Know Your Neighbor: Neighborhood Watch Coordinator Marti Woznicki

Marti Woznicki has lived in Tampa since 1988, and calls Hyde Park home.

Woznicki, who is a neighborhood watch coordinator with the Historic Hyde Park Neighborhood Association, recently talked to us about what makes Hyde Park special, and the challenges and misconceptions the community faces.

Patch: What do you think makes South Tampa special compared to other communities in Tampa Bay?

Woznicki: "We love the accessibility to downtown, to the airport, to the water. The location is key. A lot of it is is the diversity. I've met more people who are just very creative here. There's writers, entrepreneurs, artists of every kind. A lot of well-traveled people. They have interesting stories. It's fun to have such diversity."

Patch: What do you think members of the South Tampa community can do do improve the neighborhoods there?

Woznicki: "We are involved with the neigh association here, the Historic Hyde Park Neighborhood Association. With all of the development going on, we need to calm the traffic down and find better ways to move traffic and people. We are involved in a lot of traffic calming, putting more bike paths in on the streets and pedestrian-friendly crosswalks, better markings to slow it down so we can all live in harmony."

Patch: What do you do as neighborhood watch coordinator?

Woznicki: "I resurrected the program a year and a half ago. I wanted to get back to old-fashioned neighbor helping neighbor. It not only deters crime, but it's what I call 'picket fence neighboring.' We have these beautiful front porches and parks, where people are out and about, and it's a matter of helping each other."

Patch: What are some issues you've dealt with?

Woznicki: "Calming traffic on Swann and Willow. With all the construction, there's been a lot of trucks that aren’t supposed to be coming through there. It's damaging historical home foundations."

Patch: What are some misconceptions about South Tampa?

Woznicki: "One of the things is they assume people are very affluent. We have a wide variety of home values in our neighborhood. We have everything from tiny bungalows to huge mansions on Bayshore. There's more diverse income and lifestyles than people assume. We have writers out of their home, we have a lot of people in volunteer and nonprofit organizations. So you really get a wide variety of people."