New vehicle-for-hire and carriage rules take effect today
The city's rewritten vehicle-for-hire ordinance takes effect this morning, with warnings running until Oct. 1.
St. Augustine's revised rules for vehicles for hire take effect today. The City Commission approved changes to the vehicle-for-hire and franchise ordinances after a review by city staff that ran a full year and gathered public input along the way, and those changes are in force as of Thursday, July 23. Enforcement starts gently. Operators will be issued warnings through Oct. 1, and penalties become possible only once that grace period closes. That leaves roughly ten weeks for anyone running a for-hire vehicle in the city to bring paperwork and day-to-day practice in line before a citation is on the table, which is a longer runway than most ordinance changes come with. The city has described the purposes behind the rewrite as regulation, public safety, enforcement, and protecting the transportation and sightseeing industry that operates here. The provisions covering horse-drawn carriages are aimed at animal health, safety and welfare. For a visitor stepping off a carriage on St. George Street this week, the practical effect is close to invisible: the carriages and the shuttles still run on the same streets they ran on yesterday. For the people operating them, today is the date the new ordinance language becomes the standard, and Oct. 1 is the date it starts carrying consequences. Both dates are worth writing down. (News4JAX)
A dugout canoe takes shape at the lighthouse
Since May 2026, the boat building volunteers of the Heritage Boat Works program have been working on a dugout canoe at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum, and the build is still in progress. The form carries deep roots in this state: Florida holds the highest concentration of archaeological dugout canoes found anywhere in the world, and the recovered examples reach back more than 7,000 years into the maritime history of Florida and its indigenous populations. Archaeologists in Florida have documented those finds over many years of work. The volunteer project puts that same kind of vessel back under construction in the present, shaped across a span of months rather than a single work session, and it is happening on museum grounds rather than in a workshop somewhere out of view. (St. Augustine Lighthouse)
Raintree stays in the family
Raintree Restaurant is staying in the family. Ownership of the St. Augustine dining room has moved to a third generation, keeping the restaurant under the same family that has been running it. For a small city where the restaurant list turns over with the seasons, a generational handoff is the quiet kind of news that tends to decide whether a room is still open in another decade. (Jacksonville Business Journal)
Sailing center takes a group of girls out for the first time
A group of girls got their first-ever time on the water through the St. Augustine Yacht Club Sailing Center. All of them were new to sailing. For anyone in town wondering where a beginner actually starts locally, that is the program that just handed a group of first-timers their opening day out. (St. Augustine Social)
Lord Huron plays the Amphitheatre Monday night
Lord Huron plays the St. Augustine Amphitheatre on Monday, July 27, at 7 p.m., with The Army, The Navy along as special guest. The Monday date puts an amphitheatre crowd on the road at the start of the week rather than on a weekend night. It is also the first of two Amphitheatre shows inside the same three-day stretch, both of them at 7 p.m. on a weeknight, so the same evening pattern repeats before the week is out. (St. Augustine Amphitheatre events)
The Black Keys hit the Amphitheatre Wednesday
The Black Keys bring the Peaches 'n Kream World Tour to the St. Augustine Amphitheatre on Wednesday, July 29, at 7 p.m., with Eddie 9V on the bill as support. It is the second Amphitheatre date of the week, arriving two nights after the Monday show at the same venue and at the same start time. Two shows at one venue in a single week, both on weeknights and both beginning at 7 p.m., gives the surrounding streets the same evening rhythm twice before the weekend arrives. Anyone whose route runs past the Amphitheatre has two nights to plan around rather than one. (St. Augustine Amphitheatre events)
Songwriters Festival returns Sept. 24-27
The St. Augustine Songwriters Festival comes back for its ninth annual run from Sept. 24 to 27, bringing Nashville songwriters — several of them with roots in this area — to stages around town. The concerts are free. Five locations carry the schedule: Colonial Oak Music Park, Prohibition Kitchen, Tradewinds Lounge, Boat Drinks and DJ's Clam Shack. That spread puts the music inside rooms people already walk past rather than behind a single gate, and a four-day run across five venues turns the weekend into less of a ticket decision than a question of how far to wander between sets. Two months out, the useful details are the ones already fixed: the dates, the price and the addresses. Anyone planning a fall visit or hosting guests in late September now has a weekend that arrives with its own soundtrack attached at no cost. (Visit St. Augustine)
Stephen Wilson Jr. books an Aug. 7 Amphitheatre date
Stephen Wilson Jr. brings the Gary The Torch Tour to the St. Augustine Amphitheatre on Friday, August 7, at 7 p.m. The Friday slot makes it a weekend option at the venue in early August, in contrast to the pair of weeknight dates on the calendar this week. The start time matches those two shows, so the evening runs on the same 7 p.m. clock. (St. Augustine Amphitheatre events)