I’ve been doing this blog for a few months now.  Every once in awhile, I sort of step back and look at my posts and try to make sure I’m capturing the flavor of St. Petersburg as well as I could be.  A few days ago, I looked at my subtitle – it says, “A Look at Places, People, City Life, Happenings, History and More…”

And I decided that I’ve been a little slack on the “People” component.

So I’m going to try to add a little more of that piece and try to get back to the balance that I had in mind.

Who knows what person or people I’ll post about?  I don’t.  I kind of decided that I’ll know him/her/them when I see him/her/them.

And so, on Saturday night, while my wife and I were enjoying the Pops in the Park Florida Orchestra concert at Vinoy Park, I saw someone who seemed to fit the bill for me.  His name is Jacob.  I’m not sure about the rest of his life, but on Saturday night, his purpose was to create a message on the sidewalk, one that was eye-catching and colorful and bright and cheerful.  I’ve seen his work before, at the Saturday Morning Market in downtown St. Petersburg.  I didn’t know it was his work at the time, but when I spoke with him Saturday evening, I found out that it was. 

Anyway, on Saturday night, his raison d’être was to let the world know about the coming of the new Bayfront Baby Place.  It’s part of the new All Children’s Hospital complex that’s opening in a couple of months.  I posted about the new hospital facility a couple of weeks ago.  And because Jacob’s sidewalk messages are so bright and bold and cheerful, I’m happy to provide a little more publicity for the Bayfront Baby Place by posting these photos.

And as for the man behind the chalk, I only had a fleeting glimpse of Jacob’s life.  But I can tell you that he seems to love doing his sidewalk magic.  And, as families walked by, and he’d see children looking longingly at the chalk and at him and wondering why they couldn’t stop and do some of their own writing, Jacob always paused and said something nice to the kids, and he included advice about finding their own talent and doing good things with their lives. 

People make the world go ’round.  Jacob is one of the many interesting people that make St. Petersburg what it is – a fun place to live!

[All of the photos can be seen in a large image size just by clicking once on the photo.]

Today, All Children’s is the only specialty licensed children’s hospital on Florida’s West Coast.  St. Petersburg residents are extremely lucky to have such a facility in our city, and apparently they know it, because many very generous donors have made it possible to build a brand new, larger, better All Children’s, and it is scheduled to open in December of this year. 

To make their stays less traumatic and as pleasant as possible, the New All Children’s will have individual rooms for kids, with space for parents to sleep over.  There’s a rooftop playground planned, and a very cool feature called the EyeClick Interactivity System.  It uses ceiling-mounted cameras and infrared light sources to give visitors an immersive experience that responds to their movements and changes on the floor.  There’s also a movie theater, video bingo, and plays and other activities in the works.

In terms of care, the list of features is even more impressive.  The new hospital is a ten story facility with 259 beds.  Included is a 97 bed neonatal intensive care unit, twelve state of the art operating suites, a cardiovascular intensive care unit, a pediatric cancer and blood disorders center, and a pediatric emergency room.  On the west side of the building, with a separate entrance, there will be Bayfront Baby Place, a separate Obstetrics Care Unit combined with a Well-Baby nursery.  There’s much more to the new hospital, and when it does open its doors, I’ll get some more photos and will do another post.  But for now, we can all just feel good, knowing that we have such an excellent new facility about to open here.

New All Children's Hospital (click on picture for larger image)

Bayfront Baby Place (click on picture for larger image)