By Herb Hiller

Up early with the birds and the sun, David Roy in his bathrobe and slippers crosses Main Street, where he plunks coins into the newspaper box so guests at his Meranova Guest Inn can read the news with their coffee. David and his partner Frank Baiamonte from Marin County in 1998-99 restored their inn of seven guest suites in a row of Dunedin houses converted to garden, gift and antique shops. David and Frank are among several hundred who have moved downtown in this city of 37,000 since coming of the Pinellas Trail.

When the trail recycled an abandoned rail corridor in 1991, Dunedin flowered. Hard times gave way to a work-live-play downtown that became a model for the transforming power of long-distance recreational trails. The preference of cyclists, skaters and walkers to have things close at hand clustered business back downtown. A former auto parts store became Bellini’s, the Auto Impound Lot a cooking emporium. Main Street narrowed from four lanes to two. One lot became a park with a bandstand framed in ornamental iron like a Victorian-era train station; another became the Chic-a-Boom Room, attached to Kelly’s, one of a half-dozen chic-to-affordable restaurants where bikes fill sidewalk racks. None of it was here before the trail energized the area.

Bob Ironsmith, a former tennis teacher who heads the community redevelopment agency, says “Everything is environmentally friendly. Everything relates to its place. You’re never threatened by traffic. You never even notice it.” The town walking guide is printed on recycled paper. Utilities are all going underground. The whole town is getting set up for WiFi.

Bob next wants a natural foods store and a gourmet market near the trail, where there’s already an historical museum in the old depot and the Box Car, a recycled freight car, sells T-shirts that show off art.

This story is excerpted from The Islas Pinellas, Standout Small Towns, in Florida's Beach, the 2006 Visitor Guide for the St. Petersburg Clearwater area.