Tony Cho grew up in Vero Beach, left for Miami, and spent two decades reshaping places like Wynwood and Little Haiti into some of the hottest neighborhoods in the country. Along the way he became one of the more influential voices in regenerative placemaking globally, advising cities, building conservation districts and writing about what it looks like when developers stop extracting from communities and start restoring them. Then he came back to the Treasure Coast and activa

They don't care about arts and culture, but after a two-year absence, lovebugs have returned to Vero Beach, and if you've noticed them drifting across your driveway again, here's what you need to know. First, kill the myth: the University of Florida did not create these in a lab. The story that they were engineered to eat mosquitoes is fiction. They migrated here naturally from Central America, they don't bite, and they survive entirely on nectar. They're also not, technicall

Summer is around the corner, meaning now is the time to pick up a good book and get ready to hit the beach. Here's a look at what the Book Center has lined up to help you find your next read: Fox News Chief Political Anchor and bestselling author Bret Baier presents The Case For America, an argument for the nation's founding ideals as the country approaches its 250th anniversary. Saturday, May 9 at 11:00 AM. Call 772-569-2050 to reserve tickets. Divergent author Veronica Roth

Hundreds of cities apply each year. Only 35 are selected. Rob Lucas has spent twelve years making sure Vero is among the select few.

On Thursday evening, Vero Minute and Page Wallace assembled a crowd of 75 Devil Wears Prada fans in black dresses, jackets, and heels that would not have looked out of place on the Upper East Side. All gathered for an advance screening of The Devil Wears Prada 2 at the Majestic 11. Champagne in hand, guests moved through the lobby and compared when they had last seen the original. The evening had a sense of occasion that went way beyond simply “catching a movie.” Once inside,

With the season winding down, Vero’s "Cultural Trinity": McKee Botanical Garden, Vero Beach Museum of Art, and Riverside Theatre is entering that sweet spot: Fewer crowds, a full slate of events, and a run of weekends that practically plan themselves. Pick a day, pick a place, and go. McKee Botanical Garden: Florigami + Pirate & Fairy Festival Florigami in the Garden, McKee’s centennial exhibition, is in its final stretch and closes May 24. This is the time of year when

Erika Masterson has spent more than two decades making a living from photography, including portraits, commercial work, and the steady grind of a business she built herself in California and Florida. The conceptual work came later, showing a different side of her work entirely. Her solo exhibition, Between Worlds, opens tomorrow, April 18 and runs through May 22. Gallery 14 describes her work as "quiet and soulful." They've turned up on magazine pages, greeting cards, and boo

The tickets are gone, but the race is still very much on....

On April 15, every player in Major League Baseball wears No. 42. Here in Vero Beach, nearly 3,000 people showed up to the ballpark where Robinson himself once played, continuing the United Way tradition that's been filling this ballpark since 2014. The Palm Beach Cardinals, playing as the Frozen Iguanas under a special limited promotional identity celebrating their South Florida roots, defeated the Jupiter Hammerheads 4-2 at Holman Stadium. Every dollar raised goes back into

Tomorrow is Opening Night! Riverside Theatre closes out the season with Dolly Parton's 9 to 5: The Musical . Limited seats remain -- only by calling the box office at (772) 231-6990. Cocktail and hors d'oeuvres at 6:30, show begins at 7:30 followed by after-party with the cast. Based on the cult classic 1980 film, the show follows Violet, Judy, and Doralee as they reach their breaking point with their insufferable boss and concoct a brilliantly half-baked scheme to free

Vero Beach Museum of Art just landed an artist whose work you usually have to leave town to see: Yinka Shonibare

Brooke Brindle, Jennifer Schirard, Lauren Schirard, Cathy Curley Impact 100 Indian River awarded five $100,000 grants to local nonprofits last week, continuing a model launched in 2009 under the influence of the late Ellie McCabe : one woman, one thousand dollars, one vote. The group has since awarded more than $7 million in grants to Indian River County organizations. This year, grants were awarded to support the following projects: Hibiscus Children’s Center : family c

On April 22, 1970 , now known as Earth Day , 20 million Americans took to the streets in the largest single-day civic demonstration in U.S. history, which led to the creation of the EPA as well as the passage of the Clean Air and the Clean Water Acts. Florida, caught at the crossroads between breakneck growth and the natural beauty that made it worth moving to in the first place, was ahead of its time. The state rode this early Earth Day momentum to pass the Environmental Lan

Will Tripson and Bobbie Secor, Vice President of Vero Heritage Inc. | Photo credit: Chris Cronin Will Schlitt once set out to be a standup comic. It didn't stick. “I found out I wasn’t funny,” he said. “So I became an accountant, which is the next best thing.” The room, judging by the laughter, did not agree. That was the tone of Deeply Rooted, the new annual spring event at the Heritage Center, where history felt loose and alive, but this time, squarely in the hands of the

This Saturday, The Moorings Yacht and Country Club opens its gates to the 16th Annual Wheels and Keels Antique & Exotic Car & Boat Show where collector cars are fanned across the golf course, with yachts at the docks, food trucks, and an awards ceremony. No ticket required to walk in from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. If you'd like to attend the dinner and live auction the night before, tickets are $275 and can be purchased here. Gavin Rutuolo, George O'Malley, and Vincent DeTurris

Tom Servinsky Lisa Macalaster Between the Roaring Twenties and the Swinging Sixties, America was coming of age and finding its rhythm. In the smoke of jazz clubs and the tinny buzz of Tin Pan Alley, and out of Broadway’s orchestra pits and Hollywood’s soundstages, composers like Cole Porter , George Gershwin , Irving Berlin , and Harold Arlen spun out melodies that captured the country’s swagger and longing. “Over the Rainbow.” “New York, New York.” “Fly Me to the Moon.”

Vero Beach Opera’s Rising Stars Festival Begins Wednesday Opera has been the proving ground for the world's greatest voices for four centuries, from the courts of Renaissance Italy to the grand houses of Vienna, Milan, and New York. The Metropolitan Opera alone has launched more careers than any institution in American music. But the MET doesn't discover talent in a vacuum. It relies on a network of smaller companies, competitions, and festivals: scrappy, passionate organiza

This one's nearly sold out -- get your tickets befoe they're gone! In the 1840s, Victorian England had descended into what botanists grimly called "orchidelirium," a full-blown mania in which aristocrats spent fortunes, hired mercenaries, and stripped entire jungles bare to possess a flower that, once obtained, tended to die within weeks. Plant hunters were sworn to secrecy about the collecting locations. Rivals spread false coordinates to throw each other off the scent. Men

Travel + Leisure’s new “ Essential Guide to Vero Beach ” reads, for those of us who live here year‑round, like a reminder we didn’t quite need but are glad to see confirmed: this is an unusually rich corner of the map, unlike anywhere else in the state of Florida. In a short sweep it moves from the Vero Beach Museum of Art and Riverside Theatre through McKee’s gardens to the lagoon, Pelican Island , and the Environmental Learning Center — our 64‑acre “hands‑on, feet‑wet

Whenever a Riverside Theatre cast rolls into town, Lee Olsen doesn’t wait for opening night. He brings them straight to Waldo’s, sets Voodoo Buckets on the table, serves them dinner...