TAMPA — For the second time in a year, the City Council on Thursday sided with neighborhood activists, voting 5 to 1 to urge that the planned Tampa Bay Express interstate expansion be taken off a local priority list of transportation projects.
Several council members said the $1.2 billion reconstruction of the downtown interchange would set back urban neighborhoods that have only in recent years started to recover after decades of blight caused by the original construction of Interstate 275.
Frank Reddick said he would do everything in his power to stop a project that would most affect Tampa Heights and other neighborhoods with large black and Hispanic populations.