The Silver Lake Playlot kids playground has been an underutilized resource in the Campbell Park neighborhood for a long time. Mostly this is because the playlot is often occupied by large numbers of adults, who are not accompanying children, and are simply loitering. This happens at all hours of the day, even late at night and early in the morning. There are also cars that park around the playlot on streets next to occupied houses, playing loud music, people standing around making lots of noise, fighting, drug selling, drug usage. This is what a parent with a child who wants to play at the playlot would have to push past. It is especially disappointing because of the large number of children in the neighborhood who I am sure would love to visit the playlot. The St. Petersburg Police department will tell you there are no shortage of incidents at this kids playlot, and the issues are not caused by children, but adults. The city seems to be slow to handle issues in this neighborhood, taking inordinate amounts of time to respond to the issues of citizens who live, work, and pay taxes there. Code violations and city responsibilities are ignored even when repeatedly called in. Development and the building of affordable housing is hampered by unfair and irregular code enforcement, causing previously affordable homes to take on tens of thousands in additional costs. These costs move these houses out of their previously affordable bracket. In other neighborhoods the activity at the child's playlot would not be allowed, and even so much as the appearance of nefarious goings on would be closely monitored and regulated. The city of St. Petersburg has turned its back on this neighborhood and seems to have some sort of commitment to keeping it underdeveloped and underserved. Neighborhoods have good people, but when you have hubs of nefarious activity, bad vibes emanate from those hubs and cast a shadow over the whole community. It is not fair for the citizens who work and pay taxes in this community to not have these hubs uprooted the same as they would be in any number of more affluent areas. Despite knowing this is and has been a problem area for a long time, the St. Petersburg police have only to committed to a general response of "stepping up patrols". I believe this is a specific situation that requires a specific solution. I propose a renovation of Silver Lake Playlot. The renovation would include making the playlot a much safer, much more secure, and much more enjoyable site for the children in the neighborhood. My plan includes dedicated parking, modern equipment for playing, and an accompanying city ordinance similar to the ordinance recently enacted by Palm Beach County. The ordinance states that adults without children won't be allowed to loiter in or around places designated as child playlots. I believe this would be a good first step in setting the standards of what is expected and allowed in our neighborhood. There is a common belief that some people don't care about their communities. This belief is false, we do care, so we are requesting that the city reciprocate that care by handling it's responsibilities to the neighborhood. Our children deserve a safe, secure, modernized and updated play area just like the ones that exist in so many other neighborhoods in the city.