As the founder of Keep St. Pete Local, Olga Bof may be the most ardent champion of businesses started and operated in St. Petersburg. On Feb. 24, her nonprofit’s signature event, Localtopia, returns to downtown with a community celebration of all things St. Pete.
Hosted annually in Williams Park, Localtopia is a showcase for St. Pete businesses, makers, nonprofits and organizations that is peppered with live music, food trucks, and local brews. This year KSPL added the slogan: “It’s more than a festival. It’s a local vibe.”
Started in 2014, the event has become so successful that its footprint has expanded into the surrounding streets. Area businesses clamor for a spot. KSPL and Localtopia showcase only businesses founded and operated within the St. Petersburg city limits. Chains and independent businesses of Clearwater, Tampa and other area towns need not apply.
Magic City Born
You might think that someone so passionate about buying from locally formed and owned businesses would also be born here herself. Bof’s path to St. Petersburg was circuitous, and her passport is well stamped.
She was born in Miami two months after her parents arrived on a “Freedom Flight” from Cuba. They were refugees at a time when Miami was still culturally a white Southern city. “We experienced a lot of racism,” she said. “It was a lot different then.”
Her family’s business was connected to Cuba, and their home in Little Havana was filled with voices speaking Spanish. She didn’t learn English until after she started school.
Life in Europe
As a young adult, Bof wore many hats for the BBC World Service when the British network opened its first overseas production base in Miami. She managed the office, helped with radio production, and filled in where needed. She eventually moved to London.
In Europe, she worked for the BBC, Expedia, and, eventually, Channel 4 Television in London. “It was an incredible job. You’d run into (chefs) Gordan Ramsay and Jamie Oliver at the café in the lobby,“ she said. Through her work, she met Alberto Granado, who traveled around South America with Che Guevara. “I’ve been blessed to have had so many incredible experiences in my life – the places I’ve lived, the places I’ve traveled to, the people I’ve met.”
While working in London, she also met her husband.
Florida Bound
When they met, Olga already knew that she wanted to move back to Florida, but didn’t want to go back to Miami. She had family in Tampa and fond memories of a sleepy Florida coastal town called St. Petersburg.
She and her husband came to St. Pete in early 2008 at the height of the Great Recession with no job or housing. She got pregnant with her son about two months later. “St Pete was such a different place. Our first Saturday night out we were a couple of blocks from Beach Drive in front of what’s now the Sundial and there was not one person on the street.”
Still, she believed in St. Pete and suspected others soon would, too. Over the next few years, she got a paying job at the nonprofit Suncoast Center, wrote about local businesses for “I Love the Burg,” and planned to open a children’s book and eco-toy store.
Keeping St Pete St Pete
As she prepared her bookstore business plan, she discovered that independent bookstores were driving buy-local movements. She wanted to help preserve St. Pete’s quirky local vibe and reached out to the American Independent Business Alliance (AIBA). After discussions with like-minded residents, Keep St. Pete Local was born. The AIBA affiliate launched in late November 2011.
By 2015, the nonprofit was able to pay Bof a salary, allowing her to quit her Suncoast job and organize multiple KSPL events. Today KSPL has more than 500 members. It has been highlighted in the book This Is Where You Belong by Melody Warnick, in Allegiant Air’s inflight magazine, and in a video with actor/activist Kevin Bacon.
Challenging Times
KSPL’s progress hasn’t been without slumps. In 2016, rain flattened attendance, and the nonprofit almost collapsed. “I couldn’t take a salary for most of that year,” Bof said. “My family really sacrificed a lot to keep it going.”
The year 2020 was also difficult. The Covid pandemic hurt local businesses, and Bof had three cancer ssurgeries. Her medical struggle left her with a vow to travel more and limit KSPL’s events to Localtopia.
With restored health and the city booming, Bof is now dealing with the challenges that come with a flurry of new residents and outside businesses. Her KSPL goals for 2024 are educating new residents on the buy-local lifestyle along with organizing another successful Localtopia.
“I walk the event every year and try to check in with every vendor,” she said. “I feel that palpable joy and community spirit. You’re not killing it (money-wise) running an independent business alliance. It’s hard, but it feels incredibly worthwhile, and that’s why I continue to do it.”
