by Soudabah Moayedi
June 7th, 2021
You’ve probably seen the piano under the I-275 bridge in downtown St. Pete. With it’s painted exterior and covered in stickers it's kind of hard to miss. While it has been a fixture in the back of our minds and on our rides downtown it was sadly destroyed at the end of May in the middle of the night. Thankfully Kayla and Chance from Lucid Vending swooped in and saved the day! Replacing the loved, but old piano with a new one.
A new rainbow painted piano stands in the place of the old one. When Kayla and Chance found the old piano destroyed they couldn’t help but pounce into action. Looking for pianos on Craigslist wasn’t the easiest task. While a few plans fell through at first, they were able to find a new piano and had it delivered Sunday. We caught up with Kayla while she was painting and lent her hand while chatting for a bit. She’s hoping this one won’t be destroyed like the others, but knows that may be a possibility. That didn’t stop her from wanting to replace it though feeling like it was the right thing to do. I think everyone can agree that downtown St. Pete deserves a piano under the bridge.
While painting Kayla told us many people came up to her and shared stories of hearing people play, or seeing it destroyed, and how they loved that she was putting a new one under the bridge. To her surprise this will be the third one placed there! It was also nice to hear people honking in support, giving compliments and smiles as they passed by, and generally being supportive. While we may not think much of the piano when we pass by it, it's nice to know that people still like it seeing it sit there.
It's moments like a broken piano that show you how strong a community can be. Could St. Pete survive without a piano sitting under the I-275 bridge? Totally! But if we are all being honest with ourselves I don't think any of us wanted to see it gone. The piano under the bridge is as much St. Pete as the murals in our city and we couldn't be more excited to see it back in action.
Big thank you to Kayla and Chance from Lucid Vending for replacing and painting it!
