Community honors pedestrian killed on Bayshore Blvd.

TAMPA, Fla. - What marked a place of tragedy along Bayshore Boulevard days ago, now marks a place of hope. 

Dozens gathered Saturday morning near the intersection of Bayshore Blvd and Julia Street near the site of the Thursday morning crash that killed jogger George Gage. 

“George always had a smile on his face,” said Bill Josey, a Gage family friend. “He was truly one of those people, and they’re pretty rare, who never had a bad word to say about anybody.” 

Armed with shoelaces, and a police escort, one-by-one those in attendance tied the laces together and blocked Bayshore Blvd for a short time on Saturday morning. 

“George never imagined in a million years that he would be killed by a drunk driver on his Bayshore Blvd,” explained Josey. The advocates in attendance want to make sure the same scenario doesn’t happen to anyone else. 

“Three deaths in under two years is a horrible record,” explained Bayshore Resident Alexander Engelman, one of the many pushing for a redesign of Bayshore. “It takes time and we know that…but there’s urgency. It hasn’t changed enough.” 

Engelman, and the group Take Back Bayshore, are currently circulating petitions and rallying support for a structural redesign of Bayshore Boulevard and the surrounding sidewalk and park area.