Downtown By The Numbers

An Analysis of Census Figures for Downtown St. Petersburg
by Timothy J. Baker

Downtown St. Petersburg is a business center, a government center, a cultural center and an educational center. It's also a residential neighborhood, albeit one that is different in many ways from others in the city and county.

You can prove it by looking at the numbers from the 2000 Census.

Total Population

Earlier this year, the North Downtown and University Park Neighborhood Associations merged, to form the new Downtown Neighborhood Association (DNA). The area covered by the new association comprises Census Tracts 214 and 215. In 2000, the total population of the neighborhood was 4,714. However, a number of relatively large residential projects have been built downtown since the census was taken, so it's reasonable to figure that the population is about 5,000.

This makes downtown among the more populous of the city's neighborhoods. By comparison, the Historic Old Northeast has a total population of about 6,500, Snell Isle 3,250, and Historic Kenwood 2,500. (Another interesting comparison is with the 1990 Census. At that time, the total downtown population was 5,437. So, even with all the new projects, downtown may have lost residents since 1990. It's catching up pretty fast, though.)

If downtown is a normal neighborhood in terms of total population, it is different in the specifics. For example, downtown has more men than women, while in the city as a whole that is reversed. Specifically, 54 percent of downtown residents are male, and 46 percent female. In the city as a whole, 48 percent of the residents are male and 52 percent female.

Downtown residents are also older on average than the city as a whole. In 2000, the median age downtown was about 55, while in the city it was 39.5. Pinellas County, by the way, had somewhat older residents than the city, with a median age of 43. (The median means that half were older and half younger. So, if you live downtown and you are 55 years old, half your neighbors are older than you and half are younger..)

It is important to note, though, that the median age downtown has been dropping rapidly. In 1990, the median age was about seven years higher than it is now. In 1980, it was another ten years higher. So, in that time downtown has gone from a median age of about 72, to about 55. That's a big change. At the top end, in 1990 more than 31 paercent of downtown residents were 75 or more years old. In 2000, that had dropped to 22 percent.
Commuting

As one might expect in a relatively urban area, downtown residents own far fewer cars than their city or county counterparts, and people are much more likely to walk, ride a bicycle or take public transportation to work. Almost half of downtown residents (49.3 percent) reported having no private vehicles. Citywide, the number was 12.6 percent and countywide just 9.2 percent.

Given the low number of private automobiles, it makes sense that less than half of downtown residents (48.9 percent) reported that they drove a private vehicle to work. Citywide, 78.1 percent drove to work, and countwide 79.7 percent. So, if downtown residents weren't driving to work, how were they getting there? Almost 14 percent reported walking to work, while 15.6 percent took public transportation. Another 5 percent got to work some other way, such as by bicycle.

Oddly enough, downtown residents reported that their commuting time was somewhat longer than for their city or counterparts. The average travel time was reported at about 25 minutes for downtown residents. Citywide, that average was 22.9 minutes, and countywide 23.6 minutes.

Another oddity was that people living between 1st Avenue North and 5th Avenue South (Census Tract 214) reported much longer commuting times than those living between 1st Avenue North and 5th Avenue North (Census Tract 215). The average on the south side of downtown was 30 minutes, while on the north side it was just 21.4. One possible reason for this is that more residents in the south part of the neighborhood take public transportation to distant jobs.
Housing

Downtown is definitely not the domain of single-family homes. Just 4.2 percent of the occupied housing units downotwn were single-family homes in 2000. In the city as a whole, 62 percent of housing units were single family, and in the county 53.8 percent.

What might be more surprising is how many of the housing units were in large apartment buildings (those with more than 20 units). A whopping 62.6 percent of downtown housing was in such units, comapred with 13.7 percent both citywide and countywide. One explanation for this is that downtown is home to a number of very large apartment buildings for the elderly, including Presbyterian Towers, the Peterboro, Lutheran Towers, MLF Towers and the Columbian. Together, these buildings have almost 1,000 units.

In the next census, this percentage may even grow, as the new condominiums along the waterfront and elsewhere are counted for the first time. Another number that may change significantly is the number of townhouses in the neighborhood. The 2000 Census counted 109 townhouses (3.5 percent of the total number of units). Since then, though, ground has been broken for a number of townhouse projects, especially south of Cetnral Avenue.
Race

Downtown in 2000 was more racially integrated than many St. Petersburg neighborhoods, although the proportion of African-American residents was below the city as a whole. The Census showed that 12.6 percent of downtown residents were African-American, while across the city that number was 22.4 percent. That overall figure, however, is not especially revealing of individual neighborhoods, some of which are almost exclusively white, while others are almost exclusively black.

The north and south halves of downtown show some difference in racial makeup, but not to an extreme measure. The north half of the neighborhood had an African-American popoulation of 11.6 percent, while in the south half the proportion was 16.2 percent. The neighboring Historic Old Northeast showed a much greater spread. In the south half of that neighborhood (from Central Avenue to 13th Avenue N) the African-American population was 5.5 percent, while in the north half (13th Avenue N to 30th Avenue N) it was just .9 percent.