[BlueWillowPlate]

the problem is when you and others post it comes off as a vendetta against florida. that you see yourselves as "saviors" - as in, saving people from themselves (moving to florida) is really kind of...weird.

I agree with what Florigidge says here.
I've posted in BOTH the Worst of Florida and Shores' photo threads.
I appreciate reading and taking part in conversations which address the resolution of Florida's very real issues. Some of these problems are peculiar to Florida, but many are the nation's as a whole.
Offering facts is one thing. Nobody wants glowing, sugarcoated chamber of commerce hype.
But the negative hyperbole that so thoroughly permeates this forum makes me not want to visit anymore.
It's like trying to have a conversation with grownups and some little kid keeps yanking on your shirt, interrupting.

[HIF]

I'm with you, Cil. And when my kids yank at my shirtail whining I send them to their rooms!

I think that misery loves company and they are looking for friends

[nomoresnow]

Cil, I couldn't agree more.

Getting ready to move in several months, I want to know the truth, but I don't need to have it repeated ad nauseum. I like your analogy of a little kid tugging at your shirt. Besides, if so many people live there already and so many are moving there every day, it can't be ALL bad, right? Anyway...I'll find out for myself. Hey, maybe I'm really from the "show me" state and don't know it!

Have a good weekend, all.

[faithfulFrank]

I'm with ya.......

I have learned a lot from both the positive and negative posts....but I will admit the negatives rattled me some, as my first post here said.

I think there are different Florida's, just like there are different NY's. Here where I live in NY, we have more cows then people.....a NYC person would feel like a foreigner here in western NY.

Bottom line....every day more people are leaving NY then moving here.....I think every day, more people are moving to Florida then leaving it. I will be retireing when I move to Florida, so it is dofferent for some of us. as to those who struggle with low paying jobs, etc, I sympathize with them, and hope they find good solutions for themselves and their families. It was tough for us also years ago when we were starting out....it seems like just yesterday now.

As for the weather.....one's views on that are more a personal thing....as for myself, it is currently 10 degrees here with a wind chill of below zero. After I post this, I need to snowblow the driveway.....I think I will be able to handle the Florida weather. I guess only time will tell.

Frank D.

[nomoresnow]

Frank, we only got about an inch here in Plattsburgh and it's about 16. How much did you get dumped on?

[Rhett_Butler]

Quick suggestion and I know it won't be popular.....

Does it seem to anyone else that there are at LEAST as many threads complaining about the negativity on this board as there are threads that describe the negativity???

ie... Could it be that some of you are contributing to the "problem" without being aware of it???

I mean you all do realize that, yet, another "Why all the negativity???" thread actually INVITES negative comments to explain and answer the question, right???

[nomoresnow]

Ya got a point, there, Fury. I never quite thought about it that way, but you could be right.

[Muggy]

Interesting topic.

For me it's not whether or not things are "negative" or "positive", or whether I'm "negative" or "positive;" my photographing and posting the worst of Florida is just a natural extension of a perspective I've had for quite some time now: that at some point, you can't build happiness. The idea that paradise can be built is worth examination and criticism. Paradoxically, the building of paradise is what precisely ruined something that was in fact paradise (by many definitions).

I guess this is my position: that Florida is so bizarre, so extreme, so polarizing, so foreign and exotic, that I can't help but to take pictures and post about it. Yes, I have hundreds of rust-best photos taken in Chicago, Buffalo, Cleveland etc. but why am I not posting those? Well, because the average human being has no idea what it's like to park between a Ferrari and 70's beater at the grocery store; to see McMansions next to 20's craftsmen houses and 70's block houses with burglar bars. We all remember what downtown used to look like.

I think the Florida board is just a representation of what is actually happening in Florida. Nobody has any idea what to make of all it; some things beautiful, some things horrifying, and everything in between.

What we all have to recognize is that there is a culture forming in Florida (and California) that has never existed anywhere else on Earth, at any given point in history. I posit that we are witnessing the formation of the Union's most unpredictable outcome of globalization.

Cleveland is a view to America's past, and Florida/California it's future.

[faithfulFrank]

I appreciate the honesty here......and everyone has a right to their opinion...I'll read and learn from them all, and decide things for myself....my wife may disagree, but I'm an adult

Nomoresnow- the lake effect here is funny. I do not have much snow NOW, but that could change in the next hour. just south of us, they are expecting two foot today., One slight shift in the wind, and it could be us. My 13hp Ariens can handle anything.

Frank D.

[nomoresnow]

Gotcha, Frank. I understand completely. Hubby and I were in Buffalo a few years ago. Drove about 1 mile from our motel right into a white-out and drove right back out of it again on the other side. About 12 years ago, when we were living in Ogdensburg, we drove on a beautiful, sunny Sunday to the mall in Watertown and got stuck in a lake effect there. They closed the mall down early afternoon and we were stuck there until 2:00 a.m. when they finally cleared the highway and we could drive back. It's a phenomenon a lot of people would never believe or understand.

And people wonder why we're moving to Florida! When do you leave for your closing?