Black and walking in downtown/uptown St. Petersburg? (Tampa: apartment, high crime)

[Darling3000]

Hello everyone. I just finished my Master of Arts degree here in western Europe and am considering moving to St. Petersburg soon for better weather. A few years of primarily cold and clouds will make anyone long for the sun. I'm an African-American female and have never visited Tampa Bay. Also, I can't afford to check it out and then return here. So, I am making one move. I love to walk, love nature, beach access, and Downtown/Uptown seem ideal.

Simply, I'm looking for an apartment:
in a decent neighborhood
high walkscore and nature/trees and parks nearby
Public transportation access

However, I lived in another American city's ( not Florida) midtown area and they typically thought Blacks walking there were looking to steal or homeless. They never assumed I lived there, but was there up to "no good." I became tired of non-Black people reaching to lock their doors as I walked past. On one occasion, I saw a man down the street nervously digging deep in his front pockets while staring at me. I actually became frightened of him! Only when he found his keys and tweeted his alarm repeatedly did I realize I was walking beside his car. I grew so tired of being watched, stared at, and individuals even walking away but returning to their cars to recheck their alarms if I was walking by. The most surprising of it was when I was standing before a cafe looking at the menu and the guy saw me through the window, came out to pull on and recheck his bike lock a few steps from me and went back in- classic! Prior to that, I hadn't known the bike was even there. I know my experiences were not in St. Petersburg, but I have read that historically St. Petersburg sought to keep Blacks away from downtown/tourist areas as to not interfere with its tourism. Therefore, I am cautious.

Am I likely to have similar problems as I described above w/people or police while living in the uptown/downtown or walking along Bayshore Dr. etc? Are these considered places where Blacks shouldn't be?
Is there another area I should move instead that has bus access and nature/parks?


**Certainly, I know no one can predict the future, but I think residents generally know the character of certain neighborhoods in their city. So any help is appreciated.


Thanks for your time!

[JSnFla]

Do you have a job lined up here? I'd focus on that first and making the most of your graduate school investment. The job market is horrible in the tampa bay area and its a terrible place to start a career. There are many terrible ghetto neighborhoods with tons of crime that are largely black, others that are largely hispanic, others are trashy white. Not sure any race would be deliberately profiled while walking downtown unless that specific individual looked very sketchy or up to no good. If you are a normal law abiding human being going about your life I doubt you would be looked at as a criminal because of ethnicity

[BBI]

Lots of races represented here in St. Pete. Just being a black person won't draw any attention. Don't get me wrong, if you dress like a very poor person, people will assume you are one (and act accordingly), but that goes for any race. Like a lot of the country, the poorer neighborhoods are predominantly black, and the wealthier neighborhoods are predominantly white, but I haven't seen any places in town where "blacks shouldn't be."

Also, just an FYI -- Uptown is not as nice a neighborhood as Downtown (particularly east of 4th St). You could dress like a very poor person there and not stand out at all. It's not horrible, just poorer than some of the surrounding neighborhoods (e.g., Downtown, the Old Northeast and Crescent Lake). I'm sure you can search this forum for "Uptown" for more posts. In your shoes, I'd try to stick Downtown (preferably east of 4th Street and north of 5th Ave S).

[mortpes]

You are not safe walking in St.Petersburg.

[thethinktank]

Originally Posted by mortpes

You are not safe walking in St.Petersburg.

Mortpes, I don't think that's a helpful comment for OP. If you feel she'd be unsafe, maybe you could qualify your statement? I can't imagine any reason why she wouldn't be safe in St. Pete unless she's walking in the areas that are unsafe to anyone regardless of race.

Darling3000, I'd take that comment in stride. There are safe and dangerous places in St. Pete just like anywhere else. Your race shouldn't effect how you are perceived there.

[jambo101]

Originally Posted by thethinktank

There are safe and dangerous places in St. Pete just like anywhere else. Your race shouldn't effect how you are perceived there.

If thats the case why is it the south side is perceived as dangerous?

[algia]

I agree, waking downtown St Pete is not safe for women. I was there once for a photo shoot and there were three homeless looking guys that started picking on me! and I'm WHITE! I am not walking down there again, at least not by myself, this was middle of the day too!

[gypsychic]

There are only certain neighborhoods I would personally feel unsafe in St. Pete. Anywhere downtown feels safe to me, as are the neighborhoods to the north, and the ones to the far south and west. But I do think too many people are scared of a little diversity.

The bad area is the midtown area starting south of downtown central Ave. This is a real ghetto, and where all the violent crime happens. Yes, it is a black neighborhood. Neighborhoods that are bordering this would be too sketchy for me to consider and that includes "nice" neighborhoods like Kenwood, Mirror Lake and a few others in this general area. Others may be OK with it. In general I will say that St. Pete has a lot more racism than Tampa, but that is not to say the OP would have a problem. Just stay away from the bad neighborhoods. As far as the "homeless", St. Pete has cleaned a lot of that up and there aren't that many hanging around downtown anymore. They are really more of a nuisance than dangerous, anyway.

To the OP - are you just considering St. Pete or are you looking at Tampa as well?

[DUNNDFRNT]

The OP is not concerned with her safety in a traditional way, clearly she is speaking about how comfortable she would feel in the downtown St pete area, not what areas are high crime, is quite the opposite. If she was to move to an upscale st pete neighborhood, would she be comfortable there? would people cross the street when she is walking by? that sort of thing, I doubt (and I know this is controversial) that a non-minority can answer that question, because you simply wouldn't know, people in that neighborhood wouldn't act that way towards you, you wouldn't observe it either as people don't behave the same way when other people are around.

[jambo101]

I cant think of a place in downtown St Pete that i'd have a reason to walk around after dark as there aint much there and not many people, perhaps a walk to the end of the pier .