Tampa, Florida, is a city of great beauty, wonderful weather, and has the advantage of being close to the water. The 2010 U.S. Census lists the population of Tampa as approximately three hundred fifty thousand people.
Not only does Tampa have the Hillsborough River flowing through town, it also is within minutes of being able to cross bridges or a causeway to both the Clearwater and St. Petersburg areas.
Tampa is also very close to places like Bradenton, Anna Maria Island, Long Boat Key, and Sarasota. The beautiful sandy beaches along the Gulf of Mexico draw visitors from far away.
Tampa offers all kinds of sports; baseball, soccer, basketball, football, water skiing and boating. They are very popular and well known in Tampa and surrounding areas, as well as what most cities offer like bowling, and both roller skating and ice skating. There is an arena for indoor music venues and sports and a baseball stadium and outdoor stadium for football and many community and state functions.
Tampa is in Hillsborough County and has excellent public and private schools. The School Board of Hillsborough County is known all over the country as having an excellent reputation and charter schools abound. Pre-school education is considered to be very important and many people and organizations work very hard to emphasize the importance of each child having the advantage of going to pre-school.
Families take strolls and have picnics in many natural parks that have been preserved for the enjoyment of people in the area. Community pools are available in many parts of town.
Several highly rated hospitals dot the area and citizens have access to medical care quickly and efficiently.
In Tampa, the arts are considered very important as to what every great city should have and Tampa has, as a part of its culture, both the Tampa Museum and The Performing Arts Center.
The University of Tampa and the University of South Florida, private and public universities respectively, are just two of the most well-known Tampa higher education universities. Hillsborough Community College has many sites to make higher education also available to beginning college students and many of the sites also offer classes to university students to make commuting easier.
Hillsborough Community College is also one of the first community colleges to have, on its main campus, apartment housing for students. It was an innovative plan that took years to materialize, but became a reality in the last several years.
Churches, synagogues, and mosques are available for people of those faiths to worship. The University of Tampa recently opened a building housing a chapel and educational religious center where students of all religions can worship, learn about, and respect the various faiths. It’s an innovative addition to an already great institution of higher learning.
In addition to having the large private and public universities in and around Tampa, there are many offerings of other types of higher education, like technical schools and for-profit educational facilities.
Tampa is the home of many wonderful restaurants; some famous around the world. In many parts of Tampa and in Tampa’s Ybor City and West Tampa, many foods are available from Spanish and Italian cultures. It’s something for all visitors and residents to look forward to.
Tampa is a great city and one to put on lists of places to be sure to visit and stay awhile! Longtime residents do not want to live anywhere else.
(The two photographs with this article are photographs taken by the author)