TAMPA | Florida's Gulf Coast metropolis

[Thundertubs]

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Rivergate Tower aka the Beer Can Building is unusual for two reasons. First: it's in Tampa. It looks like something from Boston or the UK. Second, my guess was that it was from the mid-1960's, when in fact it was built in 1988.








Behold: Bayshore Blvd, home to the world's longest unbroken sidewalk, clocking in at 4.5 miles.






- - - St. Petersburg - - -



I got a kick out of this one ludicrously ornate building.




























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[ColDayMan]

Well, St. Petersburg was the saving grace. To your credit, you made Tampa look very Southern...which is interesting (I know it's in the South but ya know, Florida's weird).

[Urbanguy]

Great shots! This is probably the best i've seen of Tampa.

[LMich]

The is easily the highest-quality Tampa tour I've seen on the forum. Despite it's size, you really capture the laid-back feel of the place. St. Petersburg looks like it'd be more my style, though. You know, something a bit more human-scaled and manageable. Does Tampa have a central square of any type from which the city emanates? If not, what intersection or main street is at the center of town?

BTW, anyone know about how big Jacksonville would be with its pre-merger boundaries? I'm getting a pretty similar feel between how the cities are situated.

[Danny]

Nice pics of Tampa and St. Petersburg.

I like Tampa. Although I´ve never been there, I see it´s a very nice city with a very interesting architecture. I like its skyscrapers, above all Rivergate Tower.

Thanks for sharing.

Greetings from Madrid, Spain!

[xzmattzx]

Nice pictures!

[gothamite]

Originally Posted by Urbanguy

Great shots! This is probably the best i've seen of Tampa.

agreed!

[Austinlee]

Yes you have certainly showed several sides of Tampa that seem necessary to understand this city which is pretty unique. I like seeing the industrial sections. Some beautiful waterfront shots as well. Also, the 4.5 mile waterfront trail is awesome; I would love to live near that for some jogging.
The only part that seems weird is the city center!

[DetroitSky]

The downtown of Tampa seems much quieter than I had anticipated. Still, it looks great. Loved these photos! Thanks!

[LSyd]

great pics, thanks. looks like we covered a lot of the same ground

Originally Posted by ColDayMan

Well, St. Petersburg was the saving grace. To your credit, you made Tampa look very Southern...which is interesting (I know it's in the South but ya know, Florida's weird).

Tampa's an odd duck...it's like Dallas' coastal little brother. it's also full of great steak restaurants, like Texas

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[atlantaguy]

Originally Posted by LMich

BTW, anyone know about how big Jacksonville would be with its pre-merger boundaries? I'm getting a pretty similar feel between how the cities are situated.

Not sure of the pre-consolidation size of Jacksonville, but Tampa and Jacksonville are Florida's original "big cities."

Both are port cities with an industrial past, and both were big by Southern standards before Miami was even a thought. Both also have fantastic bones in their heart - unfortunately, both also suffer from the suburbs supplanting their respective Downtowns as the center of (most) business and corporate activity.

St. Pete is a different animal and has a nicer Downtown (in my opinion) than both.

Great thread, Thundertubs! You've really been making the rounds of the South lately!

[Evergrey]

very similar to Jacksonville... which I experienced for a week this summer

[simms3_redux]

Tampa and Jax are similar in so many ways and share a competitive past together. The unique thing about Tampa was its mafia and old Cuban past (Tampa had a strong family that ran its cigar business and employed thousands of Cubans before Miami even existed). The unique thing about Jacksonville was its industrialist past whereby the likes of William Astor, Alfred duPont, Henry Flagler and countless others called the place home and built the place up. Jacksonville was always about 50% larger than Tampa and so stole all of Tampa's cigar business (think Swisher Brothers, who moved down from PA and started Swisher Cigars, which are still rolled in Jax in a large warehouse). Miami/Palm Beach stole all of Jacksonville's appeal for wealthy northerners by the late teens/early 20s. Orlando was an orange grove and air base until the 1970s and was pretty much irrelevant except for the past 30 years. Tampa metro did not pass Jax until the 60s and I believe South FL didn't pass Jax in population until either the 40s or 50s, but both exploded in the 50s-70s and then SoFLa just kept on going whereas Tampa also began to slow down. Not sure about Tampa's post-20s history, but Jax only became a southern backward city in the 40s and was actually one of the most progressive before. The city totally reversed course in the 40s, 50s and 60s when Alfred duPont's wife's brother, Ed Ball, became mayor and tolled all roads into downtown and wiped out much of the city's building stock so he could build suburbs as friendly favors to his landowning friends. St. Pete has probably the best overall downtown in FL, though it's smaller, but Pinellas County is literally where people come to die and the overall county is scary old and boring and pretty run down.

[Kingofthehill]

Nice tour and all, but, man, that is a mind-numbingly depressing "urban" environment.

[ChiTownCity]

Wow, I was not expecting to those kinds of bones in Florida. But then again, given the fact that this is a Thundertubs thread, I have no idea what I was initially thinking....

[IMBY]

I love that cylindrical Rivergate Tower. I would have guessed, too, it was a 60's creation, but 1988!!!! There's too many glass cylinders, but this is even better!

Lots of potential for this city, may even surpass Miami some day, as an attractive city!

I think I destroyed my body living in the desert too long, as the longer you live in the desert, the more sensitive your body becomes to humidity, and being close to retirement, I think I'm stuck here now!

Ah! The thought of living in a super-humid part of the country! Just the thought of it makes my body scream bloody murder!

[TXLove]

Great Tour! Count me as one who likes the Rivergate Tower also!

[Lakelander]

Great thread. Definitely, the best I've seen of Tampa in years.

[Lakelander]

Originally Posted by LMich

BTW, anyone know about how big Jacksonville would be with its pre-merger boundaries? I'm getting a pretty similar feel between how the cities are situated.

In 1950, pre-merger Jacksonville was 30 square miles with a population of 204,000. Since then, it's lost roughly 50% of it's population. According to the 2010 Census, that number has dropped to 101,000. However, there's 717 square miles of rural area and growing suburbs that cover up the urban core population loss.

[mello]

So what is that narrow street that is lined with palms and old buildings? Is that Ybor City? And where is it situated in relation to the bank towers "downtown"?

And just curious why are people saying St. Pete's downtown is better? Thundertubs didn't take many pics of it so I was thinking it was whack in comparison to Tampa.

And like KOTH said this place looks dead Not a burgeoning metropolis...