I’ve had the “pleasure” of spending time at both BayFront and St. Anthony’s, and the surrounding neighborhoods are such that I want to get to my car and get the Hell out of Dodge. I went to high school in St. Pete as well (Boca Ciega), and remember the 96 riots quite vividly.
I’ve not been to a Rays game in a very long time due to the area. They’ve been trying to get a new stadium built for the Rays, presumably to get it out of that neighborhood, but I don’t see that ever happening.
There are parts of St. Pete that I’ve tolerated, but for the most part, I avoid the entire area at almost any cost.
I was born at Mound Park Hospital in 1957 when it was the only hospital in town. My wife graduated from Boca Ciega, and we both lived in St. Pete until the early 70s. She and I went back there at Christmas 2009 to look at the old places. Just barely recognizable, and no place we would live now. Sorry if that sounds racist. Our old neighborhoods (Coquina Key) were hostile.
Parking at the Trop is horrendous as well.I was at a game with my grandparents back in ‘09.There was an accident so traffic was re-routed.We were not able to get onto I-75 until we were further down the road.My grandfather wanted to stop at a run-down gas station to ask for directions....thank goodness there was a Walgreens in the vicinity.We were able to get onto the Interstate.Thankfully we were initally headed in the right direction.It was at night so there was no way we were stopping in an area that looked bad.