Homestead (Dade County) Again (Miami, Orlando: rental car, apartment, rental)

[bale002]

I have read through the threads about the horrors of commuting from Homestead to downtown Miami and I am aware that there are many seedy neighborhoods.

But what if one spouse has a home-based, internet-based business and the other works, say, in Kendall, no further than Dadeland? Both spouses are bilingual Spanish-English.

I have read in previous posts about Keys Gate and, according to Tallrick, the best area in Homestead is the western area by Krome Avenue, and also Redland to the north.

Can anyone list some new (or old - I like the idea of farmland and some property), decent, safe areas of Homestead, including by zip code if possible?

Thanks!

[miamiblue]

I can't really comment about neighborhoods, but I think your commute, even only as far as Dadeland, will still be a big PITA. My father does the reverse commute from Kendall to Homestead, and that is fine. Basically, anywhere in the Miami area, if you are commuting away from downtown it won't be so bad. But with all the development that has gone on down in the Homestead area (all those houses, townhouses and condos you see along the Turnpike used to be farmland!), and the only northbound road options being Useless-1 and the Turnpike, everyone's forced to commute on those roads going north, since few people that live down in that area actually work down there. Just like few people who live west of the TPK actually work out there, they have to commute east first.

I don't know how bad it is now that all those new developments are finished, but the few times I was unlucky enough to have to get on the TPK North from Kendall in the morning, it was a parking lot starting as far south as 152nd Ave going all the way up to the toll booth at Bird Rd. That was nearly two years ago, I imagine it is worse now. Not my idea of something I'd want to do every day.

[CiXeL]

its so difficult and complex to live here sometimes i want to blow my brains out.
the simplest things become infinitely complex just because there are so many levels of incompetance to deal with, so many failing systems.

an example:

1. our mailbox gets broken into
2. take pics and tell your landlord whats next?
3. homeowner association who tell me to call postal police
4. call postal police who tell me to call another city department.
5. call the other city department, no one returns my call
6. call homeowner association again and they say call property manager
7. other city department calls back and yells at me and says it isnt their problem and that the lock is the homeowner's problem but only the mailbox is covered by them.
7. i call property manager who doesnt care and says its the landlord/homeowner's problem.
8. i email my landlord (because she doesnt speak very good english so this is easier) about the lock.
9. i get an email back telling me to call this locksmith she gives me the number for and to deduct the total from my rent.
10. i call the number and its a locksmith in ORLANDO!

augh!!!!!!!!

and this crap happens ALL THE TIME
so many systems are failing down here in dade that you cant rely on anything.

battery backups for the computers because power fails randomly
bottled water dispensor because i dont trust they actually filter the water supply and the water has a funny fertilizer smell sometimes
two months of savings saved up because florida unemployment is dysfunctional.
flourescent bulbs all through the house because city of homestead gouges people on electricity.
uninsured motorist's insurance because like 50% of dade county drivers have no insurance or even valid registration.

the only reason we have directv is because our housing complex resells adelphia but they couldnt be bothered to pick up the phone or reply to a fax when we wanted to get it set up and we realized if we had a hurricane service would be down forever because they simply wouldnt bother to fix it.

i swear the frustration of living here is going to give me cancer.

and its not like this stops at home. you run into the same thing at work with various key people in departments not doing their jobs.

you think youd get used to it but every time the pain wears off theres a new bandaid to tear off.

[bale002]

Okay CiXel, I have lived in some semi-dysfunctional countries, so your overall message is getting through.

But how on earth did you wind up in Homestead in the first place? I missed that part of the story.

Anyway, the first two responses make it sound like living in Homestead is akin to living in prison.

In any case, I did look through some MLS listings, including those with pictures, and everything still looks overpriced, and on top of that some of the new construction is reportedly shoddy.

Despite all this, does anyone have anything positive to say?

Welcome to the "rule of dumb", we're expecting you.

[CiXeL]

bale,

i wound up in homestead because i wanted coral reefs within driving distance and i wanted to grow tropical fruit trees in my backyard because i collect obscure exotic fruits from around the world.
i need a tropical climate for my hobbies.
this rules out most of the country except south florida and hawaii.
hawaii has the disadvantage where coral reef tanks are illegal because theyre afraid people will release fish and coral into the water so i opted for south florida instead.

we blew thousands of dollars in savings to move here.

we flew out here, drove around the whole state in 10 days in a rental car to scout it out.

i flew out again, lived at floyd's hostel in fort lauderdale and a friend's in orlando for 2 weeks and applied to jobs in orlando, fort lauderdale and miami. came back empty handed.

returned to my old job temporarily in california and got a call to work for burgerking corp hq.

flew out to start the job and apartment rented for 2 weeks while living at everglades hostel in florida city because floyd's was booked up.

it was winter, the area was full of snowbirds and speculators from broward working on their condos (didnt know this at the time or know about the snowbird phenomenon). looked like a nice place.

locked in a year lease. flew back to california, dropped thousands on a moving truck company to move all our stuff out here. like 5k i think it was.
rented a car carrier for my girlfriend's car. and dragged her car and my 60 gallon aquarium + rock and sand cross country. I-10 all the way across.

moved in and watched the place turn ghetto over the course of a year.
summer comes and we realize we're the only ones speaking english
lease is almost over. neighborhood has alot of thugs and people selling pot across the street.
we wakeup to blood curdling screams at 3am from the cop who is beating his girlfriend upstairs. we have to call the police on him.

we figure, its got to be better in a better community so we move north to the waterstone complex. once again unoccupied and once again watch it turn ghettoer over time.

thats the story so far.

[bale002]

So you want/need a tropical environment with coral reefs, an English-speaking community, and with jobs in the computer field, if I remember correctly?

Do any regions of Australia apply? If so, have you looked into emigrating there?

What about some of the English-speaking Caribbean islands? Some of them have sophisticated banks that may need a computer-savvy guy to run their information systems. Do you know anything about anti-money laundering software systems? That seems to be in demand there.

In any case, I wish you the best.

[CiXeL]

looked at australia but the whole 2000+ dollar plane ticket means that id see my family once every 2+ years or something which is a tad extreme.

dont know much about english speaking caribbean islands.

suicide seems like a cheap option too.

[bale002]

Is Hawaii that much more expensive than southern Florida? What about computer jobs in Hawaii?

[CiXeL]

hawaii is about as expensive as california.
it just seems ridiculous to move everything all the way back again and then put it on a boat to move it even farther and all the money that would cost.
plus after experiencing the shock of how f-ed up everything is here im scared to death to move to another unfamiliar place.

[harry chickpea]

CiXel, Johnny Papaya lives around St. Pete. You selected a rather extreme place for your hobbies, when others haven't had to go as far south.

I once considered west Homestead as a place to buy a home. DW didn't like the area, and the next year Andrew flattened it. Normally, I don't think of homeowners associations and gated communities as a plus. However, in south Dade, they are a requirement for even a minimal amount of security.

You might consider doing something we are about to try, moving north and growing the tropical plants in a hoophouse. Dunno how well it will work, we'll let folks know next year.