Colleen Wright

ST. PETERSBURG — Mayor Ken Welch was thinking about people like his father when he said last week that a deal with the Tampa Bay Rays will achieve what past city leaders had hoped would happen. David Welch was the St. Petersburg City Council’s only Black member in 1982 when the idea was first raised to use the city’s Gas Plant property as a site for major league baseball. Black-owned residences,businesses and churches would be demolished as a result.

City officials on Tuesday announced the hiring of Lenice C. Emanuel asSt. Petersburg’s first Chief Equity Officer. According to a news release, Emanuel is an executive with 25 years of experience in nonprofits, including as chief executive officer of the YWCA of Tampa Bay from 2010 to 2015. Her work starts Monday.

Tuesday’s fanfare was just the beginning. The Tampa Bay Rays won’t be tied to staying in St. Petersburg and construction can’t start on a new ballpark until a legally binding development agreement is approved with votes from the St. Petersburg City Council and the Pinellas County Commission. That likely won’t happen until the beginning of 2024.