VM Ybor City civic association complains of concentration of sex offenders in their community
The VM Ybor City civic association has vocally complained about the concentration of persons forced to register living within their community. The figures cited in the story suggests that the broader City of Tampa has only 1 person forced to register per 311 residents, but this neighborhood has a concentration of 1 person forced to register for every 28 residents.
No complaints were made related to increased crime or any crime associated with this clustering of individuals. Simply, moral repulsion at the existence of people forced to register in the neighborhood and the proximity to others are cited as the problems.
That being said, the question is entirely legitimate: why the clustering in this part of town? A broader look at the extreme residency restrictions in Hillsborough County were not cited as a prime contributor to this problem, yet should be included in the assessment of why this has occurred and how can opportunities be created to allow registered citizens to live more dispersed.
The feel good nature of doing something, anything even, relying on dated and now discredited studies were the basis of establishing residency restrictions. Almost two decades of robust real estate development and several revisions to those restrictions have led to these intended consequences.
This story has been reported previously and will be reported again.
From what I find online, Ybor has 4,821 residents of which 4,749 are not perfect and harmful in their own right as well, which needs to be brought up in meetings to the attention of the others in Ybor. When they can cast a stone in a glass house without breaking any panes, then they can speak to the harmfulness of others (which will never be able to happen). Ignorant people…