10 Year Spotlight: Shifting Narratives, From Reunion to Razed
A Decade of Making a Difference
In 2021, the Foundation helped fund a reunion of the Gas Plant and Laurel Park neighborhoods, bringing together former residents and family members who were displaced from their homes to make way for the construction of Tropicana Field. In doing so, the Foundation helped create a space for residents to reminisce about their shared pasts, their sense of community and home, and what was lost with the demolition of the homes, neighborhood institutions, and businesses that comprised these beloved communities.
The Foundation sought to record and preserve those memories to help correct and deepen the narrative around those painful displacements – and prevent similar injustices from happening again.
“…Everyone there was like family. Kids stayed out late at night on the streets. Everybody watch each other’s kids. It’s like I said, we were all like a family. We raised each other’s kids, and we had some good memories from there, really.” -BRENDA HANES
“Back then, everything was Black, Black-owned. We had our own store. We had our own school… We looked out for each other back then. Everybody was close. Everybody was humble.” -JOE SHEROT
The reunion experience gave rise to a more significant project, led by Roundhouse Creative and the African American Heritage Association, to tell the story of the Gas Plant neighborhood in a fuller and more permanent way. In 2024, the Foundation issued a grant of $25,000 to support the production of Razed, a documentary film about the Gas Plant neighborhood inspired by that initial reunion. The film tells the story of a tight-knit community, rich with fruit trees and Black-owned businesses, that was demolished to make way for a baseball stadium. Razed allows us to hear directly from former residents, who share their stories of the neighborhood’s warmth and joy while laying bare the systemic injustices that allowed for its destruction.
People and their stories are at the center of our shared work to build a stronger, more equitable city. The Foundation is proud to invest in the production of this powerful and necessary film so that we may live by its truths. More than 500 residents attended the premiere weekend, hosted in the Foundation’s Center for Health Equity in February 2025.