Do you remember a time when your local mom-and-pop corner store was clean, had something for everyone, and employed a warm and friendly staff who cared about its customers and community? These attributes for the recently opened BP Old Northeast General Store were the dream for owner Steve May. His dream has been realized.

Steve grew up in rural Ohio where the local general store played a huge role. Steve recalls, “It’s where we bought our bottles of Coke and penny candies. And where people were friends and neighbors before they were customers, and where a sense of community was supported.… Read More

A 1961 Times editorial entitled “Everybody’s Target: Al Capone,” stated “St. Petersburg and Pinellas County have been fortunate over their lifetime because our citizens have elected sheriffs and appointed police chiefs who have seen to it that racketeers moved on and never got a start here. That’s the way the citizens wanted it when Pinellas broke away from Hillsborough 50 years ago and that’s the way they want it today. In their heyday Al Capone, Johnny Torrio and other gangsters came to St. Petersburg, but their welcome was so cold and their stay so brief that the incident is hardly a footnote to history.”… Read More

This old Florida boy trembled a bit as I strode into the St. Petersburg Museum of History. I pride myself on being able to occasionally talk or write about history – mostly about Tampa – that I have observed, being an almost-native Floridian. I say “almost” because I was already an eight-year-old when my family moved here from ‘the big-city’ Atlanta.

The trembling was the result of realizing I had been asked to write about a real student of Florida history, Dr. Will Michaels. You have seen his knowledgeable, thoughtful, and well-researched stories in every issue of the Northeast Journal since the first one in September 2004, always ‘below the fold’ in its prominent location at the bottom of page one.… Read More

Escape reality and experience international time-travel right here in St. Petersburg. For free! A little-acknowledged, outdoor treasure, suited for all ages, has always been readily available, on the waterfront, right on North Shore Drive – all thanks to the generosity and devotion of one of our own.

On a recent morning while strolling the garden along the waterfront, my husband and I encountered people touring on Segways, groups of runners, acrobats with a photographer, families on bikes, squirrels, blue jays, butterflies, and, of course, lizards. All of them were enjoying the shady, brick walkways, the wide pergola, restful benches and water fountains in the Gizella Kopsick Palm Arboretum.… Read More