The City of St. Petersburg will give away 500 trees April 19 in honor of Earth Day and Arbor Day. The event is part of the Community Canopy Initiative, an effort to plant 1,000 trees citywide within a year. Residents can receive South Florida slash pines, sand live oaks, sweetgums and sugarberry trees. For more information, visit the website here.
The owners of the Wayward Goose have announced the bar's imminent closure just days before celebrating its 10th anniversary. The bar opened in April 2015 at 48 Dr. MLK Jr. St. N. in St. Petersburg's EDGE District as the Blue Goose. In a social media post, the owners wrote that the "city was a different place when we began" and "it's lost a bit of its soul." The Wayward Goose will close April 20.
The founders of the original Hooters in Clearwater have struck a deal with the restaurant's parent company to regain majority control of the chain as part of bankruptcy proceedings. Hooters Inc. and Hoot Owl Restaurants, franchisee groups that include the local founders, will buy 100 corporate locations owned by Hooters of America. The deal will increase their ownership stake to approximately 70%.
SmartAsset recently analyzed housing affordability, Social Security income, cost of living, and individual savings account "health" to determine where retirement has become more expensive over the past decade. Pinellas County ranked 8th nationally with a 38.3% cost of living increase. The personal finance platform found that median home value in Pinellas soared by 152.5% over the past 10 years, while Social Security income increased by 53.9%. Hillsborough County ranked 3rd.
A Pinellas County Schools student has earned a congressional award for the third consecutive year. Gibbs High School junior Henry Peter won Congresswoman Kath Castor's 2025 Congressional Art Competition with his digital photography piece "Hurricane Daze." His artwork, which illustrates his parents' exhaustion as they sorted through their flooded home, beat out 105 submissions from throughout Tampa Bay and will hang in the U.S. Capitol alongside other nationwide winners for a year.
Tampa International Airport officials welcomed the arrival of new nonstop flights to Bogota, Colombia, with a festive ceremony Monday. The route is TPA's first regularly scheduled nonstop flight to South America and the first to a new continent in nearly 50 years. Over 36,000 Colombian natives now live in the Tampa Bay region.
Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital celebrated its ambulance bay's recent expansion by unveiling a new mural at a March 27 ribbon-cutting ceremony. Local artist Elizabeth Barenis painted the "Healing Palms" mural on the ambulance bay, which can now safely accommodate 13 rather than four emergency transport vehicles. "As the city's only trauma center, it was important that we grow with our community's needs," said Stefan Sumby, nursing operations manager.
Pinellas County Human Services is accepting proposals from qualified organizations interested in providing programs that help mitigate and end the local opioid epidemic. Officials will award approximately $30 million to organizations with a minimum annual operating budget of $3 million that help provide recovery housing, peer specialists, diversion programming and community support and quick response teams. Applications are open until June 2. For more information, visit the website here.
Niche, a rankings and reviews platform, recently released its annual list of the nation's best places to retire and ranked St. Petersburg No. 4. Clearwater placed second. To compile its rankings, Niche analyzed 230 cities using several metrics, including living costs, winter temperatures, safety and entertainment options.
The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Colorado Rockies 6-4 Sunday at Steinnbrenner Field in Tampa to take the season-opening three-game series. The Rays won their inaugural game at the minor-league stadium Friday with a walk-off home run before dropping the second matchup 2-1 Saturday. The team will play its first night game in the outdoor ballpark at 7:05 p.m. Monday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
St. Petersburg-based Volunteers of America of Florida has launched Project C.O.P.E. (Caring for Our People in Emergencies) to mitigate the 2024 hurricane season's ongoing impacts on Pinellas County residents. The initiative will provide mental health services, community resources, education, needs assessments and referrals. For more information, visit the website here.
St. Petersburg Fire Rescue and the American Red Cross have partnered to install free smoke alarms in Childs Park until 1 p.m. Saturday. The South St. Pete neighborhood ranks first in Florida and 17th nationally for home fire risks due to its socioeconomic conditions and proximity to fire stations. Fire rescue personnel and volunteers will go door-to-door to install new alarms and ensure existing devices are functioning correctly.
