Advertisement
Colleen Wright - St. Petersburg Reporter
Colleen Wright

St. Petersburg Reporter

My 91-year-old Abuela says my career in journalism is what the American Dream is all about. My Abuelo fled Cuba and arrived in Miami in 1962. He washed dishes in the old Miami Herald cafeteria to support his family, including a baby girl on the way — my mother. Almost half a century later, the Herald gave me my first journalism job as a 17-year-old high school intern. I interned at newspapers all over the country, including at the Tampa Bay Times in 2014. It was the Times that gave me my first job after I graduated from the University of Florida, covering education in Pinellas County from 2015 to 2018. Then I returned to Miami to cover education and the nation’s fourth-largest school district for my hometown paper for three years. Now I’m back at the Times, covering St. Petersburg’s government and people. Miami may be my hometown, but the Sunshine City is my home. I live and breathe local journalism, and I’m proud I’ve spent my career working at Florida’s best newspapers.

  1. St. Pete Pier among top 10 urban design projects in the Americas
    Jul. 12• St. Petersburg
    The St. Pete Pier at night on Tuesday, March 1, 2022 in St. Petersburg.
  2. St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch restarts bidding process for Tropicana Field
    Jun. 29• St. Petersburg
    St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch announced that the city is cancelling its request for proposal (RFP) issued in July 2020 for the redevelopment of the Tropicana Field Site during a press conference on Wednesday, June 29, 2022 St. Petersburg.
  3. St. Petersburg mayor: ‘Major announcement’ on Tropicana Field coming Wednesday
    Jun. 28• St. Petersburg
    An aerial view of Tropicana Field and the surrounding area looking east towards downtown, on Wednesday, March 31, 2021 in St. Petersburg.
  5. Midtown vs. Sugar Hill: Who will get the redeveloper bid for Tropicana Field?
    Jun. 15• St. Petersburg
    An aerial view of Tropicana Field and the surrounding area looking east towards downtown, on Wednesday, March 31, 2021 in St. Petersburg.
  6. Air monitor aims to help solve mystery smell in St. Petersburg’s Childs Park
    Jun. 9• St. Petersburg
    Researchers, community members and Childs Park Neighborhood Association representatives gathered at The Gospel Ministries to observe the installation of a PurpleAir air pollution monitor on Thursday.
  7. St. Petersburg employees on track to get up to $500 a month in rental assistance
    Jun. 9• St. Petersburg
    City sanitation employees clean up a fish kill in Coffeepot Bayou Wednesday in July 2021.
  8. St. Petersburg knew about ‘health and safety hazard’ in Childs Park since 2007
    Jun. 8• St. Petersburg
    An aerial view of the Howco Environmental Services plant, on 8th Ave S between 43rd Street S and 44th Street S, with homes in the Childs Park neighborhood pictured in the background on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022 in St. Petersburg. Pollution is so bad in the Childs Park neighborhood that Fairmount Park Elementary had to rush kids inside during recess a year or so ago. The NAACP is teaming up with the Childs Park Neighborhood Association and the Sierra Club to launch a "Smell something, say something" campaign for this years-long problem.
  9. Tampa Bay vetoes ‘disappointing,’ say area leaders
    Jun. 2• Florida
    Tampa Bay Rays pitchers Shane McClanahan (18), Luis Patiño (61) and Cody Reed (54) practice a drill with assistant pitching and rehab coach Rick Knapp (92) at the Charlotte Sports Park spring training complex in Port Charlotte in March. Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a $35 million allocation for a youth sports complex in Odessa in Pasco County that had been earmarked as a potential future spring training site for the Rays.
  10. Will the Rays choose St. Petersburg or Tampa? The answer could come this month
    Jun. 2• Rays
    Where will the Rays play home games next. Hillsborough County officials still believe Ybor City makes the most sense. But St. Petersburg city officials believe the current Tropicana Field site is still very much in play and a decision, or at least movement, could be coming soon.
  11. Tampa Bay’s mayors hoist flags in recognition of Pride month
    Jun. 1• St. Petersburg
    The Pride flag is raised at City Hall on Wednesday in St. Petersburg.
  12. St. Petersburg pastors endorse Sugar Hill to redevelop Tropicana Field
    May 19• St. Petersburg
    Former mayor of Sacramento and former NBA player Kevin Johnson, speaks at the podium, during a press conference Thursday, May 19, 2022 in St. Petersburg by local Black pastors announcing their official endorsement of Sugar Hill Community Partners developers as their choice for the redevelopment of the Tropicana Field site. A group of pastors were flown out to Sacramento by Sugar Hill to see their developments.
  13. St. Pete’s last all-Black class, split by integration, stayed connected
    May 17• St. Petersburg
    Members of the "Classes of 1970" in St. Petersburg pose for a group photo during a reunion on May 14, 2022, at the Club at Treasure Island. Attendees recalled being uprooted from all-Black Gibbs High during the 1969-70 school year and sent to predominantly white schools as part of a desegregation plan imposed on the Pinellas County school district.
  14. St. Petersburg City Council approves YMCA partnership middle school
    May 13• St. Petersburg
    The Pinellas County school district and the St. Petersburg YMCA have proposed a partnership middle school on 62nd Avenue NE, at the site of the old Riviera Middle School. This is an artist's rendering of the school from an aerial perspective.
  15. St. Petersburg City Council moves forward with private lease to rehab marina
    May 13• St. Petersburg
    City leaders have been considering how to renovate the St. Petersburg Marina.
  16. South St. Pete neighbors confront decades-old mystery: What’s that smell?
    Apr. 28• St. Petersburg
    Kayla Benning, 27, with her son Jarvis Maynor, 4, and daughter Khaliah Maynor, 2, in the front of their yard on the corner of Ninth Avenue S and 43rd Street in St. Petersburg. Pictured across the street is Howco Environmental Services, an oil recycling operation with tall black tanks that rise above the Childs Park neighborhood.
  17. St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch recaps ‘enlightening’ first 100 days in office
    Apr. 18• St. Petersburg
    St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, who marked his 100th day in office on Friday, talked about that milestone Monday on the steps of City Hall to highlight his administration's accomplishments.
  18. St. Petersburg explores a tenants’ liaison to help with evictions
    Apr. 14• St. Petersburg
    William Kilgore of the St. Petersburg Tenant's Union addresses the media, housing rights activists and residents of Paradise Apartments at 330 45th Ave. S in St. Petersburg during a July rally to talk about eviction practices at the complex.
  19. St. Petersburg discusses rental, down-payment assistance for lowest-paid workers
    Apr. 14• St. Petersburg
    Ron Overing shelves books while working at the Mirror Lake Community Library. Living in St. Petersburg is a requirement for city workers but housing costs are making that unattainable. Overing had to apply for a residency waiver to live outside the city.
  20. St. Petersburg’s 22nd Street S corridor is ‘where the growth is happening’
    Apr. 12• St. Petersburg
    Jamison Carnegie executive director of Mt. Zion Human Services, speaks shares information about Sankofa, a three-part project consisting of affordable housing and commercial space, during a luncheon of the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership to discuss some of the upcoming projects reshaping the 22nd Street South corridor, “the Deuces,” once the thriving “Main Street” of the city’s African American community, at the historic Manhattan Casino, Tuesday, April 12, 2022 in St. Petersburg.
  21. St. Petersburg has 15 questions for potential Tropicana Field developers
    Apr. 7• St. Petersburg
    A city flag flies during a news conference on Dec. 2, announcing former Mayor Rick Kriseman’s pick for Miami’s Midtown Development to redevelop Tropicana Field. Mayor Ken Welch says he will make the final decision.
  22. St. Petersburg promotes Rob Gerdes to city administrator
    Apr. 5• St. Petersburg
    St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch appointed longtime official Rob Gerdes to serve as city administrator. His appointment must be approved by St. Petersburg City Council.
  23. Climate change to rule Rays out of St. Pete waterfront stadium?
    Apr. 5• Rays
    In 2007, the Tampa Bay Rays proposed building a $450 million, 34,000-seat stadium on the site of Al Lang Stadium off St. Petersburg's waterfront with a sail-like retractable roof. The plan went nowhere, and 15 years later the Rays say a waterfront stadium could be more expensive because of climate change and the threat of flooding and rising seas.
  24. Two struck by lightning outside Raymond James stadium leaving Yankees game
    Apr. 2• Breaking News
    Check tampabay.com for the latest breaking news and updates.
Advertisement

This site no longer supports your current browser. Please use a modern and up-to-date browser version for the best experience.

Chrome — Firefox — Safari — Edge