Mayor Rick Kriseman

Mayor Kriseman  

When city officials publicly kicked off the downtown waterfront master planning process in August, they described the nearly seven miles fronting Tampa Bay as a beautiful gem that set the city apart.
What Mayor Rick Kriseman, Deputy Mayor Kanika Tomalin and planning chief Dave Goodwin didn't mention in their remarks to hundreds of residents gathered in a ballroom at the Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront was the threat of rising sea levels between Coffee Pot Bayou and Lassing Park.

The Blue Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Summit is set to debut Nov. 2 in its new U.S. host city: downtown St. Petersburg. Think of it as Comic-Con for underwater educators, filmmakers and scientists.
There will be Hollywood stars, such as Oscar winner Jeremy Irons, who will screen his ocean pollution documentary Trashed, and star scientists, including legendary oceanographer Sylvia Earle, whose work to save the oceans is the subject of the film Mission Blue.

The most visible initiative to help the homeless in St. Petersburg, while moving them out of Williams Park, may be bright yellow, refurbished parking meters called "Power of Change" stations.
The least visible might be day services at the St. Vincent de Paul Society facility. A pilot program started in April will continue, after giving 1,100 an alternative to hanging out in downtown's Williams and Unity Parks.

Later this week, residents will start to see a new kind of meter around downtown. The city has taken a dozen old parking meters, painted them bright yellow, and slapped stickers that say "The Power of Change" on them. Workers will install them in places (not parking spots) where people gather, as a kind of donation station. 

Jerry and Mary-Jo Robinson ran a Central Avenue marketing firm in St. Petersburg before deciding to found a startup called HubCentrix aimed at helping companies better manage their files online.

The change in your pocket or purse could change someone's life. That's the idea behind a city plan to convert a dozen parking meters into donation boxes for residents who want to contribute to homeless causes without encouraging panhandling.

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