ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The city of St. Petersburg was recently designated an official Trail Town by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for its significant investments in the Pinellas Trail.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The FDEP designated St. Petersburg a Trail Town on Dec. 17
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St. Petersburg joins 22 other cities that are recognized as a Trail Town
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The FDEP\u00a0has a program which will promote the Pinellas Trail to boost eco-tourism and help the city pursue grants\u00a0
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St. Pete earned the designation for the portion of the Pinellas Trail which runs through four Arts Districts from 31st Street South to the downtown waterfront<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve made those investments in our community,\u201d said Cheryl Stacks, Transportation Manager. \u201cWe really see it as an opportunity to kind of improve the quality of life, improve the economy for our residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stacks presented the city council with the designation last week for the portion of the Pinellas Trail which runs through four Arts Districts from 31st Street South to the downtown waterfront. St. Petersburg joins 22 other cities that are recognized as a Trail Town.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a big deal for the city. I think it\u2019s kind of a long time coming,\u201d she said. \u201cSo it\u2019s great to be able to have this recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Petersburg received the designation for having\u00a0emergency markers, trail courtesy reminders, access to restaurants, retail, bike racks and public restrooms.\u00a0Andrea Osorio, owner of Carupano Kitchen in the Foodie Labs, said she welcomes riders to use their facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are people that have been riding for minutes, hours and then they stop by,\u201d she said. \u201cThey get a bite to eat, they use our bathrooms, they get something to drink and just rest for a little bit with the AC.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of the trail winds through council member Corey Givens Jr.\u2019s district, who said riders enjoy the murals and help boost the local economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can really support small businesses. The trail, it\u2019s along the Warehouse Arts District,\u201d he said. \u201cSo you have minority-owned businesses there, women-owned businesses there that can really utilize that support. And people don\u2019t have to drive to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stefan Koch said he traveled from Michigan to ride his bicycle on the Pinellas Trail.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve spent the last two days riding on this trail,\u201d he said. \u201cI just rode down to the end at the St. Pete harbor there and now I\u2019m on my way back to Clearwater. I think it\u2019s a lovely trail.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Koch said he supports the organization Rails to Trails Conservancy, which is how he learned about the Pinellas Trail, and believes the FDEP designation is well-deserved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trail has a lot of great infrastructure and is well-maintained,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I congratulate St. Pete for being a Trail Town.\u201d<\/p>\n
Due to the recognition, the FDEP has a program that will promote the trail to boost eco-tourism and help the city pursue grants. Stacks said St. Pete is currently working on a permitting process which would allow businesses east of 34th Street to develop private access points along the Pinellas Trail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The city of St. Petersburg was recently designated an official Trail Town by the Florida…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[2173,2175,2968,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,2180,729,2177,11901,835],"class_list":["post-127371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-traffic-transit","tag-app-traffic-and-transit","tag-josh-rojas","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-topic-latest-traffic-transit-news","tag-traffic","tag-traffic-and-transit","tag-transit","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}