Anyone graduated from Stetson?

[jessiesma]

that most of St. Pete is a ghetto.
since I don't live in the area you excluded (reread your post) that implies that I DO live in a ghetto.
So go to school below Central, just don't live there. I live about 10 min. North of Stetson and it's a perfectly fine area. I suggested Seminole because of the schools. When we have kids, we have to make compromises. Their safety and education versus being in a trendy area maybe? Seminole isn't that far from Stetson and it's a family friendly environment. AS I pointed out. we will now have neighborhood school assignment in Pinellas versus the busing model that she will have to deal with in So. Tampa. She could buy the nicest house on Bayshore Blvd. and her kid could very well be sent to East Tampa which most definitely IS the ghetto.

New Year's Eve??? Wow really sounds worth it I grew up in New York. Never once did I go to Times Sq. Why? Not because I don't enjoy a good time, on the contrary. But that doesn't qualify as a good time to me. Neither does wandering out on the street drunk with other drunks holding explosive devices. If you live with idiots don't become one yourself. It can happen anywhere.

I wonder if there really is such a thing as a "stray" bullet. Somebody was meaning to shoot something. Nothing wrong with gun ownership but having one usually means you're prepared to use it. Having a loaded one??? You're prepared to use it against someone. Don't believe everything you read or hear in the media.

Originally Posted by Camisis

I didn't say anything about where you live. I said where I live. I live in South St. Pete. It's the ghetto. Even my students, who live there, call it the ghetto. Everyone I know around here, considers it the ghetto.

Where am I from? I'm from a place where people don't get shot walking down the road on New Year's Eve from a stray bullet. Oh wait, that was three people who got shot from stray bullets on NYE.

I'm talking about my personal experiences. If you have different ones, GREAT! Let the poster know because she needs to hear all aspects of it. Especially since she will be attending Stetson, which is BELOW Central Ave.

[Camisis]

Seminole is a great area! I definitely concur with that. Some of St. Pete is fine, but on average, I consider it fairly dangerous. It's overpriced, people are underpaid, it's urban but still not a big city, it's a strange place to be. Downtown St. Pete for instance, is a great community in some regards but then look at all of the homeless. I was walking around pushing my son in a stroller near one of the parks (the park wasn't my goal but I had to pass it from my car to wherever I was going) and I was actually scared to be there.

The stray bullet thing went like this: One girl was sitting on her front porch hugging her aunt at midnight and someone somewhere else was shooting a gun in the air to celebrate and the bullet came down and hit her in the leg. Another guy was walking down the street, to his car or something, and a stray bullet hit him in the shoulder. The other guy was sitting in his house and the bullet went through the top of his roof and hit right next to him. I believe they could tell from the angle of the bullets that they weren't intentional shootings. People are so stupid to think that what goes up, must come down and hit something!

I wish we didn't have to live where we do. But I'm a teacher supporting my husband going through law school. The law school rents houses for more affordable prices than we can even get for an apartment in a better area. That's why I'm so excited to be leaving the area.

Also, I went to Times Square to see the ball drop 2001/2002 and felt very safe. There were cops everywhere and it was very orderly. The only time I didn't feel safe there was once when we went to a restaurant in Jackson Heights. I don't know that it was really dangerous but it looked pretty scary while we were there at night.

The thing is, when you live near an area where bad things happen, those things tend to infect other areas. You can't keep the stupid or crazy people contained. Look at all of the sex offenders around here. It's probably safer than LA or parts of Detroit and Chicago or New Jersey, but it's definitely more dangerous than other places. I prefer those other places.

[jessiesma]

you chose the sex offender capital of Pinellas Co, Gulfport. teh homeless are probably for teh most part not harmful, Some of them even work but just can't manage local prices on what they can earn. You are probably just a paycheck or two from being there yourself if the best you can do is live in So. St. Pete.
Of course you should leave your current area with a kid. You can rent a nice 2 br. in Seminole for $900. Take a small student loan to make up the difference if you have to. He'll be able to pay if off in no time after grad but don't make sweeping statements about whole cities based on your personal poor choices. As a teacher, you're making around 40K minimum so that should buy you a better place. As I said sometimes we have to make sacrificial choices for the good of our kids. That might mean renting a nice place NOW that you can stay in once Hubby is earning lawyer fees and save. You don't need the big house in the gated community as a grad present to yourselves.

I don't believe that ANYONE with a gun in a public place is totally innocent or totally unintentional when using it. They KNOW there is a possibility of mayhem.
You are very naive if you felt completely safe in Times Sq. although I think it may actually have been its safest the New Year's Eve after 9/11. If Jackson Hgts. is scary, Dear, you have some issues about other ethnic/racial groups, IMO. How did you ever get there BTW? I suggest you stick to the suburbs and stay away from urban areas. If you need it get some counseling you are going to raise a kid who's full of anxieties and fears. He/she will be emotionally crippled for life if you don't get a handle on this. I know, I live with someone like that. Life is for the living and living means risk. I really do wish you well.

Originally Posted by Camisis

Seminole is a great area! I definitely concur with that. Some of St. Pete is fine, but on average, I consider it fairly dangerous. It's overpriced, people are underpaid, it's urban but still not a big city, it's a strange place to be. Downtown St. Pete for instance, is a great community in some regards but then look at all of the homeless. I was walking around pushing my son in a stroller near one of the parks (the park wasn't my goal but I had to pass it from my car to wherever I was going) and I was actually scared to be there.

The stray bullet thing went like this: One girl was sitting on her front porch hugging her aunt at midnight and someone somewhere else was shooting a gun in the air to celebrate and the bullet came down and hit her in the leg. Another guy was walking down the street, to his car or something, and a stray bullet hit him in the shoulder. The other guy was sitting in his house and the bullet went through the top of his roof and hit right next to him. I believe they could tell from the angle of the bullets that they weren't intentional shootings. People are so stupid to think that what goes up, must come down and hit something!

I wish we didn't have to live where we do. But I'm a teacher supporting my husband going through law school. The law school rents houses for more affordable prices than we can even get for an apartment in a better area. That's why I'm so excited to be leaving the area.

Also, I went to Times Square to see the ball drop 2001/2002 and felt very safe. There were cops everywhere and it was very orderly. The only time I didn't feel safe there was once when we went to a restaurant in Jackson Heights. I don't know that it was really dangerous but it looked pretty scary while we were there at night.

The thing is, when you live near an area where bad things happen, those things tend to infect other areas. You can't keep the stupid or crazy people contained. Look at all of the sex offenders around here. It's probably safer than LA or parts of Detroit and Chicago or New Jersey, but it's definitely more dangerous than other places. I prefer those other places.

[Camisis]

Gee, and I thought we were playing nice.

Interesting how you tell me not to make sweeping statements yet you do so yourself about my life.

When we came here, we didn't know much about the area. Seminole is a good 30-45 minutes away, not during rush hour.

I didn't say anything about those people who fired the guns being innocent, where did you get that from? I was talking about the victims being innocent. From what I could tell, at least one or two of them probably weren't in public places, they were firing the guns in the air, from their homes. They were STUPID. I didn't say innocent.

I make plenty of sacrifices for my family. You actually have no clue about me or my family or anything else. A "small" student loan. That's laughable. Stetson is a private law school, which means it's expensive. And because I work, we already get the max every year on the loans that pay for school and books. There isn't anymore to be had. And why would I want to be in this area, in this market? Some people love this area, just not me. I'm giving her MY opinion, why are you so defensive? Just offer her your alternate view of your beloved city and be done with it. Stop attacking.

It's funny how you say that I SHOULD have felt like I was in danger in NYC on NYE but not in Jackson Heights. In Times Square, it was full of cops, everywhere. Everything was blocked off. They did a great job with security. Jackson Heights didn't have much visible security, it was dark, we were in an unfamiliar area and there were random groups of men looking at us funny. I said that I didn't know that it was actually dangerous, it just kind of freaked us out. It probably didn't help that the people giving us recommendations for the restaurant (a taxi driver or someone) warned us to be careful. We came out of there unscathed and it wasn't a big deal. I was making the point that it wasn't that bad!

[Davachka]

I think I was misunderstood...I was just wondering how long the commute from South Tampa and if anyone could share their experiences going to Stetson. We were never considering moving to St. Petersburg.
We are not from the Florida area, so we are not moving to S. Tampa b/c it is "trendy" as was implied, since how would we know where the trendy areas are? We drove all over Tampa & St. Pete , N, S, E & W and decided that we liked the area and that is where we would like to live. My husband will be working at a nearby hospital, which he will be at long after I am done with law school, so its smarter to move for the long run as opposed to just moving for my 3 year stint at Stetson.
We never planned on sending our daughter to public schools, we have had a private school picked out from the beginning, but after reading about Coleman and Plant, have decided that is an option as well, since they seem to be good schools.
Everyone has different opinions and perceptions, what is ghetto to one, may not be to another, it is silly to argue. For example, where we live now, is considered a very safe, very upscale area that people are flocking to b\c of the status, safety and schools. We don't like it here, b/c the so called good schools are so overcrowded that we have to send our daughter to private schools while paying the high taxes here regardless. The safety and upscale factor is just a dull and sterile land. But to some it is ideal. To each his own. Thanks.

[jessiesma]

answere in body

Originally Posted by Camisis

Gee, and I thought we were playing nice.

Interesting how you tell me not to make sweeping statements yet you do so yourself about my life.

When we came here, we didn't know much about the area. Seminole is a good 30-45 minutes away, not during rush hour.

I'd say 30 min is accurate. It'll get better when the snow birds leave in April.

I didn't say anything about those people who fired the guns being innocent, where did you get that from? I was talking about the victims being innocent. From what I could tell, at least one or two of them probably weren't in public places, they were firing the guns in the air, from their homes. They were STUPID. I didn't say innocent.

I make plenty of sacrifices for my family. You actually have no clue about me or my family or anything else. A "small" student loan. That's laughable. Stetson is a private law school, which means it's expensive. And because I work, we already get the max every year on the loans that pay for school and books. There isn't anymore to be had. And why would I want to be in this area, in this market? Some people love this area, just not me. I'm giving her MY opinion, why are you so defensive? Just offer her your alternate view of your beloved city and be done with it. Stop attacking.

Who's being defensive. Why did your husband choose a PRIVATE school? didn't you have any input as far as what it'd cost you and your living arrangements? Do you think that a state U. might have been a better choice? Rhetorical question: How has this affected your family relationship? You sound very unhappy and I hope you will learn from whatever choices you made here. I DON"T know your life but you put certain things out in public so I made a suggestion based on what I understood. I am quite familiar with Stetson having considered it until my MS got worse. Of course, if you are already up to your eyeballs in student loans, you can't use that as an option. You'll just have to slug it out but maybe you can start by looking at some of the positive things about being here. You could be in a worse school district, like the one across the Bay. You have the beach, culture, sports if you're into them and good shopping. You'd need to cross the Frankenstein to get to really GREAT shopping but it's only one exit off I-275. We have good libraries, art museums and galleries and even unique restaurants. there are religious options for everybody and none if that's your choice.

It's funny how you say that I SHOULD have felt like I was in danger in NYC on NYE but not in Jackson Heights. In Times Square, it was full of cops, everywhere. Everything was blocked off. They did a great job with security. Jackson Heights didn't have much visible security, it was dark, we were in an unfamiliar area and there were random groups of men looking at us funny. I said that I didn't know that it was actually dangerous, it just kind of freaked us out. It probably didn't help that the people giving us recommendations for the restaurant (a taxi driver or someone) warned us to be careful. We came out of there unscathed and it wasn't a big deal. I was making the point that it wasn't that bad!

They were looking at you "funny" because you probably looked scared and not from there. That's why everyone told you to be careful because you probably stuck out as tourists. I don't think anyone would have given you a recommendation to a place in a really unsafe area do you? Half of those "random' groups were probably undercover cops

Yes, I do think you were less safe in TS because those cops were there to avert terroristic threats. but their eyes couldn't be everywhere and with the crush of people anything could have happened and it'd be too late for a cop to rescue you.

[Camisis]

Faina00,
To each his own, succinct and well put. I'm not a fan of Florida but all of my friends down here love it. I'm not from here so I guess my home state is just too ingrained into me. (But I will say that we have been house hunting in Tampa Bay, like Brandon, Lutz, etc. and really like it. As far as Tampa goes as a city in general, I like it. It's big enough to offer great things but doesn't nearly have the traffic of Atlanta.)

It sounds like you've got everything figured out already. I will say, in my opinion, the commute is really not that bad. I'm from Atlanta so I'm speaking from that perspective. At 4 am, it took us (from Stetson to the airport) 12 minutes! Of course, you won't be driving at 4 am on most days. My point is just that it's not that far, but can get congested at times. The two summers my husband commuted on a daily basis, during rush hour, it took him an average of 35 minutes. I think that's pretty do-able. And if you're able to avoid rush hour, you'll be good to go.

The parts that seem to get really bad are past downtown, like around I-4 and the Veteran's Expressway.

[jessiesma]

is the best public high in Tampa. My husband has had very positive experiences there as a sub. I guess I did misunderstand about schools. I thought you were opting for S.Tampa because of the good public ones. No, if you want private schools then St. Pete doesn't have them unless you mean faith based ones.
I only said trendy because part of what makes So. Tampa appealing is that it's pretty trendy and if you don't want to be out in a bedroom community, St. Pete offers those amenities as well. Plus we have good libraries and museums.
I wouldn't disagree with camisis about what constitutes "ghetto." Some of the area near Stetson are pretty grungy but my point was that there are acceptable areas over here that are acceptable on a tight budget that are far from ghetto. If that is important to someone, they, like you, have to trade off a bit of a commute maybe. For example, we are heading back to ATL. in the Fall. It has everything we could possible want. We let the traffic scare us away for too long. We do however plan on living right in the city on MARTA and although we're empty nesters, would do it if we had kids at home. We'd just home school them. My husband teaches to make a difference, we really don't believe in institutional ed. public or private.

Originally Posted by faina00

I think I was misunderstood...I was just wondering how long the commute from South Tampa and if anyone could share their experiences going to Stetson. We were never considering moving to St. Petersburg.
We are not from the Florida area, so we are not moving to S. Tampa b/c it is "trendy" as was implied, since how would we know where the trendy areas are? We drove all over Tampa & St. Pete , N, S, E & W and decided that we liked the area and that is where we would like to live. My husband will be working at a nearby hospital, which he will be at long after I am done with law school, so its smarter to move for the long run as opposed to just moving for my 3 year stint at Stetson.
We never planned on sending our daughter to public schools, we have had a private school picked out from the beginning, but after reading about Coleman and Plant, have decided that is an option as well, since they seem to be good schools.
Everyone has different opinions and perceptions, what is ghetto to one, may not be to another, it is silly to argue. For example, where we live now, is considered a very safe, very upscale area that people are flocking to b\c of the status, safety and schools. We don't like it here, b/c the so called good schools are so overcrowded that we have to send our daughter to private schools while paying the high taxes here regardless. The safety and upscale factor is just a dull and sterile land. But to some it is ideal. To each his own. Thanks.