St. Petersburg , Florida

City Flag

The flag of St.Petersburg was designed in 1983.The flag has colored bars. The flag features colored bars, explained Ronald Whitney Jr., the city's graphic designer and the flag's creator. The Flag has red, orange, green and two blue bars. Here the bars of portrays the following: red and orange for the sun, green for the land, two blue bars for water and their will be a white pelican adorns the flag's center.

In the beautiful Pinellas County, Florida, resides this city St. Petersburg; the local residents call it as St. Pete. The 2000 census recorded a total population of 248,232. But soon the census Bureau reported the population rate as 249,090 in 2004; this rapid increase in population made it the fourth largest city in the state of Florida and the second largest city in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area composing 2.6 million residents, and the third largest in south east.

St Petersburg is present on the peninsula between the Tampa bay and Gulf of Mexico. It is connected to the mainland to the north, connected with the city of Tampa.

The warm climate attracts a lot of tourists to the Tampa bay this is because it has 360 days of sunshine every year. Due to this reason only it is nicknamed as “sun shine city “ since the northern United States pose a very cold climate people arrive at this city to enjoy warm weather.

City Seal

Aerial photograph of St. Petersburg's Mirror Lake area taken in 2000.

History

John C. Williams, is the great person who founded the city, this land was first purchased in 1876. And the advent of railroad only led to the major development of the city. Sir peter demens was responsible for constructing the terminus of the railroad in 1888. Later the city of st. Petersburg was integrated on February 29, 1892. The city had only a meager population of 300 people at that time.

This city got its name after the most revered Saint Petersburg, Russia, the birthplace of Peter Demens. Some historians say that, during those times John C. Williams and Peter Demens held a small bet about naming the city and they flipped a coin. Peter demens won so he titled the city after his homeland. The first hotel carries the name of john C.Williams’birthplace, Detroit. This hotel still remains in downtown.

Shipping industry came into existence in st.petersburg because a deeper shipping channel was dredged during the period 1906 to 1908. The port in and around the city started to develop when the dredging process increased. This also led to the increase in population in that region; the population had increased up to 4,127.

Following the shipping industry the airlines also started to develop rapidly. The commercial plane flew from St. Petersburg to Tampa In 1914.this first commercial plane belonged to The Company "Airboat Line" and the first pilot was Tony Jannus. Soon the automobile industry occupied the place of the airlines and the airlines were discontinued in 1924. The automobile industry started to flourish after the Gandy Bridge, which was opened across Tampa bay. This bridge made the automobile traffic between the two cities possible. And till now a prestigious award called the Tony Janus award is presented to outstanding performances in the airline industry and this award is named after the first pilot Tony janus.

All these major developments led to the population growth of the city during the twentieth century. Since this city offered excellent weather it attracted residents from the colder parts of the country to live there. Thus the population reached up to 238,647 in the 1980 census. But during the 1980s, the population growth became stable, and the increase was only around 10,000 after that.

Geography

St. Petersburg is located at 27°46'56" North, 82°40'3" West (27.782254, -82.667619) GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 344.7 km² (133.1 mi²). 154.4 km² (59.6 mi²) of it is land and 190.2 km² (73.4 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 55.19% water.

Demographics

248,232 people, 109,663 households, and 61,630 families were living in the city in the census of 2000. The population density was recorded as 1,607.3/km² (4,163.1/mi²). There are 124,618 housing units at an average density of 806.9/km² (2,090.0/mi²). The city contains a mix of 71.36% White, 22.36% African American, 0.31% Native American, 2.67% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 1.07% from other races, and 2.17% from two or more races.

109,663 households are present out of which 24.0% have children and teens, who are18 and less than that living with them, 38.3% are married couples living together, 13.8% are single women living alone, and 43.8% are broken families. 35.6% of all households are made up of individuals and around 13.1% of older people who are aged up to 65 and above are living alone. The average household size and the average family size are 2.20 and 2.88 respectively.

There are 21.5% of teens and children under the age of 18, people who are 18 to 24 form 7.7%, people from 25 to 44 form 35.2% of the population, 23.1% from 45 to 64, and 17.4% who are 65 years of age or older. 39 years is considered to be the median age.

$34,597 is considered to be the medians in come of the household in the city, and the median income for a family is $43,198. Males obtain a median income of $30,794 against $25,860 for females. $21,107 is the per capita income of the city. 13.3% of the population and 9.2% of families are below the poverty line. 19.1% of those children and teenagers under the age of 18 and 10.8% of those 65 and older are surviving below the poverty line.

Attractions And Points Of Interest

St. Petersburg has a great list of universities one is the branch of the state university, the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, as well as St. Petersburg College, Eckerd College, and Stetson University College of Law. The famous college for journalism is the Poynter Institute; this is an excellent institution for journalists, future journalists and teachers of journalism.

Museums are also famous in this city, some of the museums here are:

• The city has a Museum of Fine Arts


• History Museum


• Holocaust Museum


• Salvador Dali Museum

This Salvador Dali museum holds the largest collection of Dali’s work. One of The popular paintings in the museum is The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.

Most of the children get attracted to the small aquarium in St. Petersburg Pier. The pier stands for encouraging activities such as Retail shopping, adventure activities, and the legendry Columbia restaurant’s dining. if you are an animal lover then you cant miss the Pier Dolphin sight-seeing boats, which allow you to view the dolphins in the Tampa bay. Boats can be rented there. A look alike of the HMS Bounty, which came in the movie 1962 MGM, is one of the frequently docked boats there. And you need to pay if you wish to travel in this boat.