Just got back from the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors annual conference in St. Petersburg, Fla., where the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram was given an award for being one of the top five features sections in the nation in our circulation division. (Reporter Ray Routhier also received a much-deserved writing award.)

It was good to see old colleagues, meet some new ones, and get ideas on how to make our features sections — and the newspaper and website as a whole — better. We’re already planning on making some of those ideas reality; you will hopefully see some of them put into practice very soon.

The Florida visit also made me appreciate what we have here. Not just in terms of who we work for and with, but in terms of where we work.

I lived in southwest Florida for 10 years, most of which was spent covering arts and entertainment for the Bradenton Herald and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Florida’s gulf coast has a lot in common with coastal Maine in that it’s culturally rich — renowned museums, hundreds of talented artists, numerous performing arts venues and theater companies, professional dance, opera, classical music orchestras and more.

We have something that southwest Florida doesn’t, however — a vibrant nightlife scene.

You can place part of the blame on the housing implosion that has hit the Sunshine State especially hard.

But the biggest factor — and this was just as true when I lived in Florida during the boom years as now — is simply due to a lack of support from the community, from cities that enacted prohibitive noise ordinances to venues that cared more for guys playing bad Jimmy Buffett covers than local bands that played original material.

It’s not always easy to support local music and art with a nightclub, as evidenced by the recently closed North Star Music Cafe. But while losing the North Star was a loss, it’s not a crippling loss, thanks to numerous other venues that present a mixture of local and national musicians playing their own material. Clubs like Blue, Space, Empire Dine & Dance, Asylum, Slainte and the Big Easy.

And, making its return this week, the State Theatre. Although most of the acts booked at the State are nationally known touring bands, the venue is also providing an outlet for local bands, as evidenced by a free open house on Sunday. You can read all about it on Page 5.

I encourage everyone to check it out, as it represents not only a return of one of Portland’s historic entertainment venues, it’s a chance to show your support for the local music scene.

Because, like the housing bubble, it could disappear very quickly. Just ask the folks in southwest Florida.

Deputy Managing Editor Rod Harmon may be contacted at 791-6450 or at:

rharmon@pressherald.com