Urban Sprawl out of control in Tampa Bay (Brandon, Citrus Park: lease, condo)

[keithjones1979]

This area is a complete nightmare and has gotten worse since I moved here 10 years ago the last 2 years in Brandon especially has seen tons of changes for the worse. Urban sprawl and the in migration from the north has increased rapidly the last few years especially.
This urban expansion across the area has made traffic and crime increase like crazy. The planning in this area is atrocious.
Pinellas County population 925 k has been built out for quite a while. But in the last year or so as the economy has improved a bit and more retirees have retired from up north, Anywhere there is a space there has been development. New WAWA's Walmart's, Fast food joints and new Condo development have been built everywhere developers can snatch up property. This has made the already crowded roads worse and even more and more dangerous.
The two main highways in Pinellas County US 19 and Ulmerton Road have been under construction for years and east and west and north and south traffic in the county is pretty much a nightmare. Crime wise There has been 5 murders in Pinellas County in the last month.
Hillsborough County 1.25 k has more land left than Pinellas, being a bigger land county centralized more off the City of Tampa. Where there is and abundance land such as in areas as New Tampa, Brandon, Riverview and Valrico there has been massive development everywhere the last 2 years. The traffic and crime have increased considerably and the roads simply cannot handle the increased volume.
Brandon where I live is just not what it once was. Once a bedroom community and nice place to raise a family has become overpriced, guetto-like north of Causeway especially, and clogged. The main highways Brandon Blvd SR 60 and Causeway Blvd have become clogged as bad as Ulmerton and US 19 in Pinellas without the construction. Poor Urban planning is going to make this place a nightmare to live in the future.
Once my lease is up I am getting out of here has fast as I can.

[roadtrip75]

Originally Posted by keithjones1979

Once my lease is up I am getting out of here has fast as I can.

What places are you considering for your relocation?

[MAniacTHW]

You can't use Brandon as the face of the Tampa Bay area. It's quite possible the last city I'd move to in the entire metro.

[PhotoProIP]

Originally Posted by MAniacTHW

You can't use Brandon as the face of the Tampa Bay area. It's quite possible the last city I'd move to in the entire metro.

Ditto on that in bold....BUT...the OP is not wrong; Westchase is crowded, Lutz, Carrollwood, Odessa, Citrus Park, Land O Lakes (have you see the traffic on 54?), New Tampa, are all crowded; schools are crowded, and not with nice crowds. Seems like low lives move here than nice normal educated people; or those who are educated hide and never socialize...hard to tell, but it is for sure getting worst. At least NY-ers would feel at home since they're creating the same kind of crowds they're used to with the only difference that instead of piling subways, they're piling highways! Oh well.

[vaughanwilliams]

Well, you can be like the cheerleaders and call it "growth" instead of "urban sprawl".

[Trigger-f]

Or you can be like all naysayers and advertise this place is a hellhole on earth (it's a treatable disease; goes away after you move out). Then you can start whining about the new place.

[kmarc]

I have to agree with the OP, based on what I'm seeing in South Hillsborough, the Ruskin/Sun City Center/Apollo Beach/Wimauma area. Really badly congested at times on 674/301. And yes, lots of people who look like low lives, although I don't like to judge on appearance, but it is a motley looking crew for sure. Like a freak show sometimes, and that goes for all ages and ethnic groups. We were commenting on this the other day as we did some shopping in the area.

We've been here since 2000 and it has not changed for the better as far as I can see. I don't know what the crime stats are, but we personally prevented a break-in across the street from us a couple of years ago.

When we moved here, some of the area was sort of neglected and there were some mildly seedy areas. But there were also some very pleasant, modest middle class neighborhoods and I always felt safe. 674 was a breeze to drive. Out of season you could swing a cat and not hit a thing. During snowbird season there was a mild but manageable increase in traffic, only for about three months. Coming from South Florida, I thought I died and went to heaven. It so nice and calm and easy to get around. Easy to get into Tampa, too.

I'm sorry to see the congestion and decay. The housing bubble has not been kind to the area. Well, I hope everyone who wanted to got their little slice of "paradise"

[kmarc]

And don't get me started on the increase in noise, not just from the traffic, but some days it seems like the meat wagons and fire rescue have their sirens going constantly. Weekend nights are a real treat as the tribal ritual music over in Wimauma gets cranked up. You can hear it clear to Ruskin. Boom-boom-boom, deedle-deedle-deedle. Fortunately it usually cuts off around 11:00pm, I think the sheriff's office has them pretty well trained, but who knows how long that will last.

[floridarebel]

Urban sprawl has been going on for the past 50 years. Where have y'all been?

Sprawl seemed worse ten years ago during the housing boom than now. I remember people complained about traffic back then, just like now. Traffic is and will be a problem in the area. People in the past also talked about how much better things were in the past, just like now. 15 years ago, in the year of 2000, people were saying that things were better ten years ago. Now people are saying things were better 10-15 years ago. People like to paint the past with rosy images and act like everything was perfect.

As for crime; the crime rate has been falling for ~20 years now, not going up.

When speaking in percent, the population growth of Florida has been slowing down. Florida grew by nearly 80% during the 1950s, 37% in the 1960s, 43% in the 1970s, 33% in the 1980s, 23% in the 1990s and 18% during the 2000s. So, sprawl was worse in the past than it is now.

[The Villages Guy]

I prefer "suburban" sprawl.