family friendly areas in tampa? (Brandon, Westchester: how much, homes, safe area)

[amhn]

we are relocating to the tampa area and are looking for family friendly areas and housing communities with easy access to downtown.
we heard about the fishhawk community but also heard that it is a rough commute to downtown. We have two young children and like the idea of having their schools within the community that is why we were interested in the fishhawk community. we are looking for a safe area and with access to shopping and entertainment and not just set in the middle of no where.
any recommendations would be appreciated.

[lavender]

Fishawk is really nice but a bit out there.
Tampa area is big, if you are downtown, how much of a commute can you stand?
Not knowing where you are coming from it's hard to visualise what you are used to.
If you need public schools then that matters too as to where you live.
For example if you don't mind driving across the bay, old North East St Pete is lovely, but public schools can be sketchy, unless you are in a magnet program. Many of the folks who live in that area have wonderful homes in a great location for walking downtown and all that offers, but trade off with paying for private schools. What kind of budget do you have also matters.

Perhaps if you give our readers a bit more to go on, you will get a better idea of where you should be looking.

[imguytpa]

You may want to check out Westchase, good schools within community, access to Tampa Westshore/Downtown is much closer than Fishhawk. Westchase can be expensive with a sprinkling of snooty types, somehat cheaper nearby is Westchester & Westwood Lakes. For more economical communities with good access to Tampa you could check out Brandon,Valrico,Riverview and be 15 mins closer than Fishhawk. I get from Riverview to Ashley St downtown in 15-20 mins from Riverview.