A lot certainly happened to St. Petersburg these last eight years under Mayor Rick Kriseman's leadership. From the tallest buildings to the deepest sewers to the pier, Mayor Kriseman leaves behind a lot of successes, some failures and unfinished business. The mayor and I had a chance to walk around the city taking a look at it all. Here’s some of that conversation:

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN ST. PETE

[TREVOR]

Some people like to save the best for last but I thought we'd do it first. The St. Pete Pier has to be the crowning achievement of your tenure as mayor. It started out as what you campaigned on. When you look at it, what do you think?

[MAYOR KRISEMAN]

I still get goosebumps every time I come out here to the pier. But what all of us envisioned was that the pier would become a place that the community and our visitors, that everybody would come to and be and enjoy. And you look at how many people are here on a Tuesday afternoon. 

[TREVOR]

Is it everything you hoped it would be? 

[MAYOR KRISEMAN]

It has been. I love being by the splash pad and the playgrounds because I like seeing the families.

[TREVOR]

In the last eight years, construction in downtown has been incredible. How much construction is going on? 

[MAYOR KRISEMAN]

We've set another record this year in the number of permits our city has issued construction. The value and the dollars, we’re at 35,000 permits in a year.  

[TREVOR]

But with that growth, grew even bigger concerns over affordable housing. 

[MAYOR KRISEMAN]

As part of our "For All, From All Plan," we are identifying land that we own and we are requiring when those parcels that are being redeveloped that if there's housing there that a percentage of it needs to be affordable.

ADDRESSING THE CENTRAL AVENUE BUSINESS DISTRICT

The Central Avenue Business District dramatically expanded over the last eight years, bringing in new businesses while forcing some long-term shops to close because of higher rent. But the pandemic put all of that on the line.

[TREVOR]

COVID did a job in the entire world. And it was struggling here on Central Avenue which is our main business district. You guys really worked hard to keep these businesses alive. Look, our small businesses here in St. Pete are really what sets our city apart from anywhere else in the country.

[MAYOR KRISEMAN]

From the Fighting Chance Fund which we got up and running and the staff did amazing job of getting those dollars out to the community quickly and easily over $6 million, and then also allowing people that wanted to. We didn't make everybody because not everybody wanted to use their parking spaces to set up their business. First was the 100 block of Central. And then the 600 block, but now it goes all the way down to past 31st Street. And it’s active every day of the week all the way to 31st Street. It's amazing.

ST. PETE'S SEWAGE SYSTEM

Underneath it all in St. Pete is hundreds of millions of dollars in rebuilding the city sewer and wastewater sewage system. It's an effort that grew out of one of the most controversial decisions the mayor had to make to dump hundreds of thousands of gallons of partially treated sewage into the bay.

[TREVOR]

Wasn’t your best moment.

[MAYOR KRISEMAN]

No, it wasn’t. Look, when I came in, I had no idea how the system has been neglected, the condition it was in. I rely on my staff but ultimately it's my decision and I had an  awful one to make. Do I want raw sewage coming up in people's toilets and flowing down the street or do I wanna have to discharge partially treated wastewater into the bay? Neither are good decisions, they both were awful. We now have a wastewater/stormwater master plan which we never had a wastewater master plan ever and our stormwater hadn’t been updated in 20 years. We are in the best condition we have been in possibly the last three decades at least.

THE FUTURE OF TROPICANA FIELD

But the future of the Tropicana Field site and the Tampa Bay Rays remains uncertain. Despite choosing a developer and showing renderings, we still don't know if the team will stay or go or split their season with Montreal.

[MAYOR KRISEMAN]

I can’t use general revenue dollars or increase taxes in order to build a stadium if it's just gonna be a split season. If it was a full season, that's a different discussion.

[TREVOR]

Simple question. Do you think the Rays are going to stay or are they going to go? 

[MAYOR KRISEMAN]

I still am convinced they're going to stay. Whether they staying here part of the year and apart in Montreal or here full-time, I still think they're going to stay here. We've been promised things and promises that weren’t kept. We were lied to and it destroyed the social fabric of the community. It was ripped apart on this Trop site when the site was demo. 

[TREVOR]

What’s your prediction on all of this? 

[MAYOR KRISEMAN]

We know that history of this site.  We are going to honor the history of this site. We are going to fulfill the promises. My whole thing is why are we waiting? Let's get moving.

TANGERINE PLAZA

One place where progress seems to have been at a standstill for most of Kriseman's tenure as mayor is Tangerine Plaza.

[TREVOR]

Tangerine Plaza. Probably one of the most challenging areas you've had to deal with. 

[MAYOR KRISEMAN]

It is. It's had a history of struggling. We’ve had whether it was Sweet Bay in here or Walmart in here, none of them have really lasted. I think it’s important to this community that whatever happens here lasts, that it’s sustainable. We’ve got a developer we’re working with and they’re working on nailing down their tenants. So that we can feel really good about them coming in and their sustainability of them.  

KRISEMAN'S LEGACY

In the end, the mayor says a lot was done and a lot was left undone during his tenure, but he hopes his legacy is less about building structures and more about changing sentiments.

[MAYOR KRISEMAN]

What I hope people look back on my time in office and say is he helped change the city culture and helped create a city that was more welcoming, that was more tolerant, that was more diverse and change the culture of who we were as a city. When I came into office, that’s what I wanted to accomplish.