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I've actually been to Tampa for the most part of December and it was warm enough to go to the beach and warm enough to swim. In February, thats when it got a little chilly. That's what I saw..maybe it was a warm winter for the most part.
By going to the beach Im talking about life's simple pleasures. Not theme parks, and parties etc. Just being able to go to the beach to relax once in a while.
Have any of you protested or wrote a letter to your senator regarding Florida's problems? Without anyone's voice nothing is going to get better.
Many have protested the high cost of insurance. As a result, Governor Crist has found a novel way to continue the subsidy of coastal properties....by having the whole state bail them out after a hurricane.
The state is using it's position to avoid the whole pesky accounting accrual of liabilities thing that businesses have to follow. Free money everybody!
Hopefully, they go 10 years with no hurricanes and the gamble pays off....but a "solution" to a problem shouldn't be fixed by the governor taking the tax payers money down to the casino and putting it all on black and patting himself on the back for saving them.
In response to that topic, I'll tell you why there are many reasons to not like FL. Especially Hernando County. I am originally from NJ too so I know all about life up there. However, I don't think you have the whole story about FL. These kind of things are all over the news lately. We have hurricanes, tornadoes, extremely damaging lightning ( Tampa is the lightning capital of the world -- no lie), hail the size of golf balls, and that is just the weather. We also have sinkholes -- something that is nonexistent in NJ. We have insurance premiums through the roof. Insurance here doesn't cover sinkholes so we're screwed if we have one about to swallow our houses. Insurance companies are actually refusing to do business in FL because we're too much of a liability. It took them all this time to figure out what happens to houses in FL? That's just the beginning. Medical care here is beyond subpar, even if you have medical insurance. If you don't have medical insurance, then you get tossed aside for someone who does. You have to apply for financial assistance to go to the health department clinic. Apparently, they decide whether or not you're poor enough to go. If you can go to a "private" doctor, as they call it, even once, even if it means you can't make your house payment on time, then you're not "poor enough" to go to the health department. Who knew that there were different levels of poor? I always thought that poor meant poor until I couldn't afford health insurance anymore. So in the past two months I've lost 30 pounds because I can't pay my bills. I have to actually choose which bill is getting paid this month. Now, I can remember being poor back up north, but things were never as bad there as they are here. I'd like to move, (in case you're wondering why I don't just move), but the houses aren't selling here either. So I'm stuck here. The cost of living is higher than the wages and employers can fire you for no reason at all without notice because FL is considered a "right-to-work" state. I could go on, but I would be here for quite a while. So, even if you don't like cold weather, it would be better to deal with that than all the bureaucratic crap you'd have to deal with here.
Last edited by Uninsured in Hernando; 09-10-2007 at 09:29 AM..
Reason: typos
In response to musclehead about never seeing rudeness in all his time in FL. I'll agree that Tampa is a nice place to visit and people do greet you. However, have you ever been to Hernando County? You'll find your rudeness there.
Personally, I think sensible taxes, good schools, affordable housing, livable wages, solid infrastructure, business growth, and a cultural environment that doesn't involve Mickey Mouse are significantly more important than going to the beach in December.
I suppose if I was a single, childless, renter I might feel differently but many of us who are unhappy with the state of things in Florida are married with children, own property, and work to support these things so we tend to take the things I mentioned above more seriously and resent the fact that Florida is leaving it's families behind.
You can go to the beach in December but unless you are living in Miami or the Keys, it is unlikely you will be laying out in your bathing suit or swimming. Tampa is usually around 65-70 in Dec. and the Gulf water is around 60-65.
Too many out of state residents believe that FL is a paradise. Maybe it was back in the 1950s, but that was almost 60 years ago! That's a long time to think that a place will remain the same. Florida is nothing like what people say it was. I agree with the one post about FL becoming a concrete jungle. Everywhere you turn in Hernando County, there is some new development: subdivisions, shopping centers, etc. However, there is none of what we really need: more schools to accommodate the everincreasing population, and hospitals as well. The wages are terrible, and each month is harder and harder to make ends meet. We can't even get out of this terrible situation because as I've said in my first post, the houses are not selling so we can't get the money to move someplace else. Those who believe that FL is a paradise need to stop thinking in terms of vacations. Most places you go to are a "nice place to visit," but usually, you don't want to live there. Once you live there then you will soon find out what it's really like.
I believe what you are saying, but what I can't understand is why people keep moving down there in legions. I keep thinking that some self-correction awareness will start the ball rolling in the other direction, but it hasn't happened yet.
In 50 years, the whole state of Florida will look like Manhattan Island; one big high rise.
Florida has it problems like any other state, if someone can eat sleep and have fun in Florida than what is the problem I have live in New Jersey 20 years, and I look forward to move in January to the Tampa area, If I can eat sleep pay my mortgage and survive so damn what is so bad about it, come to NJ where taxes polluted air, crazy house prices are driving a lot of people out, please people if any of you in here that live in Florida and survive why a lot of people here like to complaint about Florida why.
Florida is a bad move, I myself am a florida native and have every right to complain. for people moving here like from New Jersey or from big city states, Yea they will love florida. I have found many nothern people are rude and like to tell us what to do. The state of Florida has forgotten about its natives who are being driven out, by high taxes, high insurance, over develpment , high crime rates and currupt polititions as i have dealt with all the above for the past 7 years. Its a shame. I will not miss Florida because of these things. I will however miss my Family. In my opinion it has nothing to do with surviving at all. It has to do with change. We as residents of Florida have found we have no control Because Florida is now all about Politics, Greed and money.Things have changed to fast and it is out of control.
That person only technically lives in Florida, but not the Florida most of us live in, or the Florida where most people who think of "Florida" are talking about. Do you think someone who lives on a farm in Malone can comment on their life and that be a scale to judge life on Miami beach?
HUMMMM weird, not the florida i know and im a Florida native.
I technically live in St. Pete Beach. It's amazing here by all means and there is no reason to hate. It really comes down to what kind of person you are. I'm a huge nature person, I love backpacking and bicycling and rock climbing etc, and when you live in a place as predictable like this, it gets old, and I'm a huge landscape person, I love the mountains and desert. That's just me however, if you like to just hang out and enjoy life, this is your place to be. It's also a plus having the beach right across the street from you.
I don't hate Florida, I mean it's great here, but it's just not where I particularly want to be.
As far as money goes, Florida can be expensive, but it also varies from place to place and it's honestly not that bad compared to other places.
see the key is actually surviving, IF you can in Florida.. look around at all the posts on here, housing prices rival if not pass prices in Jersey. Good luck if you can get home insurance, they're all pulling out, and have been for years. Taxes are going up, the cities are dirty, polluted and overrun with illegals. I know in Naples they couldn't keep government workers like police and firefighters becasue they couldn't pay them enough to keep them now we're talking Coller County is one of if not the richest county in the state, . So what happens when the police leave, the crime goes up. The people you will find in Fla are none to friendly, at all. They are not interested in getting to know their neighbors or their kids. They'd prefer if you didn't have kids, actually. They are snobby, think they deserve all and everything and will complain, and pull strings and push around political power till they get what they want
Most neighborhoods are deed restricted, so forget owning a pick up truck, or run down car. They won't allow that to be parked outside, Your mailbox will have to be a certain color, set so many feet back from the road, they will literally tell you what kind of plants are acceptable in your yard and where you can plant them. Some make sure that each yard has at least 1 palm tree in it, the same place on every yard.
They will tell you what time to trick or treat (if you have kids) and what days. That was very big in Naples. I'm going off what Naples does as thast what I'm familiar with.
Your gonna run into season, with millions of tourists and snowbirds clogging up the roads for 6 months ( you're gonna have NJ dejavu on traffic), they'll come down to "paradise" then once summer starts they'll be hypocrites and rejoice about how wonderful the summers up north are, and leave in droves.But while they're down, they're gonna tell you how it is where they come from, ask why you don't do it that way down there, and then pull the strings to make sure things are done that ways anyways. The beaches will be crowed, the water will be HOT , its not the atlantic in the summer with a cool dip, no try 89 degrees in the summer, while its already 90 out. Then you can contend with redtide, which has been getting worse year by year..
Then when brushfire season starts you can watch the smoke linger in the air for weeks on end, have tight water restrictions that will last you through the entire snowbird season and up through summer. You'll be told what days you can water you lawn , wash your car, fill your pool etc, and then you can be fined $200 for not abiding the law.
Do you have a house? Have you looked at what you can get up north compared to down here. Have you made sure you can get insurance.
Don't forget when Hurricanes start to stock up on supplies, cause once the mad rush starts you can fight people, literally, for water, wood, canned food, batteries , gasoline etc. And then the real fun can start cause once the hurricane blows through, you can really get the full effect of Florida summer when you have no A/C for a week in August with heat index's hitting into the triple digits, easily, the bugs will be out, you probably won't have screens as they'll be blown out so you'll be bathing in bug spray. Speaking of bathing make sure to fill your bathtub up with water, cause you're not going to be able to use any tap water or flush the toilets as the water goes out with the power, and you'll have boil notices. You'll have cerfews till the town is back in order, stations will be out of gas, food stores will shut down because the food will be rotten without power. You'll loose days out of work. Oh it'll be fun. It happens every year.. and remember all those storms that miss lower sw florida usually end up coming right for ya. Don't think it'll happen to you? Just wait, you'll be surprised.
The ecnomy suxs in Florida and thats putting it lightly. For what you want to get paid doing, 3 illegals will come in, do the same job for half the price and work longer. Good luck with that, NOBODY speaks English in that state, I couldn't order a burger at Mcdonalds becasue she couldn't understand me.
But you know what, you go in with that stars in your eyes attitude, you'll see in time. I noticed you said if people can't eat sleep and have fun in florida.. Hun there is a HUGE difference between living in Florida and vacationing in Florida. You won't be laying on the beach , or some poolside sipping drinks on a Saturday afternoon listening to Margaritaville. Nooopppee sorry thats not the "real life" of a Floridian. We don't go to Disney for the weekend, and the beach after work. Most are struggling to survive, barely making it, even with higher paying jobs. Most doctors down there are doing "valet" services, You pay $3,000 up front, and they'll come to your house and give you meds. Its aimed at the rich, not the working class joe.. I lost two doctors to that service, And yes its legal.
So good luck and take a long hard look at the negative posts on here, those people have something to say, they came to Florida with starts in their eyes thinking the same thing as you, and like you are going to be , they were sorely mistaken and quite surprised at what the real Florida Lifestyle entails
I could go for a vacation right now. It's past Labor Day and I have about had it with summer. I used to look forward to summer ending, the weather getting cooler, the leaves changing, breaking out the sweaters and coats, the first snow coating the ground, etc. It's very depressing to know that none of that is ever going to happen. All it will be is summer lite. As my husband said, who has been living here 3 years now, he learned to ignore the palm trees a long time ago. I am really trying to ignore a whole lot. Actually, I need to ignore just about EVERYTHING.
When I went on vacations, it was not to a beach "paradise". I HATE sitting around burning in the sun and frying my brain. My vacations I went to see Buckingham Palace, the Blaney Stone, the Colesium, where they filmed Sound of Music, etc., etc. After you have see one beach, you have seen them all.
I have been in Naples for almost 3 months. I have been to the beach twice. Once when my sister-in-law visted and once when my daughter came down. I have no desire to go. Same for the pool in our condo. Maybe three times.
Taratomsgirl, please take some pix when the leaves start to change. Post them. It will make me very happy. Right now I feel like crying when I think about facing endless summer.
I lived in Tampa from 1952 until 1962. Graduated from H.B.Plant High School. Florida in the 1950s was a tropical paradise. The state only had about 6,000,000 people. I used to hunt rabbits where the Tampa airport is now.
I grew up with and ran around with Cuban, Italian, Cracker, New Jersey and New York boys. You could lie down in the middle of Kennedy Blvd. (then Grand Central) and not get run over for 30 minutes.
If you grow up in Tampa (probably all of Florida), it never gets out of your blood. The water, palms, sand, water oaks, Ybor City, cigars, the Cuban Club, Spanish Club, Italian Club--Christmas parties where they danced the old country dances.
We loved each other for our differences. It was exotic and warm and ethnic (back when that was a good word). I loved my Cuban friends--Jews, Italians, Spanish, blacks--we eat different cuisines and reveled in the wonderful mixtures of customs and languages.
No traffic, no drugs, very little crime--it was paradise.
I visit about once a year and consider moving back. Hyde Park is the same as it was when I went to Woodrow Wilson Jr. High and lived 2 blocks away on Edison. South Tampa is much the same--just more traffic. There used to be almost no traffic on Bayshore Blvd. You could crawl across it with no fear of being run over.
Columbus Drive used to be the end of civilization, now north Tampa is a zoo. If you can afford to live in South Tampa or Palma Ceia, you will experience the same houses and the same look that was there in 1955.
I don't think I would want to raise children in Florida unless I could pick one of the best schools--private or public. H.B. Plant, where I graduated, is one of the top high schools in the nation.
The thing about Florida that never gets out of your blood is its broad differences from the rest of the nation. It is like another country. The bridges, water, palms--very distinctive. The weather is great albeit a bit warm in August and July.
La Teresita has Cuban food that is out of this world. The food quality rivals any restaurant at any price anywhere in America; I know, I've eaten at thousands.
People who like Florida the most are those who like to live in mixed ethnic areas. Many people want to live with "their kind." If you don't like international cities, then you will not like Tampa. If you want all white, no foreign languages, country cooking--then stay in Montana or Idaho.
I love the Cuban, Spanish, Italian, Jewish and black cultures, and in Tampa you can get all this and more. The average person in Tampa goes to work, to Church, to the beach, to their son's football game. They lock their doors, but are not robbed or beaten. They don't buy drugs or see them sold. They live a quiet, personal life in an interesting, varied environment.
One thing is true however--watch out for the oldsters and the out of state drivers. They can be confused and erratic. Just give them a wide berth and drive defensively.
There is still some paradise left in Florida if you know how to find it. The problem is that many people do not know that they are in paradise because they do not know how to live in paradise.
Wow Everett. I would love to have a long conversation with you about Tampa during the time you lived here. I live in Virginia Park, just down the street from Plant High. My house was built in 1947, as were several others on my street. Other are 1920's bungalows, some are more contemperary. A very eclectic mix. It's a great neighborhood that I have grown to love in the last 8 years that I've been here. I love all of South Tampa because it's made up of so many distinct neighborhoods. In talking with some of the really long term residents on my street, they said how this neighborhood was more or less the 'suburbs' - I think they were referring to the 1940's. And now, as you know, it is just about as close in as you can get without being in downtown. I just find citys' histories so facsinating, the way they evolve and grow. South Tampa now is going through a tremendous re-building boom. Older, smaller homes being torn down and replaced with Mcmansions, Dale Mabry south of Kennedy is going through a big commercial rehab. A lot of new retail is replacing older retail. Unfortunately, I think too many of the classic 1950's and 1960's buildings are being torn down, but that's just me.
But it was great to read about your memories of Tampa, including Kennedy Blvd being the northern boundary and Bayshore Blvd being so unbusy. Thank you so much sharing.
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Why hate FL?
You have to apply for financial assistance to go to the health department clinic. Apparently, they decide whether or not you're poor enough to go. If you can go to a "private" doctor, as they call it, even once, even if it means you can't make your house payment on time, then you're not "poor enough" to go to the health department. Who knew that there were different levels of poor? I always thought that poor meant poor until I couldn't afford health insurance anymore. So in the past two months I've lost 30 pounds because I can't pay my bills. I have to actually choose which bill is getting paid this month. Now, I can remember being poor back up north, but things were never as bad there as they are here. I'd like to move, (in case you're wondering why I don't just move), but the houses aren't selling here either. So I'm stuck here. The cost of living is higher than the wages and employers can fire you for no reason at all without notice because FL is considered a "right-to-work" state. I could go on, but I would be here for quite a while. So, even if you don't like cold weather, it would be better to deal with that than all the bureaucratic crap you'd have to deal with here.
Why hate FL?
Florida is a bad move, I myself am a florida native and have every right to complain. for people moving here like from New Jersey or from big city states, Yea they will love florida. I have found many nothern people are rude and like to tell us what to do. The state of Florida has forgotten about its natives who are being driven out, by high taxes, high insurance, over develpment , high crime rates and currupt polititions as i have dealt with all the above for the past 7 years. Its a shame. I will not miss Florida because of these things. I will however miss my Family. In my opinion it has nothing to do with surviving at all. It has to do with change. We as residents of Florida have found we have no control Because Florida is now all about Politics, Greed and money.Things have changed to fast and it is out of control.
