Midtown by Midtown: From the People to the Candidates

A community conversation about the real issues affecting Midtown

ST. PETERSBURG — The University of South Florida St. Petersburg’s (USFSP) Neighborhood News Bureau (NNB) and The Weekly Challenger, invite the Tampa Bay community to “Midtown by Midtown: From the People to the Candidates.”

The main goal of this open forum is to learn directly from the members of the local African-American community the issues that actual affect their lives, inverting the direction of the conversation with politicians from “top-down” to “grassroots-up.”

The event marks the inauguration of NNB in its new Midtown office and will take place on September 29 at the Enoch Davis Center from 6 to 8 p.m.

Panelists include Ricardo Davis, president of the Concerned Organization for Quality Education of Black Students (COQEBS); Ashley Green, Labor Organizer at SEIU-FL; Watson L. Haynes II, president and CEO of the Pinellas County Urban League; Maria Scruggs, president of the NAACP’s St. Petersburg Branch and Cedric Gordon, former St. Petersburg Assistant Police Chief. USFSP officials, including Regional Chancellor Sophia T. Wisniewska, will also join the occasion.

During the activity, residents of Midtown will have the opportunity to comment, ask questions and raise new issues. NNB student-reporters will talk with residents about the main issues affecting their lives. They will compile the information and conduct follow-up interviews with local and regional candidates to ask how they plan to address the issues discussed in the event.

About NNB

The Neighborhood News Bureau is a project developed and maintained by students and staff at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg’s (USFSP) Department of Journalism and Media Studies with the mission of providing stories about the Midtown and surrounding communities of St. Petersburg.

About The Weekly Challenger

For 49 years, The Weekly Challenger newspaper has been the most comprehensive source for gathering, organizing and presenting news and information to the African-American communities of Tampa Bay. In addition to in-depth research and thorough reporting of local events, The Weekly Challenger newspaper also offers complete coverage of news from state, national and international.