continuing growth in SWFL (Miami, Homestead: hotel, house, living)

[relocatingtonaples]

I'm hoping for the Logan Blvd extension to Bonita Beach Rd to open soon. Immokalee Rd is pretty busy during Season, and it will be good to have a better way to get to the airport if you live off of Logan.

[Travelassie]

Originally Posted by Corrie22

LOL...it's all relative...I'm moving to Naples for better weather, higher class of shopping and eating, more things to do, less crime..and less crowded and less traffic

I hope you aren't disappointed when you don't find it there, or find it ( the traffic, crowding and crime) escalating over the years. Especially when 500,000 of your closest nrighbors and friends decide to join you.

[Corrie22]

good Lord.....does the internet just give negative doom and gloom people a place to hang out?

Of course it's going to escalate...so what? Sure beats the other choices where it's already escalated

[shokwaverider]

We will tell you our opinion, at the end of next month. We have chosen 10 communities in the Naples area, and a home in each to go view that are in our price range. If I come home exhausted and fed up of the traffic, that will be a good metric for me. HOWEVER, a couple coming from say Chicago, NYC, LA, Atlanta, or any other populous city with wall to wall traffic and people may have a different view.

For us, our current traffic experiences in our small NW Florida historical coastal town is no issue. AND right now where every other license plate is from NYC & NJ areas, Ontario and Quebec. We really have it good. Just a shame we get those 3 cold weeks every year that kills my damn Bananas!

[Corrie22]

LOL....I hear you on the bananas! I'm a tropical plant grower....orchids, heliconia, etc...Naples is about my limit
...You guys don't know what traffic is....try living in the Keys, with only one road....and all the out of state tags that are here year round now..the annual migration of the Winnebagos is spectacular
Plus, it's just time for us to move....we're older, don't do the boat anymore....and it takes a day from here, to ever start your day trip.
I don't want to live where there are a lot of poor people...I might not have the money to spend...but when I go out, I want to be able to see and be around nice things

[shokwaverider]

Originally Posted by Corrie22

I don't want to live where there are a lot of poor people...I might not have the money to spend...but when I go out, I want to be able to see and be around nice things

+100.... No Trailers, No MFG Homes, No Trucks on blocks or sofas in front Yard, No Purple Houses.

[Corrie22]

Originally Posted by shokwaverider

+100.... No Trailers, No MFG Homes, No Trucks on blocks or sofas in front Yard, No Purple Houses.

That can be very depressing, and wear you out...

Naples has always been our "get away" place, clean, safe....if nothing else, just go downtown walk around, window shop, grab something to eat, etc

Don't let a combination of not knowing where you're going, and traffic trick you....we know our way around, and don't try to be in any hurry, so the traffic doesn't bother us one bit

Let me know what you think!.............

[Richard818]

Originally Posted by shokwaverider

We will tell you our opinion, at the end of next month. We have chosen 10 communities in the Naples area, and a home in each to go view that are in our price range. If I come home exhausted and fed up of the traffic, that will be a good metric for me. HOWEVER, a couple coming from say Chicago, NYC, LA, Atlanta, or any other populous city with wall to wall traffic and people may have a different view.

For us, our current traffic experiences in our small NW Florida historical coastal town is no issue. AND right now where every other license plate is from NYC & NJ areas, Ontario and Quebec. We really have it good. Just a shame we get those 3 cold weeks every year that kills my damn Bananas!

My traffic experience after living in Naples for 4 years now is that it has very little impact unless you have to get to a certain place at a certain time and there are no alternate routes besides the few heavily traveled roads. 9/10 times I've found there's a route that is a slightly longer distance but has little traffic so takes maybe 5-10 minutes more time than direct route off season and considerably less than time than direct route during season.

[Tripower455]

Originally Posted by Corrie22

good Lord.....does the internet just give negative doom and gloom people a place to hang out?

Of course it's going to escalate...so what? Sure beats the other choices where it's already escalated

So what? It already has "escalated" and is getting worse. It's negatively affected the QOL of those of us that live here to the point that many have left or are leaving.

When we moved into our current house, there was nothing but woods and a farm in the square bordered by Immokalee Rd., Logan Blvd (which hadn't been extended north of VBR yet) Vanderbilt Beach Rd, and 951. The only things on 951 north of VBR were the nursery and the mobile home park, and there was nothing on Immokalee between 951 and the interstate but a nursery and a few other small buildings. All were 2 lane rds. (1 lane in each direction)

At the time we moved in, there was not one traffic light between my house and exit 111, which was a 5-6 minute drive at the time. There are now 6, and it takes twice that, even in the middle of the night, and has been closer to 30 minutes during season in the daytime.

The first nail in the coffin around us was Island Walk, followed closely by Pebblebrook, Indigo Lakes and Saturnia. When the bubble burst, it put a stop to almost all construction, so we got a break for a few years.

Now, they're back to filling every inch of vacant land in the county. The area along 951 between VBR and Immokalee Rd. and north of Immokalee Rd. between 951 and I75 is almost completely filled with high density housing. That's tens of thousands of people in 5-6 square miles, all in under 20 years, not to mention their cars.

This is not even mentioning the tens of thousands of folks that have already moved into the Estates and the high density developments east of 951, that are forced to use the inadequate roads through this area, and there is a lot more room to build out there.

That's "what".

Ironically, a few months before they broke ground on Island Walk, one of my neighbors got fined for watering his lawn on the wrong day, due to water restrictions. All of a sudden, we had enough water for thousands more people. I guess tax revenue somehow creates ground water. Unfortunately, it doesn't, apparently, create more roads.

It would be bad enough if all growth stopped right now, since the damage is already done, but is getting even worse by the day. If Naples does, currently, beat the "other" places that have already been destroyed by unfettered development, how long until our QOL is as bad as Broward?

This is not "gloom and doom", it's plain fact.

If you're moving here because you don't like the east coast, don't bother. Collier is rapidly becoming Broward West.

[JPrzybylski07]

Originally Posted by Tripower455

So what? It already has "escalated" and is getting worse. It's negatively affected the QOL of those of us that live here to the point that many have left or are leaving.

When we moved into our current house, there was nothing but woods and a farm in the square bordered by Immokalee Rd., Logan Blvd (which hadn't been extended north of VBR yet) Vanderbilt Beach Rd, and 951. The only things on 951 north of VBR were the nursery and the mobile home park, and there was nothing on Immokalee between 951 and the interstate but a nursery and a few other small buildings. All were 2 lane rds. (1 lane in each direction)

At the time we moved in, there was not one traffic light between my house and exit 111, which was a 5-6 minute drive at the time. There are now 6, and it takes twice that, even in the middle of the night, and has been closer to 30 minutes during season in the daytime.

The first nail in the coffin around us was Island Walk, followed closely by Pebblebrook, Indigo Lakes and Saturnia. When the bubble burst, it put a stop to almost all construction, so we got a break for a few years.

Now, they're back to filling every inch of vacant land in the county. The area along 951 between VBR and Immokalee Rd. and north of Immokalee Rd. between 951 and I75 is almost completely filled with high density housing. That's tens of thousands of people in 5-6 square miles, all in under 20 years, not to mention their cars.

This is not even mentioning the tens of thousands of folks that have already moved into the Estates and the high density developments east of 951, that are forced to use the inadequate roads through this area, and there is a lot more room to build out there.

That's "what".

Ironically, a few months before they broke ground on Island Walk, one of my neighbors got fined for watering his lawn on the wrong day, due to water restrictions. All of a sudden, we had enough water for thousands more people. I guess tax revenue somehow creates ground water. Unfortunately, it doesn't, apparently, create more roads.

It would be bad enough if all growth stopped right now, since the damage is already done, but is getting even worse by the day. If Naples does, currently, beat the "other" places that have already been destroyed by unfettered development, how long until our QOL is as bad as Broward?

This is not "gloom and doom", it's plain fact.

If you're moving here because you don't like the east coast, don't bother. Collier is rapidly becoming Broward West.

If it helps at all we have all the ingredients in place for another recession/bubble pop.


No doom or gloom here, life is good. But.... everything what Tripower just said is true, and must be painfully true to have lived through it first hand. I've said this already in this thread that if the growth continues on this path all the reasons people moved here in the first place will be eventually be ruined, and by default other places (any where really in the country) that have been less exploited will be pioneered by a wave of people that could be deterred away from the modern present day Naples area.


Of course a place with year round summer weather is pretty scarce commodity so there will probably never be a shortage of people willing to trade the bad (traffic, light pollution ,etc) for the good (no snow, abundant sunshine).


Unfortunately the new wave of people (myself included) really don't have the contrast to compare like Tripower has, so it's much more painful for them then it is for the new wave of people who simply have no comprehension how much nicer, cleaner, and more peaceful Naples really was back in the day. The new wave of people can't really miss what they never had in the first place, so to them it's still paradise because yes, everything is relative and when you compare Naples to other northern places it is still a "paradise".


So the only thing that really will stop such aggressive growth will be another major recession.