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3A | AFFORDABLE?
Workforce apartments are in the
approval stage for East Naples
4A | DRAWN BACK HOME
3B | GOOD AND BAD
in the NYC arts scene, Elysia Dawn returned to Naples
2024, but there were many positives as well
A LOOK BACK
Tim Aten
2024 was a year of change, good and bad By Aisling Swift
2024 was a year of pros and cons for Collier County and its cities. The 101st years for the city of Naples and Collier County marked a turning point. As the political climate turned nasty nationwide, it trickled down
Happy new year! Get set for a scrumptious smorgasbord of restaurants preparing to open in the Naples area in 2025.
locally, ending in Political Action Committees injecting lies and mudslinging into the city of Naples’ elections. For the first time in the city’s history, PACs inserted themselves into the mayoral race, spreading negative and false information. Voters received not only mailers but texts from several PACs, including one that led to complaints filed with the
county Supervisor of Elections. The March 19 three-way mayoral race pitted incumbent Mayor Teresa Heitmann against thenCity Councilman Ted Blankenship and Gary Price, a former councilman and vice mayor, who ran on a property-rights platform with Bill “Coach” Kramer, See LOOK BACK, Page 10A
2024's last push
January jam
The year begins with a series of restaurant newcomers setting tables for what is all but guaranteed to become a must-experience spread for Southwest Florida foodies. Tigress, an open-air Cantonese chophouse, is coming in January atop the new Perry Hotel Naples, which started welcoming guests in late December to its highly visible location next to the Bay House at Walkerbilt Road and U.S. 41 in North Naples. Celebrity “Top Chef ” Dale Talde plans to showcase his innovative culinary style with dishes such as dry-aged crown of duck, dryaged beef potstickers and blue crab fried rice with jalapeño aioli. The new hotel also will launch its Easy Tiger rooftop lounge with a view of the Cocohatchee River and the Gulf of Mexico. Also in North Naples, Lujacks All-American Grill plans a mid-January launch in the former large space of The Pearl and Stonewood Tavern in Fountain Park at Airport-Pulling and Vanderbilt Beach roads. The remodeled full-service restaurant and lounge will be a tribute to Fighting Irish football legend and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny
The arts in Collier County took a hit in
After a decade of professional ballet, and many years
Tim Aten Knows
More than 50 restaurants are coming in 2025
J A N . 3 - 9 , 2025
Drew Whitcomb, left, Mia Luth, in the cart, and their dog Buddy during a laundry cart race at a Tamiami Trail anniversary celebration April 27. It's one of the many events, activities and citizens highlighted in The Year in Pictures photo spread on Pages 8A and 9A. Photo by Liz Gorman
See ATEN KNOWS, Page 7A
NWWF legacy the result of hard work, a giving community 0
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By Harriet Howard Heithaus harriet.heithaus@naplespress.com
Twenty-five years ago, the hope was that a wine festival might bring together people with money, heart and the spirit of a bon vivant to help address the staggering needs for Collier County’s children in poverty. Creating a legacy wasn’t on the radar. That’s why several couples from its first year seem mildly surprised that they’re here analyzing the festival a quarter of a century later. When a group of founding trustees and festival chairs who had steered it through the depths of
a recession in 2009 and the pandemic in 2021 sat down to talk about their years with the Naples Winter Wine Festival, they were more focused on what needs to be done. Simone Lutgert recalled a recent trustees session at which the unmet needs were categorized for them: “That hit me like a brick,” she said. Even with the strides made, she felt they were “a rock in the water. There’s so much need here.”
From casual lunch to vintner dinners
The festival is one big stone, however. When the first vintners and chefs alight from private flights for the Naples Winter Wine Festival’s glittering Jan. 24-26 weekend, they are being greeted by an organization that has raised $302 million over the years for children’s causes in Collier County. Its granting arm, the Naples Children and Education Foundation, operates the Early Childhood Development Center serving at-risk and underprivileged children on the Collier County See NWWF, Page 6A
MORNINGS Taylor Petras
Corey Lazar
Lindsey Sablan
Zach Maloch
Rachel Cox-Rosen