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Colleen Wright - St. Petersburg Reporter

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. Gypsy Gallardo presents at a luncheon on Nov. 28, 2023. Gallardo resigned from St. Petersburg's Community Benefits Advisory Council.
  2. Inner Circle Sports has been working as the city and county’s negotiating consultant with the Rays since 2021. David Abrams is the city's point of contact at Inner Circle Sports.
  3. Rick Baker, right, served as mayor of St. Petersburg from 2001 to 2010, during which time the Tampa Bay Rays pursued a waterfront ballpark on the Al Lang Stadium site.
  4. A participant waves a Pride flag during the St. Pete Pride Parade along Bayshore Drive.
  5. This rendering released by the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday shows the interior of a proposed new ballpark on the site of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.
  6. Carl Lavender has been tapped to serve as St. Petersburg's interim Chief Equity Officer.
  7. St. Petersburg Council members John Muhammad, left, and Richie Floyd, right, attend the St. Petersburg City Council meeting where city officials and the Tampa Bay Rays met for the first time in public to discuss the terms of the Rays stadium deal and larger Historic Gas Plant District redevelopment on Thursday, Oct 26, 2023, at St. Petersburg City Hall.
  8. A Halloween display at St. Petersburg City Hall has rubbed some former City Council members the wrong way.
  9. St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch at a news conference at 5th Avenue South and 16th Street in Campbell Park on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. Mayor Welch and U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor are requesting funding to connect the historic Gas Plant redevelopment with south St Petersburg via two-way street conversion on MLK and 8th Street and working around Interstate-175.
  10. St. Petersburg Council vice-chair Deborah Figgs-Sanders, left, and U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, look on as St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch addresses the audience during a press conference on the corner of 5th Avenue South and 16th Street in Campbell Park on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023 in St. Petersburg. Mayor Welch and U.S. Rep. Castor are requesting funding to connect the historic gas plant redevelopment with south St Petersburg via two-way street conversion on MLK and 8th Street and working around Interstate-175.
  11. The St. Petersburg City Council, city officials and representatives with the Tampa Bay Rays meet for the first time in public to discuss the terms of the Rays stadium deal and larger Historic Gas Plant District redevelopment on Oct. 26 at City Hall.
  12. Lenice C. Emanuel, St. Petersburg's first Chief Equity Officer, has resigned less than one month into her job.
  13. Check tampabay.com for the latest breaking news and updates.
  14. Check tampabay.com for the latest breaking news and updates.
  15. St. Petersburg Council members John Muhammad, left, and Richie Floyd attend the St. Petersburg City Council meeting where city officials and the Tampa Bay Rays met for the first time in public to discuss the terms of the Rays stadium deal and larger Historic Gas Plant District redevelopment on Thursday at St. Petersburg City Hall.
  16. The St. Petersburg City Council, city officials and representatives with the Tampa Bay Rays meet for the first time in public to discuss the terms of the Rays stadium deal and larger Historic Gas Plant District redevelopment on Thursday.
  17. St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch speaks at Tropicana Field on Sept. 19 in St. Petersburg. The Rays announced an agreement for a new ballpark to be built there.
  18. A man raises his fist in the air while shouting, “Palestine will be free,” during a public hearing portion of a meeting of the St. Petersburg City Council on Thursday night.
  19. The restaurant will occupy two floors in the theater; an upper space will open first and a lower atrium and patio space is planned for later. It will open with 140 seats and have 300 when completed.
  20. Lisset Hanewicz, District 4 St. Petersburg City council member representing the neighborhoods of Crescent Lake, Historic Old Northeast, Euclid St. Paul, Woodlawn and Meadowlawn on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022, in St. Petersburg. Hanewicz wants to see the Tampa Bay Rays' and development partner Hines' 20-year cash flow analysis, which were required by the city to redevelop the Historic Gas Plant District. The projections have been made available to city officials but not to City Council members, as the Rays and Hines say they are exempt from public record.
  21. (From left) Jabaar Edmond, Antwaun Wells and Gennaro Saliceto gather around Brother John Muhammad as he registers a new PurpleAir monitor with the assistance of Yonghong Lou (right) outside The Gospel Ministries on Thursday, June 9, 2022 in St. Petersburg. The church is the site of a newly installed air quality monitor that will be used to identify what particles make up a mysterious odor frequently smelled in the Childs Park neighborhood.
  22. Sondra Martin, 73, sits in her easy chair in what remains of her living room on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023, at Honeymoon Park mobile home park in Dunedin. Suspected tornadoes sliced through the area early Thursday morning.
  23. An artist's rendering of the proposed Rays Stadium and redevelopment of the historic Gas Plant District.