My e-bike/e-scooter envy really took hold last fall. It was gradual at first, and started in earnest one day when I was sitting in the passenger seat with my husband at the wheel, waiting in a long line of cars at a red light. A person’s shadow passed, momentarily shading my face. I was instantly aware and a little in awe…I thought, “What is that they’re riding? Is it safe? It sure looks fast. It’s beating the traffic!” Then I said to myself, “I could ride that.” So began the journey for me to find an e-vehicle of my own.

With personal safety being paramount, I wondered what I should, and could, ride.… Read More

They say gardening takes patience. Old Northeast resident Rick Miller knows a little about that. He emailed the Northeast Journal to tell us about the bromeliad growing in his yard. It’s called alcantarea imperialis, and the plant rewards growers with blooms stretching up to eight feet high. However, you might pay off a 30-year mortgage and never see the awesome display because this plant can take at least eight years – and sometimes up to four decades – to send up its tower of flower. The flower can last up to a year, but when the bloom is done, the show is over. … Read More

On May 12, St. Petersburg Press and nonprofit literary arts organization Keep St. Pete Lit joined forces to celebrate St. Pete’s literary scene at the Palladium Theatre’s Side Door. This inaugural event, “Sunlit After Dark,” marked the collaboration of the two grassroots literary organizations to revel in the positive impact that reading and writing plays in St. Pete.

Highlights of the festivities included presentations of the Roy Peter Clark Award, Literary Year in Review, an introduction of special local literary guests, and music by live band Front Porch Picnic as well as light appetizers and cash bar. General admission was free, but VIP tickets, to benefit Keep St.… Read More

Slugger Babe Ruth, the Iron Horse Lou Gehrig, Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio and… best-selling author Dennis Lehane. Three are Yankees and the fourth is “a Yankee.” All are part of the Old Northeast lore of colorful characters and notable people who’ve passed through the neighborhood. However, separating fact from fiction is tricky. 

The Great Bambino is referenced so often HONNA could sell signs saying “Babe Ruth Slept Here.” It might be a real moneymaker, given the number of places he’s said to have hung his cap over the course of fifteen springs in St. Pete. From the Flori de Leon Apartments (where he and Gehrig rented dualling penthouses) to the Jungle Country Club Hotel to the Snell Isle Apartments, the Babe got around.… Read More

Tom Jones: Here We Stand, hosted by the Museum of Fine Arts, explores the modern lives of Native Americans through the lens of one of the tribe, and is the first major retrospective of the Ho-Chunk photographer’s work. Comprised of parts of a dozen series from Jones’ body of work, it includes tribal elders, family life, spirituality, and ideas of cross-cultural appropriation. The pieces shift between documentary and conceptual, with an interest in challenging assumptions, exposing stereotypes, and revealing contemporary tribal experiences. 

Jones, an accomplished artist, writer, curator, and educator, is also an enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin.… Read More

This summer, you may see a new flag flying in the Old Northeast. In addition to the familiar designs of the neighborhood association’s popular honeycomb/hexblock designs, the area’s oldest homes now have a flag all their own. When you see the new Centennial Home Banner outside, you know the house is at least 100 years old. 

With several hundred century-old homes in the neighborhood, the new flag should add another pop of color amongst the current array of banners – and historical distinction for residents and visitors. At least, that’s the goal of the Historic Old Northeast Neighborhood Association (HONNA). 

“The Old Northeast has a lot of pride as a neighborhood, and we felt this flag was another way to instill pride,” said HONNA President Nick Bell. … Read More

You’re walking through St. Pete’s Crescent Lake Park on a Wednesday afternoon and you see a particularly colorful rock. Unable to resist, you pick it up. This is no ordinary glittery stone. It’s painted orange and pink and blue with a goofy cartoon bird winking at you from its smooth surface. Is it game piece? A lost toy? You flip it over and there’s a message: Go to St Pete Rocks Facebook page.

Before you can even pocket the stone, you’ve got your phone out. That’s when you learn that there’s a whole community – a seemingly secret world – of “painters, hiders, and posters” of painted rocks sharing their art and telling stories about their finds. … Read More

In “Exploring St. Pete’s Jewish History, Part 1” historian Monica Kile introduced many of St. Petersburg’s early Jewish families and how they helped to shape the culture and economy of the city. In part two, we take a closer look at their challenges and successes. Read part one here.

In the last issue, we met Old Northeast resident Jay Miller, and learned about how his and other Jewish families came to live and build successful businesses alongside each other in St. Petersburg in the first half of the 20th century. But, particularly in the early years, they also faced widespread antisemitism. … Read More

We are now well into the 2023 hurricane season, though St. Petersburg thankfully has not seen a direct hit since 1921. Known as the Tarpon Springs Hurricane, the 1921 hurricane was a Category 4 while over the Gulf, with winds declining to a Category 3 by landfall. A six-to-eleven-foot storm surge flooded low-lying areas throughout Pinellas County, including St. Petersburg. Since then, there have been many near misses, two of the most recent being Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Hurricane Ian just last year. Irma, a Category 5 over water, brushed St. Petersburg with a negative surge that emptied the bay.… Read More

Swimming with dolphins or seeing snow for the first time, meeting Taylor Swift or having a superhero bedroom makeover – these are just a few of the dreams a team out of St. Petersburg regularly makes happen for children with life-threatening illnesses. 

For more than four decades, the Children’s Dream Fund has been making dreams come true for children right in our own backyard. Headquartered near Crescent Heights in St. Petersburg, the fund has served more than 3,500 children, ages 3 to 21, since its founding in 1981. “The people working in the children or young adult medical field, they’re dealing hands-on with some very tough situations,” Director of Dreams Lisa Hawk says.… Read More