I don’t, but I am curious about the city. Is it a nice place to live? Pedestrian and bicycle friendly? Laid back, or ?? Nice people? Any info would be helpful. Thanks!
And how do you pronounce it, anyway?
Dune Din?
Dun Ed In?
Duned In?
Du Nedin?
duhn-EE-d’n
Freaky. I live in Clearwater, one town down from Dunedin. Today I was working and decided to give myself a break. I drove up to Dunedin to check out a large wine/liquor store that someone had told me about for finding bargains (Lueken’s Liquors). Then I decided what the heck, it’s a nice day, so I’ll drive through downtown and see if I can find the Irish pub someone else had told me about and have a pint. Got a pint, plus an extra since it was happy hour. Met a couple folks. Pretty friendly. So I have some recent experience, although I don’t know of any Dopers who live in Dunedin proper.
To more fully answer your question, for years Dunedin was a sleepy little hamlet nestled just north of Clearwater. It’s the spring training site for the Toronto Blue Jays, but that’s as much excitement as you’re likely to find. Then about 10-15 years ago it slowly started to change. The “downtown” section went through a minor rennaisance. There is a decent business in antiques there. Not sure what started it, but the down soon developed a sort of Bohemian reputation. It’s fairly gay friendly. Lots of nice little shops and a few restaurants and bars. The Pinellas Trail runs through and there is at least one place to rent bikes there. It’s a somewhat affluent area, but not ostentatiously so. From the downtown strip you can walk, blade or bike to the ferry that carries you to Caladesi Island state park. So it’s very pedestrian and bike friendly and reasonably laid back. I think there’s even a monthly event that promotes the galleries by having a sort of happy hour around them, but I’ll have to check to be sure.
From the questions you’ve asked it seems like you’d like the place. If you get in the area let me know and I’ll buy you a pint, if that’s your thing.
I’m in Largo, which is more or less one town down from Clearwater. Kinda.
However, if you planned to leave Dunedin to work (as you undoubtedly would if you lived here), you’d quickly discover that the rest of Pinellas County (excepting downtown St Petersburg and downtown Clearwater) is extremely pedestrian-unfriendly. Dunedin is an decent place to live, but I don’t think you could do it on bike alone.
You can visit the official Dunedin website, if you want.
If you do come for a visit, Caladesi Island is absolutely gorgeous, and has been rated among the world’s top beaches. If you’re a fisherman, I also recommend the Sunshine Skyway fishing pier at the opposite end of the county. It’s the remains of an old bridge that extends out to the deepest part of Tampa Bay – from the end of the pier, you can cast lines into 200 foot water.
Wait, what?! I meant 40 foot. That’s what I get for working a double today. Retail brain damage, I suppose.
The real reason to go out there is to be surrounded by ocean while standing next to one of the most beautiful bridges in the world. Especially gorgeous at sunset.
A high school classmate of mine lost his parents in the accident which sent a span of the original bridge crashing into the water. So although it is pretty out there, that place has a different emotional meaning for me.
I think there’s a large Scottish contingent living there.
I attended a recent Highland Games festival and the Dunedin high school band came to play their bagpipess
Well, it was settled, or at least named by Scots. And the high school team is called the Highlanders, so they still embrace the Scottish heritage traditions. But I’ve never noticed an overwhelming number of Scots there. The pub I was in is called Flanagans (sp?) which is sort of Irish themed but they have some sort of Celtic (including Scotland, Cornwall, Isle of Mann, Wales, etc) society thing that meets there regularly. But aside from the school and occasional festival the place doesn’t feel very Scottish to me. For one thing it’s normally bright and sunny there with a decent number of tropical and flowering trees. 