Moving to Tampa: and a Tribute to TampaGuy03

[Haai]

Originally Posted by thethinktank

After a good year-and-a-half of research, comparing cities and towns from the San Francisco Bay to Greater Los Angeles, Austin Texas to all of Florida, my fiance' and I have decided upon South Tampa, Florida.

In September of 2008, I began researching different cities and wound up here on the Tampa Bay forum of City-Data. Having looked through thread after thread, I found a common theme that the SoHo/Hyde Park area might be the best fit for my fiance' and I. We're both 30, liberal, love indie restaurants and classic architecture, palm trees and happy people (both liberal and conservative). Having read too many threads to count here, TampaGuy03 and others pointed us in the right direction of SoHo and Hyde Park.

We've since visited Hyde Park twice, with our third visit later this month. In March, we're putting our midwest house on the market and moving down by mid-May.

In short, I wanted to communicate two things:
1) We consider ourselves progressive people who want nothing more than the best, and we've chosen South Tampa over so many highlight destinations throughout the U.S.
2) City-Data and TampaGuy03's posts specifically helped drive us in this direction. So I wanted to thank the community here and TampaGuy03 himself. Without you, god knows where we would have ended up.

For the naysayers, if you haven't seen South Tampa, drop the cliches about Tampa altogether. I lived in Chicago for 8 years, half way between Wrigley Field and DePaul University, and South Tampa is the closest thing to that vibe-- minus the ugly winters. The people of Tampa may have won us over on our visits, but it was this very forum which inspired us to visit in the first place.

So thanks, all. Should I bump into any of you after the move, I'll gladly buy you a friendly beer.

Well, I hope your move goes smoothly, and I hope you enjoy Florida as much as we do.

[saintpetegirl]

thethinktank
South Tampa, Florida is a great place to be!
I think you will really enjoy it.

To put a bee in your bonnet - also check out Downtown St. Pete.

Liberal, indie films, cool music and theaters. USF, Young people-lots of outdoor concerts downtown. A funky music scene. Janus Landing, DT bars and live music.
Grungy and cool.

Cool bungalows from the mid 20's. The nicest neighborhood ever within walking distance from Downtown St. Pete.

Check it all out 1st. I so love Old North East.

[thethinktank]

Thanks for the well wishes, Haai! I can't wait to get down-- just three more months until we start our move. These snowy, gray days cannot go any faster...

re: saintpetegirl:

Ya know, if I was moving down single, I'd likely move to downtown St. Pete. It has an atmosphere I admire, and those freshly paved asphalt streets are just begging for the tires on my fixed-gear bike. I'd love to hit the restaurants and bars downtown, take a ride around the city and have an apartment with a balcony on a low floor where I can watch the action. It reminds me much of my lifestyle when I lived in Chicago not long ago.

But now I've got a lovely fiance, dogs, and a need for a walkable town where we can head home from a bar at 1:00 a.m. and not worry about our safety. The area we selected, Hyde Park / SoHo, seems to have that. We've spent a lot of time there over the last year, and I've felt like I wouldn't have a heart attack if my fiance wanted to walk a few blocks home from the bar after meeting friends (okay, I'd still go meet her and walk her home). Point being, I couldn't do that in downtown St. Pete. We spent a bit of time there, and I was disconcerted by the number of homeless downtown, the stretches of street with boarded up businesses, not to mention that nearly every home we saw in the NE area of St. Pete had a lawn sign for a burglar alarm.

In short, I could handle downtown St. Pete. In fact, it has a European feeling to it, one that I could live in and call my own for many years. But I couldn't live there with my fiance. I'd be worried about her if she wanted to jog at night. I know crime is pretty magnetized to areas to the South of downtown, but when she and I spent time exploring that city, alarm bells were ringing in our heads. The time we spent in South Tampa, by contrast, was as safe and friendly as pie.

I mean no offense to St. Pete and its citizens. I can't wait to move south not only to live in South Tampa, but to visit St. Pete and get to know it even better. Who knows, maybe I'm being ignorant, and maybe my opinion will change. But for now, I have to go with my gut. My gut says St. Pete is on its way to being a greater, cosmopolitan city with a Euro-vibe. My gut also says it isn't there yet, and it needs to focus on fixing up some of those untidy elements before I can live there with my fiance.

[dk22]

TG03 definitely knows his hometown well and truly enjoys living there. It shows in his posts. I enjoy occasional visits to Tampa and my 2 choices to live if I ever have to move back there would be the Hyde Park/South Tampa or Downtown St. Pete area. I use to live in Downtown St. Pete before moving to South Florida and have always loved it.