Residents press council for more complete-streets funding, public-power feasibility study; SPIFFS seeks cultural-arts support

Several residents used the council—s open forum Thursday to press on transportation, energy and arts funding ahead of the FY26 budget.

Speakers advocating for Complete Streets funding described pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements as cost-effective ways to reduce traffic injuries. Max McCann (2648 Third Avenue South) said sections of MLK Boulevard with bike lanes were the only stretches not on the city—s high-injury-crash network and asked the council to increase the city—s Complete Streets budget. Justin Conway, speaking for Campbell Park, noted a crosswalk funded at Seventh Avenue South and MLK as the first Complete Streets project in the South CRA and requested that TIF dollars be available for neighborhood-level Complete Streets and greenway projects. Garrett Marple urged a large increase to the line item, noting the current allocation of about $600,000 and suggesting a doubling or more to reach $1 million or higher.

Separately, several speakers urged council to pursue a feasibility study for public ownership of local electric infrastructure. Marley Price recounted the county—s decision to withdraw from Duke Energy—s Clean Energy Connection program and called on St. Petersburg to end its participation and instead fund a study of public power ahead of upcoming contract negotiations with Duke. Elizabeth Winter and Alex Schechter also urged support for a feasibility study; Schechter framed the review as a routine end-of-contract procurement evaluation.

Steven Barefield, president of SPIFFS (Saint Petersburg International Folk Fair Society), said recent changes to the cultural-arts application process excluded SPIFFS from applying through the standard cultural-arts grant this year. Barefield asked council and the mayor—s office for "special consideration funding" ahead of SPIFFS—s 50th annual fair. Later in the meeting, during the budget presentation, Barefield returned to clarify that he understood a $40,000 line in the mayor—s recommended budget was marked for sister-cities programming and not the cultural-arts grant SPIFFS historically received.

Why it matters: Public comments signal priorities for residents ahead of final budget decisions: safer streets for pedestrians and cyclists, exploration of alternatives to investor-owned utilities, and preservation of long-running cultural events. Those requests intersect with the mayor—s proposed budget, which contains line items for arts grants and transportation projects but may not match the increases callers sought.

What—s next: Speakers requested the council direct staff to consider these topics during budget deliberations; council members said they would follow up during the budget workshop and committee meetings.