Areas, neighborhoods to avoid in Tampa/St. Pete metro area? (Pinellas Park: for rent, crimes)

[Bezzled]

If the person is looking for a general area not to live, I gave them that. If you think your neighborhood is safe great. I gave him the highest crime areas of St.Pete. FACT But keep defending your kenwood area, you already posted saying you have hookers an drug dealers around you, but I guess everyone wants to live in that area of town.. Boy you are a genius.

[StPete2Charlotte]

In St. Petersburg:

Midtown - Pretty much just a bad place to be at night. Theres been multiple riots here in the past and the people who chill out at night... They are not nice.

Childs Park - a section of the Southside, its called The CPA (Childs Park After Dark) for a reason. Dudes get there hustle on and you can be there victim if you don't watch your back.

"The Southside" - I say it in quotes, cause alot of places in South St. Pete are very nice, however if you are a native you know the places I speak of with the quotes.

Gulfport - Not a bad area crime wise, but honestly, unless you are gay this place aint cool. Being heterosexual I never felt very comfortable in most of Gulfports areas. Also it is dirty. I lived near Boca Ceiga HS and the area was just dirty and run down.

Pinellas Park - Theres some pretty nice places in Pinellas Park, but others are not. Theres some high density low income apartments, and alot of trailers. It's a myth that just because this is a White neighborhood its a nice one. Theres been quite a few shootings here over the years, theres alot of homeless people amongst other problems.


I wouldn't necessarily say "avoid" these areas, but all the areas I just posted are places I have lived before and none of them were very nice. By far Childs Park and Midtown are the worst though. When you say Ghetto in St. Pete people automatically think of that, than Southside, but Southside is too broad, Midtown and CPA are the particularly bad sections of the Southside. Theres others but I am speaking from personal experience.

[jessemh431]

Originally Posted by StPete2Charlotte

Gulfport - Not a bad area crime wise, but honestly, unless you are gay this place aint cool. Being heterosexual I never felt very comfortable in most of Gulfports areas. Also it is dirty. I lived near Boca Ceiga HS and the area was just dirty and run down.

I find it odd that a gay area is dirty. Aren't gays known for being very neat and tidy and clean.

I've also been considering moving to Tampa. How safe is DT Tampa and Treasure Island. I'm used to LA prices, so you're beach homes seem like nothing in price compared to LA. But yeah, are you're beach cities such as Treausre Island and the DT area desireable places to live?

[tampaguy03]

Treasure Island in Pinellas County is very nice, kinda touristy, but nice, I like Sunset Beach area of Treasure Island best.
DT Tampa is up and coming, many new skyscraper condo buildings. Channelside is by far the nicest area, as well as Harbour Island. The East fringes of downtown are being gutted and cleaned up(Central Park area). But not much im the way of "life" in the core of downtown YET.(Maybe 700 residents)
TDP Intro

[StPete2Charlotte]

Originally Posted by jessemh431

I find it odd that a gay area is dirty. Aren't gays known for being very neat and tidy and clean.

I've also been considering moving to Tampa. How safe is DT Tampa and Treasure Island. I'm used to LA prices, so you're beach homes seem like nothing in price compared to LA. But yeah, are you're beach cities such as Treausre Island and the DT area desireable places to live?

Most of the houses are from the 60's or 50's and the streets are not well kept. Its not the community's fault, its just an older, dirty part of town that before I left had yet to be fully gentrified.

[RobHenny]

I am transferring down to UTampa, and it will be my first time spending time in the area. I don't plan on venturing to far from the school, but I plan on taking the time to learn a little around it. Any places near the school I should avoid?

[Mermaidart]

The north part of Clearwater is pretty horrible.You'll find great deals on home prices but don't fall for the trap of cheaper rent/lower home prices.
Parts of Dunedin are unsafe as well but the cities downtown merchants and city hall try to hide that fact as well.Directly north of the downtown area across Skinner rd is to be avoided and the south eastern section of Dunedin as well due to its close proximity to crack houses on Union St east of the Pinellas Trail. if you have kids do a sex offender search on Dunedins 34698 zip and you'll find many, many registered offenders living nearby.the Pinellas trail has it's ups and downs depending on the economic conditions.The homeless situation has gotten worse in Dunedin as well as Clearwater with the public libraries and Pinellas trail being major hangouts for them. Pinellas suburbs that are fairly safe are Palm Harbor(Ozona, east of Keene,east of 19) are all good.
The south part of the county areas to avoid are St Pete Beach which is full of cranky old people( we used to live there and put up with mean old lady hissy fits for years).Theres not a lot of crime there other than career drunks and the area near the water & restaurants near PJ's.That section is has aton of low rent motels and the cops have been known to have a lot of problems with that areas residents. Passa Grille is beautifl and very safe if you can find an affordable spot to live.We also moved out of St. Petersburg 11th ave 2nd area because again the homeless/drug problems got too out of hand. The Old Northeast is charming with it's 2 story northern looking homes. and large oak trees.Choose your home wisely and don't live too close to the downtown/bay area even though it might be very tempting because it's in walking distance.
Seminole is a very nice little town and fairly safe as well.It's about 5 minutes to the beach from anywhere in town. Hope this info helps a bit.

[Mermaidart]

Originally Posted by jessemh431

I find it odd that a gay area is dirty. Aren't gays known for being very neat and tidy and clean.

I've also been considering moving to Tampa. How safe is DT Tampa and Treasure Island. I'm used to LA prices, so you're beach homes seem like nothing in price compared to LA. But yeah, are you're beach cities such as Treausre Island and the DT area desireable places to live?

Treasure island is ok but not much to do there other than get sloshed at the many popular beach bars there.It's a fulltime profession for many Jimmy Buffett wannabes that reside there.I'd advise driving around the neighborhoods to get a feel for the place.The Sunset Beach area has become super popular and very crowded on weekends much to the dismay of the local residents there. If you look carefully though you can find some good deals on teeny tiny apts there.
Indian Rocks Beach is a much nicer place to live if you want to live on a beach island although I couldn't tell you about home/apt prices there now because the market has fluctuated so intenesly since 07.

[tampaguy03]

Originally Posted by RobHenny

I am transferring down to UTampa, and it will be my first time spending time in the area. I don't plan on venturing to far from the school, but I plan on taking the time to learn a little around it. Any places near the school I should avoid?

Just north/west of Campus is not the worst, but a less than desirable part of the city, especially around the Interstate area and North Boulevard. Otherwise, just to the south of campus and East to downtown is one of the most desirable parts of Tampa(South Tampa, Downtown, Harbour Island, Channelside, Davis Islands, etc.)

[mv310]

Originally Posted by Bezzled

In St.pete avoid midtown. Basically 9th ave N to 22nd ave S and 49st and 4th street. that entire zone would be unsafe imo.

Hello Bezzled

glad this post was started. Wondering what does the area of 24th St south(running left to right) 45th St south (running top to bottom) by Yarmouth Ave South is like? Is this area pretty diverse/many cultures? Is this an inviting area to others new to the neighborhood? Also wondering what is the public elementary school like? Seen a few houses interested in renting for the move down to Florida.

Thank you,

MV310