St. Pete 2.0 Results: Adjusting to the New Normal After Six Months of Covid-19 (Part One)

The St. Petersburg renaissance has been in full swing for more than a decade. We’ve excelled in many areas and struggled in others. In our series St. Pete 2.0, we’re partnering with the St. Pete Catalyst to explore what lies on the other side of our potential – what will it take to move to the “next level” as a city? Through this series, we’ll dig into specific topics with the hope that you, our thoughtful citizens, will share your insight, experience and wisdom. 

St. Petersburg has been living in the shadow of Covid-19 for six months, and it’s safe to say that the pandemic has impacted all of us. We’ve gained weight due to lack of exercise. We miss our friends and our routine. Our businesses have suffered. We feel more isolated than ever. On the other hand, Covid has given us a chance to step back, to enjoy more time with our families, to work from home in our pajamas and maybe even to tackle a few long-delayed home improvement projects. But no matter how the pandemic has affected us, one thing is clear – St. Pete is resilient and though a lot of us are still mourning the way life used to be, there’s plenty of hope for the future as we adjust to the new normal. 

In this edition of St. Pete 2.0 and as part of the Catalyst series The New Normal: Six Months Under Covid, we wanted to get a sense of what the last six months have been like for local residents. We asked them to rank how Covid has impacted them physically, emotionally, financially and socially. We then invited them to answer a few open-ended questions on silver linings and surprises that have come out of the pandemic, and we closed things out by asking participants to share their biggest Covid-related concerns going forward and their thoughts on how the pandemic will impact St. Pete’s evolution as a city.

Here’s part one of what we found.

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