That explains a lot.

//It started when they tore down Webbs

Did the Florida tag off itself?

/was born in St. Pete and was happy as a clam

St Pete is awesome. That is all.

If Saint Petersburg is so awesome, why doesn't anyone from Tampa want to go there for a Rays game?

I would note the small exception to this sadness riiiiight at the southern tip of St. Pete. There's a college there which, at least in the 80s, was far too high to be sad about 99% of the time.

But yes, as a city I'd say St. Pete is pretty sad. I remember going to the Kidney Foundation Thrift Store to get clothes, which was pretty goddamn depressing in and of itself. And Tyrone Mall, which involved a half-hour drive to an ugly little pseudomecca of shopping.

However, nobody can go to Skyway Jack's and remain sad. I believe the portions are designed to squeeze all of the depression out of you (and replace it with cholesterol, but that's a different discussion).

FriarReb98: If Saint Petersburg is so awesome, why doesn't anyone from Tampa want to go there for a Rays game?

Because baseball is too boring to cross a bridge and drive through a shiatty neighborhood to get to the stadium.

Downtown St. Pete is admittedly a hell hole. The homeless situation in the park is a disgrace. But the only time I ventured into downtown was to go to concerts at Jannus Landing. But most of St. Pete is okay, some of it is nice like any other city.

Tampa has Hispanic Historic Ybor City and nice areas as well.

The entire state of Florida smells like boiled ass.

Xenolith: New College is in Bradenton, not St. Pete.

He was probably referring to Eckerd College

/2nd generation native
//stuck in Wisconsin, which is truly depressing

FingHostile: dahmers love zombie: There's a college there which, at least in the 80s, was far too high to be sad about 99% of the time.i>

That's Eckerd College which was just ranked the 12th "druggiest" college in the U.S. according to The Daily Beast.


Yep. My alma mater. Man, I could tell you stories...but I don't remember them.

Eckerd College is a smarmy hive of the New England prep school kids who were too dumb for Ivy League schools that become fake hippies on contact with Florida soil.

/my alma mater
//didn't like it
///last 2 years at USF was muuuuuuch better
////slashies

I haven't been to St. Petersburg since I was a kid but I remember liking it.

All I know is that St. Pete has the rockinest Dali museum outside of Spain.

Herodotus: ///last 2 years at USF was muuuuuuch better

USF represent

They actually have a pretty good CS school.

I grew up in Sarasota and always felt St. Pete was depressing as all hell. The only good part was visiting my Great Uncle Henry when I was around ten or so and learning how to play shuffle board from him.

The worst was when I was 19 and had to spend a whole week "helping" out with my paternal grandfather. Grandpa had moved to St. Pete from Madison, Wisconsin when I was in my senior year in high school and within a year, had a series of strokes thatr left him pretty much out of it. So, my dad sent me up there for a week to help out, except, my step-grandmother would not let me do anything. They were in a new subdivision with nothing near by. I didn't have a car and my step-grandmother was not about to let me use theirs. I spent the whole week just siting and reading through the massive collection of National Geographics. I would have just gone out of my skull but for them.

Oh, and New College is in Sarasota, albeit way extreme north Sarasota. My high school girlfriend's dad was comptroller there in the Sixties and Seventies.

Moodybastard One of the reasons for so many Florida cities getting the "most depressing tag" is you have so many attractions, so many destinations that the common folk can't afford. Pro sports teams, amusement/theme parks, concerts, resorts...


Actually, it's because most residents come from NYC, Boston or Philly, and bring their shiatty attitudes and obnoxious whines with them. If all the farking Yankees would stay up north, Florida would be a great place to live.

cosmiquemuffin: All I know is that St. Pete has the rockinest Dali museum outside of Spain.

Yeah, that's pretty cool and near the Pier area which is nice. Spent some of my high school years playing guitar at the yacht club over there. They were rich douchebags but more like yuppie douchebags, not old people douchebags.

I've been to St Pete a view times, as well as Tampa and they seemed nice enough. They have the typical ghetto problems that all major cities have, made worse just by the sheer amount of low income people that have moved to the area from colder places.

I've spent a lot of time in Sarasota because my parents live there and I like it a lot. If you folks are looking for a vacation spot to the best beach in the world, find a condo to stay in on Siesta Key. I recommend Midnight Cove, where I used to stay before my parents bought a house in Sarasota.

I submitted this with a similar headline.

Why does Florida have the saddest cities in America? If you were waiting for God to kill you, you'd be sad too

/Grew up in north Clearwater/Dunedin area.
//Not sad, St. Pete is.
///Transplants unhappy there as they were where they came from, yes.

Creoena: Manchester, NH is one of the happiest cities to live in? I've been there once and it was enough to make me want to commit suicide

Really? My best friends live there and I love it. Everything in walking distance, plenty of national events rolling through, and only an hour from Boston if you are lame enough to not find anything to do.

I lived in the St Pete area for a while. I didn't like it that much. Too many people crammed in one small area, traffic sucked, crime was very high. I read that the juvenile crime was higher in Pinellas County than in any other area of FL, higher than Miami/Dade.

Beaches were nice, but those of us who had to actually work didn't get a lot of time to hang out on the beach or go fishing. Now the beaches are lined with hi-rise condos, cramming even more people in a small area.

Pinellas County is going to fall in if too many more people move there.

StrikitRich: St. Pete gets a bad rap because people travel there to commit suicide by jumping off the Sunshine Skyway Bridge

That has to be a biatch too because to add insult to injury, you have to pay a toll to get to the top. So you don't even get your money's worth.

HAHA! I live in the #4 happiest city in the country. Must be the Free Hooker Thursdays, or Half-Price Blow Mondays.


/...I've said too much.
//Seriously though, weed is cheap here, and we've got some pretty kick-ass weed laws. And most cops don't give a fark anyways.

mrpants5587: Born and raised and posting from St. Pete.

I like it.

/Is also a "20 something" as someone mentioned earlier
//Haters gonna hate.

nice. i like when people stand up, more people should. support the home teams too along with the local music scene. life is what you make it, every day.

been to St.Pete. very nice. would go back or move there without hesitation. sunshine, nice people, some incredible samples of architecture and pieces of history there. motorcyclists w/o helmets freaked me right out, otherwise it's aces.

MayoSlather: As for Tampa...it's 90% ghetto strip mall. Orlando is a much nicer city, though it certainly has plenty of crappy areas as well.

A lot of folks in Orlando seem to have attitude problems, probably attributable in part to the massive influx of folks from NY and NJ right after 9/11. Many business owners in the Orlando area seem to have this up-yours-take-it-or-leave-it attitude. Don't even get me started about some of the HOAs and neighborhood busybodies. When I lived in that area, I would regularly make a point to ask people where they were from. The true Florida natives generally tended to be friendlier and better adjusted than the transplants. A lot of people who move into the area don't seem to understand that one of the things you're supposed to do when you move to Florida is leave the uptight attitude and rude, inconsiderate behavior up north. What's the point of moving to a place as beautiful as Florida (and it is beautiful, if you'll just stop long enough to notice it) if you're just going to muck it up with that obnoxious demeanor from back home? While that pushy, tough behavior might have impressed people up there, all it does is make you look like a dick down here (of course, I guess some people want to be perceived as dicks...)

Another thing I didn't like about Orlando was the damned drinking water... Always smelled/tasted like a mix of sulfur and cat piss... especially in the UCF end of town.

As for places in Florida that are sad or depressing... try driving out to Lehigh Acres in Lee County or Immokalee in Collier County. Or go to some of the plantation worker towns near the southeastern end of Lake Okeechobee (Belle Glade, Pahokee, etc.).

In contrast, Honolulu, Hawaii - the birth place of U.S. President Barack Obama - is the happiest place to live... Like Americans don't know by now Obama was born Muslim in Zimbabwe.