A Film About the Gas Plant Neighborhood

Lies, baseball, and the price of progress

Before there was Tropicana Field and its surrounding acres of asphalt, there was the Gas Plant Neighborhood. A primarily Black neighborhood, the Gas Plant was home to families, businesses, churches, and a deep sense of community and place. The people were displaced and the neighborhood was leveled—all to make way for baseball.

We were not seen as humans. Who we were was not important.
Gwendolyn Reese
That was our community, and it was basically just taken away from us.
Michelle Davis
That neighborhood was treated as a throwaway.
Jon Wilson
The promises were broken to a point that some folks couldn’t survive.
Thomas Jet Jackson

About this film

The story of the Gas Plant Neighborhood follows a narrative of community displacement that has been repeated throughout our country for the sake of “progress.” At the core of this film are the first-hand stories and memories from a community cut short, presented in a historical context that’s rarely accessible to the masses. As we look to the next few decades of development in St. Pete, Razed cautions us to consider the true cost, and encourages us to imagine a better way forward.

Cast & Crew