Family in mid 20s RELOCATING to TAMPA..NEED INFO PLEASE! (Brandon: crime, house)

[bubbleguppies]

Hi everyone! We are a young family in our mid 20s with a 14 month old daughter. My husband was recently hired with the Hillsborough County Fire Department. We live in Palm Beach County, Fl and need to relocate. We do not know too much about the areas of Hillsborough County or Pasco County. We'd like current information and feedback on both counties before we make our decision. We are looking for ANY information that could help us with the transition. The following are a few specific things with have concerns or questions about right off the bat. Safety, schools, and beach access are the top of our list.

1. What areas have SAFE neighborhoods suitable for children?
2. What are the BAD areas to stay away from?
3. What areas are SAFE & close to the beach?
4. Any school system feedback? (both public or private)


We will also be contacting the local police departments to get further information but YOUR personal experiences are full of valuable information as well! We appreciate you taking the time to read our concerns. ANY information you have to offer of these areas is helpful. Feel free to add fun things to do and places we should visit for some more exciting things to look forward to. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!

[jambo101]

If beaches are really that important to your place of residence then the western edges of St Petersburg would be where you need to focus.
Areas to avoid? probably south side St Pete.
Safe areas? cant make any guarantees on that as anything can happen anywhere.
Redington or Indian Rocks or Denedin might fit your criteria but the trade off is a substantial commute over to Tampa..

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by bubbleguppies

Hi everyone! We are a young family in our mid 20s with a 14 month old daughter. My husband was recently hired with the Hillsborough County Fire Department. We live in Palm Beach County, Fl and need to relocate. We do not know too much about the areas of Hillsborough County or Pasco County. We'd like current information and feedback on both counties before we make our decision. We are looking for ANY information that could help us with the transition. The following are a few specific things with have concerns or questions about right off the bat. Safety, schools, and beach access are the top of our list.

1. What areas have SAFE neighborhoods suitable for children?
2. What are the BAD areas to stay away from?
3. What areas are SAFE & close to the beach?
4. Any school system feedback? (both public or private)


We will also be contacting the local police departments to get further information but YOUR personal experiences are full of valuable information as well! We appreciate you taking the time to read our concerns. ANY information you have to offer of these areas is helpful. Feel free to add fun things to do and places we should visit for some more exciting things to look forward to. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!

For safety, good schools and beach access I would recommend checking out the city of Seminole. It's northwest of St Pete and offers one of the easier commutes out of Pinellas County over to Tampa via a straight shot over Park Boulevard and the Gandy Bridge. The east side (east of Lake Seminole, north of Park along either side of Sharkey Road) is your best bet for a commute, though areas to the west of the lake would work fine as well. It's around 25 miles from downtown Tampa. Seminole's public schools are among the best in the entire Tampa Bay area (A-rated). It's pretty family-friendly and not a crime hotspot. You can also be at the beach (Redington Shores) in less than 10 minutes from most of town.

[floribbean]

Congrats on the hire! When did he hear the good news? My son has not heard back yet either way, don't know if that's good news or bad? Don't know if this helps but a friend of ours from Tampa told him to check out the Carrollwood area which is west of USF. She said suburbs and lots of families. Good luck!

[Tim Tim Tim]

To stay in hillsborough I would suggest carrollwood or citrus park areas. Do you know where hell be stationed at in the city though? Im not sure how the county divides up (if they do, most of my friends work for the city of tampa).

[floribbean]

That is something to consider given Hillsborough has 42 departments, the county is huge. Son's understanding is the county is divided into "sections or divisions" with so many stations in that section that you could be assigned to. Maybe someone else can chime in who knows more.

[FloridaKash]

Agreed. You need to know where he is stationed. If you end up living in Seminole and the station is in East Hillsborough, that would be quite the commute. But, since he will be working 24 hours straight and then 48 hours off, he might not mind. I lived in Seminole and liked it. I suggest staying west of Seminole Blvd.

[ib21]

The unfortunate thing is that Hillsborough County is very large, and that the County fire rescue department has many stations, 42-43 of them. The commute could be an hour or more depending on where you live. 24 hour shifts might offset that as an issue, but driving from anywhere in Pinellas County (by the beaches) to a Hillsborough station could be a drag. As a new recruit, he will not have a set station for a long time, and could make two commutes in a shift i.e. showing up at his "assigned station" and being sent to a further station for coverage or other reasons. I would recommend looking for a house in Tampa or unicorporated Hillsborough county, somewhat close to the highways...South Tampa, Brandon, Citrus Park, any of those... good luck !

[Tim Tim Tim]

keep in mind that after a 24 hour shift at 7am the last thing you want to do is drive over an hour, same thing at 6am when your heading off to work. I would aim to find out generally the area hell be in.

also, congrats to him on the job. Its not easy to get in with fire departments here!