PSI87
Banned
Today I went on a little road trip to the Tampa Bay area, otherwise known as the Sun Coast of Florida. I’ve only been there once and I thought it would be a good idea to travel there to get more familiar with the area since I’m considering moving there for school. I know a few other people on here are considering moving to the Tampa Bay area or Florida, so I thought I would post a review of my first impressions of the city.
Well, I left at 6AM to go visit USF (since I’m thinking about going there) and I arrived on campus around 9AM. The campus seemed large, spread out over 1700 acres, and it was spread out quite a bit. The residence hall’s looked somewhat impressive, however overall I don’t feel like that particular campus was exceptional. University mall close to USF was pretty big, but the majority there were minorities, which I’m a little uncomfortable with. On to Tampa…
After departing from USF’s Tampa campus, I pursued to go into the downtown region. The downtown wasn’t too bad, but the surrounding area I found to be quite disappointing. I noticed a lot of industry that wasn’t particularly attractive. The road’s of Tampa (not including the interstate system) seemed unorganized and not of a high quality. Unfortunately, this would not be the end of my disappointment for the day.
Next I went into Ybor City. I’ve heard good things about it, but I found it to be a very unattractive city. I counted several transients along with a continued industrial presence. Having seen this much, I opted not to get out of the car and walk to the more historical district, so I probably didn’t get the entire Ybor City experience. At this point, I was getting ready to just go home and call it quits with the entire Tampa Bay area. I decided to visit St. Petersburg though. Once I got back on 275 South, I started noticing a cleaner, much more attractive Tampa as I headed East, away from downtown towards St. Pete. I noticed a Best Buy, Wal Mart, Target, etc on the North of the interstate and a quality looking mall on the South side of the interstate.
Next I crossed over Tampa Bay and continued to drive what took approximately 30 minutes to get to St. Pete from downtown Tampa. St. Pete was a very pleasant surprise. It’s not as big as Tampa, but it is still a fairly large city. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a place quite like this. For being a large city, there was very little traffic, everything was clean and modern looking. The skyline surprised me once again. The skyline is a mix between condominiums and large corporations. I found myself pondering as to where exactly the residential district ended and when the business district began. There were tons of small shops there. I really can’t say enough about this city. I saw the USF St. Pete campus, and guess where I want to go now. The best way I can describe it, is it’s a large city with a small city feeling to it.
One place I wanted to visit that I didn’t get a chance to was Clearwater. I’ve heard good things about that city, but I just couldn’t go. All said and done I ended up driving 371 miles on 0 hours of sleep and had a great time doing so. Now that I’ve seen Tampa, I probably wouldn’t want to live there. It didn’t seem too bad, but it was nothing exceptional. Tampa really seemed a lot like Jacksonville. I would choose Orlando over either city, but St. Pete over Orlando. Anyways, I took a few pictures and anyone considering moving to central or North Florida should talk to me.
Tampa 1
Tampa 2
St. Pete 1
St. Pete 2 (from the Pier, sorry I couldn’t really get any good pics)
St. Pete 3
The pier at St. Pete.
Orlando 1 (Sorry, these are really bad.)
Orlando 2
BTW, I realize this could be in the Florida section, but I decided to post it in "Road Side Pub" instead due to the fact that I wrote this to share my experience of Tampa with non Floridians. This could also be put in "Media," but the picutes just serve as a visual aid, not the main topic of discussion.
Well, I left at 6AM to go visit USF (since I’m thinking about going there) and I arrived on campus around 9AM. The campus seemed large, spread out over 1700 acres, and it was spread out quite a bit. The residence hall’s looked somewhat impressive, however overall I don’t feel like that particular campus was exceptional. University mall close to USF was pretty big, but the majority there were minorities, which I’m a little uncomfortable with. On to Tampa…
After departing from USF’s Tampa campus, I pursued to go into the downtown region. The downtown wasn’t too bad, but the surrounding area I found to be quite disappointing. I noticed a lot of industry that wasn’t particularly attractive. The road’s of Tampa (not including the interstate system) seemed unorganized and not of a high quality. Unfortunately, this would not be the end of my disappointment for the day.
Next I went into Ybor City. I’ve heard good things about it, but I found it to be a very unattractive city. I counted several transients along with a continued industrial presence. Having seen this much, I opted not to get out of the car and walk to the more historical district, so I probably didn’t get the entire Ybor City experience. At this point, I was getting ready to just go home and call it quits with the entire Tampa Bay area. I decided to visit St. Petersburg though. Once I got back on 275 South, I started noticing a cleaner, much more attractive Tampa as I headed East, away from downtown towards St. Pete. I noticed a Best Buy, Wal Mart, Target, etc on the North of the interstate and a quality looking mall on the South side of the interstate.
Next I crossed over Tampa Bay and continued to drive what took approximately 30 minutes to get to St. Pete from downtown Tampa. St. Pete was a very pleasant surprise. It’s not as big as Tampa, but it is still a fairly large city. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a place quite like this. For being a large city, there was very little traffic, everything was clean and modern looking. The skyline surprised me once again. The skyline is a mix between condominiums and large corporations. I found myself pondering as to where exactly the residential district ended and when the business district began. There were tons of small shops there. I really can’t say enough about this city. I saw the USF St. Pete campus, and guess where I want to go now. The best way I can describe it, is it’s a large city with a small city feeling to it.
One place I wanted to visit that I didn’t get a chance to was Clearwater. I’ve heard good things about that city, but I just couldn’t go. All said and done I ended up driving 371 miles on 0 hours of sleep and had a great time doing so. Now that I’ve seen Tampa, I probably wouldn’t want to live there. It didn’t seem too bad, but it was nothing exceptional. Tampa really seemed a lot like Jacksonville. I would choose Orlando over either city, but St. Pete over Orlando. Anyways, I took a few pictures and anyone considering moving to central or North Florida should talk to me.
Tampa 1
Tampa 2
St. Pete 1
St. Pete 2 (from the Pier, sorry I couldn’t really get any good pics)
St. Pete 3
The pier at St. Pete.
Orlando 1 (Sorry, these are really bad.)
Orlando 2
BTW, I realize this could be in the Florida section, but I decided to post it in "Road Side Pub" instead due to the fact that I wrote this to share my experience of Tampa with non Floridians. This could also be put in "Media," but the picutes just serve as a visual aid, not the main topic of discussion.
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