young professionals avoid tampa
tommyFor the second straight year, Tampa ranks as the worst city for young professionals, according to Forbes.com.
Here are the highlights of the Forbes article:
In measures of outdoor activity, living on a fixed income, weather, access to beaches and low health care costs, Tampa rises to the top.
But youngsters (those of you between 25 and 35) don’t care about that stuff.
Of the thousands of class of 1998 graduates from Stanford, Rice, Princeton, Harvard, Duke and Northwestern, no city attracted fewer graduates than Tampa. It finished behind New Orleans, Detroit, Indianapolis and Providence RI.
Go ahead, say it out loud. Tampa finished BEHIND dirty and crime-ridden New Orleans, Detroit murder city, that hotbed of excitement known as Indianapolis, and some city that needs the state attached to identify it.
Don’t they want to work for any of Tampa’s great employers?
Of the 400 best big companies and 200 best small companies, as rated by Forbes, only one calls Tampa home (Sykes Enterprises).
Forbes says that USF research is lacking as well. Go ahead and read all of the gory details at Forbes.com.
No tag for this post.
Loading ...
July 14th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Like Ireland throughout most of its history, the Tampa Bay area, if not the rest of Florida, is an exporter of talent, ambition and brains. What remains behind is what makes the Tampa Bay area the lovely and forward-thinking place that it is today. Cheers!
July 14th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
I used to defend Tampa on this kind of stuff - then I finally moved.
July 14th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
We need Geoff to remind of the his super-secret activities at the Chamber, how he and his little Hitler youth club are working, behind the scenes, to save us all.
The sad thing about this article is not that it is true, it that the Tampa establishment will spend a lot of energy refuting it without one bit of action to correct the problem. Why work when you can spin the issue all day?
July 14th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I moved too. Peace out Tampa!
July 14th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
So only graduates from university’s like Stanford, Rice, Princeton, Harvard, Duke and Northwestern are counted?? I know I only graduated from USF, but attained a great job in TAMPA, and am still here in TAMPA, working for a Fortune 50 company in TAMPA, where a regional office is located and employs over 1500 people in the area…
July 14th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
What? You moved Geoff? Who can I argue with now? You always had passion and focus, a worthy person to debate with. I do not like to hear you moved as that is a loss for us.
July 14th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Good! That’s fewer people around here to tell me how my degree from a Southern school is meaningless. (That’s till it’s time for annual employee reviews, then they’re a-sangin’ a different toon!)
July 15th, 2008 at 8:25 am
I got a sweet gig in Maryland (DC burbs) Love it up here. Taxes are worse but benefits are better - especially income. Miss the Rays, talking trash to Skins fans this fall will be fun though. Lots of other young people.
It was all about the income and opportunities…Maybe I’ll come back in my 30’s
July 15th, 2008 at 9:19 am
“It was all about the income and opportunities” - Yes you are right. We don’t have as many and I don’t see any new ones coming up soon.
I like this town, and I want it to change and grow so I can stay. But the Forbes study is being ignored again. How many years can we not take action before we all have to give up on Tampa Bay?
I want this place to grow with me, I want to suceeed here. But silly PR games is not eceonomic development.
July 15th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Carl - you are the whole problem with Tampa bay culture in a nutshell, Geoff left to mnake a decent living and you snipe “Good riddance”. Open your mind and get out of the 19th century fear of change and progress that is the Tampa Bay power base.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Emerge! Emerge! Where are you? Please I need to hear that you and the Tampa Chamber, rulers of all from Nort Port to New Port Richey, from the Gulf to Disney, will make everything all right. You know without your incredbile leadersship we are all lost. Emerge Tampa where are you? Oh, the truth husrts!
July 16th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Poor Tampa Chamber fades - 3 senior staffers have left/are leaving in the last 6 months
July 16th, 2008 at 11:57 am
The Chamber has been fading and drowning in their own Kool-aid indeed. We can hope that with senior staff changes that the culture and usefulness of the Chamber will inprove. Hope, no guarantee.
Pirate - Have no fear, Emerge will issue a poress release stating there is no problem, they will serve up some cocktails, pose for pictures and continue ignoring the needs of their community.
July 17th, 2008 at 10:25 am
OH Where’s Geoff, Thank you! You made me feel better. I though that perhaps Emerge was asleep at the wheel. Oh great Emerge, give me more drinks so I can’t see the real problems.
July 17th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Well that is what Emerge is all about, a photo-op for the chamber enabling them to avoid serving the community. That work stuff can be so bothersome.
July 21st, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Wow - you Emerge haters put the orgnizaiton on such a pedestal. I wasn’t aware that they were single-handedly powerful enough to create Fortune 5 job opportunities and cultural events for young professionals in in Tampa. Every community and every niche needs someone for it’s PR, even if it is slapping lipstick on a pig.
Emerge has its issues, but what are each of you haters doing to make life better in Tampa?
And #40 out of 40 may sound bad - but there are far more than 40 cities in America with young professionals in them. Jacksonville didn’t even make the list, and Miami and Orlando were #39 and #36 respectively…that should tell you a whole heackuva lot more than anything Emerge could even try to do.
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Emerge is the Chamber, they wholly own it and refuse tio the their members have a say. So being critical of them is being critical of the chmaber directly, and the chamber has the mission to develop a YP workforce as well as to attract companies.
Now is the time to voice displeasure as new chamber staff leadership is being hired and needs to be aware of the issues to work on.
Our issue is that th elipstick on the pig is the only thing our chamber of commerce is doing. They and all of our economic development organizations are failing us.