Story by REBEKAH DAVILA Photos by REBEKAH DAVILA, CANDICE RESHEF, ZACHARY GIPSON-KENDRICK and LAUREN HENSLEY NNB Student Reporters ST. PETERSBURG – When Mac Arthur was a teenager, he and his friends liked to gather at Jesse Henderson’s sundries store on 22nd Street S and Ninth Avenue. It “used to be a soda pop shop,” he… Continue reading Up and down the Deuces: new businesses, new hope
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Where freight trains once rumbled, artists fire up clay creations
Candice Reshef | NNB Photos and story BY KELSEY AL NNB Student Reporter ST. PETERSBURG – The last locomotive passed through in 1967, but the 1926 brick depot that once helped connect the city to the rest of America is full of life. Instead of freight cars and citrus, the old depot on the northeast… Continue reading Where freight trains once rumbled, artists fire up clay creations
Bottoms up! Distillery trades on St. Pete’s name, new image
BY CAITLIN ASHWORTH NNB Student Reporter ST. PETERSBURG – For years, national publications taunted St. Petersburg as “God’s waiting room” – a “city of green benches” where hordes of listless seniors shared downtown sidewalks with the pigeons. “The old people sit, passengers in a motionless streetcar without destination,” Holiday magazine said in 1958. How things… Continue reading Bottoms up! Distillery trades on St. Pete’s name, new image
A father’s tribute: gym teaches boxing skills and drug awareness
BY JEFFREY ZANKER NNB Student Reporter ST. PETERSBURG – When Raymond Montchal decided to start a boxing club in 2013, he converted his fence company building into a gym, got a boxing promoter license and lined up a partner – his son Nicholas. Nicholas had boxed as a youth, played football at St. Pete Catholic… Continue reading A father’s tribute: gym teaches boxing skills and drug awareness
Decades later, its taxicabs serve the neighborhood – and beyond
BY CAITLIN ASHWORTH NNB Student Reporter ST. PETERSBURG – In its heyday during decades of segregation, the city’s 22nd Street S was the vibrant heart of the black community with more than 100 businesses. But dramatic changes came. The civil rights laws of the 1960s meant black people could live, shop and attend school in… Continue reading Decades later, its taxicabs serve the neighborhood – and beyond
On the street and in the courts, they were courageous
BY JEFFREY ZANKER NNB Student Reporter ST. PETERSBURG – When police officers Leon Jackson and Freddie Crawford patrolled in the early 1960s, they were always alert and ready for trouble. They broke up fights, confronted offenders and seized weapons. But because they were black, Jackson and Crawford could patrol only black neighborhoods and arrest only… Continue reading On the street and in the courts, they were courageous
For this father, preventing infant deaths is a passion
BY ANDREW CAPLAN NNB Student Reporter LARGO – An exhausted mother crawls out of bed in the middle of the night to comfort her screaming newborn. She cradles the infant in her arms, bottle in hand, until the baby is quietly sucking down the formula. For just a moment, they lie down. An hour later,… Continue reading For this father, preventing infant deaths is a passion
Decades later, barbecue returns to ‘The Deuces’
BY BRYANA PERKINS NNB Student Reporter ST. PETERSBURG – It’s been decades since the aroma of smoked barbecue wafted along the city’s historic 22nd Street S. For years, Geech’s was the place to get barbecue, a popular spot that John “Geech” Black ran when 22nd Street – “the Deuces” – was the main street of… Continue reading Decades later, barbecue returns to ‘The Deuces’
New chief wants his officers to park, walk and talk
BY KELSEY AL and ANDREW CAPLAN NNB Student Reporters ST. PETERSBURG – When police officers appear in a high-income neighborhood, residents often assume one of their neighbors is hurt. But when the neighborhood is low-income and predominantly black, people wonder who is going to be arrested. And that, said police Chief Tony Holloway, is a… Continue reading New chief wants his officers to park, walk and talk
His roots and commitment run deep in Midtown
BY LAUREN HENSLEY and REBEKAH DAVILA NNB Student Reporters ST. PETERSBURG – His family’s church once stood in a neighborhood where Tropicana Field is today. His father’s boyhood home was on the site of today’s John Hopkins Middle School, which was two blocks from his grandfather’s wood business and nine blocks from the family’s tax… Continue reading His roots and commitment run deep in Midtown