Occupy Tampa moved into West Tampa last December, and though there has been some discomfort among residents of the working class neighborhood about the activist’s establishing an encampment there, it has only been over the past month that those complaints have gone public.
A meeting last Saturday between neighborhood association officials and Occupy Tampa members seemed to clear the air, but harsh feelings between the two groups resurfaced when a petition complaining about conditions in the park was presented at Thursday’s Tampa City Council meeting.
That led Councilman Frank Reddick to angrily denounce what he said Occupy had done in the neighborhood, and he called for a variety of city and county departments to review if the park is operating legally and under code. That review was supported unanimously by the council in a 6-0 vote (Mary Mulhern was absent).
However, attorneys for the city need to review how much authority they have over the park, since it’s privately owned by local entrepreneur Joe Redner.
This article appears in Jul 19-25, 2012.
