Page 11 - Florida Sentinel 4-22-16 Edition

Local
Sylvia’s Soul Food Restaurant
Online Driver’s License Services Unavailable During Relocation
Fighting To Keep Doors Open
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) technol- ogy hardware will relocate next month.
Several online services will not be available beginning at 8 p.m. on Friday, May 6th until 8 a.m., Monday, May 9th. Ad- ditionally, customers will not be able to access the depart- ment’s Internet services.
Customers who know their driver’s license, identification card, or vehicle registration will expire on or before May
10th, are advised to visit an of- fice or go online for renewals before 5 p.m., on Friday, May 6th, to ensure their license, ID card, or registration does not expire.
However, all law enforce- ment related systems will re- main operational throughout the weekend.
Customers can visitwww.GatherGoGet.com to prepare for their next visit to a driver license office or renew online at GoRenew.com.
BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer
When Sylvia’s Queen Of Soul Food Restaurant opened in St. Petersburg in November 2013, it came with help from the city.
The city put $3 million into renovating the historic building at 642 22nd Street, South, hoping the investment would pay off, and banking on the restaurant anchoring a Midtown renaissance that would breathe energy into the city’s poorest neighbor- hoods.
However by the first three months of 2014, Larry and Bettye Newsome, the own- ers of Sylvia’s, experienced a drop in business, and they haven’t recovered.
City Attorneys began preparing action to evict the Newsomes, who run Urban Development Solutions, a non-profit that leased the ground floor of the Manhat- tan Casino for the restaurant.
The city is saying they are owed $70,000 in back rent, late fees and property taxes, and if the debt wasn’t paid in full by December 29, 2015, eviction proceedings would begin.
Since that announcement, Mr. Newsome has met with city officials, asking for more time to take care of the debt. They are scheduled to meet with officials on May 27th.
Mrs. Newsome said it didn’t help their efforts when a story was published that the restaurant was closed.
“We are not closed. We’re
LARRY NEWSOME
BETTYE NEWSOME
Study To Determine If New Test Can Identify Prostate Cancer In African American Men
SYLVIA’S QUEEN OF SOUL FOOD RESTAURANT
Moffitt Cancer Center is opening a study that will de- termine if a new tumor test known as Decipher® can find aggressive prostate cancer in Black men, as well as in men of other ethnicities.
The Moffitt study, refer- enced as the VanDAAM Study: Validation of Decipher Test in African American Men with Prostate Cancer, will collect the Decipher sam- ples donated from African American men to test how ag- gressive their disease may be.
Kosj Yamoah, MD, PhD, assistant member of the Radiation Oncology Depart- ment and Cancer Epidemiol- ogy Program, is leading the study.
Participants do not need to come to Moffitt to take part in this study; they can work with their community physi- cians.
For more information, contact study coordinator Angelina Fink at (813) 745- 2588 or Angelina.Fink@Mof- fitt.org.
still working on keeping the restaurant open.
“We’re looking for in- vestors or anyone else willing to step in and help us stay open.”
Mrs. Newsome said they are disappointed with the lack of support they’ve gotten from the community.
“We’ve spent a lot of money in upgrades and im- provements to the restau- rant. To lose everything now would be devastating.
“Moving to another loca- tion is an option but that also comes with expenses. We’ve even discussed moving to Tampa. We just aren’t getting the support we should.”
Mr. Newsome said be- cause they are currently in litigation, he can’t comment on anything involving the ne- gotiations he’s been involved in with city officials.
“I will say, we aren’t closed, nor do we intend to close.”
FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 11-A