Seminole vs St. Pete (Largo, Belleair: renting, hotel, houses)

[toddncst8]

Hi all, My wife and I are moving down to St. Pete area next week for our new jobs. She will be working in Largo (bryan dairy & 66th) and I will be over by the Tyrone area.

While I will know more once we are down there and get a chance to roam around I wanted to get a bit of input from you all on Seminole as well as North St. Pete areas?

I know Old NE looks nice, and we are considering it, but we have seen quite a few really nice homes in Seminole as well. If one lived in Seminole, is downtown St. Pete so far away you never use it, or is it a fairly short commute for weekend pleasure? Does Seminole have decent restaurants? any nightlife, or close to any nightlife?

If we chose Old NE, how would the daily commute to Tyrone and Largo areas be? Is this area really as "outdoorsy" as its touted?

Since we get temporary living assistance through the company, we will be renting a house in Redington Shores for the first 3-4 months while we house hunt. This should give us some time to get a feel for the area.

I am 31 and my wife is 26.

Thanks for the input!

[dk22]

Originally Posted by toddncst8

Hi all, My wife and I are moving down to St. Pete area next week for our new jobs. She will be working in Largo (bryan dairy & 66th) and I will be over by the Tyrone area.

While I will know more once we are down there and get a chance to roam around I wanted to get a bit of input from you all on Seminole as well as North St. Pete areas?

I know Old NE looks nice, and we are considering it, but we have seen quite a few really nice homes in Seminole as well. If one lived in Seminole, is downtown St. Pete so far away you never use it, or is it a fairly short commute for weekend pleasure? Does Seminole have decent restaurants? any nightlife, or close to any nightlife?

If we chose Old NE, how would the daily commute to Tyrone and Largo areas be? Is this area really as "outdoorsy" as its touted?

Since we get temporary living assistance through the company, we will be renting a house in Redington Shores for the first 3-4 months while we house hunt. This should give us some time to get a feel for the area.

I am 31 and my wife is 26.

Thanks for the input!

Congratulations Todd on the move. I use to live in Old NE with my wife and we both worked in the downtown area about 10 years ago. That was when the downtown revitalization started and it was very nice. We use to live right across the street from North Shore Park and could walk to the park and beach or go on great walks along the water towards the Vinoy Hotel. I also grew up in St. Pete and me and my friends use to go down to North Shore Beach everyday after school to play beach volleyball. Those were some of the fondest memories I had in that area. I truly love the Old NE area and its proximity to everything. It use to be pretty seedy when I was younger in the downtown area and the outskirts of downtown. That has changed so much now and it's very safe now. My best friend rents a duplex in Old NE right now and he's been there for over 5 years. He loves it as well and doesn't want to leave the area.

It will be a breeze for you to head to work in the Tyrone area just up 22nd Ave. Your wife can do the same going the same way and then heading north on 66 St. If that's too slow, there's other ways to head to Brian Dairy. I don't consider the traffic in that area bad compared to certain areas here in South Florida.

I'm not too sure about living in Seminole area, but use to have a girlfriend that lived there and I use to go there all the time to see her for years. There wasn't much to do or go see or eat at around there. You're a couple of years younger than me and I don't think you and your wife will like having to always go outside of Seminole to eat or go somewhere to do something. My bet is that downtown St. Pete and Old NE area has everything you'd need at the closest proximity. I also found Seminole so terribly boring.

I still have family in that area and was just over there with my kids to visit them this past Memorial Weekend so I do still visit pretty often. If you have any other questions that I wasn't clear on, please keep asking.

[spainbrit]

Things have changed much in the Seminole area in the last 10 years. It certainly is not St Pete downtown which I also love, but it has plenty of eating places in the local area, both on and off the beaches. Tyrone is about 15-20 mins drive from my home, which is actually unincorporated Largo (south of Walsingham) so I always say Seminole as I am only a couple of blocks out from there. I am in the Seminole school district. Its a straight run along 102nd Ave (just 1/4 mile from my street) to Bryan Dairy too.
Seminole has lots of parks, Walsingham, Botanical Gardens, Gulf Coast Museum of Art, Heritage Village Museum, Seminole Park, Lake Seminole Park nearby, the beaches - easy access to Indian Shores, and Indian Rocks/Belleair Beaches - I am 2 mins away by car to Indian Rocks center. There are movie houses, restaurants (lots of the usual chain and plenty of other smaller individual ones) nearby in malls (seminole and Largo)
For safety, it's hard to beat seminole, I never feel threatened here, walk late at night, in the morning when its dark, with the dog and its so quiet.
I think St Pete is great for the fact that you can walk to the downtown with all its nightlife, theatre, galleries and the waterfront, if you want to be out all the time walking, and socializing, I think St Pete is the place, if you want more of a beach type of life, look at the west side of the county, like Seminole/Largo/Belleair. If you have children and will want public schools, definitely consider Seminole.
Hope this helps with a perspective of Seminole from a resident of the area that lives there now.

[dk22]

Originally Posted by spainbrit

Things have changed much in the Seminole area in the last 10 years. It certainly is not St Pete downtown which I also love, but it has plenty of eating places in the local area, both on and off the beaches. Tyrone is about 15-20 mins drive from my home, which is actually unincorporated Largo (south of Walsingham) so I always say Seminole as I am only a couple of blocks out from there. I am in the Seminole school district. Its a straight run along 102nd Ave (just 1/4 mile from my street) to Bryan Dairy too.
Seminole has lots of parks, Walsingham, Botanical Gardens, Gulf Coast Museum of Art, Heritage Village Museum, Seminole Park, Lake Seminole Park nearby, the beaches - easy access to Indian Shores, and Indian Rocks/Belleair Beaches - I am 2 mins away by car to Indian Rocks center. There are movie houses, restaurants (lots of the usual chain and plenty of other smaller individual ones) nearby in malls (seminole and Largo)
For safety, it's hard to beat seminole, I never feel threatened here, walk late at night, in the morning when its dark, with the dog and its so quiet.
I think St Pete is great for the fact that you can walk to the downtown with all its nightlife, theatre, galleries and the waterfront, if you want to be out all the time walking, and socializing, I think St Pete is the place, if you want more of a beach type of life, look at the west side of the county, like Seminole/Largo/Belleair. If you have children and will want public schools, definitely consider Seminole.
Hope this helps with a perspective of Seminole from a resident of the area that lives there now.

Seminole does have good schools there, but the governor of Florida did attend the schools in the Old NE area so it can't be that bad either right? He probably still lives somewhere around there.

[toddncst8]

Very good input thusfar. We are not the type that will spend every night downtown socializing, but we will probably once or so a week. Monday-Thursday we are more the go to work, go to gym, long walks with the dog etc... We then will go into town probably 1-2 nights of the rest. During the weekend days, we are pretty active. Lots of hiking, biking, trails with the dog but she definitely likes to go shopping some days too.

Also whats the basic shopping amenities like in both areas. In other words, are there Targets, Wal-marts, grocery stores, etc in these areas. Nothing worse than having to drive 15-20 minutes when you realize you are out of toilet paper :-)

We can't wait to get down there Monday and begin scoping everything out!

-Todd

[dk22]

Originally Posted by toddncst8

Very good input thusfar. We are not the type that will spend every night downtown socializing, but we will probably once or so a week. Monday-Thursday we are more the go to work, go to gym, long walks with the dog etc... We then will go into town probably 1-2 nights of the rest. During the weekend days, we are pretty active. Lots of hiking, biking, trails with the dog but she definitely likes to go shopping some days too.

Also whats the basic shopping amenities like in both areas. In other words, are there Targets, Wal-marts, grocery stores, etc in these areas. Nothing worse than having to drive 15-20 minutes when you realize you are out of toilet paper :-)

We can't wait to get down there Monday and begin scoping everything out!

-Todd

Todd, I'm very happy for you and your wife. Shopping is not going to be a problem at all in the St. Pete or Seminole area. There are grocery stores, Target, and WalMart all within a close distance. I thought they were going to build a gourmet WalMart in downtown area on 5th Ave and 4th Street there. Has anyone heard or know what's up with that? I'm just more partial to Old NE, but Seminole wouldn't be bad as well. If you like biking, I think you'll like the Pinellas Trail that runs all the way up and down the county. Good luck.