re: Tell me about Tampa/St. Pete

Fishhawk Ranch for great schools and great neighborhoods. Bitch of a commute to downtown though.

Angry chair

TD it's a great city and it's a beautiful time now to go. Temperatures aren't very hot. The St.Pete/Clearwater areas and their beaches are awesome plenty of white sand and clear water along with some great restaurants. I saw someone mention the fish hawk area it's pricey but it's the hot area too raise a family. Traffic is bad in the Tampa area and it's probably the reason I haven't moved there myself. Downtown Tampa has some cool art festivals and has really cleaned itself up. Downtown Clearwater is beautiful but it has some scientologists trolling the streets if you have never been it's fun to people watch. Anyway anywhere along the florida coasts are great places to live the further inland you go the worst it gets imho.

Don’t know much about the cities but I just came here to say I bagged a girl from St. Pete during my college days and she was wild. Apparently, that runs in the water over there.

Live in Palmetto and work in Pinellas Park. Love this place.

Sarasota is even prettier than Clearwater in my opinion

I agree but I love Clearwater beach. Stayed there for a week and fell in love with it.

Housing situation is kind of shitty- looking for a place to buy right now (attended some open houses today)- if you want a nice house you’re going to have a really long commute or pay way too much.....

I don't live there, just an occasional visitor. I like the area although it does have a good bit of trashiness to it.

What caught me off guard was that St. Pete was more vibrant and urban of a city than Tampa was. The businesses are more geared towards Tampa though so that's where a lot of the growth will be. St. Pete has a serious problem where everything south of Central Ave is ghetto.

In comparison to Baton Rouge a lot of the cons about Tampa Bay are worse in Baton Rouge so it'll be an upgrade. Even the summer heat is slightly moderated imo. The westchase area is pretty good but I felt like Brandon/Valrico was more akin to Walker, LA. the pinellas trail was neat - I would love to live in dunedin. I considered moving there at one point when 3/2 houses in Westchase were $230k but the salaries are part of the "sunshine tax" in that you're competing tons of people looking to move there without jobs.

There's some decent jobs if you can get security clearance, though.

Lived in St. Pete about 15 years ago. It’s full of folks from Michigan, Ohio and other midwestern states. It’s the “Lightning Capital” of the US.