Each person who calls St. Petersburg home does so for their own reasons. For me, it has always been an unquenchable fascination with the history of our city, especially its beautiful buildings and historical landmarks.

In fact, my passion for Florida history largely stemmed from living in the Sunshine City. I found an endless supply of historical oddities, landmarks, and monuments that helped define the city I now called home.

Monuments themselves don’t necessarily have to be stone obelisks, plaques, or statues; buildings themselves are monuments to the people who built them, their ideals, and society as it was during the time they were built.… Read More

Within five minutes of their first meeting, Chris Steinocher, president of the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce, knew immediately that Chad Nuss and his new tech company, InsideOut, would be huge wins for St. Petersburg. Chad and his team are exactly the kind of young, creative entrepreneurs the city is focused on attracting. For Chad, coming to St. Pete felt like the perfect fit, too.

I met Chad recently for coffee at the Black Crow coffee shop in the Old Northeast where we both live. I wanted to learn more about what attracted his family and his business to St. Petersburg, and how they are settling in.… Read More

Invest in your happiness, declares Old Northeast artist, Anna Ayres. For Anna – a watercolor, oil and acrylic painter – creating art answers the call to be happy.  Her work, “reflects what she sees in nature and doesn’t try to make it one thing or another, but just lets it be.”

“I have always been an artist,” says Anna. “From the moment I could hold a crayon, I have thoroughly enjoyed putting color to surface, although it hasn’t always been something that was encouraged or supported. It’s taken many years of yoga, meditation, and self-discovery to understand what it means to be an artist and to take action toward becoming one.”  Anna’s artwork can be found at www.artbyannaayres.com, as well as St.… Read More

The day started with an early morning assembly in the central patio courtyard of Canterbury’s Lower School on Snell Isle. Moms and dads stood patiently with grade-schoolers in uniforms. First came the Pledge of Allegiance and achievement awards, then the highlight of the morning – a student-run farmer’s market with bright red radishes, kale, lettuces, herbs, and cherry tomatoes for sale. It was a bounty from the school’s new STEAM garden.

The inspiration of Breck Moorefield, Canterbury’s art teacher, the garden is a several-year project that came together late last year, thanks to a big helping hand from Nic Weathersbee of Urban Micro Farms who provided professional advice on just about everything: organic garden design, tools, hauling tree stumps and branches, digging out the beds and filling them with soil, ordering seeds and picking out plants and seeds, planting them, and teaching the students all necessary garden know-how.… Read More

If a teleporter existed, where would you go first?
Platform 9 ¾. (If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you know that Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross Station is where you depart for Hogwarts.)

A gadget you can’t live without:
Air Conditioning

Favorite childhood book:
Amelia Bedelia

What is something funny that has happened to you?
We recently bought some baby chickens for our backyard. They were all supposed to be hens, but we quickly realized that one of the ‘hens’ was actually a rooster when it started crowing every morning. We were a big hit with our neighbors for a few days until we were able to find a farm that would take him.… Read More

Lariana Forsythe: CASA’s New CEO

While many neighbors in our community are aware of the tremendous work done by CASA (Community Action Stops Abuse), a new CEO at the helm hopes to take the organization to the next level through good management and smart decisions.

Lariana Forsythe, CASA’s new CEO, is young, vibrant, and full of ideas to improve the nonprofit organization which has been providing support to victims of domestic violence since 1977.  She comes to CASA from Phoenix, where she was the chief development officer and vice president for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Phoenix.

Lariana grew up in Arizona but summered on Long Boat Key and Sarasota as a child.… Read More

“Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells…”
Edgar Allan Poe

It’s early evening and the lights are on inside. I exit my car, walk up a few steps, and open the door. I know that I’m in the right place because the music seems to draw me inside. The piano plays as angelic voices chime through the hands of members of the Vesper Bells hand ringers. Here at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Shore Acres, the outside world seems far away as the sanctuary fills with the bells’ wordless message.… Read More

If you’re walking the dog in the neighborhood and you hear a lilting aria from Puccini’s La Bohème floating down to the sidewalk, you could surmise one of two things: your neighbors are either incredibly talented or incredibly gracious.

Our very own St. Petersburg Opera Company has relied on our neighbors in the Old Northeast, Snell Isle, Crescent Lake, and Crescent Heights to host visiting opera singers, musicians, and behind-the-scenes talent.

Now in its twelfth season, the SPO requires housing for 18-20 guest artists for each of its four mainstage productions throughout the year. Singers are typically in town for four-to-six weeks or longer, depending on the performance or whether they’re part of SPO’s Emerging Artist program.… Read More

Cities rich in history have a patchwork of buildings, old and new, historic and modern architectures, side by side. How do cities like Rome or Paris become treasures of the world today? Time. Quality. Care.

Organizations like St. Petersburg Preservation – recently rebranded as Preserve the ’Burg – are doing just that: serving as champions for making sure future generations can enjoy the ’Burg’s interesting and eclectic heritage.

It was a beautiful evening at Nova 535, an historic event space on 9th Avenue North, as Preserve the ’Burg celebrated its 40th anniversary this past January with a party and panel discussion featuring local experts talking about the organization’s accomplishments, as well as the direction for the future.… Read More

How many times have you questioned your career path? As we mature, we often think about finding a job that is more rewarding, does more to help others, or would make a difference for our community or society. But how many of us would be willing to actually take that risk once our careers are firmly established and successful? The Rev. Dr. Dawn Conti, the new senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church on Beach Drive, was willing.

When I asked Rev. Conti what gave her the inspiration, courage, and confidence to answer a call to ministry and change careers, she responded: “Soren Kierkegaard says that life is lived forward, but understood looking back.” Looking at her own life, she says she is able to see now that she wrestled with the decision to become an ordained minster for many years before finally answering the call.… Read More