Rain or shine, the Looper downtown trolley combs St. Petersburg streets daily. It takes visitors to 14 downtown attractions.
Moving slowly in the city’s busy thoroughfare since 1996, the fleet of pale blue streetcars is an increasingly popular form of local transportation, with both locals and tourists.
On a sweltering summer day, I waited at the Pier and joined troves of residents, and holidaymakers — half-naked beachcombers and couples with cameras strapped on their necks — to experience a leisurely ride.
Hearing the chime of the Looper’s bell, kids eagerly hopped on the trolley, and turned the wooden benches inside into playgrounds. Their screams and voices competed with the screeching streetcar wheels and the whimsical stories Kathy McVey piped through the loud speakers. McVey, 53, wearing the uniform of a Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts, steers the wheel while giving the tour.
The Looper departs from the Pier, stopping at major resorts, hotels and museums, such as the Florida Holocaust Museum, Dali’s surrealist treasure trove and the Museum of Fine Arts.
As the 30-minute tour started, McVey told riders how the city got its name.
Peter Demens, a Russian engineer, built a railroad to St. Petersburg in 1888, to transport Michigan merchant John C. Williams’ avocados. The town is named after Demens’ birthplace in Russia.
Riders tried to snap pictures from cart windows as McVey, a walking encyclopedia of St. Petersburg, revealed the stories behind the city’s cultural sites. She explained that the bronze baseball plaques dotting Central Avenue pay homage to the years that major leagues from different parts of the country held spring training in St. Petersburg.
Passengers craned their necks to glimpse the bustling street fair as the trolley drove past BayWalk mall. Some of them pulled the overhead straps and hopped off the Looper.
McVey often updates her script with new Internet findings and peppers it with local jokes. Heads turned to the windows as she pointed out a peculiar octagonal building, the public bathrooms, that stand near the Pier. Plastered with “Comfort Station” signage, the building is a miniature of the majestic St. Mary Our Lady of Grace Church on Fourth Street South. McVey said the architect of St. Mary built the replica because the church refused to pay him for his work. Hence, he embarrassed the church with the bathrooms, which locals now nickname as “Little St. John’s.” A visiting couple from Georgia burst into laughter as they heard the story.
When the streetcar drove past the University of South Florida on Third Street South, McVey said a scene in “Ocean’s Eleven” was shot there. Many riders rolled their eyes as they heard the news. Two local women joked that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie stayed at their houses. Their loud conversations made many passengers and McVey giggle.
The Sunshine City has much to offer, but McVey said snowbirds are often fascinated with the city’s foreign fauna. Riders looked out from the windows and could see children clinging to the big arms of a tropical kapok tree, and tourists snapping pictures in front of the Indian banyan trees that dot the yard of the Museum of Fine Arts.
The number of passengers riding the trolleys has doubled since 2004, with 120,000 riders in 2006.
Costing only a quarter — a dime for seniors — the trolleys are popular among residents in downtown St. Petersburg. I saw a local senior board the streetcar and ask the driver to stop at the CVS so that he could pick up his prescriptions. More often, residents chitchatted with out-of-towners in this moving communal capsule.
