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Introduction to St. Petersburg, Florida
Welcome to St Petersburg, home to some of America's best sandy white beaches, world class golfing, calm crystal blue waters, lots of sunshine, and memorable sunsets. St Petersburg is a vibrant city that caters to all walks of life from the active lifestyle to resort style living to raising a family to young professionals. St Petersburg has so much to offer that there is always something for everyone, no matter who you are. St Petersburg real estate is a good investment because of the limited land space and population growth. Now is the right time to buy that single family house, beach-front condos, waterfront homes, townhomes, investment properties, etc... while prices are down and before the other buyers get back into the market. When all the inventory properties start to level off than prices should bounce back sharply. The weak dollar is also attracting lots of foreign investors to Florida's waterfront real estate market because the prices here are still cheaper than prices in other major waterfront cities across the United States and this is a popular tourist destination. A city with so much to offer also give you a Realtor with so much to offer. Fred Hintenberger is your preferred St Petersburg real estate specialist who has earned major achievements, comes highly recommended, real world experience, well educated, very knowledgeable of the local and current real estate trends. You can't go wrong when selecting a real estate agent who is in the top 1% of real estate agents in the nation. Fred Hintenberger, P.A. and associates will take you beyond full service and exceed your expectations!
St Petersburg achieves a balance between the big city feeling and a quaint small town atmosphere with so much character and charm to offer. St Petersburg has more waterfront properties per square mile than any other city with lots of impressive architectural styles from craftsman style homes to Mediterranean style palatial mansions. I have lived here for over 30 years and have been calling St Petersburg my hometown since 1977. I have done a lot of traveling and have not found a place that I rather call home. I am one of the areas leading Realtors because I believe in my product and I truly believe that St Petersburg property prices are an exceptional value.
The city is commonly referred to by locals as "St Pete"; neighboring St. Pete Beach, Florida formally shortened its name in 1994 after a vote by its residents.The city is located on a peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. It is connected to the mainland to the north, connected with the city of Tampa, Florida to the east by causeways and bridges across Tampa Bay, and to Bradenton, Florida in the south by the Sunshine Skyway Bridge (Interstate 275), which traverses the mouth of the bay. It is also served by Interstates 175 and 375, which branch off of 275 into the southern and northern areas of downtown respectively. The Gandy Bridge, opened in 1924, is the first causeway to be built across Tampa Bay, connecting St. Petersburg and Tampa cities without a circuitous 43-mile trip around the Bay through Oldsmar.With a purported average of some 360 days of sunshine each year, it is nicknamed "The Sunshine City." [1] For that reason, the city is a popular tourist, and retirement destination, especially for those in the United States from colder Northern climates particularly New York, Detroit, and Chicago.
Founded in 1876, St. Petersburg is the fourth largest city in Florida with a population of approximately 250,000 people, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. St. Petersburg is part of the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater metropolitan statistical area, which is the twentieth largest in the United States and the second largest MSA in the State with a population in excess of approximately 2.7 million people. The city was co-founded by John C. Williams, formerly of Detroit, Michigan, who purchased the land in 1876, and by Peter Demens, who was instrumental in bringing the terminus of a railroad there in 1888. St. Petersburg was incorporated on February 29, 1892, when it had a population of only some 300 people.It was named after Saint Petersburg, Russia, where Peter Demens had spent half of his youth. A local legend says that John C. Williams and Peter Demens flipped a coin to see who would have the honor of naming the city. Peter Demens won and named the city after his birthplace, while John C. Williams named the first hotel after his birthplace, Detroit. The Detroit Hotel still exists downtown, but has been turned into a condominum. The oldest running hotels are the historic Pier Hotel, built in 1921 The Pier Hotel and The Heritage Hotel, built in 1926.The city's first major industry was born in 1899 when Henry W. Hibbs, 1862-1942, a native of Newport, North Carolina, established his wholesale fish business at the end of the railroad pier, which extended out to the shipping channel. Within a year, Hibbs Fish Company was shipping more than a thousand pounds (454 kg) of fish each day.Dredging of a deeper shipping channel from 1906 to 1908 opened St. Petersburg to larger shipping. Further dredging improved the port facilities through the 1910s. By then the city's population had quadrupled to 4,127.In 1914, airplane service across Tampa Bay from St. Petersburg to Tampa and back was initiated, generally considered the first commercial airline. The company name was the "St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line" and the pilot was Tony Jannus, flying a Benoist XIV flying boat. The Tony Jannus Award is presented annually for outstanding achievement in the airline industry. Jannus Landing, a local music/entertainment venue on Central Avenue in Downtown, is named after aviation pioneer Tony Jannus.The city population continued to multiply during the twentieth century. Booming in the 1940's and 50's with the advent of air-conditioning [citation needed] and through the 1970s as the town became a popular retirement destination for Americans from midwestern cities, reaching 238,647 in the 1980 census. By the 1980s, however, the population had levelled off, and has grown by only 10,000 since then, primarily as a result of being "built-out".
St. Petersburg is located on Florida's central Gulf coast, across Tampa Bay from the city of Tampa Bay. St. Petersburg is a past finalist community for the National Civic League's "All-America City Award". Tampa-St. Petersburg also ranked fourteenth on Inc. magazine's list of "The Top 25 Large Cities for Doing Business in America". St. Petersburg is home to two Fortune 1000 companies, and nearby Tampa is home to four more.
Access to higher learning is available in St. Petersburg at Eckerd College, a private liberal arts school and at campuses of University of South Florida, a public university, and St. Petersburg College, a local community college.
St. Petersburg weather can be characterized as a year round tropical climate. July and August are the hottest months of the year with average daily temperatures reaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit. January is the coolest month, with average daily temperatures of 69 degrees Fahrenheit.
St. Petersburg Arts and Entertainment
St. Petersburg has many arts and entertainment attractions. Some of the more significant attractions include:
· The American Stage
· Baywalk (an entertainment and shopping area in downtown St. Pete)
· The Dr. Carter G Woodson African-American Museum
· The Florida Holocaust Museum
· The Florida International Museum
· Great Explorations, The Children's Museum
· The Historic Coliseum Ballroom
· The Museum of Fine Arts
· The Salvador Dalí Museum
· The St. Petersburg Museum of History
· The Sunken Gardens
· The Mahaffey Theater
· The Palladium Theater
· The Pier (A waterfront landmark)
· The St. Petersburg Little Theater
· The Ted Williams Baseball Museum
· Tropicana Field (Home of the Devil Rays)
St. Petersburg's tropical weather make it an ideal home to many outdoor festivals every year. The city hosts more than 1,000 annual events and festivals including American Stage in the Park, the Art Arbor Nature Crafts Festival, the Cajun/Zydeco Crawfish Festival, Earth Day’s Green Thumb Festival, and more. These annual ongoing music and art festivals fill the seven-miles of preserved downtown waterfront recreation areas and pack the city's streets and waterfront with seasonal parades. The city is also home to the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, an Indycar series car race.
Residents of St. Petersburg also have easy access to all of the arts and entertainment offerings of Tampa Bay, just across the bay.
For the sports minded, St. Petersburg is home to Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Devil Rays who play downtown at Tropicana Field. Nearby Tampa Bay is also home to the Arena Football League's (AFL) Tampa Bay Storm, the National Hockey League's (NHL) Tampa Bay Lightning, and the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
50 Fascinating Things to Do in St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg, Fla. - Take in a major league ball game, hit the beach, browse through a world class museum or stroll along streets lined with graceful Mediterranean-style architecture. Whatever your taste, St. Petersburg offers everything under the sun. With an average temperature of 73.6 degrees, St. Petersburg records 361 days a year of sunshine - no wonder the city's moniker is the Sunshine City. Here is a lineup of fascinating things to do and see in St. Pete:
ATTRACTIONS
 PEER OVER THE PIER: It's the city's landmark, that inverted pyramid that juts a half mile into Tampa Bay from downtown's shores. The Pier, attracting two million visitors a year, is a five-story marketplace with shops and restaurants, The Pier Aquarium, an observation deck, a bait shop and more (727-821-6443).
STROLL THROUGH THE GARDENS: Everything is in bloom at Sunken Gardens, an exotic collection of more than 50,000 tropical plants and flowers. The four-acre botanical attraction features a butterfly garden, wedding lawn, a walk-through aviary with exotic species of birds, and an orchid arbor. This garden is open seven days a week. (727-551-3100).
TAKE THE HIGH WAY: The Sunshine Skyway, the Interstate-275 bridge that connects the southern tip of St. Petersburg with Manatee County and Sarasota to the south, is one of the largest suspension bridges in the Western Hemisphere, measuring 4.1 miles long and 19 stories high (more than 160 feet above the shipping channel leading into Tampa Bay). The toll is $1, each way.
 SWING ON THE BOULEVARD: Baseball Boulevard, a series of home-plate plaques, tells an interesting 90-year history of St. Petersburg's love affair with baseball's spring training. The sidewalk plaques lead from Progress Energy Park/Al Lang Field to Tropicana Field, mostly along the south side of Central Avenue.
TAKE A WALK OF FAME: Visit the Tampa Bay Walk of Fame, located at the west side entrance to Tropicana Field. Here, dozens of sports legends who hail from the 11-county Tampa Bay metro are recognized - including Tampa Bay Bucs great Lee Roy Selmon, baseball all-star Wade Boggs, Babe Zaharias, the greatest woman athlete of all time, and Olympic and world champion swimmer Nicole Haislett. Free.
MAKE A SEGWAY: Whimsical Wheels offers one and a half hour tours of the waterfront aboard a personalized Segway vehicle. The tour leaves The Pier several times daily and navigates along the downtown waterfront. (727-821-6443).
MUSEUMS
 FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELT: St. Petersburg is the birthplace of scheduled aviation. In 1914, pilot Tony Jannus flew the Benoist Airboat from St. Petersburg to Tampa on the world's first scheduled airline flight, transporting St. Petersburg Mayor Abe Pheil and a bag of mail. View a full-scale, operational replica of the historic airboat at the St. Petersburg Museum of History's Flight #1 Pavilion (727-894-1052).
GET SURREAL: The world's most comprehensive collection of Salvador Dali's surrealistic art works is housed at St. Petersburg's world-class Salvador Dali Museum, downtown on Bayboro Harbor (727-823-3767).
MAKE A LASTING FRENCH IMPRESSION: Six original Monets, along with other works by Fragonard, Vigee-Lebrun, Morisot, Renoir, Cezanne and Gauguin, comprise an impressive body of French Impressionism at the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts. One of the best museums in the Southeast, the collection also includes a wealth of European, American, pre-Columbian and Far Eastern art, and an exquisite Steuben crystal gallery (727-896-2667).
 REMEMBER THE HOLOCAUST: St. Petersburg's newest museum leaves a most memorable impression. The fourth largest Holocaust museum in the country, the Florida Holocaust Museum is housed in downtown St. Petersburg. The centerpiece of the museum is a Polish Boxcar used to transport victims to the death camps during World War II. The museum features an art exhibit including an acclaimed outdoor sculpture entitled "Endless Column" (727-820-0100).
KEEP IN TOUCH: At Great Explorations Museum, you don't just look at the exhibits. You touch them. Move them. Explore them. And, in some cases, you actually become part of them (727-821-8992).
JEWELED OBJECTS OF DESIRE: Florida International Museum -- From the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. This exhibit opens up visions of delight with exquisite, unique and whimsical decorative arts formed out of jade, ivory, semi-precious stones, gold and silver, embellished with such stars of the natural world as diamonds, sapphires, emeralds and rubies. This exhibit is created especially for FIM's salute to the Smithsonian.
EXPERIMENT WITH SCIENCE: The Science Center of Pinellas County offers a nature trail, static electricity exhibit, antique microscopes, minerals and ores, corals, an African-American exhibit, a replica of a mid-16th Century Indian village, and an observatory (727-384-0027).
VISIT OUTER SPACE: From September to May, special presentations and viewings are held at the St. Petersburg College Planetarium, a sky theater under a 7.3-meter domed ceiling projection screen (727-341-4320).
ARTS, EVENTS & CULTURE
GET FESTIVE: The Festival of States is St. Petersburg's premier festival, celebrating for more than 80 years of springtime events, parades, music, arts, food and entertainment. All year long, St. Petersburg hosts 1,000 events in its downtown facilities and waterfront parks, ranging from food fests to jazz concerts and sports events to Shakespeare festivals (727-893-7039).
BROWSE WITH THE HIGH BROWS: In addition to St. Petersburg's world class museums, the visual arts are vibrant in the Sunshine City. More than two dozen galleries comprise the Downtown Art Association, and open their doors on the second Saturday evening each month for a downtown gallery hop. Three galleries of note: Headquarters of American artist P. Buckley Moss, the Florida Craftsmen guild's statewide gallery, and the Arts Center of St. Petersburg (727-821-7391 or 822-7872).
GET IN THE ACT: Theater comes to St. Petersburg at a number of venues. The Mahaffey Theater for the Performing Arts at the Bayfront Center raises the curtain on a season of national artists and Broadway musicals (727-892-5767). And, Florida's top-ranked resident professional theater, American Stage, performs highly acclaimed works from its intimate theater downtown and each spring during its outdoor Shakespeare festival, American Stage in the Park (727-823-PLAY). The Palladium, originally a church sanctuary renovated into a community venue for performing arts, presents orchestra and opera, drama and dance, concerts and more (727-822-3590).
WALK THROUGH HISTORY: St. Petersburg's downtown streets are lined with hexagon block sidewalks, some of Florida's best Mediterranean-Revival style architecture, and two dozen properties located on the National Historic Register. Pick up a list of historic sites from the city's Planning Department (One Fourth Street N.), or a historic walking tour brochure from the St. Petersburg Museum of History (335 Second Avenue NE). Guided walking tours are offered by St. Petersburg Preservation (727-821-9800).
DATELINE: ST. PETERSBURG. Reminisce with early citrus growers or recall the Pass-a-Grille hurricane of 1921. Remember the Amazing Mets who wintered here or read of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapse as The St. Petersburg Times presents A WALK THROUGH TIME. The free display of 20 replica front pages from the St. Petersburg Times depicts significant events from our city’s past. It is located in the first floor promenade of the BayWalk Parking Garage, between the Millennium Gateway sculpture and First Avenue N. (near Second Street).
DUST OFF SOME ANTIQUES: A thriving antique district lines both sides of Central Avenue in downtown St. Petersburg. Collectors will find more than a hundred antique shops in the city - and many within this eclectic five-block stretch of Central between Sixth and Eighth Streets.
DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY: The Coliseum in downtown St. Petersburg was featured in the motion picture "Cocoon." Now restored, it boasts one of America's largest dance floors - 13,000 square feet of polished maple - and vintage 1924 architecture. Its event calendar includes regularly scheduled ballroom dancing, a Big Band series, swing dances, sock hops, country-western dancing, gala events and more (727-892-5202).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: From sports bars by Tropicana Field, jazz bars on Central Avenue and nonstop entertainment at BayWalk, St. Petersburg comes alive after dark. Enjoy dinner in one of many fine downtown restaurants, followed by live music and entertainment at a number of venues. The newest entertainment spot, BayWalk/ Muvico 20, offers a 20-screen cinema with stadium seating, designer retail shops and theme dining establishments, along with martini and daiquiri bars (Baywalk, 727-895-9277 or Muvico, 727-502-9573).
GET A LECTURE: Outstanding educational institutions in St. Petersburg offer enriching lecture series all year long, including the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg College, and the Poynter Institute for Media Studies (727-821-9494).
PARKS
PARK IT: Pop a picnic basket under bright sunshine and palm trees in one of St. Petersburg's 125 city parks covering 2,500 acres. Along the downtown waterfront, there are seven miles of lushly landscaped waterfront parks (727-893-7335).Â
GO WILD: Visit Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, a city-owned 245-acre preserve along the shores of Lake Maggiore. This award-winning park features nature trails, an environmental studies area, an outdoor classroom, a conference center, a pioneer settlement/living history park, and the newly expanded Lake Maggiore Environmental Education Center. (727-893-7326).Â
 LIE UNDER A PALM TREE: A wide variety of native palm trees grow at the Gizella Kopsick Palm Arboretum, part of downtown's North Shore Park. The unique arboretum features a variety of more than 200 palms, benches and brick walkways. Free (727-893-7335).Â
SUN & FUN
BEACH IT: Three of the Top 20 beaches in the United States are in Pinellas County. From St. Petersburg, the closest and most pristine is Fort DeSoto, a 900-acre county preserve consisting of five islands, seven miles of undeveloped beaches, a camp ground, boat ramps, fishing piers, paved fitness trails and a historic fort. The sugary-white sands of St. Petersburg's 500-foot Gulf-front municipal beach on Treasure Island is certified annually by the National Clean Beaches Council as an outstanding environmentally-friendly "Blue Wave" beach.
DIVE IN: Swimming enthusiasts will enjoy all of St. Petersburg's nine public pools, and especially the North Shore Pool downtown. This Olympic-sized swimming pool is heated and open year round, and is the training home of Olympic champions and one of the largest Masters Swim Clubs in the United States (727-893-7727).
GO FISH: St. Petersburg's 244-mile shoreline is abundant with great fishing haunts that yield delicious catches of grouper, mullet and sheepshead. In addition to deep sea fishing charters, popular fishing piers are located at the St. Petersburg Pier, old Sunshine Skyway Bridge and Fort DeSoto Park.
FLOAT YOUR BOAT: No better place for recreational boating than St. Petersburg. More recreational boaters call Tampa Bay home than any other port in Florida. Within an easy stroll of downtown museums, shops and restaurants is St. Petersburg's Municipal Marina - the largest in Florida - with 610 boat slips and dockage for visiting vessels. Downtown, there are 22 boater-based businesses and a total of 1,500 dockages, and daily rentals of everything from a pontoon boat to a luxury yacht with crew. There are also sightseeing excursions along the St. Petersburg coast (727-821-6443).
HOIST A SAIL: The calm waters of Tampa Bay are ideal for learning to sail. The St. Petersburg Sailing Center at downtown's municipal marina offers sailing lessons. Several private companies can also teach you the tacks of sailing. (727-822-3113).
FEED A PELICAN: St. Petersburg's proud symbol is the endangered brown pelican. This marine bird normally feeds on bait fish that swim near the surface of the water. During cooler months, though, the fish swim deeper than the birds can dive, threatening the pelicans' food supply. The Pelican Fund, a volunteer organization, feeds St. Petersburg's brown pelicans at Spa Beach on The Pier daily at 4 p.m. whenever the water temperature drops below 65-68 degrees.
RECREATION
HIT THE TRAIL: The Pinellas Trail is a 47-mile fitness trail built on abandoned railways. One of the longest linear parks in the United States, it runs from Tarpon Springs to the north to its terminus in south St. Petersburg (727-549-6099).
MAKE A RACQUET: St. Petersburg Tennis Center is the site where Chris Evert won her first professional tennis match. Opened in 1928, the historic center offers public play on 15 Har-Tru Clay Courts, day or night. Elsewhere in St. Petersburg, there are 66 public tennis courts (727-823-2225).
LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL: Hop on a pair of in-line skates and explore the downtown waterfront and Mediterranean-Revival style neighborhoods of Snell Isle and Granada Terrace.
 DRIVE YOURSELF CRAZY: St. Petersburg is home to three acclaimed municipal golf courses, Mangrove Bay, Cypress Links, and Twin Brooks. In addition, there are numerous privately-operated championship golf courses in St. Petersburg and the Tampa Bay area (727-893-7800).
WALK INTO WEEDON: Take a walk along three miles of boardwalk and paved trails at Weedon Island, a pristine and natural resource once home to Seminole Indians. The park features a 50-foot-high look out site over Tampa Bay waters that shows a panoramic view of downtown St. Petersburg, Tropicana Field, and Tampa. An ideal park for biking, blading, canoeing, and birdwatching.
SPORTS & FITNESS
SPEED THROUGH THE STREETS: The Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, an Indy Racing Series street race, takes to a demanding 1.7 mile race course through downtown St. Petersburg each April (727-824-7223).
GET INTO THE SWING OF THINGS: St. Petersburg has been crazy for baseball since hosting Florida's first spring training in 1914 with the St. Louis Browns. Currently, more than half of the 18 teams that train each spring in Florida play in the Tampa Bay area. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays call the city home for both spring training (Progress Energy Park/Al Lang Field) and during the regular season at Tropicana Field (727-825-3250).
SEE THE PROS: In addition to Major League Baseball with the Devil Rays, the St. Petersburg area is home to many professional franchises, including three world champion franchises - NHL Tampa Bay Lightning, NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Tampa Bay Storm arena football team.
TRI SOMETHING NEW: St. Anthony's Triathlon is a season opener on the professional triathlon circuit, attracting some of the sport's biggest names and 3,000 competitors with a purse of $30,000. Athletes converge on the downtown waterfront each April for the Olympic-distance event - a 1.5K swim, 40K bike and 10K run.
RUN LIKE CRAZY! Amateur and professional runners take advantage of year-round sunshine and unparalleled beauty to compete in running events, such as the annual Race for the Cure and the Jingle Bell Run.
GAMBLE ON IT: Several day cruises offer casino-style gambling and depart from local area ports. And, Derby Lane, the oldest continuously operated greyhound racing facility in the U.S., offers parimutuel wagering and live racing action ten months of the year.
Attractions and points of interest
Downtown waterfront (2005) the Honda Grand Prix racetrack.
St. Petersburg has a branch of the state university, the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, as well as St. Petersburg College and Eckerd College. The Poynter Institute, a school for journalists, future journalists and teachers of journalism, is also located in St. Petersburg. The non-profit school is the owner of the St. Petersburg Times, a unique arrangement devised by the founder of both, Nelson Poynter.
The city has a children's museum (Great Explorations), Museum of Fine Arts, a History Museum (which has a full-size replica of the Benoist seaplane and is located near the approximate spot by the St. Petersburg Pier where the first flight took place), a Holocaust Museum, and the Salvador Dalí Museum, which houses the largest collection of Dalí's outside of Europe, including a number of famous and large-scale paintings such as The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. There are also various other smaller art galleries and entertainment venues, such as: The Arts Center, Florida Craftsmen, Mahaffey Theater complex, The Coliseum, and Palladium Theatre, especially in the Downtown area, which has seen a boom in development since the mid 1990s.
The St. Petersburg Pier is a popular tourist attraction. It contains a small aquarium open to the public, retail shopping, adventure activities, and both casual and fine dining restaurants. Various sightseeing boat rides are also offered. Frequently docked at The Pier is the replica of the HMS Bounty used in the 1962 MGM movie starring Marlon Brando. The Bounty charges a fee for tours, and has recently returned from filming the sequels to Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean.[4] [5] This replica was also used in the filming of the 2005 adult movie Pirates.
Downtown is the location of the BayWalk shopping complex which contains an IMAX Muvico 20 screen movie theater, as well as many chain restaurants and retail shops, catering to more of a middle and upper class audience. Baywalk is also a nightlife destination. North of downtown is Great Explorations, The Children's Museum, an interactive museum featuring a children's village with giant pretend stores, Fire House and Pet Vet Clinic, and preschool, science, music, art, and water exhibits. The museum is located next to the Sunken Gardens. Nearby restaurants on 4th Street include local specialties. Every Saturday morning, from October to May, the downtown area holds a farmers market, of sorts. Local produce farmers can be found selling their fruits up and down the downtown region, as well as live bands, barbecue vendors, and artists of all kinds. Several nightlife hotspots include Jannus Landing; the surrounding restaurants and bars; and the Central Avenue district. Several ethnic and domestic culinary specialties can be found throughout the downtown area.
Boyd Hill Nature Park located on Lake Maggiore is a 245 acre preserve where you can see many of the endangered plants and rare wildlife of tampa bay. There is a bird exhibit which houses bald eagles, owls, hawks, and other species.
St. Petersburg is well regarded for its beaches. In 2005, Fort Desoto was rated the number one beach in America by the annual Dr. Beach rankings.[6]
Also noted for its arts community, St. Petersburg regularly places top 25 in the nation among arts destinations[2]
Recently, St. Petersburg has become known and regarded as one of America's most livable cities.[3]
Downtown St. Petersburg is the Central Business District, containing high rises for office use, most notably the Bank of America Tower. The St. Petersburg Times newspaper is headquartered in the Downtown area.[4] [5] The Poynter Institute, which owns the paper, is located on 3rd St. S.
The Wikimedia Foundation has been located in Downtown St. Petersburg since its founding by Jimmy Wales. On September 25, 2007, the Foundation announced its move in late 2007 from St. Petersburg to the San Francisco Bay Area.[7][8]
On the arts and culture side, many points of interest are located here. The Mahaffey Theater complex, The Arts Center, dozens of other art galleries, Haslam's used book store, The Coliseum, Palladium Theatre, and Jannus Landing are among the galleries and cultural venues featured downtown. Several prominent museums are located in the perimeter. Four of them have received notable accolades: Museum of Fine Arts, Salvador Dalí Museum, the Florida International Museum, and the Holocaust Museum. The city also plays host to many festivals throughout the year.[6]
Downtown contains the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, and a downtown branch of St. Petersburg College. The downtown perimeter also houses several parks, most of which are waterfront or lakefront. Straub Park is nearly a half mile long, boasts a waterfront location, and is home of the Museum of Fine Arts. The Vinoy Hotel has waterfront location, a spot on the National Historic Register, and a AAA Four-Diamond rating. Most of the dining downtown can be found on Central Avenue. Central also contains most of the nightlife, namely Jannus Landing. However, Baywalk is an exception. All of these landmarks are connected via the Looper Trolley.
Tropicana Field, home of MLB's Tampa Bay Rays is located in the western part of downtown. The team plays its spring training games at Progress Energy Park, right down the road. This setup is unique, making St. Petersburg the only city that plays host to its baseball team during spring training as well as the regular season. Also, the Rays are one of only three MLB teams in the South.
Jutting a half mile into the Bay is the St. Petersburg Pier, a major tourist attraction with various activities. Due to its livability and myriad amenities, St. Petersburg's downtown has been rated among the best in the South. [7] Also worth noting, the area's ranking beaches are a 10 mile drive away from downtown.
Nearby Cities and Towns
|
Location |
Pop. |
Median Family
Income (2000) |
|
St. Petersburg |
248,232 |
$43,198 |
|
Gulfport |
12,527 |
$37,016 |
|
Kenneth City |
4,400 |
$42,161 |
|
Pinellas Park |
45,658 |
$41,072 |
|
South Pasadena |
5,778 |
$39,646 |
|
St Pete Beach |
9,929 |
$61,434 |
|
Treasure Island |
7,450 |
$64,158 |
High Points
St Petersburg strengths, compared to Peers (similar size places nationally) or State (other places in Florida):
|
Category |
Trophy |
|
|
Public Transportation Use
(vs. State) |
Top 12% |
|
|
Affordability of Property Taxes
(vs. Peers) |
Top 14% |
|
Profile of St. Petersburg, FL
by Political Party
|
Party |
Contributions |
|
Republican |
$565,505 |
|
Democratic |
$349,472 |
|
Independent |
$6,600 |
|
Other |
$2,600 |
Estimated St Petersburg Population Growth 2000-2005
|
Category |
Value |
|
Est. 2005 Population |
249,079 |
|
Growth |
847 |
|
Growth % |
0.3% |
St Petersburg Population (2000)
|
Category |
Count |
Percent |
|
Total Population |
248,232 |
100% |
|
Male |
118,411 |
47.7% |
|
Female |
129,821 |
52.3% |
|
Under 18 |
53,436 |
21.5% |
|
18+ |
194,796 |
78.5% |
|
65+ |
43,173 |
17.4% |
|
Median Age |
39.3 |
|
|
Average Family Size |
2.88 |
|
|
White |
177,133 |
71.4% |
|
African-American |
55,502 |
22.4% |
|
Asian |
6,640 |
2.7% |
|
American Indian & Alaskan |
769 |
0.3% |
|
Other |
2,661 |
1.1% |
|
Mixed Race |
5,397 |
2.2% |
|
Hispanic (included in categories above) |
10,502 |
4.2% |
|
Median Family Income (1999) |
$43,198 |
|
|
Population In Poverty |
32,127 |
13.3% |
St Petersburg Ancestry
(From 2000 Census, as reported by individuals)
Note: This is national, not racial, ancestry, so the Census doesn't have categories for Hispanic and African-American, e.g. CityTownInfo is currently gathering additional ancestry data for this site.
|
Ancestry |
Percent |
|
Other (often includes Hispanic and African American) |
30.9% |
|
German |
12% |
|
Irish |
9.4% |
|
English |
9.2% |
|
US/American |
6.8% |
|
Italian |
6.7% |
|
French (except Basque) |
2.8% |
|
Polish |
2.5% |
|
Scottish |
2.1% |
|
Scotch-Irish |
1.8% |
|
Dutch |
1% |
|
African |
1% |
|
Swedish |
1% |
|
French Canadian |
1% |
|
Norwegian |
1% |
|
Russian |
0.8% |
|
Jamaican |
0.8% |
|
Yugoslavian |
0.7% |
|
European |
0.7% |
|
British |
0.6% |
|
Greek |
0.6% |
|
Hungarian |
0.6% |
|
Welsh |
0.5% |
|
Canadian |
0.4% |
|
Lithuanian |
0.3% |
|
Austrian |
0.3% |
|
Portuguese |
0.3% |
|
Ukrainian |
0.3% |
|
Czech |
0.3% |
|
Danish |
0.3% |
|
Lebanese |
0.2% |
|
Czechoslovakian |
0.2% |
|
Swiss |
0.2% |
|
Slovak |
0.2% |
|
Haitian |
0.2% |
|
Albanian |
0.2% |
Neighborhood and Nearby Area Names
According to the US Postal Service, St. Petersburg, its neighborhoods, and/or surrounding areas are also referred to as:
Johns Pass (33708),
Pasadena (33707)
Note that not all alternate names are acceptable for use in US Post Office addresses.
St Petersburg Almanac
|
Category |
Value |
|
Nearest Large City |
18 miles SW of Tampa, Florida |
|
County |
Pinellas |
|
Metro Area |
Tampa - Saint Petersburg - Clearwater |
|
Standard Zip Codes |
33701, 33702, 33703, 33704, 33705, 33706, 33707, 33708, 33709, 33710, 33711, 33712, 33713, 33714, 33715, 33716, 33730 |
|
P.O. Box Zip Codes |
33731, 33732, 33733, 33734, 33736, 33737, 33738, 33740, 33741, 33742, 33743, 33747, 33784 |
|
Company Zip Codes |
33728, 33729 |
|
Phone Area Codes |
727 |
|
Time Zone |
Eastern (-5 hours from GMT) |
|
Daylight Savings |
The city observes Daylight Saving Time. |
|
Latitude |
27.771 |
|
Longitude |
-82.678 |
St Petersburg Climate
Nearest Weather Stations
Notes:
· Temp ranges are avg daily min and max for the month
· Precipitation is rainfall (and rainfall equiv of snowfall)
|
Station |
ST PETERSBURG |
|
Distance |
2.8 miles |
|
Jan Temp |
54 to 69 F |
|
Apr Temp |
65 to 80 F |
|
Jul Temp |
77 to 90 F |
|
Oct Temp |
70 to 83 F |
|
(lowest) to 
(highest).
