Cape Coral Crime? I don't get it??? (Miami, Tampa: credit, trip)

[NY62]

Originally Posted by JennySquirrel

NY62~

Oh I know you are right, there are drugs and bad eggs everywhere. It is just such a shame, really it is.

I read that there are 22 police positions that aren't being filled in order to cut the budget. Now just who is making these brilliant decisions? Crime up and they cut 22 police positions?

I will plan my trip to Florida to look around. I have a feeling in the long run I will end up in Arizona. I've taken 10 trips to AZ since 2005 and I stay for about 3 weeks at a time so I am pretty familiar with it at this point. I know they too have issues but Sedona and Gilbert are really safe so I am leaning that way.

Gilbert actually has water front properties. They ahve canals like Cape Coral. They have a great master planned community and have a police force that is proactive. I think that is important. They don't have any low income apartments,etc.

They also don't have the home invasions. So that is a HUGE plus. I have never owned a gun and at this stage I don't want to have to buy one incase I have visitors with masks on visit me at 6am.

Sad state that this country is in now and I am sad what is being reported about CC

Thanks again for your input. I really want to hear everything I can about the area

good luck , I need the ocean, so florida is my choice. otherwise there are alot of places to go .

[NY62]

Originally Posted by firemed

It's no secret that those looking for work are having trouble finding it but this guy came up with a new way to find a job! Talk about a leap of fate!
Man's job search leads him to take drastic action | news-press.com | The News-Press

This dude is looking for a job that pays a certain amount ? sometimes you take what you can get. work two or three jobs if you have to untill you get the one that pays the bills. That is the problem nowadays everyone expects to be hired at the top. our country was built on hard work and determination. If I had 0 dollars coming in you could bet I would be at mcdonalds making something to feed my family. I looked at classifieds and this dude could get a job cutting lawns making something , instead he will stand with his sighn untill he loses his house and his family starves. Sorry I dont feel sorry for people that will not do anything to put food on the table.

[Donna-50]

Index Crime Rate > City of Cape Coral > Police Department

Cape Coral Profile | Cape Coral FL

I have lived here in the SW area since early 1993 and have never had a problem. I feel safe in CC or I wouldn't be here.

[apex44]

i lived in cape coral for three years sw cape near cape coral parkway, it is a nice place to live but the traffic there is very much to content with especially when the snow birds come to town , you can't get into an eating establishment and forget about the beach in fort myers , there is only one road in unless you go thru bonita springs entrance and thats the back way into the beach and that way is also known by everyone, the taxes are high i think you can find a better place to live, as far as crime goes i haven't experience any and have not heard of any going on in my direct neighborhood, one thing i have to tell you is there are so many vacant lots and you never know who will move in next to you , good luck in your search....

[JennySquirrel]

Thanks everyone for your additional comments and information. Donna, those articles were great! All of you are awesome THANKS!

I am so very thankful that all of you took the time to help me understand what is going on in Cape Coral.

I too really "need" the ocean so I don't want to move to AZ, but I just want to make sure that if I do decide to head to Fl, that I won't be regretting it a year later.

Thanks!

[mhoward48]

[quote=JennySquirrel;3656816]Thanks Firemed! Those were interesting to read. This is just such a shame to learn all this.

Maybe you can answer me what/who is the cause of increased crime? Is it from drugs? To me that makes more sense of an increased of crimes than more population or a poor economy.




So as you can see this was druggies, not that anyone had lost a job. So if drugs is what is ruining this are then it really points fingers at the police and the local Government for not nipping this in the rear before it got to this point.

I don't feel for speculators, I feel for the people that have watched all the equity in their homes dry up due to this area failing as it has.

Hi,

I agree with you. When the drugs started becoming so rampant,(in any community, and any state) The crime starts getting out of control.

I like the way Rudy Giuliani, cleaned up New York city! Remember reading the news about crime there? Sounded like Ft. Meyers . He had to make some changes in the law. These changes enabled the police as a aid/tool for them to get it cleaned up.

I know I would support the governor, or mayor, if they wanted to implement some new laws to help crack down on crime.

The police and sheriffs have the laws on the books that they have to adhere to . To get it cleaned up, maybe we should hear from them? They may have some ideas that we are not aware of, that could help the communities.

Or each state could hire Rudy, to come in and help clean up the areas I did write the governor to suggest this

Hope it gets better, none of us that go around abiding the law, wants to live like this.

[yachtcare]

I think it is difficult to point the finger at any ONE cause of the increase of, lets's say..."problems" in Cape Coral. You have an area with no "real" base of economy, other than tourism, out of that, combined with cheap, low interest money, that was doled out to anyone that could prove they had a pulse(the bag boys at Publix were buying houses, for cryin' out loud). That created a strong construction industry. Then the bubble bursts, and there's nothing but empty houses, forcing prices, and rents, downward. This entices other outside elements, from(just as an example, but not limited too,) Miami, Tampa, Ft Lauderdale to head for this area, because it's "nice" and "new" and in comes a rush of "undesireable" element.
The point I'm trying to make is, each action, creates a reaction, that in Cape Coral's case created a rapid upward spiral, and is now creating an equally rapid crash. Yes, there are problems all over the country, due to the "general" economic situations that now exist. Some areas will fare better than others, depending on every imaginable factor like geographical, economical, and even race and culture that dominates the area.
So, unfortunatly, Jenny, unless you've lived it full time, for a good long while yourself, you'll probably never get a real understanding of why CC is the way it is today, and has the problems it has, any better than I could understand why your hometown is the way it is. We have "evolved" along with our own little niches in which we live and spend our days in , full time.
On another note, I had the great pleasure of spending about ten days in AZ a little over a year ago. If I thought I could afford it, I'd have already relocated to Sedona. A more beautiful place, I've never found. The Grand Canyon, a nearby close second. Stayed in Scottsdale, another nice place. Loved Flagstaff, but the thin air didnt love me back In terms of economic future, and clean living(for a while at least) I'd head west, and steer clear of FL. That's just my .02 of course. Good luck with what ever direction you decide.

[yachtcare]

{quote mhoward}.....Maybe you can answer me what/who is the cause of increased crime? Is it from drugs? To me that makes more sense of an increased of crimes than more population or a poor economy.






When the drugs started becoming so rampant,(in any community, and any state) The crime starts getting out of control.





The police and sheriffs have the laws on the books that they have to adhere to . To get it cleaned up, maybe we should hear from them? They may have some ideas that we are not aware of, that could help the communities.{quote}

MY opinion, on answers to your questions...Who or what is a combination of all the above, It is a matter of the QUALITY of the INCREASED POPULATION, that bring undesireable habits with them from outside areas, because this area has suddenly become as inexpensive to live in, as where they were residing previously. This has nothing to do with race, but more to do with CULTURE.

Yes, they bring with them the drug culture, as evidenced by the surge of "grow houses", drive by shootings(more in Ft Myers than CC) and overall rise in "petty" crime, that follows the need for quick $$ to support new found habits.

The police are to busy setting up speed traps, and "enforceing" mickey mouse ordinances to bleed the pockets of the otherwise ordinary, law abiding citizen, to try to offset the losses of federal grants, and the loss from dwindling tax base due to record foreclosures, to worry much about the real crime. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The local government here, is operating a FOR PROFIT business, and isnt in the least bit interested in administering to the REAL NEEDS of this community.

In SW Florida, you are twice over a "victim". First of crime, and second of the governing authorities.

[hiknapster]

Cape Coral? It was a land scam back in the 1960s. It was the equivalent of buying swamp land. You know the joke. If you believe that, I can sell you some land in Florida. They meant Cape Coral.

The Rosen Brothers sold those plots of land way back then, put roads that went to nothing. Those roads still go to nowhere.

Back in 2005, it looked like those people that bought forty years ago had actually been right. They were wrong.


I moved to Florida in 1996, first to Orlando, which had a lot of drug crime, and was just simmering, and then to Fort Myers in 1998.

My first impression of Fort Myers, back then, was of a retirement community populated by a bunch of union retirees from the Midwest, coupled with the natives, many of which were rednecks and ghetto inhabitants. In other words, it was very low rent. Taxes were paid, but schools, cops weren't that great. But it was low taxes, house values were low, and insurance was still low, too. It was paradise if you like that sort of thing.

The taxpayers were, overwhelmingly. senior citizens, so nothing was said about the schools or cops or anything else. Not when most of the taxpayers didn't really consider Lee County their "home" and the rest were not really involved in politics or paid attention. The retirees didn't care about the schools. Their kids were grown and the grandchildren didn't live there.

A lot of those retirees came from Michigan and Ohio and had a very small mobile homes in over-55 trailer parks, then went back home in the summer. It was a very transient place, coupled with the con-artists and fugitives. If your car was stopped, the cops wanted the driver's licenses for anyone in the car. Probably not legal, but that was the kind of place it was.

In the early 2000s, property prices rose, like any place in the country. Not overly so, it was still low rent, but fairly noticeable. Still affordable, though.

Then Charley came and Lee County was hit pretty bad. Check out the newsreels. Most show a roof peeling off a fairly official building. That was the Fort Myers Post Office. I was there through that one. Don't want to ever go through that, again. And I'm from the cold North of New England with the snow and cold and snow shoveling. Screw that. I don't want to ever go through a hurricane, again.

Anyway, there is a point here.

That was the turning point. Lots of people needed their homes fixed. Contractors, said, "Hey, we have to build your home for a lot more money than what we originally planned, and that is when we can get to it." Prices skyrocketed. Of course, there was the subprime feeding frenzy, no docs, don't worry, we can get you into that house, and the way homes are appreciating, well, don't worry about incomes, because you can just refinance when the time comes.

And then came Frances and Jeanne came just to underscore the point.

And that was all she wrote for the housing prices. The perfect storm. Pun intended.

Then a funny thing happened. Taxes rose because of housing appreciation. Oh, and the insurance industry, which makes it money on NOT paying for houses hit by hurricanes or other natural disasters, jacked up their rates. A lot.

Suddenly, the Michigan retirees, decided that the price of staying in these mobile homes, where their grand kids were not, and who the heck would take care of then when they were sick, was not the equivalent of a Bob Evans early bird special and beat feet. And the people that thought they were buying into the American Dream, the equivalent of buying in and getting a home equity loan or selling in a year, well, they found out that they were outsiders that didn't really understand the market. There were not enough real jobs or people to buy their house when they decided to flip.

Oh, and they were stuck. Really stuck. They are still walking away from those houses.

And the rednecks and drug addicts? Oh, they are still there, because they will always be there. Except now, there are now new opportunities. There are a lots of abandoned homes to deal there drugs out of, cut the copper out of the houses and and sell it for the pound, and a police department that can't keep up with it.

That is what happened to Cape Coral. It is going to back to what it was. Low rent.

[yachtcare]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

That is what happened to Cape Coral. It is going to back to what it was. Low rent.

An outstanding summary, of the current state of affairs here.