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Tampa drops in Forbes.com's singles ranking

The city is ranked 36th out of the country's 40 largest metropolitan areas and went down in five of six categories.

By KEVIN GRAHAM
Published July 27, 2005

	Singles Scene How do you meet new people? Online Work Bars/Clubs Church Through friends Cities for singles Top 5 1. Denver-Boulder 2. Boston 3. San Francisco 4. Raleigh-Durham 5. Washington-Baltimore Bottom 5 36. Tampa 37. Providence 38. Kansas City 39. Norfolk 40. Greensboro

TAMPA - If Forbes.com's fifth annual ranking of best cities for singles was the FCAT, Tampa would probably repeat a grade.

Compared to last year, the city dropped in five of six categories Forbes.com used to rank the 40 largest metropolitan areas in the country. Overall, Tampa ranked 36th this year; it ranked 25th in 2004. When it comes to the actual number of singles, based on U.S. Census data, Tampa ranked dead last - a repeat of last year.

So, sorry Tampa, no pizza party for you.

Culture showed the only improvement, climbing from 33rd last year to 30th this year.

"It's not a personality test," said Lacey Rose, staff writer for Forbes.com and author of the list. "We're not promising that you're going to find your soul mate in these cities. We're just telling you where you can have the best quality of life while you're single."

Along with culture and the number of singles, Forbes.com ranked cities by job growth, nightlife, cost of living and coolness, defined by Rose as the diversity of "creative workers" that include musicians, artists and teachers.

In job growth, Tampa dropped from ninth to 11th; in nightlife, it dropped from 20th to 25th; the coolness factor stayed the same as last year, coming in at 30th.

"I'm disappointed," said Teresa Gelston, founder of Verve, a collective of young professionals working to make the Tampa Bay area a better place to live, work and play.

"I thought we had made a lot of progress in the last year."

Verve isn't the only young professionals group in the Tampa Bay area working attract and retain young adults. There's Emerge, a leadership development program by the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce that targets 21- to 35-year-olds; Avant Garde, a group supporting the Tampa Museum of Arts; the Balcony Club, which supports the Tampa Theatre; Eighteen89, which supports the Tampa YMCA and targets 20- and 30-somethings; and the Producers, which supports the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

"Anyone who is looking to make a social connection just has to look out their front door," Gelston said.

Rose said slight changes in the way Forbes.com conducted this year's study played a part in some of the cities' category rankings. The latest survey took into account entry-level salaries for the first time, she said.

"That really hurt a place like Tampa," Rose said.

The change affected the cost of living category. Tampa ranked 10th last year. Generally, Tampa's an economically reasonable place to live. But with the area's low entry-level pay added in, it dropped to 37th this year.

"You may be able to spend a lot, but you might not be making it," Rose said.

Also, last year's survey had a "public opinion" category. Rose said Forbes.com eliminated that this year, so the rankings could be based purely on numbers. When it came to culture, for example, it didn't matter the quality of museums and concerts. What mattered was how many venues there are.

"We are getting attention nationally from other states and other communities about our efforts in developing the creative class and our creative initiatives here," said Paul Wilborn, Tampa's Creative Industries manager.

One thing that worries Wilborn, he said, is keeping young professionals.

"We're still losing a lot of our smart, young graduates," he said. "I'm not quite sure how to explain the numbers."

The only other two Florida cities on the list also dropped in the rankings this year. Miami, 2004's 10th best city for singles, is now 23rd. Orlando, 20th last year, is now 31st. Cost of living also played a role in their decline on the list, Rose said.

The No. 1 city for the second year in a row on Forbes.com's list: Denver-Boulder.

"We have a great location more than anything," said Greg Wasleski, who owns and operates a singles dating site in Colorado. "There's already plenty of singles here, but there could always be a few more. You could always say the more the merrier."

As young couples strolled hand-in-hand through the streets of Ybor City Tuesday afternoon, Marie Andrew sat alone outside a clothing store, smoking a cigarette.

She shrugged at the Forbes.com rankings that put Tampa in the bottom five.

"I'm single because I choose to be," she said. "I don't have problems with (dating), believe me."

At 28, Andrew said she's at a point in her life where focusing on education and career are more important than dating.

Tampa, she said, is a good place to do just that.

Kevin Graham can be reached at 813 226-3433 or kgraham@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 29, 2005, 11:02:58]