While St. Petersburg City Council members were addressing Tropicana Field and Tampa Bay Rays issues, activists from the Bay Area Dream Defenders, advocating for programs to help Childs Park, gave a press conference outside, on the steps of City Hall.
Activist Jay James urged the city to reconsider the Save Our Streets Campaign, which seeks to reallocate public safety funds to support city-run education and youth programs for crime prevention.
For James and the Dream Defenders, it’s about creating opportunities for people living in St. Pete.
“Community Navigators are needed now than ever before,” Council Member Givens told the San Pedro Gazette via email, upon request for comment. Childs Park is within Givens district. “Especially, if the federal government decides to move forward with completely dissolve FEMA.”
Nonetheless, Givens said he is sees emergencies as public safety issues, which is why he is not supportive of “divesting these funds from the Public Safety budget.”
“Instead, we should create the position of a Community Navigator to help people navigate the plethora of resources offered to residents, not just after a natural disaster, but year-round. This position should be funded through funds earmarked for public safety,” Givens stated.
