The first rule of the St. Petersburg Bike Co-op: It’s not a bike shop. For a total of six hours a week, the co-op at 559 Mirror Lake Drive North is open for anyone to come in and buy a bike or get a bike repair. The bikes are mostly donated or built from scratch by shop volunteers and mechanics. That factor allows prices to be extremely low. 

“I didn’t enjoy working for profit,” says shop coordinator Caelan Jeffery. “Working with expensive bikes and pompous people, it’s not for me.” 

Along with a fluctuating team of about 10 volunteers, mechanic and co-op coordinator Jeffery runs the show in an equal distribution of power that only a co-op can truly attain.… Read More

There’s a hidden gem on the second floor of a 1916 building that was once known as the Rutland’s department store: The ArtLofts of St. Petersburg. Established as ArtSpace in 1996, with a name change to ArtLofts in 2002, it is the longest, continually running artist studio space in St. Petersburg.

ArtLofts houses artist studios on the top floor of this building, which also holds the Florida CraftArt gallery and offices. This working artist enclave hosts a variety of mediums ranging from copper and wire sculpture to photography, watercolor and acrylic paintings, encaustic works, collage, and more. 

For most of the year, Old Northeast resident Margaret Ann Burtchaell is hard at work in her commercial kitchen on 4th Street, where she and her team are busy creating everything from specialty cookies to gourmet comfort food. 

But in the summer, her kitchen is in a villa in Italy, where she teaches cooking classes to guests enjoying a week-long vacation in the Sabine hills just outside of Rome. The villa is part of a 150-acre estate that includes orchards full of cherry, fig, orange and lemon trees, olive groves, and rosemary bushes.

“It was one of those unexpected blessings in life that come along,” says Burtchaell.… Read More

Though he’s an anthropologist rather than an archaeologist, Bryan T. Shuler is an adventurer, scholar, professor, musician, pilot, and all-around fascinating guy – much like Indiana Jones, except that Shuler is the real deal. Sometimes, when he is on one of his adventures, he even wears a hat that looks suspiciously like the iconic fedora.

Shuler’s life reads like an adventure novel, with wild tales from his globe-trotting escapades: getting charged by a bull elephant as a Fulbright Scholar in Ghana; being surrounded by whales as the onboard anthropologist for the National Geographic Explorer during a six-week expedition off the coast of Africa; hiking in the Yung Frau region in the Swiss Alps; he still recalls “the breathtaking view and thrill of crossing a glacier in a crevice.”… Read More

Seeing the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club trophy wall on Netflix feels like a glitch in the Matrix. Cindy Smith-Maglione, a Redington Beach resident and the former vice president of merchandising for Abercrombie & Fitch, gave an interview under the iconic white-and-green shuffleboard club sign in White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch on Netflix. It’s not just any documentary – it was one of the top shows on the streaming service.

Staff members at St.… Read More

St. Petersburg was once known largely for its senior population, but that demographic did not begin to develop until about 1950. Between 1930 and 1940, the proportion of those 65 and older ranged from 10% to 15%, although this was still substantially higher than the total US population. In 1960, the percent of those 65 years and older was 28%, and peaked at 31% in 1970. As of 2019, the percentage was a fraction over 20%, still above the national average around 17%.

St. Petersburg has a long history of its senior population supporting the city, and the city offering a helping hand to seniors who need it.… Read More

Growing up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, Girl Scout camp was the highlight of my summer. Two weeks away from home living in the woods was a dream come true. It’s where I learned to sail a Sunfish, paddle a canoe, and never leave my sleeping bag unzipped after finding daddy longlegs taking a nap inside. Camp is also where I landed my first journalism “job” as a reporter for the little newspaper we published each week.

When an invitation came from the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida to visit Camp Wai Lani in Palm Harbor, enjoy some of the activities and sample this year’s lineup of Girl Scout Cookies, I jumped at the chance. … Read More

I recently had occasion to watch Stanley Kramer’s 1960 classic film Inherit the Wind, about the 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial.” Frederic March plays William Jennings Bryan, defending the Tennessee law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in public schools. Spencer Tracey plays Clarence Darrow, defending the high school teacher John T. Scopes, who is charged with violating the law. Bryan, known as the “Great Commoner,” was a three-time presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket and served for two years as Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of State. Darrow was perhaps the most famous trial lawyer of the time.

This summer marks the 97th anniversary of that historic trial, one that has surprising St.… Read More

What do a wealthy real estate speculator, a Confederate veteran, and a holocaust survivor have in common? They all called the same corner of the Old Northeast their home. 

The house at 1630 Locust Street had been in Dave Bennett’s family since his mother bought it in 1974. Back then, it still featured two apartments on the second floor, remnants of its years as a guest house. Dave and his wife, Pam, bought it in 1996 when the large home became too much for his mother to care for. They’d done some cursory research as they renovated the home over the years, but like many residents in St.… Read More

Emily Elwyn’s on a mission, and she won’t be stopped. Not by a pandemic, not by the summer heat, and certainly not by the elusive nature of what she seeks – the nightblooming cereus. You may have seen one, but probably not in bloom.

Unbloomed, the nightblooming cereus looks like a cactus and a vine had a spiky love child. When it blooms, though, it’s a spectacle of light and majesty, a post-twilight celebration. The white chalice-shaped blooms unfurl from the spiny cactus vine that can climb 30 feet into the air. For only a few hours – on just one night each year – they turn trees, telephone poles, and fences into summertime Christmas trees.… Read More