Rick Baker (mayor)
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| Rick Baker | |
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| Order | Mayor of St. Petersburg |
| Term of Office | 2001–present |
| Predecessor | David Fischer |
| Successor | incumbent |
| Date of Birth | |
| Place of Birth | Chicago, Illinois |
| Wife | Joyce Baker |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| City Attorney | |
| City Clerk | |
| Political Party | Non-partisan office |
Rick Baker is the mayor of St. Petersburg, the fourth-largest city in Florida. Elected in 2001, he was reelected in November 2005 with more than 70% of the votes cast.
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[edit] Background
Born in Chicago, Baker is married to wife, Joyce, with two children.
Baker has a long background in management and law. Baker received a B.S. in management, M.B.A. and Juris Doctor with honors from Florida State University. He later studied comparative law at Oxford University. Baker has practiced corporate and business law for 20 years, serving as president of Fisher and Sauls, P.A., a St. Petersburg law firm.
Prior to his election as mayor, Baker served as the chairman of the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce. He is also the author of Mangroves to Major League, a historical account of the development of the city of St. Petersburg.
[edit] Mayor of St. Petersburg
[edit] Youth programs and education
Baker has been called the "education mayor" by the St. Petersburg Times. Baker was asked to chair Florida Governor Jeb Bush's "Municipal Mentoring Initiative" as well as a National League of Cities municipal mentoring task force.
Baker has been personally involved in motivating corporate leaders and city staff alike to partner and participate in St. Petersburg education. He has helped to raise private donations for hundreds of college and vocational scholarships, encouraged mentoring, recruited corporate partners for every school in the city, created a home-buying assistance program for St. Petersburg school teachers, and pioneered an program to use school property for new public-use playgrounds, setting a goal of having a playground within a half mile of every child in the city.
In 2005, 38 percent of the city's schools improved their Florida state ratings based on FCAT test results, compared to 10 percent of Florida public schools and 12 percent within the Pinellas County school system.
[edit] Economic development and city services
In addition to focusing on youth and education, Baker has also focused on revitalizing the city's urban core, Midtown, and improving city services.
As Baker continues his second term, St. Petersburg continues a period of economic growth. There is currently more than $1 billion in downtown developments underway downtown, including construction of more than 1,000 new residential units, a new corporate headquarters for Progress Energy, two downtown hotels, renovation of the city's Mahaffey Theater, development of a new waterfront park and a new building for the Salvador Dalí Museum, which will be located in the Progress Energy Center for the Arts.
[edit] Reelection and second term
Baker's re-election platform, called the "Baker Plan," focused on five areas: education; economic development, particularly in Midtown St. Petersburg; public safety; neighborhood associations; and improving the efficiency of city services.
Bakers' acheivments as mayor have been noted nationally, with some describing St. Petersburg as a model city in programs such as education and inner city revitalization. The Partners for Livable Communities, for example, recently designated St. Petersburg as one of "America's Most Livable Communities."
Bakers' term expires on January 2, 2010.
[edit] Criticism
Despite the widespread praise Baker has received during his tenure as mayory, some feel that his positions on development and curbside recycling leave important questions about the city's future that still need to be addressed.
Recently, Baker and his administration have been under fire for "Gestapo" type tactics with respect to ridding the city of "unwanted homeless people", a group of these peoples had their tents slashed by police and fire department personnel in hopes they would move on.[citation needed]
