[suenew]

What are the more socially-liberal areas of FL?
We are thinking about a move to the Tampa/St Pete area.
Looking to be near the coast, and near a good VA center.
Would like to have access to good farmers markets, parks, and laid-back quirky people and historic areas.

[brinkofsunshine]

If you're willing to be a little further to the coast, Orlando fits the bill too. There's some quirky areas of downtown, lots of historic homes in that area. Also lots of cafes, indie shops, farmers markets. Check out Audubon Park, Winter Park (amazing annual art festival and weekly farmers market), Thornton Park and College Park.

[justNancy]

Tampa is far from liberal. Go a little further north to Saint Petersburg. I guess it depends on what you mean by liberal. Do you mean accepting? Sarasota, which is south of Tampa, is politically conservative, but it prides itself in the arts, so you'll find a lot of different cultural activities. However, you need to go to the east coast of Florida to find the more liberal communities like Fort Lauderdale.

There are many threads on this same subject BTW. A few are......

[URL]https://www.city-data.com/forum/tampa-bay/640343-any-more-liberal-progressive-hippie-areas.html[/URL]

[URL]https://www.city-data.com/forum/florida/586335-most-progressive-liberal-major-city-florida.html[/URL]

[URL]https://www.city-data.com/forum/fort-lauderdale-area/289736-liberal.html[/URL]

[kyle19125]

St Petersburg fits the bill. St Pete has a great active downtown with much going on versus Tampa's downtown which seems to shut down at night. There are also many liberal neighborhoods in the city. Check out Old Northeast, Kenwood, Euclid/St Pauls and Roser Park. The artsy little town of Gulfport, just to the south of St Pete is another option. St Pete is home to a very nice VA Hospital at Bay Pines on the SW side of town.


HONNA
Historic Kenwood
Euclid - St. Paul's Neighborhood Association
Historic Roser Park
Gulfport Florida
About Bay Pines VA Healthcare System - Bay Pines VA Healthcare System

[SoFLGal]

Originally Posted by suenew

What are the more socially-liberal areas of FL?
We are thinking about a move to the Tampa/St Pete area.
Looking to be near the coast, and near a good VA center.
Would like to have access to good farmers markets, parks, and laid-back quirky people and historic areas.

You might want to check out Southside Village in Sarasota. It has a farmers market, Whole Foods, and wonderful historic district.

[gypsychic]

Downtown Sarasota is fabulous, as is the whole town, really.

But if that is too far from VA hospital, go with Kyle's advice about St. Pete.

And Gulfport might be a great choice - we just visited a few weeks ago and thought it was just the cutest little art town. A little too small for my liking but it's basically St. Pete so you don't have to go too far. Only problem with it is it borders on a very, very sketchy area. For St. Pete I would stick to old NE, St. Pete has a big crime problem in many parts of the city.

[doggiebus]

Southeast Florida is probably the largest liberal area in the state. Right around the Universities in Tally and Gainesville it will be pretty liberal too. Orlando is pretty liberal also. I don't see Tampa as being liberal, to me its more conservative than Southeast Florida.

[Coconut1]

You'll need to go to Southeast Florida or the Keys.

Stay away from North Florida, Central and SW Fla.

[kyle19125]

I have a really difficult time labeling Orlando as liberal having lived there for 8 years. Overall it's quite family-oriented and very Republican.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by doggiebus

Southeast Florida is probably the largest liberal area in the state. Right around the Universities in Tally and Gainesville it will be pretty liberal too. Orlando is pretty liberal also. I don't see Tampa as being liberal, to me its more conservative than Southeast Florida.

Just as a reminder, there's more to Tampa. It's the Tampa Bay area and St. Petersburg (around 250,000 in population) is quite liberal.