Tampa Scouting Trip in September

[MortonR]

I lived in San Bruno and later in Montara, right across the PCH from the beach, and would go back in a heartbeat if I could afford the cost of living.

Tampa is no comparison, and if you don’t like humidity, why in the world would you even consider it? Humidity is a year round thing here, no matter what the season or temperature.

Have you done any due diligence in this regard? It doesn’t sound like it....

RM

[wallyb2013]

I moved to St. Pete from Charlotte a little over three years ago. In Charlotte, we lived in Plaza Midwood and absolutely loved the character of the neighborhood and walkability between both the Midwood Business District and NoDa. We ended up moving to the Crescent Lake area of St. Pete, which is kind of similar to Plaza Midwood and is also very walkable and bikeable. I think St. Pete is a fantastic place for empty nesters and would recommend you spending more time here vs. Tampa if you're looking for an atmosphere and vibe comparable to San Fran. St. Pete has more of an artsy, bohemian vibe, is extremely liberal, and is not as family-oriented as Tampa.

That being said, if traffic, infrastructure, and humidity are bothering you, this entire area is much worse off than Charlotte in all of those categories. In Charlotte, the humidity starts to break in mid-to late August, but here in St. Pete it's extremely hot and humid through October. Traffic and drivers here are the worst - both my husband and I had our cars totaled by reckless drivers within a 2 year period (my husband's parked car was totaled the day we moved here).

Good luck!

[FLKitties]

Originally Posted by Sjsharks

Its too humid here, miss the water, drivers are horrible, infrastructure is stuck in the 90ies....no police enforcement....too many things that just dont feel right

Well we do have water. Not to be a dream killer, but if those are the things you hate about Charlotte, I would think you'd be pretty miserable here, too.

[theurbanfiles]

We don't exactly know what OP meant about saying infrastructure stuck in the 90s though.. admittedly that's pretty vague. If they could clarify/quantify that, perhaps we could eradicate or confirm some of their concerns...

I do think that some of the things the poster mentioned they might like better here. No place is going to have everything a person could want. So, the visit should still be helpful. A longer visit would honestly probably be helpful though. A full week, so that the feeling of "being on vacation" sort of wears off, and you aren't just doing "fun" things the whole time. I think a lot of people probably make decisions to move all sorts of places based on that and then are disappointed when the other shoe drops.

It sounds silly, but if the OP was looking for a place by water but with more of an urban setting, less humid, etc., I think Baltimore might actually be a better fit for them than Tampa, at least among east coast cities that aren't mad expensive.

[Edvard]

Originally Posted by Sjsharks

drivers are horrible, infrastructure is stuck in the 90ies....no police enforcement....t

The police are allowed to write traffic tickets. Nothing else, especially when it comes to a certain group of people the politicians pander to. They keep violent crime statistics very low by classifying homicides and other shootings as "gun accidents". They also have this new thing of coaching gang bangers to claim self defense in their shootings or to claim mental issues so they can dump them off at St Anthony's for "evaluation" (usually a few nurses get assaulted. There is, however some law enforcement. They have to fund all of this somehow. They write tickets. They collect court fees from the portion of the population which still obeys the law, mainly Northeast or in the outer edges of Pinellas.