Sulphur Springs has long been one of Tampa's most economically struggling neighborhoods, with abandoned, foreclosed homes majorly contributing to the area's problems. Today, Mayor Buckhorn announced the "Nehemiah Project," where 51 such homes in the area will be demolished throughout the next six months in an effort to rebuild the neighborhoods.
Speaking in front a shabbily constructed house that he would soon help demolish, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said, "Houses like this are a cancer in our neighborhoods. And if you don't eradicate them, that cancer spreads to that house (pointing across the street), and to that house, and to that house, because these derelict houses become not only eyesores, but places where drug dealers and prostitutes and gangs move in and take over the neighborhoods. And we're just not going to tolerate that."
Maximizing the photo opportunity, Buckhorn stepped away from the podium and into a front end loader and, with some coaching, proceeded to help raze the property where the news conference took place.
