The St. Pete Pier and the waterfront the city refused to sell

There has been a pier reaching into Tampa Bay from downtown St. Petersburg, in one form or another, since the late nineteenth century. The versions have come and gone, including the inverted pyramid that many residents still miss. The current St. Pete Pier opened in 2020.

It is a park more than a pier

The design is closer to a linear waterfront park than to a traditional fishing pier. It includes a marketplace, restaurants, a playground, a splash pad, green space, a small beach area, public art and a fishing deck at the end. You can spend an afternoon there without ever intending to fish.

The approach from downtown is landscaped and walkable, which connects it to the museum district rather than isolating it at the end of a parking lot.

The bigger decision behind it

St. Petersburg's downtown waterfront is publicly owned to an unusual degree, the result of decisions made over many decades to keep that land in public hands rather than sell it for private development. A continuous chain of waterfront parks runs along the bay through downtown.

The practical consequence is that anyone can walk the water's edge here. In a lot of Florida cities that is simply not true, because the water's edge is somebody's back yard or somebody's lobby.

Practical notes

Parking downtown is metered and structured, and it is easier on weekdays. There is shade, but not everywhere, and the walk out to the end is longer than it looks from shore. Sunrise over the bay from the pier is worth setting an alarm for, and it is far less crowded than sunset on the Gulf side.

Cover photo: Adog / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Source.