Tampa or Atlanta? (Clearwater, Brandon, New Port Richey: house, schools, income tax)

[overit2]

No, you won't always hang out in Alpharetta...if you want to go see a game, a concert, go downtown, go to midtown nightlife--just count on countless hrs of headaches, insane traffic jams.

Also-WHERE in the area of ATL will your job be located? what hours or work?

I'm telling you, yes you have freshwater brown lakes...even here in GA. But nothing compared to the water activities you have there. It isn't a very physically friendly city if that makes sense.

[diablo234]

Originally Posted by overit2

No, you won't always hang out in Alpharetta...if you want to go see a game, a concert, go downtown, go to midtown nightlife--just count on countless hrs of headaches, insane traffic jams.

Also-WHERE in the area of ATL will your job be located? what hours or work?

I'm telling you, yes you have freshwater brown lakes...even here in GA. But nothing compared to the water activities you have there. It isn't a very physically friendly city if that makes sense.

Well it's not like Northern Georgia or Atlanta is lacking anything in the outdoor recreation department with Stone Mountain, Chattahoochee River, the Northern Georgia mountains, or Great Smokey Mountains National Park being located within easy driving distance.

Plus within Atlanta itself you have Piedmont Park, Grant Park, and the Beltline which will add a ring of bike paths around the city.

[planedition]

Brown lakes? Eeewwwwwww

Incidentally the Smokies are greatly polluted.

http://www.nps.gov/grsm/naturescience/air-quality.htm

The air quality is really bad with high levels of ozone and the lakes are becoming gridlocked with boaters/floating houses from where people dump their waste.

[DUNNDFRNT]

Originally Posted by planedition

"BTW there is traffic in Tampa."

Yes, but it is a TINY FRACTION of the traffic in Atlanta, DC, LA, NYC, Dallas, Chicago, etc. etc. etccccccccccccccccc.

First of all the OP said NO traffic, which anyone who commutes more than 5 miles knows its not true, I in no way implied that Tampa traffic is worse than Atlanta and at least in Atlanta you have Marta. If you look at the traffic index for the last year, Tampa is actually ranked 19th worse while Atlanta is ranked 20th. I was surprised as well but Inrix tracks time wasted in congestion so you cant blame sprawl. If you want a clue why Tampa ranks so high drive towards new tampa in afternoon rush hour, or up the veterans.


INRIX National Traffic Scorecard

[planedition]

Here is the 2013 INRIX list: As you can see Atlanta is the No. 7 most congested urban area in the USA (most hours of delay, most gallons of fuel wasted).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...a_graphic.html

Tampa is not even on that list.

The traffic in Atlanta is INSANE and listed in the top 10 cities with the most INSANE traffic.

By the way the OP is coming from Chicago, so I can see how they would think Tampa has "zero traffic"; compared to Chicago, it does have zero traffic. Please see above link for where Chicago ranks in that list of INSANE TRAFFIC. Oh yeah, it's No. 8!!!!!!

Regarding the commute to New Tampa in the evening: every major city in this great nation has gridlock out to the suburbs in the PM and from the suburbs in the AM. Unless you are required to drive that route for work, I don't see why anyone would ever agree to do that commute. If someone chooses to live in New Tampa and works south or west, it is their own fault they are stuck in that traffic.

Don't want to sit in traffic? DON'T MOVE TO THE SUBURBS. The problem is that people know there is traffic to and from the burbs but they are too stupid to realize that the traffic is A, only going to get worse with time (every year it's worse), and B, is only going to get more intolerable the more times you do the commute.

Live in the city and look forward to an easy, REVERSE commute most times and days of the week.

If you live in the suburbs, don't blame me, Tampa, Jesus, Obama, City Data Forum, Bush, Sarah Palin, Martha Stewart or anyone else for your miserable commute. You have only yourself to blame for the traffic you have to sit in every day. You moved to the suburbs, despite knowing there would be traffic, despite knowing that the word "suburb" or "exurb" is just another word for "gridlock".

Now suck it up and deal with it.

[The Villages Guy]

Originally Posted by planedition

Don't want to sit in traffic? DON'T MOVE TO THE SUBURBS.

Now THAT is funny. I live, work and play in the suburbs. If I lived in the city, my commute would be a long one. But living in the suburb and working in the suburb offers me almost no traffic, a tiny commute, buying gas less than once a month and more time to enjoy all the great things in my suburb and all the suburbs around me.

[planedition]

Excellent!

But many suburbs in the USA are internally chocked with traffic (like New Tampa) due to poor planning and over-development of ginormous subdivisions,

and unlike you Priushater, many, many people in this country (mistakenly) live in a suburb and then *****, moan and groan about their commute to and from the city.

[The Villages Guy]

Originally Posted by planedition

Excellent! But many suburbs are internally chocked with traffic (like New Tampa), and many people live in a burb and commute to the city, which is why they get stuck in gridlock.

Some do I am sure. But the traffic IN Tampa itself is a PITA compared to where I live. Plus a lot of people live in the burbs, I dare say most, because they do not like city living. Many people who love the city style living simply cannot understand that.

[sportsterjohn]

I lived in St Pete and Alpharetta. The 2 areas are totally different.
Alpharetta (and the northern burbs in general) are upscale suburban areas. They have great schools, a lot of nice new housing stock and many people like it there. The downsides are horrible traffic, very competitive "me first" type of people and nothing to do. The suburbs in the area don't have any real identity, just a bunch of gated sub divisions and strip malls. However, as I mentioned, the schools are good and they are yupscale. The funny thing about Atlanta is that many of the jobs are in the northing suburbs so you can pretty much live in N. Fulton and never have go to the city (unless you want a concert or sporting event). As far as weather goes, we do get winters and they can be cold. It actually gets hotter here in the summer as we don't have the gulf to cool things things off. As mentioned, we are totally land locked, there are 2 large lakes north of Atlanta but in reality, there is nothing close to a beach, water lifestyle. On the plus side, we do have the blue ridge and smoky mountains but you have to go at least an hour north to hit them. One big downside, is that they ********* when you go to register your cars here. They make you pay 6% of the blue book value. For a 2011 Hyundai, a 2008 Harley and a 2005 Kia, I had to spend $2600 to register them. In FL. it cost me about 1k to register the cars.

I am not sure about Tampa, but I can give you my experiences in St. Pete. I lived off of 54th north street. The housing was pretty much all older stock, small block homes. There are a bunch of dive bars and sketchy looking people out and a about. (There are areas with newer houses, more upscale etc.
Downtown St. Pete is a very cool place, a bunch of bars / dining options and very walkable and bike friendly. St. Pete has a tourist town mentality, meaning people are laid back and like to party. I worked right in the heart of down town and loved it. St Pete is also very beach centered. There are 25 miles of gulf coast in Pinellas county. Even if you don't like to play in the water, there are still beach bars and sea food restaurants up and down the coast. As far as traffic, there was very little traffic in St. Pete. It took me 8 minutes to get to work. (5 mile ride).


The best way for me to sum it up would be for me to ask you what is more important. If you want good schools, an upscale suburban lifestyle and career advancement, N. Fulton should be your choice, If you want a laid back lifestyle, are not career / money focuses and are more interested in enjoying life, then go with Tampa / St. Pete.
I moved back to Ga 2 months ago for a job, I am already plotting my return back to St. Pete.

[planedition]

Prius:

The traffic in Tampa is NOT a pain if you have a reverse commute. In other words, if you live in Tampa and commute out of the city in the AM. In fact, living in Tampa and then commuting out to the burbs in the AM is a wonderfully, relaxing drive.

For example, I live in South Tampa, I work in St. Pete. Zero traffic. My drive is never gridlocked, always pleasant, I see wildlife, go 75 mph, etc.

Sometimes I have to go to Downtown Tampa, Brandon or Clearwater from South Tampa. Again, zero traffic.

My sister lives in Town N Country, commutes to New Port Richey, zero traffic.

Many people in Tampa have zero commutes (like me and Prius). It's quite wonderful. I recommend it to the OP.