On sewage:
KB: Obviously, the huge elephant in the room is the sewage crisis, and the perceptions of a disorganized response on the city's part…
RK: First off, let me start by saying it's a mischaracterization to call it a sewage crisis because "crisis" implies that you're in the middle of it and there hasn’t been any action to try and figure out what you’re doing. We’re beyond it… Our proposed plan was approved by DEP and incorporated into the consent order, so no matter who sits in my seat that's what they're going to be following, the Kriseman plan… As far as how things were handled, I've said it several times now that… there's absolutely room for improvement and to have done it better than we did.
On campaign signs and African-American support:
DW: There's a perception that you don't have as good a relationship with the African-American community as Baker did.
RK: First off, I don't agree with that premise. That's the perception his campaign has tried to create. The signs are a great example.
DW: Tell me about the signs, because yeah, they’re all over, in Midtown particularly.
RK: They're on people's property, they didn't ask for 'em. I can give you a story of a lady whose house I knocked on who had a Baker sign. And we talked and after we finished talking she said, "Well, I'm supporting you, I'm gonna vote for you." And I said, "Can I put a sign in your yard?” and she said, "Absolutely!" I said, "Well, you have a Baker sign in your yard. Can we take that sign down then for you?" "Well, there was a nice young lady who asked if she could put it up, so I'm just going to leave it. But I'm not voting for him.” I hear that a lot.
On gentrification:
KB: One of your opponents is accusing both you and Baker of making downtown and the south side unaffordable for the disadvantaged and underprivileged.
RK: I think you have to separate downtown and the south side. Because show me a downtown around the country that is successful, that is vibrant and bustling, but that is affordable that has below market-rate rents, and you won't be able to. Because those two things don't happen.
DW: It's changing –
RK: Excuse me?
DW: The affordability of the apartments is changing…
RK: In vibrant bustling downtowns it's very rare that you find below-market rates anywhere. You find those in downtowns that are not vibrant, that are dead, like Detroit was… As far as South St. Pete goes, we've been working on several different programs to create affordable housing… We know the two issues of affordability that prevent people from getting into places are either a) once they're in it, they can't afford to stay in it because repairs force them out, so we provide assistance in that respect, or they have a hard time getting into the house to begin with, so there's downpayment assistance that we have. Someone living in South St. Petersburg, the city isn’t coming in and forcing them out. If somebody lives in South St. Pete and someone comes in and offers them a lot of money for their house, that’s a choice that that person has, as to whether they want to stay in their home or sell it. There's not anybody forcing them out.
On the Manhattan Casino:
[The day after our interview, the mayor announced that a group that included Pipo's Restaurant owner Ramon Hernandez and former Buc Vince Jackson had been given the nod to open a Floribbean restaurant in the city-owned Manhattan Casino in Midtown. A beloved landmark in the African-American community, it was rehabbed during the Baker administration but had stood empty until Mayor Bill Foster accepted a proposal by developer Larry Newsome, who is African-American, to open an outpost of the famed Harlem restaurant Sylvia's there in 2013. The restaurant did not succeed, though, and the city evicted it last summer for failure to pay rent.]
What's happening with the casino? I gather Pipo's has won that?
We haven't announced which of the offers [has been accepted]. For us, what’s of primary importance is 1) we want to make sure that the historical significance of the casino is reflected in whatever goes forward, but 2) that it’s sustainable — that whoever goes in there has the resources to be in there for the long term, not just two, three years and out again.
What happened with Newsome? Why didn't Sylvia's succeed?
For the same reason that [a Popeyes restaurant] that he owned didn't succeed and the same reason that Tangerine Plaza didn't succeed for him. [Newsome's company, Urban Development Solutions, lost its lease to manage the Midtown shopping plaza, which had been home successively to a Sweetbay supermarket and a Walmart, both of which puled out.] The financing that [Newsome] had wasn’t set up where he had a chance of succeeding, and he didn't have the financial capacity; and management issues. What I've heard consistently: pricing was too high, quantities weren't enough, food quality wasn't great, service wasn’t great. Unfortunately you had a guy who'd never run a facility of that size and just didn't do a very good job of it… It just wasn't a well-run business and Larry's track record is not great, certainly not in restaurants.
On monuments and death threats:
DW: Congrats on how quietly you had that Confederate monument removed [from downtown St. Pete].
KB: Have you had any flack?
RK: We've had some people who called and haven't been very happy. But nothing like the intensity of what I saw after I tweeted about Trump in 2015. [In response to Trump's call for a Muslim ban, Kriseman tweeted, "I am hereby barring Donald Trump from entering St. Petersburg until we fully understand the dangerous threat posed by all Trumps."] I had an officer sitting outside my house for a week. They superimposed my face on a concentration camp survivor and said, "You and your tribe are the real problem." I had another email that had a yellow star on my forehead. But that's what this president has emboldened. And that should scare all of us. And to not speak out about it is not leadership.
This article appears in Aug 24-31, 2017.
