Worthy Of A King?

BROOKSVILLE - It's a mile-long stretch of road named after an American icon.

But residents say Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, which runs through the predominantly black neighborhood of South Brooksville, is far from being worthy of the man for which it is named.

Sidewalks, where there are any, are broken.

A giant cement plant just east of Main Street lends a gritty, industrial air.

Across the boulevard, the county's now infamous former public works compound sits idle, a patch of scarred earth and empty concrete slabs surrounded by chainlink fencing.

Long-defunct storefronts make it hard to believe businesses once thrived there.

"There's no question the boulevard could be better maintained, and could present a better image," said Wayman Boggs, chairman of the Hernando County chapter of the NAACP. "To be perfectly honest, the road symbolizes the lack of resources poured into the black community."

"That," Boggs added, "is a national phenomenon."

Though Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard bisects South Brooksville, much of that neighborhood is not within the city limits.

The county by ordinance maintains the roadway, but there is no formal agreement between the two governments to divvy up the task of making improvements in the area.

That could soon change, City Councilmember Lara Bradburn said.

Brooksville, a small, cash-strapped city, has been hamstrung by a lack of funding, but the caustic atmosphere that has existed for years between the city and county shows signs of lifting, Bradburn said.

It's a key development as belts get even tighter. Any progress on King Boulevard will likely be made when the county and city join forces to share costs, Bradburn and other officials maintain.

"The county has to make it a priority, too, and there is a new way of thinking among some commissioners and county leaders to do that," Bradburn said. "We haven't had that for decades. There is more hope now than we've had in a lot of years."

A question of funding

It took local activists two campaigns and nearly 12 years to get the road named after the slain civil rights leader.

They battled a countermovement that circulated a petition to keep the Summit Road moniker, but finally won in 2000. A dedication ceremony took place seven years ago today.

With that, Brooksville became one of more than 700 cities and towns, concentrated mainly in the South, to name a street after King, according to a paper by cultural geographer Derek Alderman, "Naming Streets for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: No Easy Road."

Since then, efforts to beautify the road have been non-existent, said civic activist Richard Howell.

The city and county should have focused attention long ago on redeveloping the area, even if it meant starting with something as simple as planting flower beds, said Howell, who is director of the non-profit Health Awareness and Mitchell Heights Restoration Board, Inc.

Both governments reaped millions of dollars in recent years, a portion of which could have been spent in South Brooksville.

"So why is it still looking like this?" Howell said as he stood on the shoulder in front of the board's new office at 407 E. Martin Luther King Blvd.

The former motel, with its fresh coat of white and yellow paint and young flowers springing up from recently-laid mulch, is one of few bright spots along the boulevard.

Howell has received grant money to do health surveys on South Brooksville residents who live near the former public works compound, about a quarter-mile west of Howell's office. The county has already spent $1.7 million to test the extent of contamination on the site.

"We claim racism is gone, but they're doing it through institutions," Howell said.

It's a sentiment Howell has expressed before, including at city council meetings, and one that city and county officials always pointedly deny.

Mayor David Pugh acknowledged that progress has been slow, but not just in South Brookville.

"There a lot of areas in the city that have been neglected," Pugh said, noting there hasn't been much revenue for capital improvements.

Bradburn said that even the city's historic downtown area "was neglected for 40 years" and it took many more years to come up with money to make the aesthetic enhancements such as plantings and light posts that visitors see today.

"We're working street by street on improvements. We just haven't had the funding," she said.

Bradburn noted that there are there are residential projects in the works for the area, including condominiums just west of Hale Avenue, that will include sidewalks.

And Bradburn said she has been meeting with City Manager Jennene Norman-Vacha to take action on a redevelopment plan crafted years ago that includes improvements to South Brooksville.

"Revitalization is not just for downtown," Bradburn said. "It's for the entire city."

Safety first

Bill Geiger, Brooksville's community development director, agreed that the city and county are making headway to create a better working relationship to improve the boulevard.

But beautification, at this point, is secondary.

"Priority dictates safety first, and aesthetics would come after that," Geiger said. "If there's a way to do both at the same time, we look at that too."

He cited a deal inked last year between the city and county to split the nearly $200,000 cost to repave the roughly quarter-mile segment of the boulevard between Main Street and U.S. 41.

The cracked and pockmarked stretch of road is coming up in chunks. The yellow center line disappeared long ago, and it's downright dangerous in some portions where the roadbed has sunken and created chasms in the pavement, county transportation coordinator Dennis Dix said.

Dix said the Metropolitan Planning Organization is placing "a high priority" on improving the road. Both governments are pursuing some $375,000 in state and federal dollars to construct sidewalks between Main and 41.

It's a tricky project because there isn't much right of way on either side of the boulevard, Dix said. At some points, the design will have to include boardwalks over the existing drainage ditches, he said.

"It's pricey, but it's the best solution," he said.

And worth it, too, officials and residents maintain. That segment is a vital link for South Brooksville residents heading to work and shop at businesses along U.S. 41. Pedestrians currently must walk in the road or the ditch.

The project could spark the necessary momentum to head east and improve that portion of the road, Interim County Administrator Larry Jennings said.

"Within budget limitations, we're willing to work with the city on anything we can jointly do better," Jennings said.

'The cow has to moo'

Doug Davis's family has operated a welding and metal fabrication business since 1924 on what is now East Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Davis agreed that the city and county have long neglected the stretch of road, but he had particularly strong words for the city.

"The city is just all lip service," Davis said. "I'm tired of hearing talk. I want to see some walk."

However, Davis acknowledged that he has seen some action recently, including an increased presence of police officers and sheriff's deputies to help chase away drug dealers who congregate along the boulevard.

"I'm more encouraged by the last six months than I have been in the past 30 years," Davis said.

Residents, however, also need to take some responsibility and be more vocal, he said, putting a rural twist on the squeaky wheel analogy. He likened South Brooksville to "a cow mired in the mud."

"The cow has to moo like hell so the farmer will hear it," Davis said. "The cow ain't mooing."

Paul Boston, another community activist and an outspoken advocate for the neighborhood, agreed. Few South Brooksville residents ever show up at City Council meetings to ask for improvements.

If they do, however, government needs to embrace it, Boston said.

"As soon as poor people, people of color, step up, they panic and think these people are going to take over the government," Boston said. "As long as mainstream society is afraid of the lower classes and the minority, nothing's going to happen."

Some residents already have stepped up, and one of them is Pastor Malachi Fogle of Victorious Church of God By Faith on Josephine Street, which runs south off King Boulevard.

A neighborhood Fogle described as "drug-infested" a few years ago is safer now thanks to stepped-up patrols.

"Children can play on Josephine Street now," he said.

Fogle said he has walked the neighborhood with Sheriff Richard Nugent to point out concerns and is pushing the county to add more lighting, something he said would go a long way to make the area safer. He also hopes to get two official stops for THE Bus along the boulevard and canopies to go with them.

Commissioner Diane Rowden agreed that there "has been way too much talk and not enough action" on the part of government and that more needs to be done for King Boulevard.

"Not because it's named after Martin Luther King," she said, "but because it's the right thing to do for South Brooksville."