st pete or bradenton living... (Tampa, Largo: to rent, homes, school)

[southflresident]

I currently live in a nice area of south ft myers and am looking to move closer to where im planning to attend chiropractic school at SPC health campus in pinellas park/seminole area in the coming year or so. I am originally from pasco county and know pinellas county and dont really like the area as its crowded and not my style really...Do you guys suggest living in a nice area of bradenton and making the commute? My fiance and I really love sarasota and would prefer to live there, but the commute is whats holding me back. Thanks for any input!

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by southflresident

I currently live in a nice area of south ft myers and am looking to move closer to where im planning to attend chiropractic school at SPC health campus in pinellas park/seminole area in the coming year or so. I am originally from pasco county and know pinellas county and dont really like the area as its crowded and not my style really...Do you guys suggest living in a nice area of bradenton and making the commute? My fiance and I really love sarasota and would prefer to live there, but the commute is whats holding me back. Thanks for any input!

Depends on how long of a commute you are willing to make. From (north) Sarasota it's probably an hour to Pinellas Park, but it's all on the interstate. For what it's worth, my husband commutes to downtown Tampa every day (one hour) because we feel it's worth it to live here. I agree, Pinellas is much too crowded - here we have breathing room.

[bbronston]

I don't know about chiropractic school but I've had a few neighbors who've attended LECOM in Lakewood Ranch and they are rarely home. In other words, they spent most of their waking hours at school studying. If that will be the case with you, I'd live as close to school as possible. If that's not likely to be an issue, my personal choice was and would be to live in Bradenton. However, there are nice areas of St. Pete...you just have to find them. And, as you weigh one versus the other, consider the cost of gas, tolls, wear on your car, time spent commuting, etc., as you work it out. BTW, when we were looking at homes, I was working in St. Pete and we had family in West Bradenton and Sarasota so we ended up in Braden Woods (roughly ext 217 on 75) and that position worked pretty well for all of our interests.

[sware2cod]

If you move to Bradenton, would you want to drive I-275/Sunshine Skyway Bridge to and from school each day? This is a very very high bridge and it's long also. Have you driven it and are you ok driving it daily?

If there is a wreck or a bridge jumper (approx once each month), traffic backups are very bad on the bridge and there are no exits to turn around, since it is all water surrounding the area.

If I was in your shoes, I would find something to rent straight west of Pinellas Park...go toward the coast. It's a short drive and not a bad area. Or find something in Largo near the Olive Garden and around the Home Shopping Club outlet in Largo. It's not too congested in that area at all and seems pretty nice around there. It's probably pretty close to your school.There is a neat area in North Pinellas Park that has horse ranches...it's just west of 49th street near the intersection with hwy 19. that area is really not bad at all - safe and not congested.

Bottom line, you hate the area because it is congested....but you are going to be there for school anyway. You can't avoid it if you are going to be in school there. Might as well avoid a long commute.