Originally Posted by Prymaat
Hardly. We have a cute-ish downtown, not the cute redo that so many places have. It is, I hate to tell you all, a great place to live, however. The countryside is BEAUTIFUL, rolling hills, ancient oaks w/Spanish moss, horse farms, misty mornings.... The place is burgeoning with growth, unfortunately. (The weather is great) New restaurants coming in all the time...we have 3 ! Thai restaurants, a terrific community theater, the sets of which rival those of some big cities. Gainesville is 40 min. away, with lots of performing arts and some indie movies that we don't get here. (Nice weather, though) And U of Florida which is well regarded in the college ratings crowd. A new mall is coming, too, a little more upscale than what we have now.
The schools are, as in most of Florida, second rate. We moved here the first year of middle school for our son. (The weather is great.) Where we came from on Long Island, he had a choice of Spanish, French, or Latin. Here there was no consistent language at all....other than the Ebonics spoken by some of the teachers which seems to be acceptable....what college was that they attended? How you want to speak on your own time is fine with me, but not in a classroom where you are a role model and TEACHER to my children. I've run across a little racism here, not too much that I can detect. Then again, I am white. And Rosewood is just down the street from here... (Did I mention the weather is great?) I think people who live in Florida treasure their leisure time, i.e., Gator games, fishing, golf, etc., and really don't want their kids to be spending too much time on schoolwork on weekends. If your kids are motivated and you can supplement a little at home, they'll do okay, but if you expect the schools here to keep up w/northern or midwestern schools, sorry. Some kids do get accepted to Ivy League colleges, but they really have to work at it and it's not really what people think about. Actually, Florida makes it very inexpensive for good students to go to college here with liberal scholarships (in-state only).(Incidentally, the weather is great.)
Yeah, yeah, we did have a couple of hurricanes come through....new houses should hold up better and better to enjoy enjoy those big oaks and pines out in a field somewhere, not right on top of your home where they drop big limbs though the roof into your kids' bedroom. (Otherwise, the weather is great).
Other bonus in Florida is that newcomers can actually make friends, unlike Midwest or Nothern states where everyone has lived there all their lives and has their family and friends from kindergarten there. They don't usually need new friends. Here there are lots of "People who need People"....
So,yes, basically I love it here. I've lived in lots of places, too. Good luck with your decision and move.
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07-09-2006, 03:31 PM
Gulfport fl
Palm Coast
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