Trying to sort out Cities close to Tampa & the Beach (Miami: chapel, houses)

[Meatball3]

Hello All!

Just wanted to hear from people that have firsthand knowledge about the areas around and near Tampa.

Which city or cities are closest to Tampa and the Beach. In everyone's opinion which would:

have the least/best traffic to and from Tampa and Beach & in its own city as well,

have all of its own commerce, amenities, and healthcare completely independent from Tampa,

has highly rated schools, not just opinions about how good the schools may or may not be,

has mostly old school neighborhoods not just purely the preplanned cookie cutter subdivisions,

is statistically or considered to be an extremely safe city within a 25 mile ballpark radius of Tampa,

that have an all American type feel or aura

Basically whats the closest thing to the beach and tampa that is its own self, and is safe, has great schools, old school houses, easy to very light traffic, and gives you no reason to need to shop elsewhere for anything.

Example: About 20 min outside Nashville, is Franklin,Tn. It is very safe, schools are some of the best anywhere, you got any and all the shopping and dining you could want, traffic is light, and old neighborhoods are plentiful(although the planned subdivisions are also now plentiful) and it is very patriotic and has a Norman Rockwell feel to it, it also has cold ass winters!

I thank you all kindly for your opinions, that's what I'm looking for!

[rvais]

Ok the city of Tampa doesn't have anything you would classify as a beach there are very small off the highway graded slope with sand and water on Tampa bay.

What you would classify as a beach are in Pinellas county ie. Clearwater, St.pete, Indian rocks ect. It's about a 30- 40 minute drive from west Tampa/oldsmar with traffic.

Priorities work commute?, Crime/safety? Demographics? Lol parts of Tampa are anything but all American more like mostly Latin American.

Hope this helps.

[MAniacTHW]

Originally Posted by rvais

Ok the city of Tampa doesn't have anything you would classify as a beach there are very small off the highway graded slope with sand and water on Tampa bay.

What you would classify as a beach are in Pinellas county ie. Clearwater, St.pete, Indian rocks ect. It's about a 30- 40 minute drive from west Tampa/oldsmar with traffic.

Priorities work commute?, Crime/safety? Demographics? Lol parts of Tampa are anything but all American more like mostly Latin American.

Hope this helps.

Ah, another Tampa detractor... Just what this forum needed.

Picnic Island, Cypress Point, and Seaplane Basin are nowhere near the interstate. I'll give you the small part though.

And you don't say? There's Cubans in a city that was built by Cubans? Next you'll be telling me that a state named after a Spanish flower has a big Spanish community. What a revelation!

[jambo101]

Originally Posted by MAniacTHW

Ah, another Tampa detractor... Just what this forum needed.

Picnic Island, Cypress Point, and Seaplane Basin are nowhere near the interstate. I'll give you the small part though.

Dont think RV was intending to be negative but merely pointing out the main beaches are on the Gulf west of St Pete about 25 miles west of Tampa,while our op may be happy with those small sand spits you refer to as beaches i'm not sure thats what s/he has in mind when referring to beaches.
I guess the op has to elaborate on what is wanted in his vision of a beach as it seems to be a major factor in his relocation plans.http://www.whileyoureawayfl.com/wp-c...pa-bay-map.jpg

[wsamon]

Unfortunately, what you want is somewhat contradictory for the area according to most people's definitions of things like "beach", "traffic", "highly rated", "all American", "own city", and "close". What you're looking for, by typical definitions, just doesn't exist here.

One of the problems is that the beaches are on the west coast and Tampa is east of the bay. The only way to get from the west side of the bay to the east is via one of 3 or so bridges, all of which are stop-and-go during rush hour (can easily take 30+ minutes just to cross a bridge). If you can work outside of rush-hour times then things become a little more realistic, but if not you have to pick and choose: easy commute to Tampa, or short trip to the beach.

To hit some of your bullet points:

Which city or cities are closest to Tampa and the Beach... have the least/best traffic to and from Tampa and Beach...

St. Petersburg (look into historic old northeast or kenwood for some decent older style houses)
Safety Harbor
the east side of Clearwater and Largo
Oldsmar
the east side of Palm Harbor
(Oldsmar and Palm Harbor would potentially allow you to avoid the bridges but I don't know how their traffic is and Oldsmar is kind of far from the beaches)

Pasadena (traffic to Tampa may be really rough during rush hour though)
Seminole
Dunedin

all of those should be less than 40 minutes to both Tampa and the beaches without heavy traffic (I tried to keep it under 30 minutes for most).

& in its own city as well, have all of its own commerce, amenities, and healthcare completely independent from Tampa

I don't think this will be a problem anywhere. Tampa Bay is less of a metro centered around a major downtown than it is a conglomeration of lots of small cities and towns with practically no visible division, each with their own downtown, amenities, healthcare options, etc. No matter where you go that's within a 45 minute drive of either Tampa or St. Petersburg you'll find commerce, healthcare, restaurants, etc. Even the beaches have their own stuff.

I'm not sure what kind of amenities you're looking for. Most areas have their own festivals too. If you want things like museums, major concerts and theater, sports, etc. you're pretty much limited to Tampa and St. Petersburg, and maybe to a lesser extent Clearwater.

has highly rated schools, not just opinions about how good the schools may or may not be,

If you're limiting yourself to public, non-magnate schools then you're going to have problems in this area. I think Palm Harbor schools are good. Maybe Oldsmar? Seminole is rated decent, not great. That's about it that I can think of in the areas that remotely meet your other criteria. Most of the rest are hit or miss I think. For example, where I live in Largo has a low rated elementary school but decently rated high school.

There are some really highly rated magnate schools in downtown St. Petersburg, but they tend to be surrounded by very poorly rated public schools.

has mostly old school neighborhoods not just purely the preplanned cookie cutter subdivisions,

That won't be a problem. The area west of the bay was built up in the 50s - 80s mostly. If you're looking for like 1920s or earlier, you'll be hard pressed to find it anywhere.

Oldsmar and Palm Harbor might have some cookie cutter? I'm not sure. Hopefully someone can weigh in. Avoid the often touted Wesley Chapel if you don't want cookie cutter.

is statistically or considered to be an extremely safe city within a 25 mile ballpark radius of Tampa,

much of this area has patches of very safe next to patches of not so safe, so it's hard to rate an entire city as very safe. I think Palm Harbor, Oldsmar, and Dunedin might fit the definition. On the plus side, other than maybe the bad parts of south central St. Pete, bad areas here aren't as bad as the bad areas in many other cities

that have an all American type feel or aura

You won't find that here, sorry. It's not the midwest or deep south, and it's not a small town. It's a metropolis that attracts many vacationers, retirees, and "hopefuls" from throughout the US and is therefore pretty diverse in viewpoints, backgrounds, socioeconomic status, etc., and is pretty transient. Dunedin somewhat fits the bill and may be about as close to this as you'll get?


Overall, my recommendations would be historic old NE St. Petersburg, Dunedin, Palm Harbor, and Oldsmar. But you'll have to make some sacrifices.

[wsamon]

True there's a significant Latin contingent here, but it's nothing like the ratio in Miami, there aren't the cultural divides I hear about in Miami (things like refusing to serve a customer that doesn't speak Spanish, or fighting between people from different Latin backgrounds), and there isn't the same "we want to be the east coast LA" focus on nightlife and materialism.

[Meatball3]

yes it does! Thank you very much!

[clearlevel]

St. Petersburg is probably the closest thing you're looking for. It's its own city in the Tampa Bay Area, with its own Downtown and historic area and restaurants, and is very close to the beach, but also very close to Downtown Tampa as well.

[Meatball3]

Thank so much for your detailed information. I kinda figured what I was wanting to find wasn't very realistic. I was just hoping something may check the majority of the boxes! Thanks again!!!

[Meatball3]

Great! I will definitely go look up St. Pete now and take a look. I wasn't aware they had a beach! I didn't think it was on the coast! Time to get a map!! Thank you as well for your input!!