Talk:St. Petersburg, Florida

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[edit] Daytime picture

Although the current picture in the InfoBox is artistically beautiful, I believe a clear picture of downtown taken during the day would be more representative of what St. Petersburg looks like rather than a very dark picture of purple hue and light trails. Does anyone have a current high resolution daytime picture of the downtown skyline that would be a better representation of what the city looks like?


[edit] The Burg

I have removed the most recent edit that suggests that St. Petersburg is frequently referred to as "The Burg" by locals, on par with "St. Pete." My own impressions are that "The Burg" is only rarely used, and usually in jest. "St. Pete," however, is regularly substituted for "St. Petersburg" by locals, and would be found acceptable except in formal occasions. Google seems to agree: A search of both "St. Petersburg" and "The Burg" together controlled for the word "Russia" yields 362 results; a search of "St. Petersburg" and "St. Pete" together controlled for the word "Russia" yields 1,820,000. ALC | Talk 21:05, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Hulk Hogan

I believe Hogan lives in Clearwater, not St. Petersburg. I could be wrong about this. Anyone know? ALC | Talk 17:08, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

He lived in Belleair, but is moving to (I think) Miami.User:Mikereichold | User_talk:Mikereichold 20:36, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Rename

It was suggested that this article should be renamed St. Petersburg, Florida. The vote is shown below:

Shouldn't this be at St. Petersburg, rather than Saint Petersburg? The former is much more common in my experience. --timc | Talk 02:34, 13 Oct 2004 (UTC)

St. Petersburg, Florida redirects here, so it doesn't really matter... unless you want to switch the two so that this page redirects to the St. version and the St. version has all the content... I understand where you're coming from, but I don't know how to go about switching the two pages... (This is the full name, but the St. version is almost certainly a more common usage, I agree.) LockeShocke 00:28, Oct 14, 2004 (UTC)

Am I right in thinking that St Petersburg Florida is the home of Wikipdia? If so, doesn't this deserve a mention? Palefire 01:04, May 12, 2005 (UTC)

St. Petersburg is the current home of Jimbo Wales, but I think the actual servers are in Tampa, Florida and a few other places. It probably says somewhere where the physical home of Wikipedia is [the servers, I mean]. LockeShocke 01:22, May 12, 2005 (UTC)

The official name (I asked the Mayor's office) is "St. Petersburg," not "Saint Petersburg." I will put this on my list to fix, unless someone else wants to do it for me... ALC 27 July

I've moved it. violet/riga (t) 11:03, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

I believe people refer to St Petersburg as "The Burg," or "the 'burg" more often than ALC wants us to believe. My of my friends and I refer to the great St Petersburg as 'the burg in conversation often. BPT

I've lived in St. Pete for 19 years and haven't once heard it referred to as "The Burg". I discussed this with the owner of Haslam's bookstore in downtown St. Pete and she hasn't heard the term in her 65 years in the area, either. --GeneralAntilles 09:02, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mayors?

We need to do some research and create a list of mayors and terms of office.

Hay am i allowed to do this? I live here in St. Pete and I have never, ever heard of it as the burg. Well maby if i was drinking in Ybor, and wanted to sound like I was trying to yuppify what is commonly known as sleepy St. Pete. LOL I have noticed that many online forms suggest/force one to put in Saint Petersburg spelled out. I believe it is indeed "St. Petersburg", and we usually say "Saint Pete". Canadians and other tourists misstakingly call it " Saint Pete's " which is cute but more annoying than the online form issue. There is a town on the beach named St. Petersburg Beach, which is also butcherd by tourists, being called "St. Pete's Beach". A Ray Leota and a Hulk Hogan film were both partially filmed there at the Don Ce`sar hotel, which incidently is pronounced Don "say-sar" not Don Cesar. This is the final and most embarrising miss-pronunciation, as it is an upscale hotel. Not as horrific as my spelling though- please edit TY MOZ885

It is actually called "St. Pete Beach", not "St. Petersburg Beach". --Lakerdonald 01:03, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Notable Residents

Removed Hulk Hogan (he lives in Belleair) and Omali Yeshitela (not known outside of St. Pete and not very prominent even in St. Pete).

Local Legend has it that Jim Morrison of the Doors lived here and attended St. Petersburg Junior College (now St. Pete. College.) Dr. Sylvia Holliday was his English teacher, and he performed on the ukelele at Beaux arts Coffee house, (then in Pinellas Park.)

Removed Omali Yeshitela. While he's known by some interested in St. Petersburg politics, he's almost completely unknown outside of St. Petersburg. I've deleted this before, not sure why someone keeps adding him here. Maybe I should add my own name?

Also Lived here:

Babe Ruth Al Capone [Tygerbill]

[edit] St. Petersburg Times and the Poynter Institute

From the article:

It is affiliated with the St. Petersburg Times, whose building is right across the street from The Poynter Institute.

The St. Pete Times' main office is located at 490 First Avenue South.

The Poynter Institute is located at 801 Third Street South.

The two locations are about seven-tenths of a mile apart. They certainly cannot be considered to be "right across the street" from each other.

Roger

I changed this section since the Poynter Institute is far more than just "affiliated" with the Times--it OWNS the Times. 24.193.95.184 04:33, 12 October 2006 (UTC)SuperDav

[edit] User:Larycrews

has added a reference to Lary Crews as a notable writer. Only about 1600 ghits I've asked him to review wp notability and get back to me. :) Dlohcierekim 03:17, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Expansion request

 Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (January 2007)

Looking for information about Weedon Island, Florida, which is apparently located here and is on the List of ports in the United States.

Weedon Island is a port? This must be a technical designation from the early 20th century or something. There's not much port activity out there so far as I've ever seen. 128.164.100.122 19:43, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Demographics Section

I put the historical population data into the graph, but its length spills over into the next section. I added white space to compensate for this, hopefully someone can flesh out the Demographics section to fix this. --GeneralAntilles 09:39, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "Highly regarded" St. Petersburg Times?

I am doubting the implications of the statement that St. Petersburg Times is "highly regarded". It may well be liked by Floridians, and is likely a good paper. Fair enough; however, the Floridians' fondness for their local paper would hardly deserve mention in the opening paragraph of the artile on St. Petersburg. Stating that the paper is "highly regarded" in such a prominent spot implies a greater significance. Its history (which is currently referenced for this claim) is admirable, but not any more so than of dozens of other American newspapers. It has the 23rd biggest circulation in the states, and has 6 Pulitzers (on the other hand, New York Times has 94, Los Angeles Times has 37, Chicago Tribune has 24, Boston Globe has 18.) While there are many good regionally important papers in the country, I am failing to see any evidence that the St. Petersburg Times stands out amongst them. Please provide evidence of this importance; else, tone down the language and move the statement to a less prominent place in the article.

DarwinPeacock 22:21, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, it's not just mine (or other Floridian's) opinion. As I cited in the article, here's some national comments (from the "St. Petersburg Times" website [1]):
  • In 1997, TIME magazine again recognized the Times as one of America’s best newspapers, calling it “most resourceful.”
  • In 1999, the Columbia Journalism Review ranked the Times No. 9 on its list of the nation’s best newspapers for the 21st Century.
  • In 1996 The Times’ Travel section was named Best Newspaper Travel Section in the circulation category of 350,000-499,999 in an annual competition by the Society of American Travel Writers.
  • In 1998 The APSE (Associated Press Sports Editors) once again named the Times Sports section one of the nation’s best in three categories: Daily, Sunday and Special sections. It also named the Times sports writers among the nation’s top 10 in investigative reporting, enterprise reporting and game stories.
And the list goes on (and can be viewed at the link above). So, while it does seem more POV than encyclopedic, it is backed up by national accolades received. That being said, there is no reason to judge a paper soley on the amount of Pulitzers (like you did above), as there are more prizes than that one alone. EaglesFanInTampa (formerly Jimbo) 14:24, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
The praise you point out is definitely factual and positive. I once again have no doubts that the paper is a deserving one. The question that I still have is why it is so significant as to appear in the second sentence describing St. Petersburg. Though the awards you list are plentiful, I do not believe they indicate a sufficient importance to merit placing the mention of the paper near the top of the article. I am not alone in attaching the special importance to Pulitzers: they are listed at the top of the paper's significant award list, as they are for most papers. The inclusion of so many varied and minor awards in the list adds to the list's arbitrarity, not its uniqueness. The 1996 Best Newspaper Travel Section award for mid-circulation papers, for example, indicates quality but hardly points to a greater significance: the list of awards of a similar importance issued in the last decade would be in the hundreds. Thus, considering a grab bag of minor awards implies a long list of worthy papers. I believe that the statement we are discussing suggests that the paper is more important than simply being in the top few dozen national papers. That being said, are there other reasons that the mention of the paper should stay close to the top of the article? Does it play an important role in statewide politics, or in a regional/state identity? Does it frequently achieve change through its investigative journalism? If these are the case, the statement can be made better by replacing the vague praise with a more concrete mention of its importance. DarwinPeacock 02:10, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
Good points raised by DarwinPeacock. Would your concerns be satisfied by calling it a "highly regarded regional newspaper," and mentioning other more specific praise later in the article (it is, in my qualitative evaluation, the most important newspaper in Florida politics, and among national journalists in Washington is one of the most highly regarded regional newspapers in the country). 128.164.61.115 23:15, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
Unfortunately, no, and for two reasons:
  1. Not counting the Texas papers, the St. Pete Times is the 2nd largest paper in the Southeast behind the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and much larger to more "well-known" papers, such as the Times-Picayune, the Miami Herald, and the Virginian-Pilot, and;
  2. of the 10 papers with larger circulation that have actually won a Pulitzer, the St. Pete Times has more than 2 of them.
By the sheer volume of circulation (2nd in the Southeast, 23rd overall) and the apparent "Holy Grail" for this entire discussion, the Pulitzer Prize, this would be the reason why the St. Pete Times deserve the superlative. Yes, there may have been more Pulitzers given to other papers, and there may be larger papers in the country, but putting all those facts together should bring clarity to the situation. Besides, the name "St. Petersburg Times" is well-established through the newspaper community as one of the heavyweights, so much so that if you just mention either the Tampa Bay area or Florida in general, most immediately think the St. Petersburg Times, and not the other paper across the Bay with the word "Tampa" actually in the name. So, while it seems like a suitable compromise, I have to respectfully reject your proposal on the grounds that it truly is a well-deserved moniker. EaglesFanInTampa (formerly Jimbo) 19:07, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Census numbers

Where do the percentages in the census numbers come from? Last time I checked, going from 8000 to 90000 is a tad more than a 15% jump. How are they determined and should they be changed to show the real rate of change? EaglesFanInTampa (formerly Jimbo) 14:56, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

According to ''From Pines and Palmettos-- A portrait of Largo., the Largo Historical Society's history of Largo, the whole Peninsula had about 50 people in 1850. That's derived from primary sources and land grant info. Cheers, :) MikeReichold 01:00, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sunshine figures

From near the end of the lead section:

With a purported average of some 360 days of sunshine each year, it is nicknamed "The Sunshine City."

360 days is quite a claim - we can't just let that stand as "purported"; we need both a solid reference to someone (other than Wikipedia editors!) doing the purporting, and a solid reference for whether the claim is accurate. Loganberry (Talk) 16:02, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

I note that one reference has now been added, which is welcome. Loganberry (Talk) 23:43, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:St. Petersburg, Florida seal.png

Image:St. Petersburg, Florida seal.png is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 20:22, 26 November 2007 (UTC)