Eric Swanson waited for his wife Heather Graeme at the VA hospital where he was being seen for high blood pressure. After an unrelated Urgent Care visit out of town, he was advised to have his blood pressure checked by his hometown physician, as it seemed the medication he was previously prescribed was no longer adequate. When Heather entered the room, Eric’s eyes uncharacteristically welled with tears when he saw her. He immediately blurted out, “I have PKD.” At that time, she didn’t know what it was, or how it would change their lives forever. PKD is short for polycystic kidney disease.… Read More

Summer in the Old Northeast: the shouts of kids splashing in swimming pools, the howl of leaf blowers, the hum of mosquitoes, and the song of the ice cream truck – warbled by the humid air. In summer, there’s plenty of parking on Beach Drive and you don’t need a reservation. But a lot of our neighbors beat the heat by disappearing north. A few years ago, we decided to join the club.

It wasn’t retirement that afforded my family the chance to spend summers in a cooler climate. Our life changed five years ago, when I spent much of the summer of 2016 hospitalized from a series of major medical events.… Read More

Robert (Bob) L. Ulrich served as mayor of St. Petersburg from 1987 to 1991. Ulrich, now 87, continues to be engaged in the city he loves. He is a zealous protector of the Downtown Waterfront Parks and an active member of the Waterfront Parks Foundation. One of his other passions is baseball. He closely follows the current negotiations over the future of the Rays. As mayor, he played a major role in bringing Major League Baseball to St. Petersburg.

At the time he became mayor, the city already had made the bold decision to build a stadium without obtaining any assurance of a baseball franchise to play in it.… Read More

Residents of St. Petersburg have long admired the iconic property at 2221 4th Street North with the English-cottage style architecture. Over the years, it’s housed many landmark institutions, including the popular French restaurant Rollande et Pierre and the Melting Pot, famous for its fondue. Local history buffs will also recall that from 1940 to 1959 the venue was The Earl Gresh Wood Parade Museum, a well-known Florida roadside attraction that showcased the wood carvings of the colorful St. Pete character Earl Gresh. Now, new owners plan to transform it once again, this time as a craft beer pub restaurant and brewery called Sesh.… Read More

From December to May, it’s not uncommon to see Hilda Neily with her easel and palette of paints on the sidewalk of one of Crescent Heights brick-paved streets. She’s an impressionist plein air painter in the style set forth by master impressionist painters like Monet and Renoir. Plein air is a French term for ‘in the open air.’

In fact, Neily invites anyone who enjoys painting outdoors to come and join her. “The Impressionists often painted together,” she says. “You can learn from each other, see something different.”

Neily has the distinction of being one of the most prominent painters today in the Cape School of Art tradition.… Read More

There are a variety of interest groups in our city. These include the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership, Pinellas Realtor Organization, Sierra Club, NAACP, Waterfront Parks Foundation and Preserve the ’Burg. Another important group is the Council of Neighborhood Associations, commonly known by its acronym ‘CONA.’

CONA’s mission is “to maintain its stature as a leading community organization for building a safe, high quality, and seamless city in order to meet the current and future needs of our diverse community. The vital role CONA plays in strengthening and advocating for neighborhoods through our many initiatives and activities contributes to a city of neighborhoods offering quality of life, and embracing mutual respect and appreciation among all people.”… Read More

Imagine getting paid for your hobby. Shore Acres resident John Satino does just that. He’s a car guy from way back in his childhood, hanging out in his stepdad’s garage, and later fixing cars needing a lot of work, which he bought from the ‘back lot’ of the local Chevy dealership and then sold for a profit. He was changing out engines and transmissions even before he had his driver’s license in his original state of Ohio. Since 1984, his car collection has been featured in numerous television and movie productions, sometimes generating a nice daily stipend, though clearly John would collect cars with or without the added attention.… Read More

Take a stroll around the Mirror Lake neighborhood and soak in the beauty and history of the area, as well as the unique architecture of the buildings. The neighborhood is rich in 1920s-era architecture and a feast for the eyes. Styles include Beaux Arts, Masonry Vernacular, Mediterranean Revival, Modern, and Moorish. More recent buildings include the modernist Judicial Building, the Sebring State Offices, and Wannemacher-Jensen Architects.

Mirror Lake itself is the only lake downtown and believed to be part of a string of ancient lakes that also includes Crescent Lake. The lakes offered Native Americans a source of fresh water long before Europeans arrived.… Read More

Sometimes a simple synchronicity can be life-changing in ways we couldn’t dream of at the time. That’s what happened for Barbara Rhode, a St. Petersburg licensed marriage and family therapist and founder of the Red Tent Women’s Initiative.

Barbara had just finished reading Anita Diamant’s book, The Red Tent – a compelling fiction about the ancient tradition of women seeking comfort in each other’s company while they spent time in the “red tent.” The book reinforced Barbara’s belief that for many women, having a safe space to share their feelings and experiences was very much missing in today’s society.

At an estate sale a few months later, she had the odd sensation that something was wrong from the minute she walked into the house.… Read More

Looking back at our own personal history can help us reflect on where we’ve been in order to see how far we’ve come. Architectural preservation can do the same for a community, allowing us to look back and appreciate a different time in history. It gives us a visible connection to the past while we forge ahead to the future. Since the early ’90s, Old Northeast resident Maureen Stafford has made it her mission to save and restore well over 30 homes in St. Petersburg – an impressive achievement in helping preserve the city’s unique history.

A self-made architectural preservationist with an innate passion, relentless perseverance and an undeniable vision, Maureen has done a remarkable job making sure that run-down old treasures are transformed with new life.… Read More