Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Talk of the bay

Magazine ranks Tampa Bay No. 34 tech area

By DAVE GUSSOW
Published March 21, 2005

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest high-tech metropolis of all? A hint: It's not the Tampa Bay area.

In a survey headlined Technopolis Found, Popular Science magazine rated Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater as No. 34, ahead of traditional tech centers such as Austin, Texas (No. 53), and New York (No. 39), but behind some less obvious areas such as Minneapolis-St. Paul (No. 1) and Albuquerque, N.M. (No. 13).

The magazine's criteria went beyond some of the usual measuring points to include things such as transportation innovation, including mass transit and the number of alternative fueling stations, the use of technology in education, energy use, and hospitals and emergency response.

In six categories, here's where the Tampa Bay region ranked: No. 20 in transportation; No. 19 in medical; No. 88 in jobs; No. 91 in education; No. 60 in connected citizenry (including cell phones and high-definition TV); and No. 29 in energy.

Other Florida cities in the rankings included Fort Lauderdale (No. 76); Fort Myers (No. 82); Gainesville (No. 30); Jacksonville (No. 43); Miami (No. 56); Ocala (No. 115); Orlando (No. 50); Pensacola (No. 114); Tallahassee (No. 80); and West Palm Beach/Boca Raton (No. 61).

1. Minneapolis-St. Paul

2. Atlanta

3. Washington 4. Boston/Cambridge

5. San Diego

6. Chicago

7. Columbus, Ohio

8. Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, N.C.

9. Seattle/Bellevue/Everett

10. Houston

The complete list can be found at www.popsci.com

[Last modified March 20, 2005, 01:05:02]