Moving to Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area - Need HELP please! (Fort Lauderdale: apartment, crime)

[LookingHome]

We moved to Weston almost 2 years ago now. Love it. There are kids everywhere, we are very pleased with the schools, we love the diversity, and it's very family oriented. The only drawback I'd say is that you have to leave Weston for a lot of things (like target or whole foods or a mall), but then again it's a positive thing because we don't even go those places often and it keeps traffic really light around town. I'm a stay at home mom so my daily routine of kids to school, grocery store, parks, gymnastics, martial arts, dance class....it's just a typical day and I know what to expect for traffic. And my husband, while he works south, he's adjusted to leaving at 6:45am to avoid that rush around 8:30 on the interstate!

[bayarea_girl]

Thanks so much everyone for all the helpful info! It's provided much guidance and I very much appreciate it!

LookingHome - thank you for your input. I thought the same thing about Weston in regards to proximity to these locations. But it's a good to point out the bonus not having traffic congestion! Something my husband and I will consider. Right now I'm leaning heavily towards Pembroke Pines, but haven't completely ruled out Weston. Thanks for your help and time!

[Nolefan34]

Originally Posted by bayarea_girl

Thanks so much everyone for all the helpful info! It's provided much guidance and I very much appreciate it!

LookingHome - thank you for your input. I thought the same thing about Weston in regards to proximity to these locations. But it's a good to point out the bonus not having traffic congestion! Something my husband and I will consider. Right now I'm leaning heavily towards Pembroke Pines, but haven't completely ruled out Weston. Thanks for your help and time!

Make sure you carefully research Pembroke Pines. The further east you go, the sketchier it gets. The western half of the city is very nice looking and the eastern half gets sketchy. I'm not really sure what the demarcation line is. Maybe University Drive? Perhaps someone else can provide some insight.

[ACast]

Originally Posted by Nolefan34

I'm not really sure what the demarcation line is. Maybe University Drive?

I would say more like Douglas Road

[bayarea_girl]

Thanks so much Nolefan34 & ACast! Will do!

[seeking peace]

Don't move anywhere near Miami, we moved here three years ago from N.Y and absolutely hate it! People are rude, no one speaks english (and I'm Cuban) and you're taking your life in your hands every time you drive. This city is full of terrible people that are just looking to see how they can take advantage of you. Don't want to move my kids from their school again so I'm waiting for my youngest to graduate high school in 4 years before I get out of this hell hole and move back to the good old USA (maybe Jupiter)

[pep23]

Hi BayArea_Girl, I was wondering what you decided to do? We are a family of four located in the midwest considering a move to Miami for a job offer that may be too good to pass up. But I'm overwhelmed with all of the information. We do know from someone who works at the office my husband will be at that a commute to Weston would be pretty long. The office is in the Doral area. We have been told Pembroke Pines is a good bet for decent commute and good schools. We have a 6 year old and 3 year old. Let me know if you have any insight to share from your research Thank you!

[HotandHumid]

Fort Lauderdale is very poor white trash with a lot of nicer looking properties being owned by people who use them as vacation homes but are not regular residents of Fort Lauderdale. Not much in the way of any culture here and I know from having lived on South Beach. I regret moving here. I've been criticized for looking "dressed" up in a black t-shirt and a pair of khaki jeans by people in the Gay community that you would think would have some better sense of fashion but that's Fort Lauderdale for you. It's very seedy and very down on wealthier, more cultural Miami and Miami Beach.

The Miracle Mile area of Coral Gables has really come into it's own with lots of cool shops and restaurants that you can walk to if you find a place to live in that area, which I recommend. Otherwise, just park near there and to walk to everything like people do in South Beach. It's much more elegant there than South Beach and you'll find better schools than in Fort Lauderdale. When you see home design spreads showing attractively decorated bungalow cottages in Florida, they're almost always in Coral Gables. You will have to drive to every single destination you want to go to in Fort Lauderdale as nothing was set up to be near anything else and you can't walk from place to place because of the distances between them.

The commute to Miami from Fort Lauderdale on I-95 is horrible with really bad accidents happening all the time from party crazy drivers strung out on drugs or alcohol when it's not bumper to bumper traffic from people slowing down to look at the accidents caused by the partiers. There's also always lots of lane closures day and night between Fort Lauderdale and Miami as I-95 always seems to be under some repair or the other.

The residential areas of Coral Gables, that are populated with private homes, apartments, condos and townhouses, are like living in the suburbs but being in a major city with the Port of Miami just a few miles north, good supermarkets nearby and the University of Miami and the Dadeland shopping mall nearby, along with the Falls shopping center a little further south.

Coral Gables is very happening but also a place where you can relax because of the feel of it's residential areas and because of the way the street system is set up there, most people don't have the opportunity to race their cars at high speeds dangerously through the street system as they do here in Fort Lauderdale, which is criss crossed with very busy streets almost always full of traffic because nobody here is intelligent enough to figure out how to sync the traffic light system so even if you have a good commute one day on I-95, you're most likely going to end up in bumper to bumper traffic on the boulevards coming into Fort Lauderdale due to the police constantly stopping drivers and tying up lanes as they are giving tickets to those pulled over for running red lights that you hit one after the other because of the bad timing on those lights no matter what speed you drive at.
There's also the noise issue here in Fort Lauderdale from a north to south running train track that runs trains through the middle of the better residential neighborhoods here with loud train horns blowing day and night as they cross the intersections.

Coral Gables has consistently nice areas whereas Fort Lauderdale has a few nice residential areas bounded by blighted areas that don't feel safe to travel through and crimes committed in the nicer residential areas are usually committed by those who live in the blighted areas nearby.

[staywarm2]

Originally Posted by bayarea_girl

Thanks so much everyone for all the helpful info! It's provided much guidance and I very much appreciate it!

LookingHome - thank you for your input. I thought the same thing about Weston in regards to proximity to these locations. But it's a good to point out the bonus not having traffic congestion! Something my husband and I will consider. Right now I'm leaning heavily towards Pembroke Pines, but haven't completely ruled out Weston. Thanks for your help and time!

I can't stress enough that whether you move to Weston or Pembroke Pines, that you learn Spanish. Knowing the language will help you in both areas. Weston has become much more Hispanic than it was when I lived there. E ven then there were whole aisles of Spanish foods in the grocery store, and most greeting cards sold in that store were written in Spanish. Pembroke Pines is also heavily Hispanic.

[wizrap]

I've lived in Weston for nearly 20 years and have yet to learn Spanish; although Weston is about half Hispanic, I have not seen my lack of foreign language skills to be a drawback in speaking with my neighbors. If anything, they enjoy speaking to me in English because they see this as a way to improve their English language skills.