Featured image: Florida Native Landscape and Design won the Home of the Year Award for a project on an historic home in the Historic Old Northeast.

City leaders, community members, and local visionaries joined the City Beautiful Commission for their 58th annual City Beautification Awards ceremony on October 23. Held at Sunken Gardens, the ceremony honored the projects that make St. Petersburg shine, including unique and remarkable work to improve our community and make our city greener. 

Projects included an initiative to develop a community pollinator corridor; an urban farming initiative that transforms empty lots into garden spaces; a volunteer community garden that focuses on sustainable regenerative farming practices to produce free fruits and vegetables for the community; as well as a local business’s preservation of the beautiful and established large oak trees on its property. … Read More

Featured image: Founder Michelle Sasha, left, and artist Jazzy Erickson are helping to lead the Love Thy Neighbor Project.

While street murals highlighting diversity and inclusion have been removed from the roadways around the region, those who still believe in that sentiment are finding new ways to express it. From flags to art to hand-painted signs in windows, neighbors are showing that love and tolerance still have a public face in our city. And at least one artist-driven movement, Love Thy Neighbor Project, is working to bring murals of empowerment and diversity to homes across Pinellas County.

Driveways, mailboxes, and doorsteps are being altered to host murals designed to, according to the project’s website, “celebrate inclusivity and honor marginalized communities.” The… Read More

St. Pete’s Historic Old Northeast neighborhood is a bland suburban HOA’s worst nightmare – in the best way possible. Few houses are alike. Many feature personalized touches like lawn ornaments, large artworks, fountains, or lush gardens – every block seems to have its own character.

One thing many residents do share: Historic Old Northeast Neighborhood Association (HONNA) flags hanging proudly from porches. The flags, and all HONNA branding, come in varying colors and designs, but with no unified theme – until now.

“We’re the oldest neighborhood in the city, and everyone knows who we are, so that made us a little lazy [about branding],” HONNA President Nick Bell said, laughing.… Read More

Ever since Lincoln declared an annual day of Thanksgiving in 1863, it became customary for presidents to issue a Proclamation of Thanksgiving each year. And in 1925, Calvin Coolidge did so on October 26th. His proclamation spoke to a year of national prosperity, noting that the nation was blessed with “resources whose potentiality in wealth is almost incalculable” and that the nation’s people “should set ourselves against evil and strive for righteousness in living, and observing the Golden Rule we should from our abundance help and serve those less fortunately placed.” (Coolidge incidentally made a visit to St. Pete with his wife Grace after he left office and stayed at the Vinoy Hotel.… Read More

Pictured: Very little was burned in Reeser’s Old Northeast apartment. Officials sent a box of evidence to the FBI.

Every year for our September-October issue, the Northeast Journal likes to get a little spooky. We’ve peeked into haunted spaces, marveled at glowing orbs, and shivered with otherworldly sensations, but this year I thought we’d examine something different: Spontaneous Human Combustion. A word of caution, however: tales of SHC are not for the faint of heart. (Seriously, content warning: gory details ahead!)

Spontaneous human combustion is the term applied to mysterious, often fatal, fires that appear to originate from the victims themselves. There have been approximately 300 cases of SHC documented over the past 200 years, with the first introduction of the term dating to 1746. Studies… Read More

Pictured: Curator Jenipher Chandley, artist Aaron Corbitt, artist John Taormina at the exhibit’s opening party.

There are over 30 galleries that participate each month in St. Petersburg’s long-established Second Saturday Art Walk, spanning seven arts districts and representing all disciplines. But not representing all artists. 

New and up-and-coming artists, artists who don’t fit neatly into a category, artists who just want to create and aren’t interested in the hustle… where can they find a place to exhibit? Beyond the dozens of galleries and museums in St. Pete, art finds a home in countless nontraditional spaces like bars and breweries, coffee shops, and restaurants.… Read More

Pictured: Asianna Lotito, center with board members Lisa Davis and Samantha Ghezelbash, founded The Sweet Friend, which provides school supplies, clothing, popsicles, and more for local students. Courtesy of The Sweet Friend Foundation

For some kids at Mount Vernon Elementary, the popsicles they receive for free each month are the only sweet treat they can count on. But popsicles don’t grow on trees. The popsicles, and the mountains of donated bookbags, school supplies, and even seasonal pumpkins, come from The Sweet Friend Foundation, a nonprofit founded by St. Petersburg resident Asianna Lotito.

“It’s a labor of love,” says Lotito. Mount Vernon Elementary in St.… Read More

As the adage goes, history repeats itself. But one St. Petersburg museum is intent on ensuring that never happens.

In their own words, the Florida Holocaust Museum (FHM) “honors the memory of millions of innocent men, women, and children who suffered or died in the Holocaust. The museum is dedicated to teaching people of all races and cultures the inherent worth and dignity of human life in order to prevent future genocides.”

The FHM, now one of the largest of its kind in the country, was founded in Madeira Beach in 1992 by Walter P. Loebenberg, a Holocaust survivor and U.S.… Read More

Pictured: Venouziou, right, and her friends Monica and Brian Guerrero celebrated her new citizenship outside the Citizenship and Immigration Services field office in Tampa.

For the last forty years, Ester Venouziou has felt as American as any of her friends and neighbors. But now, this renowned small business advocate has taken her oath and made it official. On August 5, 2025, alongside one hundred other applicants in the Citizenship and Immigration Services field office in Tampa, she became an U.S. citizen.

As the founder of LocalShops1 and St. Pete’s legendary Shopapalooza festival, Venouziou’s interest in small business began with her parents, two Greek immigrants who owned a fabric and linen business in Manaus, Brazil.… Read More

James Franklin Oliver, Sr., known popularly as Jim Oliver, was an amazing shortstop who played with the National, Florida, and local Negro Leagues and clubs from the 1940s to the 1950s. Equally noteworthy, he was a role model and mentor to hundreds of Black youths during the era of segregation. In addition to baseball, Oliver played semi-pro football and was an excellent golfer. Born near Waycross, Georgia in 1919, Oliver moved to St. Petersburg with his family at the age of 7. He attended Davis Elementary, but did not go on to high school and began working at about age 13.… Read More