TAMPA - There is an eerie quiet hanging over Central Park Village.

The once-bustling housing property is nearly empty. Driving past the stark white buildings is like stumbling across an abandoned military test site in the middle of the desert.

Trash blows across the street. Windows in vacant units are boarded up to prevent vandalism, even though some are marred by graffiti both profane and gang-related. Two teddy bears lie on a sidewalk. One bear's stuffing pokes through a rip.

Laundry lines sit bare, their metal poles stretched down an alleyway like dead trees stripped of leaves.

It's a desolate scene that evokes feelings empty and cold.

"It's been real quiet," said Cheantha Archie, 29, who was waiting Friday for movers to arrive at her apartment as dark gray storm clouds gathered.

Archie's apartment was one of three not boarded up in her building. Her eight children, ages 2 to 12, played or helped gather belongings.

Even though they were moving to another public housing property, North Boulevard Homes on West Main Street, Archie said she was excited because that complex is near her children's school.

"They can walk to school," she said, smiling. "Two minutes."

She's also thankful to be upgrading from a three-bedroom apartment to a five-bedroom unit with two bathrooms.

"It wasn't enough space for me and my kids," she said of Central Park.

'Things Are Moving Quite Well'

As of last week, 109 families out of 483 remained on the Tampa Housing Authority property. Of those, 25 have yet to find a new place to call home.

"I think things are moving quite well," authority Vice President Leroy Moore said. "The families do seem to be more satisfied with their housing choice than in previous relocations."

The relocation is most evident at the trash bins. Furniture, appliances and clothes fill the deep containers. Housing employees, Moore said, are trying to keep up. Once a family turns in the key, employees go in to remove any abandoned belongings. Then they board the windows and door to deter looters and squatters.

Nearly three families a day are moving out now. And the authority has scheduled movers to arrive at specific apartments at set times - 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. - to load packed boxes.

For many families, leaving is bittersweet. Families such as Sadrick Renard and his mother, Agnes, who moved to the United States from Haiti.

Renard, 29, said residents called his mom the "candy lady" because she sold lollipops, two for a quarter, to anyone who stopped by her apartment on Harrison Street.

"She says all the kids know her," he said, translating for his 73-year-old mother, who does not speak English. "She looks forward to meeting new people."

The Renards lived at Central Park for seven years, but they moved Friday to an apartment at Belmont Heights Estates, a federally funded neighborhood on North 20th Street that replaced two previous housing properties.

The authority assisted his family and others by paying relocation costs such as security deposits and hiring movers.

"God will bless" the housing authority, Renard said. "They're cool people."

There are memories and friends and lifetimes spent on Central Park's 28-acre complex.

Retaining The Neighborhood's Spirit

This month, housing officials hope to bulldoze the barracks-style buildings. Redevelopment plans call for a mixed-income, mixed-use neighborhood with rental homes, condominiums, retail businesses and more.

The housing authority, in partnership with Bank of America, has pledged to retain as much of the spirit of the neighborhood as possible by refurbishing Perry Harvey Park and creating a black history museum.

"I'm going to miss it. I stayed here all my life," said Clarence Jones, 18, walking across the property as light rain fell Friday.

His family settled in the area between what is now downtown Tampa and Ybor City when it was known as The Scrubs. That was just after the Civil War, when the community was made up mostly of freed slaves and island refugees from the Bahamas, and named for the pine trees that grew there.

"I just hope when they rebuild it," he said, "they got memories."

Jones, who just graduated from Blake High School, said he plans to attend Hillsborough Community College to study business administration. He and his family moved Saturday to an apartment complex nearby, but it won't be permanent.

"I'll move back in as soon as they rebuild," he said.

Asked why, the answer comes without pause: "The community. Everybody stuck together like a village," Jones said. "We had our good and bad, but we had more good than bad."

Reporter John W. Allman can be reached at (813) 259-7915 or jallman@tampatrib.com.