Ahhh... is a move to Miami insane? (Pembroke Pines, Coral Springs: roofing, quality of life)

[Rock Newman]

Originally Posted by rogerbacon

Do you think White America has no culture? It has to be Hispainc of Asian to have culture?



I guess I believe in the American Dream then because what you wrote sounds ideal to me.

Roger my friend , you need either to get a life or a puppy ... why does it bother you that some one may like Miami a bit ... who cares ?

[tallrick]

Originally Posted by muscleman305

I completely agree 100%, houses with historic significance will always sell no matter how cold the market is. New contsruction is very cheap and generic looking, its like comparing modern plastic cars with the old school cars with style and character, the newer stuff just looks plain and souless in comparison. Also you can always build up, but land, especially in South dade is finite. Unless our greedy politicians one day open up the everglades for development. which is already slowly starting to happen.

That's why I had to build my own home and still drive my dodge chargers. You can look at the interior of any home, from a HUD apartment to a luxury mansion and see cheap drywall, and low quality finishes. An older home will give you better quality finishes, even if the structure is not perfect. Space is a precious commodity in south Florida due to rampant development and the nationalization of the free space which makes up 1/2 of the area. Having the wrong kind of people here hurts even more as the urban space is often devoid of nature because Cubans hate big leafy trees.

One of my talents is being able to tell the age of a building by its details. When I build something nobody can figure out the year it was built. It would have nice to have been an adult here before the drug dealers came as there was a lot of nice, affordable places to live with character to choose from. Now, Miami is totally obsolete and people have to pay top $$$ for the scraps left behind.

[rogerbacon]

The reason we get cookie-cutter houses is becaue one large company comes in and builts 10,000 houses. They only have 4 or 5 models so, of course, they are all the same.

It didn't use to be that way. I grew up down here and I had a lot of friends. No two friends had the same house floorplan. People used to hire contractors, architects, and a civil engineer and have a house designed and built. My dad designed our house. Maybe there should be a limit on the number of houses a company can build at one time. Maybe it should be limited to X times the number of plans they have. That way a large company like Lennar could still build 10,000 homes but they would have to work with the individuals on a unique floorplan for each one.
I suppose doing it the cookie-cutter way makes it cheaper for the builder but it sure doesn't seem like the cost savings are being passed on. I bet it is still cheaper to hire someone to build your own house rather than accept a cookie-cutter one.

[vpcats]

Originally Posted by tallrick

That's why I had to build my own home and still drive my dodge chargers. You can look at the interior of any home, from a HUD apartment to a luxury mansion and see cheap drywall, and low quality finishes. An older home will give you better quality finishes, even if the structure is not perfect. Space is a precious commodity in south Florida due to rampant development and the nationalization of the free space which makes up 1/2 of the area. Having the wrong kind of people here hurts even more as the urban space is often devoid of nature because Cubans hate big leafy trees.

One of my talents is being able to tell the age of a building by its details. When I build something nobody can figure out the year it was built. It would have nice to have been an adult here before the drug dealers came as there was a lot of nice, affordable places to live with character to choose from. Now, Miami is totally obsolete and people have to pay top $$$ for the scraps left behind.

Generalizations are not quite fair. Not ALL Cubans hate leafy trees.

[crisp444]

Originally Posted by vpcats

Generalizations are not quite fair. Not ALL Cubans hate leafy trees.

I think it has more to do with social class than Anglo vs. Cuban. There are many Cuban families living in homes with lush landscaping in Pinecrest, Miami Lakes (Royal Oaks area has beautiful tree cover), Miami Springs, Coral Gables, South Miami, even some areas of Kendall. You're not going to find lush landscaping in most working class areas (Anglo: parts of Hollywood, central Cutler Bay, east Davie, etc.; Cuban: Hialeah, Little Havana, etc.)

[vpcats]

Originally Posted by crisp444

I think it has more to do with social class than Anglo vs. Cuban. There are many Cuban families living in homes with lush landscaping in Pinecrest, Miami Lakes (Royal Oaks area has beautiful tree cover), Miami Springs, Coral Gables, South Miami, even some areas of Kendall. You're not going to find lush landscaping in most working class areas (Anglo: parts of Hollywood, central Cutler Bay, east Davie, etc.; Cuban: Hialeah, Little Havana, etc.)

I know but I guess not everyone does.

[Chrome Microphone]

Originally Posted by Rock Newman

Be careful , what you wish for my brother in law moved to Alpharetta with his family from Coral Springs three years ago and wants to move back to Florida .. preferably either a town like Lakeland or Ponte Vedra .. he claims that people were superficial , phony , crime was high at least as bad as anywhere in South Florida , there are serious racial tensions ( MIAMI anyone ? ) terrible air quality , issues with lack of water and terrible , terrible , traffic that makes I-95 look like kindergarten ... I go to the Atlanta area frequently on business and it is ok ... I like Mid Town and Buckhead ... but Alpaheretta is just another upscale burb like one of the many in South Florida . I would suggest Charlotte or even Birmingham as nice up and coming Southern cities ... but Atlanta is losing its luster in the opinion of many .. my family included . Did I fail to mention that the Georgia school system is even ranked lower than Floriduhs !!!

Alpharetta's crime is as high as anywhere in S FL? You're kidding, right? Dude, their crime rate is in the mid 200's (very low), which is slightly higher than Cooper City, which is in the high 100's to low 200's (as pointed out by Compelled to Reply the other day). Very low crime there. I like Mid-Town and Buckhead too.

Traffic, yup. I agree. It's pretty bad! I also like Charlotte as well, especially the outskirts. I could see how ppl could think the ppl in Alpharetta are snooty, but your brother-in-law is from S FL, gimme a break! But I do find the people friendlier and I definitely find it more American in Alpharetta, and that's a huge deal to me.

I cant comment on air quality or water problems. That could be true, I dont know.

[EnjoyTheSilence]

Originally Posted by vpcats

Generalizations are not quite fair. Not ALL Cubans hate leafy trees.

In places like Hialeah, Westchester and Sweetwater they do, but in Coral Gables and Miami Springs, people tend to have more appreciation for the greenery.

[EnjoyTheSilence]

Originally Posted by Chrome Microphone

Alpharetta's crime is as high as anywhere in S FL? You're kidding, right? Dude, their crime rate is in the mid 200's (very low), which is slightly higher than Cooper City, which is in the high 100's to low 200's (as pointed out by Compelled to Reply the other day). Very low crime there. I like Mid-Town and Buckhead too.

Traffic, yup. I agree. It's pretty bad! I also like Charlotte as well, especially the outskirts. I could see how ppl could think the ppl in Alpharetta are snooty, but your brother-in-law is from S FL, gimme a break! But I do find the people friendlier and I definitely find it more American in Alpharetta, and that's a huge deal to me.

I cant comment on air quality or water problems. That could be true, I dont know.

Traffic in ATL is really bad (I mean really bad), but the drivers generally aren't raving lunatics.

(just my opinion, having driven in both cities).

[EnjoyTheSilence]

Originally Posted by rogerbacon

The reason we get cookie-cutter houses is becaue one large company comes in and builts 10,000 houses. They only have 4 or 5 models so, of course, they are all the same.

It didn't use to be that way. I grew up down here and I had a lot of friends. No two friends had the same house floorplan. People used to hire contractors, architects, and a civil engineer and have a house designed and built. My dad designed our house. Maybe there should be a limit on the number of houses a company can build at one time. Maybe it should be limited to X times the number of plans they have. That way a large company like Lennar could still build 10,000 homes but they would have to work with the individuals on a unique floorplan for each one.
I suppose doing it the cookie-cutter way makes it cheaper for the builder but it sure doesn't seem like the cost savings are being passed on. I bet it is still cheaper to hire someone to build your own house rather than accept a cookie-cutter one.

I'm with you & tallrick on this - I hate cookie cutter. Cookie cutter housing isn't solely a South Florida problem. It's much worse in Southern California, for example, where there are seas upon seas of cookie cutter housing, all over priced, shoddy quality and worst of all, boring and bland.

There is some nice housing stock to be found in Miami. For example, Miami Springs has some older housing stock, with plenty of variety and houses that are largely unique and not made from cheap Chinese drywall.

In Miami, Kendall and Homestead are the worst examples of rampant cookie cutter overdevelopment. They built like crazy, now many of these houses won't even sell and aren't worth anywhere near their original asking price.

Besides, I wouldn't want to live in a bland, cookie cutter neighborhood, so far from everything with so few amenities around, forcing me to use my car to drive 2 miles just to buy a friggin' bottle of milk.