{"id":8763,"date":"2011-07-25T16:21:33","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T20:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=8763"},"modified":"2011-07-25T16:30:31","modified_gmt":"2011-07-25T20:30:31","slug":"more-than-200-attend-town-hall-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=8763","title":{"rendered":"More Than 200 Attend Town Hall Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY LEON B. CREWS<\/strong>
\nSentinel Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last Thursday, more than 200 people attended a Town Hall Meeting sponsored by the East Tampa Business and Civic Association. The meeting was the first time newly elected mayor, Bob Buckhorn<\/strong>, has had an opportunity to address the residents and community leaders of East Tampa, and also was the end of his first 100 days in office.<\/p>\n

The meeting was formatted where those in attendance pre-wrote their questions to the Mayor on cards. The mayor answered 36 questions in a 2-hour span, and most in attendance said they left feeling optimistic about the future of East Tampa.<\/p>\n

Sam Kinsey<\/strong> said he was just happy to see the huge crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Mayor made a commitment to East Tampa\u2019s development plans. Now, we\u2019ll just wait and see if he delivers. He\u2019s always been a friend to the people of East Tampa, and now that he\u2019s Mayor, we want to see that friendship turn into action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he said he\u2019s committed to bringing economic development to East Tampa, there\u2019s no reason for us to not believe him unless it doesn\u2019t happen.\u201d[private]<\/strong><\/p>\n

East Tampa Business and Civic Association CEO, Diane Hart, said in her opinion, the meeting was excellent.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor Buckhorn<\/strong> came and brought 13 department directors along with him. He gave assurances and answered questions on topics that ranged from crime to our parks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the majority of the people wanted to know what\u2019s going on with our city parks and the teen and senior programs that appear to be disappearing. He said he will address those concerns, and deferred some of the questions to the department directors, who weren\u2019t able to answer all the questions, but said they would be coming back for other meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Hart<\/strong> said she\u2019s confident with the commitment the Mayor made, but the people have to play their part to make it all possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d like to see some of the canceled programs return to the parks and recreation department.\u201d[private]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Businessman, Marvin Knight<\/strong>, said because of another commitment, he wasn\u2019t able to stay for the entire meeting, so he wasn\u2019t able to get everything he needed from the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see our neglected areas get the same respect as other parts of the city. One critical area is how our parks are being maintained. We\u2019ve got to figure out a way to bring people together. That\u2019s t he real challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retired educator, Ms. Queen Miller<\/strong>, said she left after two hours, but her main concern is when will the city take action on all the abandoned houses in her neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I was taken seriously about my question, because the Mayor and everyone else started laughing. I guess they don\u2019t see this as a serious problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t get an answer to my question, but I want them to know I\u2019m very serious about this problem. My street is full of drug houses, and I want something done about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rev. W. G. Dixon<\/strong>, CEO of COACH Foundation, said he left the meeting feeling pretty good. \u201cI think the Mayor is reaching out and trying to be fair. He\u2019s saying what he can and can\u2019t do, and that doesn\u2019t make everyone happy. In my opinion, his first 100 days have been pretty good, and I think he has the confidence of the people of East Tampa.\u201d[\/private]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer Last Thursday, more than 200 people attended a Town Hall Meeting sponsored by the East Tampa Business and Civic Association. The meeting was the first time newly elected mayor, Bob Buckhorn, has had an opportunity to address the residents and community leaders of East Tampa, and also was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}