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I have lived in fort myers for most of my childhood, teenage, and college years. Only after I finally got the chance to travel the united states extensively and live in several different states did I begin to realize what a cesspool mosquito drug infested swamp we call lee county is. First of all this thread is directed at FAMILIES or people who intend to start a FAMILY wanting to move here. I am sure if your 65 rich and live on sanibel that lee county is great! However for people wanting to move here this is a list of reasons why you should reconsider.
1. There is no "community" or "community feel" in lee county. It is one GIANT suburb. Suburbia is horrible for kids. It doesn't have the charm of a smaller town nor the cutural appeal of a bigger city. Unless you count drug dealers, illegal immigrants and jerry springer sideshow people as "culture."
2. You are twenty years too late wanting to move here. Lee county has been discovered long ago drained, subdivided, and bought up. It is now full of gated communities. Gated communities are not communities. Rich and old people alike can not be troubled to have you the common working family as neighbors. If you are lucky enough to be able to afford one of these gated communities, be prepared to be told what color your house can be, what kind of vehicle you can have in the driveway and get ready to pay Mr. and Mrs. HOA leader every month so they can have monthly meetings on which mandatory style of mailbox the neighborhood should now have. By the way these "board members" are the WORST, after being of no importance in their mundane midwest lives they move to these gated communities, become board chairmen and get on huge ego power trips. Finally after 75 years of mediocrity old Fred and Wilma to fine YOU for the most ridiculous things. Most take the power and run with it very proud of their board member status.
3. Traffic. For a town of its size Fort Myers sure does have a bad traffic problem. Probably due to the sprawl and lack of planning. Some may mention that this is a "safe" area and maybe it is crime wise in some areas, but it doesn't matter if you're safe from crime when there are usually several serious accident a day and often fatal. Everyone who has been here for any amount of time surely knows someone who was seriously hurt or even killed on lee county roads. The traffic is not helped by all the 80 year old plus retired people with huge oxygen tanks climbing into their lincoln town cars and proceeding to drive down 41 at 25 miles per hour, while Joe High on Pain Pills Plumber is attempting to do 65 on the same road. This is a prime recipe for accidents.
4. Bad drug problem. People on here often talk about how safe it is in lee county and not to worry about crime or drugs as long as you are not in dunbar or lehigh. Are people really that naive? Do you really think the drugs stay in dunbar only to be consumed by other low income people living in dunbar? SPOILER ALERT: A huge amount of these drugs are being sold to rich white kids in suburbia. The grow houses in lehigh and crack houses in dunbar only exist because of a huge demand locally. The great part about fort myers is you don't even have to know an illegal drug dealer to get your fix. Your local Dr. In his white coat will be more than willing to write you massive pain pill scripts, of which a large amount also end up on the street. Crime and drugs go hand in hand and you are only fooling yourself if you think it is limited to Dunbar and Lehigh.
5. Mike Scotts Gestapo Police Presence. Wow I never realized how many cops Lee county has until I lived elsewhere. With the above mentioned crimes you would think this is a good thing. However none of the cops are actually in the high crime areas. Instead they are out in the good neighborhoods setting up speed traps, parked behind a 7 11 for hours on end or setting up dui checkpoints and all around harrasing people. You can't even take a boat down the river without being stopped. Until you have been to a freedom loving place you will never realize the heavy police presence in lee county. If LCSO and FMPD could end their jurisdiction turf war maybe they could re direct some officers to dunbar and help curb the outrageous murder rate there.
PLEASE heed this advice if you are planning on moving to fort myers because you think it is a good place to raise a family. Stay in the midwest or look elsewhere. I know the sun and palm trees are tempting but don't fall for the trap. I am sure there will be numerous Im wrong, Fort Myers is great replies but anyone that has seen the transformation of lee county over the past 20+ years has to find at least some truth to the things I have said.
wow. for a rant that was very well put together. I've always said that it is a tale of two cities. for people with money it is heaven , people without it , it is hell. I thank the OP for sharing their first hand knowledge and experience, I'm sure there are a lot of misguided folks who come on here expecting florida life to be like the brochure. I plan to move there some day. but not while I have school aged kids.
Lol , i wasnt trying to rant but I read one to many posts about how fort myers is a great place to raise kids and it set me off. The tale of two cities thing is true here. Almost every single job here is in the service or tourism industry. The working class people only exist here to serve the older wealthy people or tourists. Nothing is made / extracted / developed here which leads to bleak opportunities for kids that grow up here. They have to either leave or join everyone else in paid servitude. If you are retired and wealthy I am sure its awesome, plenty of old babes to hook up with. I worked at a 55+ year old community golf course and know all about how you old people like to get down. I am sure if you had a boat amd free time you could also really enjoy yourself here. I for one have done some amazing fishing in estero bay and in the gulf. Just don't bring kids here under the guise that its a good place to raise them. Wait a few more years until they are out of the house in college or whatever and then come down here.
These rants pop up quite often about how terrible this area is and I always wonder why the people who write them are wasting their time ranting when they should be packing. If this area really is a drug infested, crime ridden, traffic nightmare, without community spirit, controlled by the "gestapo police" and without any realistic job possibilities, what kind of person would continue living in such a cesspool?
I agree that the well-off have it made here, but that is true anywhere. On the other hand, the unsuccessful/envious will never be happy anywhere because they will always blame the city, the environment, their parents, the rich, the government, or anyone/everyone else for their situation.
My suggestion to all the Cape Coral/Ft. Myers haters is to get out as soon as possible and leave the area to those of us who love it...
If you would of read my post you would of been able to tell that I moved over a year ago. I am in northern arizona right now and possibly heading to alaska next. I have lived in 4 different states since I left. Go to the montana forum or colorado forum and see how many "rants" you find there. Zero? Maybe if there is so many of them about one specific area that there is a shred of truth to them? I still have family ties in fort myers is the only reason I check the forum from time to time. Plus you can get fairly bored when you have a 4 hour layover. The thread was directed at families and if I made even one person second guess their decision to move their kids to fort myers than i succeeded. It was not a florida itself bashing at all. Heck check out North port or Wesley Chapel outside of Tampa. Two very nice places. If you want the above problems and think there is no truth to what say, stay in Fort Myers. I am sure glad I was able to get out of there. This is a relocation forum no? Shouldn't both sides of the story be told? Or is this the tourism office forum and we just tell people how there is nothing but a sunny tropical paradise with no drugs and a great community feel?
I have lived in fort myers for most of my childhood, teenage, and college years. Only after I finally got the chance to travel the united states extensively and live in several different states did I begin to realize what a cesspool mosquito drug infested swamp we call lee county is. First of all this thread is directed at FAMILIES or people who intend to start a FAMILY wanting to move here. I am sure if your 65 rich and live on sanibel that lee county is great! However for people wanting to move here this is a list of reasons why you should reconsider.
1. There is no "community" or "community feel" in lee county. It is one GIANT suburb. Suburbia is horrible for kids. It doesn't have the charm of a smaller town nor the cutural appeal of a bigger city. Unless you count drug dealers, illegal immigrants and jerry springer sideshow people as "culture."
2. You are twenty years too late wanting to move here. Lee county has been discovered long ago drained, subdivided, and bought up. It is now full of gated communities. Gated communities are not communities. Rich and old people alike can not be troubled to have you the common working family as neighbors. If you are lucky enough to be able to afford one of these gated communities, be prepared to be told what color your house can be, what kind of vehicle you can have in the driveway and get ready to pay Mr. and Mrs. HOA leader every month so they can have monthly meetings on which mandatory style of mailbox the neighborhood should now have. By the way these "board members" are the WORST, after being of no importance in their mundane midwest lives they move to these gated communities, become board chairmen and get on huge ego power trips. Finally after 75 years of mediocrity old Fred and Wilma to fine YOU for the most ridiculous things. Most take the power and run with it very proud of their board member status.
3. Traffic. For a town of its size Fort Myers sure does have a bad traffic problem. Probably due to the sprawl and lack of planning. Some may mention that this is a "safe" area and maybe it is crime wise in some areas, but it doesn't matter if you're safe from crime when there are usually several serious accident a day and often fatal. Everyone who has been here for any amount of time surely knows someone who was seriously hurt or even killed on lee county roads. The traffic is not helped by all the 80 year old plus retired people with huge oxygen tanks climbing into their lincoln town cars and proceeding to drive down 41 at 25 miles per hour, while Joe High on Pain Pills Plumber is attempting to do 65 on the same road. This is a prime recipe for accidents.
4. Bad drug problem. People on here often talk about how safe it is in lee county and not to worry about crime or drugs as long as you are not in dunbar or lehigh. Are people really that naive? Do you really think the drugs stay in dunbar only to be consumed by other low income people living in dunbar? SPOILER ALERT: A huge amount of these drugs are being sold to rich white kids in suburbia. The grow houses in lehigh and crack houses in dunbar only exist because of a huge demand locally. The great part about fort myers is you don't even have to know an illegal drug dealer to get your fix. Your local Dr. In his white coat will be more than willing to write you massive pain pill scripts, of which a large amount also end up on the street. Crime and drugs go hand in hand and you are only fooling yourself if you think it is limited to Dunbar and Lehigh.
5. Mike Scotts Gestapo Police Presence. Wow I never realized how many cops Lee county has until I lived elsewhere. With the above mentioned crimes you would think this is a good thing. However none of the cops are actually in the high crime areas. Instead they are out in the good neighborhoods setting up speed traps, parked behind a 7 11 for hours on end or setting up dui checkpoints and all around harrasing people. You can't even take a boat down the river without being stopped. Until you have been to a freedom loving place you will never realize the heavy police presence in lee county. If LCSO and FMPD could end their jurisdiction turf war maybe they could re direct some officers to dunbar and help curb the outrageous murder rate there.
PLEASE heed this advice if you are planning on moving to fort myers because you think it is a good place to raise a family. Stay in the midwest or look elsewhere. I know the sun and palm trees are tempting but don't fall for the trap. I am sure there will be numerous Im wrong, Fort Myers is great replies but anyone that has seen the transformation of lee county over the past 20+ years has to find at least some truth to the things I have said.
The problem here is you decided to travel the country after living here for at least 22 years if you attended 4 years of college, if your family had gotten you out to see the World as a child you might be in a different mind set.
You also have to remember that the people moving here are from far worse places. Ever been to Newark, New Jersey, Buffalo, New York, or Detroit, Michigan? If so what you are describing is heaven on earth. I will do my best to explain things to you so you can better understand them, it seems you have been slightly jaded and misled.
1. This may be indicative of where you were raised, which you failed to mention, other than a broad spectrum of the huge area know as Fort Myers. Next, some of the best schools and best places to raise a family are considered "suburbia" (See Naperville, IL). I do not have drug dealers, illegals, or sideshow clowns in my neighborhood.
2. This again is a failure to leave whatever hole of Fort Myers you were raised in to see something new. There are thousands of homes that are not in HOA's and the only way to expand and develop is to subdivide, my current neighborhood was subdivided in the 60's which unless I have no idea what year it is, was a lot longer than 20 years ago.
3. The traffic can be bad at times, but again you have to leave your nest to see the World. The reason there are accidents is because there are people from every state in the country and from other countries that are driving like they do back home, each one conflicts with the other. New Jersey drivers are a far cry from drivers from Ohio, trust me I have spent a lot of time in both. The lay out of the area is pretty damn good considering the amount of waterfront the place boasts.
4. I feel like a broken record here, but drugs must be a huge problem in your neck of the woods, where I live I have never heard of a drug bust within 5 miles of my house. Look at the locale of the places you mentioned. You really think people from the Southwest Cape are driving to Lehigh or Dunbar to buy crack and if you think the prescription drug problem is confined to Fort Myers, or Florida for that matter you are seriously lost in space my friend! Who's the naive one here? No one is fooling themselves, we live here and know what is going on in our neck of woods.
5. What is a cop going to do about a someone getting capped in the head over a drug deal gone bad? Unless you can assign 1 cop to every person in the city, you aren't going to stop these types of crime by keeping the cops in Dunbar, the idea is just ludicrous. You also contradict yourself. You complain about the accidents and traffic, but then consider it harassment when the cops are doing speed traps and DUI checkpoints?
I am not sure how old you are, but I have lived here since the early 80's, yes it has transformed and grown, some for the bad, but mostly for the good. There are always going to be bad and good about anywhere you live, what you have done here is taken the few bad things, most of which do not even apply to 95% of the people living in Lee County, and completely over-exaggerated them to the point of being something of mythical legend. I urge people to heed my advice and not listen to this obviously bias person and do some real research of your own.
If you would of read my post you would of been able to tell that I moved over a year ago. I am in northern arizona right now and possibly heading to alaska next. I have lived in 4 different states since I left. Go to the montana forum or colorado forum and see how many "rants" you find there. Zero? Maybe if there is so many of them about one specific area that there is a shred of truth to them? I still have family ties in fort myers is the only reason I check the forum from time to time. Plus you can get fairly bored when you have a 4 hour layover. The thread was directed at families and if I made even one person second guess their decision to move their kids to fort myers than i succeeded. It was not a florida itself bashing at all. Heck check out North port or Wesley Chapel outside of Tampa. Two very nice places. If you want the above problems and think there is no truth to what say, stay in Fort Myers. I am sure glad I was able to get out of there. This is a relocation forum no? Shouldn't both sides of the story be told? Or is this the tourism office forum and we just tell people how there is nothing but a sunny tropical paradise with no drugs and a great community feel?
Speak your mind that is what this site is for.
You will soon realize that there is a small group of people here that only their opinion counts.
Just ignore them and keep posting your thoughts.
On the subject of "gestapo police" I noticed you are from cape coral. I'm sorry. Didn't a dozen or so of cape corals finest lie about college degrees and college credits in order to STEAL over $95000 from you the tax payer. That city is filled with corruption. Police are supposed to protect and serve, but in fort myers/cape coral they serve the **** out of you! And before you call me unsuccessful/envious I am college educated, own my own business, get to travel around the country and have money in the bank. Don't be so quick to divert the underlying problem to "im envious" because that is certainly not the case.
On the subject of "gestapo police" I noticed you are from cape coral. I'm sorry. Didn't a dozen or so of cape corals finest lie about college degrees and college credits in order to STEAL over $95000 from you the tax payer. That city is filled with corruption. Police are supposed to protect and serve, but in fort myers/cape coral they serve the **** out of you! And before you call me unsuccessful/envious I am college educated, own my own business, get to travel around the country and have money in the bank. Don't be so quick to divert the underlying problem to "im envious" because that is certainly not the case.
You'd think a college educated fella like yourself would be able to construct sentences, use proper verbiage/punctuation, and capitalize when needed.
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I am sure if you had a boat amd free time you could also really enjoy yourself here. I for one have done some amazing fishing in estero bay and in the gulf. Just don't bring kids here under the guise that its a good place to raise them. Wait a few more years until they are out of the house in college or whatever and then come down here.
Bon voyage...
