Ask most folks about their favorite neighborhood wildlife and you’ll probably hear about birds, butterflies, or adorable squirrel antics. One critter you probably won’t hear much about is the bat. Legends swirl around these nocturnal mammals: that they’ll flap blindly into your hair, drink your blood, give you rabies, or even destroy your home. On reflection, maybe we’ve all been watching a bit too many horror movies. 

Whatever the source of these frightful fantasies, says Shari Blisset-Clark, president of Florida Bat Conservancy, they unfortunately mask the true value of a remarkable animal – one we should welcome into our communities. “I think bats make wonderful neighbors!”… Read More

Katherine Bell Tippetts was certainly one of the most remarkable woman leaders St. Petersburg has produced. She grew up in Somerset County, Maryland. She married an international newspaper correspondent and newspaper owner, Col. William H. Tippetts, and arrived in St. Petersburg with her husband in 1902. She lived here until her death in 1950.

Following the death of her husband in 1909, Tippetts took control of her husband’s business interests, including the Belmont Hotel, located at 575 Central Avenue. Financially successful, she sent two sons to Princeton, a third son to the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a daughter to Florida State College for Women.… Read More

It has never been unusual for Burt and Carol Kline to see pelicans from the porch of their Whispering Waters condominium, located just across Shore Drive from a peaceful stretch of Tampa Bay. But a 15-foot-tall pelican in brilliant shades of purple, blue, and yellow? That’s something only a gorgeous marriage of art and nature ­– and Florida-inspired painter Belinda Davis – could produce. 

The pelican, shown in close-up against a bright turquoise sea, with a glimpse of St. Pete’s historic Inverted Pyramid Pier in the distance, is the subject of a new mural Davis recently finished at the condominium complex.… Read More

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