Featured image: Pollack’s latest book is a Law-and-Order-meets-Wild Things novel based in Florida’s Rainbow River State Park. Photo courtesy of the FDEP

When Howard Pollack wrote his true crime novel based on the Long Island serial killer, he had no idea the fictional detail of DNA from a pizza box would turn out to be a near-life detail from the case. Maybe the intuitive thinking is due to his more than three-decade career as a lawyer – in Long Island. 

While he still has his New York accent, it’s been nearly 10 years since Pollack packed up and moved to St.… Read More

The 2024 storm season won’t soon be forgotten. The city experienced back-to-back hurricanes that flooded homes and carved up the landscape. But even in the darkness, there is light. The residents of this area did what they do best: they helped each other. This included hands reaching out to our local artist community.

After Milton, things were amiss in many ways. The October Art Walk was suspended. The SHINE mural festival was delayed. A popular event, Hauntizaar, was canceled. Art receptions were left unattended, art unseen, and unsold. Two art centers on the beaches, as well as numerous galleries, like A Little Room for Art, were flooded and closed. A… Read More

Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Big Bend area on September 26, one of the strongest and deadliest storms ever to hit the southeastern United States. A once-in-a-lifetime storm.

Less than two weeks later, the second strongest hurricane ever recorded in Gulf of Mexico hit just south of Sarasota, near Siesta Key.  

Few of us in the Bay Area were completely untouched. If it wasn’t our family or our home, it was someone we love or work alongside. It was the shared hurt of knowing a block, a neighborhood, a business, a community, that would simply never be the same.  

It is amazing that in just the last edition of the Northeast Journal we explored the impact of Tropical Storm Debby on St. Petersburg and the state of city flood control planning. We ended that article with the observation that “while the storm served as a good test of the extensive city storm and wastewater improvements to date, it also served as another warning of the urgent need to fully implement the Stormwater Master Plan with all deliberate speed, and to accelerate planning for mitigation of major storm surge.”

Little did we know how soon the next tests would come. 

Tropical Storm Debby impacted St.… Read More

What is the antithesis of last-minute scrambling to buy your family Starbucks and Amazon gift cards for the holidays? Shopapalooza. 

Shopapalooza is a giant, two-day outdoor market in Vinoy Park, packed with local vendors, artists, and cuisine. This year it runs from Saturday, November 30 and Sunday, December 1, 10 am to 5 pm. 

Just a few days after Thanksgiving, Shopapalooza is a chance to support local businesses, and get holiday shopping under wraps, but the very best part? Partial proceeds benefit non-profits for kids in Pinellas. 

Whether you’re new to the area or have had an historic bungalow in your family for generations, everyone falls in love with our little corner of St. Petersburg sooner or later. In honor of 20 years delivering stories about our community to our community, we asked readers to share their very favorite things about the greater Old Northeast neighborhoods.  

Year-round gardening. With an ever-growing tree canopy and beautiful weather (most of the year), there’s never a bad time to play in the yard. Unless you don’t enjoy that sort of thing, and then you can always admire the work of others.… Read More

Shuffleboard is fun! Hanging out with friends and making new ones? Also fun! Raising money for an incredibly good cause, while playing shuffleboard with friends and enjoying delicious food and drink? Right this way to the Ready to Shuffle charity event at St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club on Thursday, November 7. 

The second annual benefit for Ready for Life, a skill center that supports former foster care youth, offers attendees fun, refreshments, and the heartfelt satisfaction of helping those who need it. Whether you’re a regular shuffler or just curious, all are invited to come out for a cause that offers “homelessness prevention, education and employment, and lifeline support networks” for former foster youth.… Read More

Rev. Ben Atherton-Zeman has done impressions since childhood, and he’s good at them, immediately launching into an amusing channeling of broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite and the Monty Python comedy troupe. “What can I say,” he jokes, “I was an only child and growing up I had to entertain myself.” 

While Atherton-Zeman may have a gift for comedy – he met his wife Lucinda while they were both performing improv – it was not meant to be his life’s work. Instead, Atherton-Zeman, the new minister of the Unitarian Universality Church of St. Petersburg, used his talent for humor toward a very altruistic purpose: social justice.  … Read More

This fall, the Northeast Journal celebrates its 20th anniversary of bringing readers the “good news” stories that make St. Petersburg such a special place. It’s a remarkable accomplishment.  What’s been the secret to success? It’s the NEJ’s mission – the celebration of community and connection, with stories about friends, neighbors, colleagues, and acquaintances who are making a difference.  

“When the personal story can be told and readers can feel the common humanity, that’s what makes the NEJ successful,” said publisher Jen MacMillen. “With every story, we can’t just take the obvious top layer. We have to go deep. Why does that person volunteer at CASA?… Read More

We are again in the thick of the hurricane season and, while St. Petersburg has not had direct hit since the devastating Tarpon Springs Hurricane in October 1921, there have been many near misses: Hurricane Irma (Cat 5) in 2017, Hurricane Ian (Cat 5) in 2022, Hurricane Idalia (Cat 4) in 2023, and already this season Tropical Storm Debby, which evolved into a Category 1 after its center passed approximately 100 miles west of St. Pete. Even glancing blows from these storms caused significant damage to our city, particularly Hurricane Idalia, which flooded approximately 1400 homes though it made landfall 150 miles north. … Read More