Multi-centric urban areas and water features kind of mess this up. I can't really think of any logic for the location of the "preferred" suburbs on the MS Gulf Coast, for example. Tampa Bay is another weird area.
Tampa makes sense. A lot of Southern cities have two favored quarters. An inner, urban favored quarter and then a sprawling outer suburban favored quarter. In Tampa this is South Tampa and Davis/Harbour Islands. Northwest Hillsborough is the sprawling favored quarter. The water is not a significant factor in this, probably because it's on the bay and without nice beaches. Atlanta with Buckhead and the NE sprawl also fits this pattern, as does the Houston Arrow and the semicircle of affluent Western suburbs, as does Dallas with University/Highland Park and the Collin County Sprawl, as does San Antonio with the Alamo Heights area and the Northern Sprawl.
St. Pete is a little different, as the wealth is north of downtown and on the beaches, and the sprawl is not affluent. If you consider the Pasco Coast as part of the area, that is the among the poorest exurbs in the country, but Northern Pinellas is wealthier.