St. Petersburg

History

Early Spanish exploration

When the Spanish first arrived in the area of Tampa Bay, they encountered people of the Safety Harbor culture. About 20 sites with temple mounds have been found around Tampa Bay, with several in Pinellas County. Best known of the Safety Harbor people was the chiefdom of Tocobaga, which was likely located at the Safety Harbor site in Philippe Park in northern Pinellas County. The Pánfilo de Narváez expedition landed on the shores of Boca Ciega Bay at the Jungle Prada Site on April 14, 1528. It was the first inland exploration of North America. Of 300 men on the expedition only four survived. One of the survivors of the expedition, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, wrote the first book describing the peoples, wildlife, flora and fauna of inland North America in his Relacion, published in Spain in 1542.

19th century

The city was co-founded by John C. Williams, formerly of Detroit, who purchased the land in 1875, and by Peter Demens, who was instrumental in bringing the terminus of the Orange Belt Railway there in 1888. St. Petersburg was incorporated as a town on February 29, 1892, when it had a population of 300 people.

Local lore claims John C. Williams and Peter Demens flipped a coin to see who would have the honor of naming the city. When Demens won the coin toss, the city was named after Saint Petersburg, Russia, where Peter Demens had spent half of his youth, while John C. Williams named the first hotel after his birthplace, Detroit (a hotel built by Demens). The Detroit Hotel still exists downtown on Central Ave, but has been turned into a condominium.

The oldest operating hotels are the Pier Hotel (formally Hotel Cordova), built in 1921, and The Exchange Hotel (formally The Heritage Hotel), built in 1926.

The first major newspaper to debut in Tampa Bay was the St. Petersburg Times which established in 1884. Philadelphia publisher F. A. Davis turned on St. Petersburg's first electrical service in 1897. The city's first major industry was born in 1899 when Henry W. Hibbs (1862–1942), a native of Newport, North Carolina, established his wholesale fish business at the end of the railroad pier, which extended out to the shipping channel. Within a year, Hibbs Fish Company was shipping more than 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of fish each day.

A historic marker on the 2nd Avenue side of St. Peter's Episcopal Cathedral, facing Williams Park, notes that the cathedral and several adjacent churches played a central role in St. Petersburg being known as the "City of Churches." Among the oldest remaining structures downtown, St. Peter's was built in the Gothic Revival style in 1899, funded by philanthropist Edwin H. Tomlinson in honor of his father. The area surrounding Williams Park also features other historic congregations—including First Baptist, First Congregational, and First United Methodist—all established within a few decades of the city's founding in 1892. Architectural records indicate that of fewer than ten Gothic Revival buildings remaining citywide, seven churches were built between 1887 and 1925, most clustered around Williams Park and Central Avenue. Earlier still, the first Episcopal church in the area was established at Pinellas Point in 1887, prior to the city's own founding. This pattern of early church building by multiple denominations reflects how religious institutions served as foundational anchors in St. Petersburg's civic and cultural development—even before the city's official incorporation.

20th century

St. Petersburg was incorporated as a city in June 1903. With this transition, the development of the downtown waterfront had dredging of a deeper shipping channel from 1906 to 1908 which opened St. Petersburg to larger shipping. Further dredging improved the port facilities through the 1910s. By then the city's population had quadrupled to a population of 4,127 citizens. F. A. Davis was instrumental to bringing the first trolley service in 1904.

In 1914, Al Lang invited the St. Louis Browns to move their spring training into the city, then worked tirelessly to make Grapefruit League training in and around St. Petersburg the destination for baseball teams and their fans by the 1920s. Lang eventually became mayor and ambassador for the city, and helped its permanent population grow tenfold in just a decade.

In 1914 an airplane service across Tampa Bay from St. Petersburg to Tampa and back was initiated, generally considered the first scheduled commercial airline flight. The flight took former mayor Abe Pheil to Tampa. The company name was the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line, and the pilot was Tony Jannus flying a Benoist XIV flying boat. The Tony Jannus Award is presented annually for outstanding achievement in the airline industry.

St. Petersburg's first library opened on December 1, 1915, which still operates to this day as the Mirror Lake Library.

The city and its tourism industry burgeoned in the 1920s, with up to a quarter million visitors annually coming from Canada, the North and the Midwest by automobile, yacht, and railroad. The city was the principal Gulf Coast destination for long-distance trains of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's Southland (from Chicago and Cincinnati) and Gulf Coast Limited (from New York, succeeded by the West Coast Champion), and Seaboard Air Line Railroad trains such as the Southern States Special (from New York, succeeded by the Silver Meteor). Travel time from across the bay was cut due to the Gandy Bridge's opening in 1924, allowing direct access to Tampa and the rest of central Florida.

The city took on a Mediterranean flair, with Old Spanish Trail style architecture promoted by Snell Isle founder Perry Snell, whose new country club island homes adopted many elements of Moorish design. Those same elements were echoed in the city's new Vinoy, Jungle Country Club, Don Cesar and other fine hotels, as well as in Snell's new skyscraper office building downtown. The 1926 opening of the Million Dollar Pier marked the peak of the boom, adding an attraction that brought both tourists and townspeople together to enjoy fishing, amusements, trolley access and even a local radio station.

Contemporary history

Development of the first Major League Baseball team to be located in the Tampa Bay area began in St. Petersburg throughout the 1970s. The city tried to encourage numerous teams through the United States to make St. Petersburg their new home. Designs for a ballpark were first presented in 1983 and construction for a permanent dome stadium began in 1986. This process controversially required the demolition of the mostly-Black Gas Plant neighborhood. The stadium opened in 1990 as the Florida Suncoast Dome, renamed the Thunderdome in 1993. After many attempts to attract tenants to the new stadium, Major League Baseball gave St. Petersburg a franchise in 1995. In 1996, the dome was renamed a third time to Tropicana Field after naming rights were established with Tropicana Dole Beverages. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays was then established in 1998 after the stadium's renovation and the new team played their first game on March 31, 1998, giving the Tampa Bay area their first professional baseball team.

I-275 was expanded across the bay from Tampa through St. Petersburg in the 1970s. Additional spurs I-175 and I-375 were built afterward, extending from the main highway to the northern and southern edges of the downtown area. The city population continued to multiply during the 20th century, booming through the 1970s as a retirement destination for Americans from midwestern cities, reaching 238,647 in the 1980 census. Racial tensions persisted, and 1996 riots were sparked by the shooting of a black teenager by a white St. Pete police officer. Growth stagnated in the subsequent decade and a half, but since the Great Recession, renewed interest in urban living by family-aged residents and the expansion of the downtown university and related services has led to growth.

Geography

Topography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 137.6 square miles (356.4 km2). 61.7 square miles (159.9 km2) of it is land, and 75.9 square miles (196.5 km2) of it (55.13%) is water. St. Petersburg is bordered by Tampa Bay's three sections, Old, Middle and Lower Tampa Bay.

Neighborhoods

St. Petersburg is home to more than 100 neighborhoods, with most of the historic districts located near the bay. On the central Eastern edge of the city is Downtown St. Petersburg, which includes the city's residential and commercial skyscrapers, art galleries, museums, and parks.

The downtown area is home to the central business district and to many start-up companies, corporate branches, banks, law firms, and restaurants. Apart from downtown's business and cultural offerings, the area also includes a branch of St. Petersburg College and the campus of the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg. The downtown district is home to two professional sports teams, the Tampa Bay Rays, which play in the western part of downtown at Tropicana Field, and the Tampa Bay Rowdies, which play along the downtown waterfront at Al Lang Stadium. The emerging Edge district on the western edge of downtown is rapidly growing as development spreads down Central Avenue.

North of downtown lie the Historic Old Northeast and Snell Isle, which both have Mediterranean style historic and waterfront homes, parks, and recreational areas. Old Northeast is home to a shopping district, city landmarks, beaches, and small shops as well as small residential high rises. Snell Isle was founded by C. Perry Snell who bought up the land to develop upscale properties in the 1900s, and helped create some of St. Petersburg's resorts such as the Vinoy Park Hotel and the St. Petersburg Woman's Club, both of which are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The far north consists of the Gateway area which overlaps part of Pinellas Park, home to major employers such as Home Shopping Network and currently the site of much construction of residential and business buildings and of new toll roads.

The central portion of St. Petersburg includes the Grand Central District and Historic Kenwood. The Grand Central District houses many of the city's cafes, art galleries, restaurants, and bars all owing to the Craftsman style architecture. Historic Kenwood is filled with art studios and galleries similarly to the Grand Central District.

South of downtown is Historic Roser Park, which houses historic Mediterranean and Eclectic style housing, parks, and museums. The neighborhood is divided by Booker Creek which flows into Bayboro Harbor.

Climate

St. Petersburg has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) with some characteristics of a tropical monsoon climate (Am), with a defined rainy season from June through September. Many portions of St. Petersburg, especially along the bay and in south St. Petersburg, have tropical microclimates due to the maritime influence of the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay. As a result, tropical flora like coconut palms and royal palms can be found throughout the city, and the city is home to the Gizella Kopsick Palm Arboretum, a 2-acre (0.81 ha) park which houses over 500 palms and cycads, including a pair of large Jamaican Tall coconut palms which predate the freeze of 1989. St. Petersburg, like the rest of the Tampa Bay area, is occasionally affected by tropical storms and hurricanes. There were 2 hurricanes in 2024 that impacted St. Petersburg within 2 weeks of each other: Hurricane Helene followed by Hurricane Milton. However, both made landfall in other regions of the state (the Big Bend and Southwest Florida, respectively). The last time a hurricane directly struck the city was in 1921.

Climate and sustainability initiatives

The city adopted an Integrated Sustainability Action Plan in 2019, designed to help the city adopt sustainable practices.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 258,308 people, 111,957 households, and 59,448 families residing in the city.

2010 census

As of the 2010 United States census, there were 244,769 people, 106,755 households, and 58,353 families residing in the city.

In 2010, of all Asian residents, 0.8% were Vietnamese, 0.5% were Filipino, 0.5% were Indian, 0.3% were Chinese, 0.1% were Korean, 0.1% were Japanese, and 1.0% were other Asians. Also in 2010, of all Hispanic or Latino people within the city, 5,272 (2.2%) were Puerto Rican, 2,855 (1.2%) were Mexican, 2,835 (1.2%) were Cuban, and other Hispanic or Latino residents made up 5,252 (2.1%) of the population.

According to the 2010 census, the city population density was 3,964.4 inhabitants per square mile (1,530.7/km2). 84.1% of households were occupied while 15.9% were not occupied. 3,888 (1.6%) lived in non-institutionalized group-quarters and 2,719 (1.1%) were institutionalized. As of 2010, 23,304 (21.4%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 37,847 (34.8%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 16,425 (15.1%) had a female householder with no husband present, 4,849 (4.5%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 9,453 (3.9%) unmarried partnerships. 39,397 households (36.2%) were made up of individuals, and 28,267 (26.0%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.19. In 2010, families made up 54.3% while non-families made up 45.7%; the average family size was 2.88. The median age of the city was 41.6 years.

2000 census

As of 2000, 23.85% of households had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.295% were married couples living together, 13.8% had a female householder with no adult living partner present, and 43.8% were non-families. 35.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.10 and the average family size was 2.865.

In 2000, the city's population was spread out, with 21.5% under the age of 18, 7.7% from 18 to 24, 30.2% from 25 to 44, 23.1% from 45 to 64, and 17.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39.24 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.7 males.

As of 2000, the median income for a household in the city was $34,597, and the median income for a family was $43,198. Males had a median income of $30,794 versus $27,860 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,107. About 9.2% of families and 13.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.1% of those under age 18 and 10.8% of those age 65 or over. In 2010, 17.8% of the population was under the poverty line, including 32.2% of those under age 18 and 14.1% of those age 65 or over.

Languages

As of 2000, those who spoke only English as a first language at home accounted were 88.53% of residents, while Spanish was spoken by 4.43%, German by 0.78%, French by 0.72% of speakers, Vietnamese by 0.67%, Serbo-Croatian by 0.52%, and Laotian by 0.51% of the population.

Crime

As of 2012, it ranked 58th highest in the United States when it comes to violent crime. In 2013, St. Petersburg ranks in the bottom tenth for safety among cities in Florida. Evidence of the social unrest and the schism within the city, particularly between South St. Petersburg and the rest of the city came with the St. Petersburg, Florida riots of 1996. Police Officer David Crawford was murdered in February 2011 by then-teenager Nicholas Lindsey.

Religion

As of 2020, 35.9% of St. Petersburg residents consider themselves religious. Catholics make up the largest group at 14 percent followed by Methodists and Baptists, each of which compose of about four percent of the religious community.

The Diocese of St. Petersburg governs 74 Catholic parishes as well as 46 schools and 480,000 Catholics in the Tampa Bay area. Bishop Gregory Parkes currently leads the Diocese of St. Petersburg which covers five counties in the state of Florida.

Economy

Much economic activity is concentrated in the Gateway area, which overlaps St. Petersburg and Pinellas Park. The median household income is $55,134. Health care, retail and professional services are the largest industries. The most common positions in St. Petersburg are Office and Administrative Support, Sales, and Management.

Largest employers

According to the City of St. Petersburg, Florida's 2019 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the largest private-sector (non-government, non-school) employers in the city are (with trends since 2010):

Budget

As of fiscal year 2024, the city of St. Petersburg had a total operating budget of $823 million, not including dependent districts and internal service funds.

The Commercial Revitalization Program of 2020 provided grants to commercial developments providing future work to the city. Grants are provided to commercial buildings and developments outside of downtown and are provided as matching grants.

Art and culture

Museums and cultural centers include the Salvador Dalí Museum, the Chihuly Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, and the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement.

St. Petersburg includes more than 75 art galleries and seven distinct art districts. The Warehouse Arts District emerged circa 2009 alongside a significant glass art market that has become known as "the Glass Coast". The Deuces Live District is home to the city of St. Petersburg's African American cultural heritage, and includes locally owned art galleries and other specialty businesses, as well as historic buildings such as the Royal Theater. The M.L. King North District includes restaurants and cafes.

St. Petersburg features more than 600 public art murals, which are the focus of the city's annual SHINE Mural Festival. Since its inception in 2015, the SHINE Mural Festival has been responsible for creating more than 150 murals in the city. Other notable art fairs in the city include the long running St. Petersburg Fine Art Festival and the Mainsail Art Festival.

Events

One of the first of many major events of the year that takes place is the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade, in January. The parade hosts a Battle of the Bands, and drum line extravaganzas that have been duplicated in other cities.

In March the city hosts the annual Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. This is located in downtown St. Petersburg and is the first round of the IndyCar Series. It usually lasts three days with practice rounds, qualifications, and two main races. The 100 lap Grand Prix's circuit has included a section of the Albert Whitted Airport.

Bluesfest, hosted in the Vinoy Park, hosts multiple live blues artists, offers views of the Tampa Bay waters from the park, and provides drinks and free food.

One of the many art festivals, called the Mainsail Art Festival, is a free entry art exhibition at the Vinoy Park, which offers art sold by local artists. It also provides live music, awards, and food courts.

The Saint Petersburg Art Festival takes place every February.

The downtown triathlon event is hosted by St. Anthony's Hospital and involves a 1.5k swim through Tampa Bay, a 40k bike along the waterways, and a 10k run through the neighborhoods.

The Green Thumb Festival, which originated in 1986 to promote tree beautification and planting in the city of St. Petersburg, is currently held in Walter Fuller Park.

A major event that takes place in June is the St. Pete Pride weekend, when the LGBT community and supporters celebrate in the streets with festivals, the 27/82 concert, and an LGBT pride parade. The weekend also hosts a variety of block parties, food stands, DJ stands, art festivals, local hosted parties, and the LGBT welcoming center.

In July, the 4th of July firework celebration invites the citizens to downtown St. Petersburg.

Tourism

The arts are a major contributor to the region's tourism. The Salvador Dalí Museum houses the largest collection of Dalí's works outside of Europe, including a number of famous and large-scale paintings such as The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. The Salvador Dalí Museum received more than 400,000 visitors annually prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 75% of which were not local to the Tampa Bay Area. Other art museums in the city include a Museum of Fine Arts and The Chihuly Collection, located on Central Avenue, which houses glass sculptures of Dale Chihuly. The Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement was expected to open in 2017, and after delays opened to the public in September 2021.

Beyond the arts, St. Petersburg is home to a children's museum (Great Explorations), Holocaust Museum, as well as the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum which highlights the life of Carter G. Woodson who founded the Associated Publishers and is the author of nearly 30 books still prevalent today. Past exhibits and events featured in the museum include the Ray McLendon Exhibit, a discussion of race and politics series, and a seminar on the conviction of Michael Morgan. The St. Petersburg Museum of History has a full-size replica of the Benoist XIV seaplane and is located near the approximate spot by the St. Petersburg Pier where the first scheduled commercial flight departed.

There are various other smaller art galleries and entertainment venues, especially in the downtown area, which has seen a boom in development since the mid-1990s; these include the Mahaffey Theater complex, American Stage (an equity regional theater), The Coliseum, Palladium Theatre, the Arts Center, and the Florida Craftsmen Gallery.

The old St. Petersburg Pier was a popular tourist attraction which closed in May 2013, and has been replaced with a new pier that opened in late 2020. The Bounty, a replica of HMS Bounty that was used in the 1962 Technicolor remake of Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Marlon Brando, was permanently docked near the pier for many years until the ship was sold to Ted Turner in 1986. The Bounty, however, sometimes visited St. Petersburg for the winter in the following years before its sinking in 2012. In 2010, the St. Petersburg City Council voted to demolish and rebuild the pier. The new pier will be opening "in phases" in 2020. A ceremony celebrating the opening is scheduled for 4 July.

The city had a Madame Tussaud Wax Museum between 1963 and 1989.

Cinema

St. Petersburg has been used as a filming location for films over the years, including Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Summer Rental (1985), Cocoon (1985), Ocean's Eleven (2001), Loren Cass (2006), Dolphin Tale (2011), Magic Mike (2012), Spring Breakers (2013), Dolphin Tale 2 (2014), and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016).

Bernie the Dolphin (2018) and Garden Party (2019) were filmed around St. Petersburg.

Libraries

The St. Petersburg Library System consists of seven branch locations:

President Barack Obama Library (scheduled to reopen after extensive renovations on September 27, 2025 )

Childs Park Library

James Weldon Johnson Community Library

Mirror Lake Library

North Community Library

South Community Library

West Community Library

The Mirror Lake Library, built in 1915, is one of only two Carnegie libraries still operating in Florida.

Demonstrations and protests

Pride month takes place annually throughout the month of June to celebrate and recognize the identities of LGBTQ+ persons. The city of St. Petersburg hosts a variety of events to celebrate Pride Month including the annual Pride Parade.

The annual Women's March in the month of January typically takes place in Williams Park where thousands of individuals gather to march for female rights and equality. The last documented Women's March in St. Pete dates back to 2018 following the resurgence of the #MeToo Movement.

Demonstrations and protests began following the murder of George Floyd.

Sports

The Tampa-St. Petersburg area is represented by teams in four major professional sports (soccer, football, baseball, and hockey). Two teams, the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball and Tampa Bay Rowdies of the North American Soccer League, play in St. Petersburg proper, while the other two teams play across the bay in Tampa. As their names suggest, all of the teams represent the entire Tampa Bay area and seek to draw fans from both sides of Tampa Bay.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg area hosted the Super Bowl LV, where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took on the Kansas City Chiefs at Raymond James Stadium on February 7, 2021.

The Rays began play in 1998, finishing last in the American League's East Division in nine of the first ten seasons they played, including their last year known as the "Devil Rays": 2007. In 2008, their 11th season, they held off the Boston Red Sox and won the AL East Division Championship for the first time. In the playoffs, they again faced the Red Sox in the ALCS. They defeated Boston and won the American League Pennant. However, they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2008 World Series. The Rays also made an appearance in the 2020 World Series where they faced the Los Angeles Dodgers.

From their inception until 2008, the Rays played their regular season games at Tropicana Field and their spring training games at historic Al Lang Stadium, formerly Progress Energy Park, giving them the unique distinction of being the only team in Major League Baseball that played its spring training games in their home city in more than 70 years. Beginning in 2009, the Rays have held spring training at Charlotte Sports Park in Port Charlotte, ending a 94-year streak of springtime baseball in the city. Tropicana Field, the home venue of the Rays, played host to the 1999 Final Four. Despite not having a team in the city since 2000 (with the St. Petersburg Devil Rays), St. Petersburg is home to Minor League Baseball's main headquarters. Due to the damage on Tropicana Field caused by Hurricane Milton, the Rays spent the 2025 season at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.

St. Petersburg is home to the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the inaugural race was held in April 2005. The circuit itself is made of downtown streets passing Al Lang Stadium, the marina, and a runway in Albert Whitted Airport, and streets are temporarily blocked off for the annual IndyCar Series race. The race was postponed in 2020 due to the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, and was rescheduled as the final race of the season, rather than the first race. In 2012, the road intersecting Turn 10 was renamed Dan Wheldon Way in memory of Dan Wheldon, who won the 2005 race thanks to a move made on that turn. Wheldon was killed in an accident at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the 2011 season finale. In 2026 the circuit began hosting the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series alongside the IndyCar Series on the same weekend.

Government

The city of St. Petersburg has been governed under a strong mayor form of government since 1993. The Mayor of St. Petersburg and the St. Petersburg City Council members are elected to a four-year term, limited to two consecutive terms. Currently the mayor of St. Petersburg is Ken Welch who took office on January 6, 2022. The legislative body consists of eight City Council members representing each of their designated city districts.

St. Petersburg is split between Florida's 13th congressional district, represented in Congress by Republican Anna Paulina Luna, and Florida's 14th congressional district, represented by Democrat Kathy Castor. The city is more left-leaning than the surrounding county. In 2020, 62.3% percent of voters in St. Petersburg's urban core cast their ballots for Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

Education

Primary and secondary education

Public primary and secondary schools in St. Petersburg are administered by Pinellas County Schools. Public high schools within the city limits include:

Gibbs High School

Lakewood High School

Northeast High School

St. Petersburg High School

St. Petersburg Collegiate High School

Private high schools include:

Canterbury School of Florida

St. Petersburg Catholic High School

Shorecrest Preparatory School

Admiral Farragut Academy

High schools located in unincorporated (outside city limits) St. Petersburg:

Hollins High School

Keswick Christian School

Northside Christian School

The non-profit Science Center of Pinellas County educates more than 22,000 school children annually through field trip classes and offers winter, spring and summer workshops for 2,000 more.

Higher education

St. Petersburg is home to several institutions of higher education. The University of South Florida St. Petersburg is an autonomous campus in the University of South Florida system. The University of South Florida St. Petersburg serves 6,500 students. Eckerd College, founded in 1958, is a private four-year liberal arts college. Also in St. Petersburg is the Poynter Institute, a journalism institute which owns the Tampa Bay Times in a unique arrangement. Stetson Law School is located in Gulfport, which is adjacent to St. Petersburg between the south beaches. St. Petersburg College, founded in 1927, is a state college within the Florida College System. It has an average of 65,000 students spread across 11 campuses and centers in the Bay area, four of which are in St. Petersburg.

Other colleges and universities in the wider Tampa Bay Area include the University of South Florida and the University of Tampa located in Tampa and Hillsborough Community College, with campuses across Hillsborough County.

Media

The city's main daily morning newspaper is the Tampa Bay Times.

In addition to regional coverage, several digital publications focus specifically on St. Petersburg and the surrounding Pinellas County area. St. Pete Rising reports on new development, retail, and restaurant openings across the city, while St. Pete Catalyst covers local business, civic issues, and community news.

Cable television service is provided by Spectrum (previously Bright House Networks) and Wide Open West (abbreviated "WOW!", previously Knology), as well as fiber optic service provider Frontier Communications (previously Verizon FiOS).

St. Petersburg is in the Tampa-St. Petersburg television and radio markets. WTSP channel 10 (CBS) and WTOG channel 44 (Independent) are licensed to St. Petersburg, with studios in unincorporated Pinellas County in the Gandy Boulevard area just north of the St. Petersburg limits. Spectrum Bay News 9, the local cable TV news service, is based in northeast St. Petersburg. CW owned-and-operated station WTTA is licensed to St. Petersburg, with studios in Tampa. Official city government programming, known as StPeteTV, can be found on Spectrum on Channel 641, WOW! Cable on Channel 15 or Frontier Channel 20 as well as online. City government programming previously aired on city-owned WSPF-CD channel 35 until 2012, when the city sold the station to private interests.

Infrastructure

Transportation

The city is connected to Tampa by the east by causeways and bridges across Tampa Bay, and to Bradenton in the south by the Sunshine Skyway Bridge (Interstate 275), which traverses the mouth of the bay. It is also served by Interstates 175 and 375, which branch off I-275 into the southern and northern areas of downtown respectively. The Gandy Bridge, conceived by George Gandy and opened in 1924, was the first causeway to be built across Tampa Bay, connecting St. Petersburg and Tampa cities without a circuitous 43-mile (69 km) trip around the bay through Oldsmar.

As for the history of the roads of St. Petersburg, the total and complete failure of Hillsborough County to build roads on the peninsula was one of the main reasons why Pinellas County was formed. Through Pinellas County, a system of marl roads was built throughout the county, giving good service for a while until the rain gave trouble with the marl surface. A demand was then made for brick roads, which was met with opposition for the price of bricks was much more expensive, the election was eventually passed a new network of nine-foot brick roads was completed by November 15, 1916. It had only been a few years after that, and it was apparent that there was a mistake with the fact that 9 foot roads were not wide enough to handle the heavy traffic, which was at the time two cars to pass each other - which was essential. There was another issue that the shoulders could not be maintained in good condition either, probably due to the fact that drivers had to constantly use them due to the road not being wide enough to begin with. It took years later for the election to finally be called and passed to create wider and better roads on a bond issue of $2,597,000.

Nearby Tampa International Airport (TPA) provides air transportation for many passengers. Historically, smaller airlines with service to smaller cities and towns have operated at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, with a number of air carriers only providing only seasonal services. The exception at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport (PIE) is Allegiant Air which currently operates Airbus A319 and A320 mainline jetliners into the airfield with year-round nonstop service from many cities in the eastern U.S. Albert Whitted Airport provides general aviation services near the heart of downtown St. Petersburg.

Mass transit in St. Petersburg is provided by the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA). A sightseeing trolley, called The Looper, also travels to key downtown destinations daily such as USFSP, Sundial, Vinoy Hotel, and the multiple museums around the city. Short-term bike sharing is also offered via Coast Bike Share.

Utilities

The city of St. Petersburg's major electricity system is provided by Duke Energy, the city's major gas system is provided by TECO Energy in the industrial and commercial parts of the city, and the city's water services are provided by the city of St. Petersburg.

Sister cities

St. Petersburg is a member in Sister Cities International.

Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan (since 1961)

Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, Mexico (since 2016)

Twin cities

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Figueres, Catalonia, Spain (since 2011)