ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Welcome to 9 Questions with…, an exclusive Spectrum Bay News 9 feature in which we get to know some of the Bay area’s movers and shakers a little better. It could be a politician, an artist, a first responder, a bartender—just about anyone, really. This week’s 9 Questions features former Creative Loafing and duPont Registry Tampa Bay editor and current Creative Pinellas board president David Warner. Is there someone you’d like to answer 9 Questions? Let us know!

Are you a Tampa Bay native? If not, where are you from?

No. Born in Hyannis, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. Therefore I grew up with anyone who wasn’t born on the Cape asking, wide-eyed, “You live there in the off-season?”

How would you describe your job or claim to fame?

I went from alt to haute — editor of the alt-weeklies Philadelphia City Paper and Creative Loafing Tampa Bay from 1987-2018 and editor of duPont Registry Tampa Bay from 2018 until recently.

What’s your favorite Tampa Bay restaurant?

Baba on Central in St. Pete’s Grand Central District. Love the Mediterranean menu (the hummus! the chicken! the cocktails!), love the ambience (particularly the lantern-lit patio), and love the hospitality (Debbie Sayegh, Allison Harris and crew are unfailingly warm and welcoming).

Do you have a personal Tampa Bay “secret spot” and/or “hidden treasure”?

The 30-minute parking spots in Pass-A-Grille. Thirty minutes is just enough time to walk the dog, get a cheeseburger at Paradise Grille (or pick up some fresh pasta from Gracie), walk back along the Intracoastal and hop back in the car. 

What is your favorite Tampa Bay tradition?

Ragging on my family up north about their blizzards and our sports teams.

What’s one thing many people don’t know about you that you’re willing to share with us?

I played the head artichoke in a parade of giant vegetables through South Philly’s Italian Market, a Walt Whitman-quoting hobo wandering the streets of Philly’s Old City (that one almost got me arrested) and I’m going to be Juror #11 in Stageworks’ production of ‘12 Angry Men’ in September. 

If you could change one thing about the Tampa Bay area or your community specifically, what would it be? 

I’d raise consciousness about the immense contributions being made to our local economy by artists and arts organizations. In Pinellas, for example (according to figures from the county’s office of economic development), arts-related businesses have an annual economic impact of $2,220,572,568.

As a longtime local newspaper editor, what do you think residents can do to help support good, locally focused journalism?

Buy an ad! Get a subscription! Read! Respond! We have a daily that wins Pulitzers, an alt-weekly that’s telling stories no one else is telling, community papers that keep their towns in the know — and if you don’t support these publications, trust me, they won’t survive, and the coverage we need to see won’t ever come to light.

You were recently elected board president of Creative Pinellas, the local nonprofit arts agency for Pinellas County. What are your goals for the organization? 

Alert Pinellas County and the entire region to the rich arts and cultural resources available here to residents and tourists alike.