Got a surpise job offer in St Pete... lots of questions - Tampa Bay - Florida (FL) -Tampa - St. Petersburg - Clearwater - Page 2 - City-Data Forum

craigm1841 · 09-14-2010, 07:40 AM

I live in tampa as a 27 year old single guy with a good career. I am quickly getting tired of the single scene in tampa, because keeping up with the jones' has become quite old. While I love the south tampa establishments for the food and scenery (the women are super hot), I am over it. It is far too pretentious and sometimes refered to by my friends as a "Poor Mans Los Angeles"

I hung out in St Pete for the first time since I moved to tampa 2 years ago. In reality, it took me 15 mins tops to get downtown from where I live in Tampa, and I plan on doing it much more often. St Pete is much more laid back, the nightlife had significantly less ed-hardy wearing douches and pretentious women looking for a guy who has money (or in tampas case pretending to have money). Based on your description of personal interests, I would move to St Pete. It seemed to be an awesome town, and the Tampa-St Pete area has millions of people, multiple colloeges, and a lot of tourists and transplants. You will always see new faces, meet new people, and a lot of them are single! That highschool sweatheart concern isn't an issue here. I lived in Savannah, GA for 6 years, so I know what you are talking about.

KCGator · 09-14-2010, 08:58 AM

I agree with everything written above. SO and I are in our mid-twenties. Tried living in Tampa for a year and hated it for all the reasons listed above (Poor man's LA) and more (45 minutes to the beach at least!). We moved to Old Northeast in St. Pete and couldn't be happier. The nightlife is MUCH more chill, the beach and all its activities are 20 minutes away, and it has a personality, which is something I think Tampa is severely lacking.
I grew up in the Midwest and I'm familiar with St. Louis. St Pete is in no way like St. Louis.
As for the singles scene, there are a lot of adult rec leagues and the SO has made friends through those. There are also two colleges down here, one being Stetson- the law school, so there are a fair number of young people hanging around most of the time. Its very easy to make friends at the beaches, someone is always playing volleyball or soccer or some other sport.

Word to the wise- avoid any housing south of Central Ave. no matter what the cost. I would highly recommend Old Northeast or living in the high rises downtown if you can afford it. The area of Old Northeast to the West of 4th St. has more crime than the east side of 4th, but its not "dangerous" and the crime in that area is largely property crime- car break ins and the like. The area to the West of MLK, however, gets kind of dicey. Also, I personally would avoid housing near St. Anthony's as there is a large tent city under the bridge across from the hospital that kind of makes me nervous.

jambo101 · 09-15-2010, 04:30 AM

As a long time past resident of St Pete i really dont get why every one wants to move to Tampa

its just a large sprawling suburb thats way too far from the beaches.

xbillyx · 09-27-2010, 09:13 AM

Whatever happened with the job offer? Have you decided what to do yet?

BTW, I'm a DC native myself (and also in my late 20s). I'm also strongly considering a move to Florida (with my wife). DC was far too expensive, polluted, and the traffic was a nightmare, not to mention how uptight the people there are.

I'm curious to know what you decide. St Pete is on my list of places to check out. If it helps any, I'm not too fond of Tampa itself. I haven't been impressed enough to want to live in the city.

DoctorRain · 09-27-2010, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by craigm1841

I live in tampa as a 27 year old single guy with a good career. I am quickly getting tired of the single scene in tampa, because keeping up with the jones' has become quite old. While I love the south tampa establishments for the food and scenery (the women are super hot), I am over it. It is far too pretentious and sometimes refered to by my friends as a "Poor Mans Los Angeles"

I hung out in St Pete for the first time since I moved to tampa 2 years ago. In reality, it took me 15 mins tops to get downtown from where I live in Tampa, and I plan on doing it much more often. St Pete is much more laid back, the nightlife had significantly less ed-hardy wearing douches and pretentious women looking for a guy who has money (or in tampas case pretending to have money). Based on your description of personal interests, I would move to St Pete. It seemed to be an awesome town, and the Tampa-St Pete area has millions of people, multiple colloeges, and a lot of tourists and transplants. You will always see new faces, meet new people, and a lot of them are single! That highschool sweatheart concern isn't an issue here. I lived in Savannah, GA for 6 years, so I know what you are talking about.

St Petes job economy seems worse than Tampas though so everything is a tradeoff. I given up on FL in general as far as singles go whether it be Tampa or St Pete. I tried looking in both. There may be somewhat of a keep up with the jones deal in Tampa, but to me its the better city of the 2 to live. Ybor area seems to have some alternative thinking people too. St Pete just has a lot of flaws to go with their charm and pretty much decided against St Pete at this point. Rents are overrated too for the type of place it is with boarded up buildings and all.

I think its hard socially in FL PERIOD because of all the transients who keep coming in and people only are superficially friendly. Thats a thing to think of. I look for true friends if the right person gets me at the right time. If I want nothing to do with you, I will act like it trust me.

Kamehameha · 10-02-2010, 10:22 AM

I'm waiting for a job offer in Tampa and am considering the St. Pete area (moving from Denver). We wanted to move to Sarasota but I understand the commute is a really bad.

What's the issue with living South of Central Ave? I don't know the area at all.

floridaexpert · 10-02-2010, 01:03 PM

Saint Petersburg is a very nice city; It has a lot of great parks, health clubs, modern shopping centers and is close to the beautiful Gulf beaches, Saint Pete is comprised of a grid system of streets and is not real hard to get around. However demographic wise there is not a lot of 20 somethings who are making big bucks here. The largest companies other then in the Health Care Industry have either downsized, use temporary workers or have outsourced departments overseas. Telemarketing jobs in Pinellas County are very popular and seem to be the primary ads on craigs list and in the St Pete Times.

The best Neighborhoods, in my opinion in Saint Petersburg are West of 66th Street South of 38th Avenue North and North of South Pasadena. Very nice neighborhoods here with great amenities. Northeast Saint Petersburg also has some nice neighboorhoods. Areas to avoid totally would be South of Tropicana Field, 5th avenue south from east of 49th Street and pretty much south of that.

If you want to live out of the city limits the best areas I would say would be most of the City of Seminole, the City of Largo west of 131st north near the beach is pretty nice. which are is northwest of the city limits. I would avoid most of Pinellas Park, Lealman, it isnt the nicest areas but still better then a lot of areas up north.

Traffic wise the city isnt that bad as I said before to get around. The worst areas in the city with traffic are 34th Street North (US19), 66th Street, and I 275. In the suburbs the major roads of Park Blvd and Ulmerton Road that run east/west through Pinellas Park, Seminole and Largo are worse then any roadways in the City of Saint Petersburg.