opening of the MacDill 48 Park on the hot morning.
Tony Mulkey is Tampa’s Parks and Recreation Director.
“This park is not just a park, it’s not just a place for recreation, to get out and enjoy nature a little bit, a break from the city. That urban relief and that natural habitat restoration is so important – but it also serves a function for resiliency and sustainability,” Mulkey said.
The park also will alleviate flooding by storing stormwater runoff in a pond.
And it will treat the runoff and remove pollutants to improve water quality.
But, to make the park, unhoused people were moved.
Jean Strohmeyer, president of the Inner Bay/ South of Gandy Neighborhood Association, says the Tampa Police helped “clean” the site of homeless people.
“Nobody would come in because there’s homeless here and whatnot. Once I became the neighborhood association president, we started cleaning up the homeless,” Strohmeyer said.
This year, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law banning unhoused people from sleeping in public.
The park is open now, the stormwater project should be fully completed by next spring.
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