Being known as the Sunshine City didn’t happen by accident. It’s a badge the city wears with pride, averaging 361 days a year of warm, welcoming sunshine. Along with an abundance of sunshine comes sunburns and equally painful summer electricity bills, but there’s also opportunity. Specifically, we can explore rapidly growing clean energy initiatives, especially solar. Recently, St. Pete was proud to announce that we’ve joined 19 other cities, stretching from coast to coast, in dedicating ourselves to a goal of “100% clean, renewable energy for all.” Our mayor, Rick Kriseman, issued the following statement regarding the Ready for 100 campaign, “The Integrated Sustainability Action Plan builds on my executive order on sustainability by creating a roadmap to achieve the City’s long-term sustainability goals.… Read More

In Honor of Susan Woods Alderson
December 7, 1944 to November 10, 2016
Managing Editor and Photographer of
the Northeast Journal

How does one capture the spirit and life of the original ‘Original’ – that being the title of a new series of articles about St. Petersburg natives, invented by Susan Alderson? I wrote the first in the series for the November/December 2016 issue of the Journal.

As I was doing that interview with our first individual, Helen Dewalt, asking questions and furiously scribbling my notes, photographer Susan enthusiastically circled around us – nonstop clicking, up and down, right and left – except when she giggled with excitement each time Helen’s recollections reminded her of something she loved.… Read More

In a city with an amazing number of talented artists, Ya La’ford stands out. A visionary artist with a BFA in painting from Florida State and an MFA from the Art Institute of Boston, Ya is also a professor at St. Petersburg College and the University of Tampa.

But she has a law degree, too, from the University of Florida. In fact, she practiced law for a while in Washington D.C., mostly advocating on behalf of children and education, before her husband Victor encouraged her to pursue the passion she’s had for art since childhood.

While law and art might seem like career paths that are worlds apart, for Ya, they’re not.… Read More

After 25 years of marriage, three children, a few career changes, and a wealth of marital and parental experiences, Martha Maddux was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at the young age of 50. The love affair Carlen Maddux had with his wife continued to grow deeper. Maddux shares his story of the journey he and his family took over the course of the next 17 years, in his book, A Path Revealed: How Hope, Love, and Joy Found Us Deep in a Maze Called Alzheimer’s, published in October 2016. It is a story of love, faith, and growth, told through the eyes and heart of a devoted husband and father, and a most unassuming gentleman who simply wants to share his story.… Read More