The agreement would split the event between the two areas; the Saturday evening parade would take place along the waterfront, while the Sunday street festival that follows would remain in the Grand Central District. A new Friday event would also likely take place in the Grand Central District.
Or, at least, that's how it's looking.
“That's what the rumor is," Eric Skains, executive director of St. Pete Pride, said Wednesday afternoon. “As soon as we get the agreement in then we'll know for sure…The final details haven't been sent our way”
He said a finalized five-year agreement with the city could come as soon as early next week, but the split-locale plan, at least for 2017, Pride is what it's looking like.
Kevin King, St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman's chief of staff, said to expect more details later this week, but the mayor's office is still working out some of the details of the new agreement with city staff.
“I'd hate to say anything's final because it's not, but I think where we're going to land is a compromise with [the parade downtown] and a festival being in the Grand Central District,” King said.
In December, when word spread about Pride's desire to move to the waterfront for myriad reasons, controversy ensued. The biggest Pride festival in the state (if not the region) has for more than a decade been a boon to the Grand Central District, St. Petersburg's flagship LGBT-friendly neighborhood. Some business owners in the area credit the festival with helping the area come to life, and feared they would not be able to make up the loss in revenue that would ensue if it were to relocate.
Organizers, meanwhile, said the move would heighten the event's profile and help the city attract major LGBT events like World Pride, and that the location change would make it easier for law enforcement to keep the event's 200,000 attendees safe.
As tensions grew, King said, Kriseman—who originally was opposed to the move and had threatened to pull $40,000 in city funds from it if the move went forward—has been meeting with interested parties, including Skains and members of the Grand Central District Neighborhood Association.
“He is working to get everybody to a happy place,” King said.
For Brian Longstreth, the original director of St. Pete Pride and a Grand Central District Board member who opposed the move, the agreement was definitely a compromise for the district, an overdue one at that, but it beats a weekslong stalemate.
"I think it's just time for everybody to move forward,” he said. “In the end, I think the community will be fine and we'll progress.”
This article appears in Feb 2-9, 2017.