How a Christmas tree defines Ken Welch’s first term as St. Petersburg Mayor

For both new and longtime St. Petersburg residents — even those from neighboring cities across the Bay or closer to the Gulf beaches — an evening stroll through North Straub Park during Christmastime is a holiday must.

Checking it off our family’s list recently, we really enjoyed the new “St. Pete Holidays” display, and we clearly were not the only ones enamored with Christmas spirit, as at least 50 families were lined up waiting to see Santa in the park. The weather, as it usually is in the Sunshine City, was beautiful and the evening was a warm Winter delight.

But then I noticed something.

The city’s Christmas tree, a prominent part of its North Straub Park display, has, unless I’m missing something, changed. It was lovely, don’t get me wrong. But it wasn’t the same festive tree installed under Rick Kriseman. It wasn’t quite as bright and shiny.

It’s a silly thing to gripe about, especially when the new tree is perfectly acceptable — tall and festive. But it begs an interesting question: Can a single Christmas tree represent a Mayor’s entire first term in office?

It’s rhetorical because, of course, the answer is “yes.”

Ken Welch is a decent man and a pretty good politician. But he’s not as good a Mayor as the previous guys.

And that’s exactly why the tree symbolizes both the naughty and the nice of Ken Welch’s mayoral term.

His supporters will point to the top of my column and question why I am complaining. It’s a fair point. There were hundreds of people enjoying the display and activities. It was a beautiful display, with an arguably even more beautiful backdrop in Tampa Bay, the St. Pete Pier and the historic Vinoy Hotel and Resort.

But that’s exactly my point. There will always be hundreds of people in downtown St. Pete in December, because we are blessed to have a picturesque downtown, bustling businesses, and temperate weather that fosters people to come and enjoy whatever display from whatever mayoral administration.

There are so many things going right in this city, but they are happening, largely, in spite of — not because of — our current Mayor.

That’s really why Charlie Crist, if he does choose to run, wants to go to City Hall. He believes St. Petersburg could be something more than what it is.

It could, even more than it already is, be that bright and shiny Christmas tree of a city.

But the truth is, Ken Welch is not the executive or the deal maker we need in 2027 to move the city forward.

He’s rushing to get a development deal done for the Tropicana Field site after the one he had previously brokered crashed and burned, and he’s trying to give it to Cathie Wood, one of his biggest cheerleaders.

Wood, along with developer Casey Ellison, submitted a proposal in October to redevelop the site in phases, including 3,701 new homes, 863 of them affordable units, 618 affordable units for seniors, and 444 workforce units. The remaining 1,776 would be market-rate units. The plan also calls for more than 1,500 hotel rooms, all while reserving nearly 45% of the site for public parks, culture and civic spaces.

It’s not a bad pitch. In fact, it’s quite good. But it was unsolicited, and the Mayor’s quick deference to it prompted pushback, leading him to delay the timeline by pushing back publication of a 30-day public notice until early January. His move came after pushback from both the City Council and the development community.

Wood, founder and CEO of ARK Invest, is a business savant successful enough to become a billionaire. She should be smart enough to know that no matter how bright and shiny her proposal is, it will not move forward until after the 2026 mayoral election.

That means, if she’s overly connected to Welch and he loses, her proposal will be as dead as a Christmas tree in late January.

And if she’s not sure … or if she’s somehow hedging bets. Look no further than the precedent that Welch himself set.

One of Welch’s first major acts as Mayor was to cancel the previous Request for Proposals and selection issued by former Mayor Rick Kriseman in 2020 to redevelop the Trop site, instead replacing it with his own process.

There is no reason to believe that a new Mayor — Welch only seems to be drawing opposition out of frustration with his first term — wouldn’t do the same thing. Even if Welch were to fast-track Wood’s Trop proposal, a new Mayor could come in and cancel it to start anew.

Maybe Wood’s proposal is the shiniest Christmas tree out there, and maybe it’s worthy of the city’s selection. But the city deserves to evaluate alternatives.

In 2026, voters’ll get to do exactly that with the Mayor’s office.

So stay tuned, and go check out the new tree.

Editor’s note: Peter Schorsch is the husband of Michelle Schorsch, who is the chair of “St. Pete Shines,” a political committee supportive of a possible Charlie Crist bid for St. Petersburg Mayor.