Tampa Area = Overpopulated strip-mall with bad traffic (Jacksonville, St. Petersburg: houses, neighborhood)

[Wandering_Nomad]

I just recently visited the Tampa area and wasn't impressed at all.
Much of the western half of Tampa, across the bay, feels like one giant elongated strip-mall with awful traffic and too many trailer homes (St. Petersburg area). Downtown St. Pete was the nice exception, but the surrounding areas were very blah.

Clearwater was fairly decent, especially the beach island areas were very nice.
How's the economy there I wonder? There's a skyscraper in Clearwater that's half completed but is abandoned, lol. What happened there?

Downtown Tampa felt empty and deserted, during the day at least when I drove & walked through it. The trolley down there is a total gimmick and serves no actual functional purpose. I based this view after looking at a map of where the trolley goes. I don't even recall seeing any trolleys running at the time, they must only run at night?

Aside from having nice beaches and good weather, there's not much else that stood out or impressed me. The horrible traffic was enough to write Tampa off my list of cities I might want to live in.

[AES328]

Good. We have enough people. I wish more people felt that way.

[things and stuff]

You could say a lot of these things about any major metro in the South.

[Wandering_Nomad]

Originally Posted by things and stuff

You could say a lot of these things about any major metro in the South.

I was in Jacksonville FL recently too and it didn't feel that way at all. But JAX area has less people and is very large (land wise).

What really amazed me most about the St. Pete/Tampa area was the lackluster architecture. Trailer homes and cookie cutter houses galore! Yuck.

[The Villages Guy]

Originally Posted by Wandering_Nomad

I just recently visited the Tampa area and wasn't impressed at all.
Much of the western half of Tampa, across the bay, feels like one giant elongated strip-mall with awful traffic and too many trailer homes (St. Petersburg area). Downtown St. Pete was the nice exception, but the surrounding areas were very blah.

Clearwater was fairly decent, especially the beach island areas were very nice.
How's the economy there I wonder? There's a skyscraper in Clearwater that's half completed but is abandoned, lol. What happened there?

Downtown Tampa felt empty and deserted, during the day at least when I drove & walked through it. The trolley down there is a total gimmick and serves no actual functional purpose. I based this view after looking at a map of where the trolley goes. I don't even recall seeing any trolleys running at the time, they must only run at night?

Aside from having nice beaches and good weather, there's not much else that stood out or impressed me. The horrible traffic was enough to write Tampa off my list of cities I might want to live in.

There are a ton of people here, because nobody likes it.

[AES328]

And it's all trailer parks, except for the 99.9% of Tampa Bay that isn't.

[PDF]

Gee, everyone is so negative, but I have to agree with the OP. Tampa isn't for everyone, and as a longtime former resident of Tampa, that's pretty much how I feel about the city. I much prefer some of the other big cities Florida has to offer.

[MAniacTHW]

Originally Posted by Wandering_Nomad

I just recently visited the Tampa area and wasn't impressed at all.
Much of the western half of Tampa, across the bay, feels like one giant elongated strip-mall with awful traffic and too many trailer homes (St. Petersburg area). Downtown St. Pete was the nice exception, but the surrounding areas were very blah.

Clearwater was fairly decent, especially the beach island areas were very nice.
How's the economy there I wonder? There's a skyscraper in Clearwater that's half completed but is abandoned, lol. What happened there?

I'll ignore the fact that none of this is "West Tampa." West Tampa is a very small neighborhood within the city limits of Tampa (not a half hour away from Tampa) that was built in an attempt to recreate the success of Ybor.

Originally Posted by Wandering_Nomad

Downtown Tampa felt empty and deserted, during the day at least when I drove & walked through it. The trolley down there is a total gimmick and serves no actual functional purpose. I based this view after looking at a map of where the trolley goes. I don't even recall seeing any trolleys running at the time, they must only run at night?

Downtown Tampa felt empty during the day? Yeah... Ok. Where exactly in "downtown" did you "drive & walk through?" You're right though... The trolley is a gimmick. It goes absolutely nowhere anyone would want to go... Ybor City, the Tampa Convention Center, the Ice Palace... Absolutely nowhere. It's a waste.

Originally Posted by Wandering_Nomad

Aside from having nice beaches and good weather, there's not much else that stood out or impressed me. The horrible traffic was enough to write Tampa off my list of cities I might want to live in.

Since you don't even seem to know where Tampa actually is, I'm wondering what city this "traffic" is actually in.

[Fl1150]

Your a troll you basically just copied a post from someone who posted recently about the same thing people on city data are so unoriginal. Basically taking stupid lies from people to create a thread with no intention of it being beneficial to anybody.

[deebin]

Originally Posted by things and stuff

You could say a lot of these things about any major metro in the South.

Tampa is a major metro area?