St Petersburg
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7/17/2007
In my opinion, St Pete (as we often call it) is one of the nicest cities in which I have lived. It has undergone a renissance in the last 10-15 years. Gone are the day this city was a run down, cheap, retirement place. The downtown area has been revitalized and it boasts dozens of high-rise condo buildings (probably more than we need), by the way, as with most of Florida the cost of housing has "gone through the roof" (no pun intended). There are excellent restaurants everywhere, theaters and playhouses to keep you "on the go" for months and when you get through with all of them (if you ever do) you can start on the ones in Clearwater and Tampa, both within a 30 minute drive. The Tampa airport (one of the best in the coutry) is 20 miles away. St Pete also has it's own airport, with a limited number of commercial flights. Of course, given it's location, on the west side of Tampa Bay, boating, fishing and the beach are still the primary recreational activities for most of us. Much to my surprise summers are cooler here than in Raleigh, NC (where I also have a home). The diference is that it stay warm three months longer here than it does in NC (trust me by the end of October you want a cold snap). As it is with all growing cities, traffic has gotten worse (but compare to other cities of the same size it is not bad), the are two real down sides: 1)CRIME, which continues to be high. While there are many very safe neighborhoods if you are not familiar with the city you can get in trouble fairly easily. 2) SCHOOLS, much to my dissapointment the school system is not very good, so if you have school age children plan on sending them to private school.
Knowing what I know now (after 10 years) would I move here again? you bet.
Mario | St. Petersburg, FL