So I'm not alone--Florida really is as bad as I think it is!!! (St. Petersburg: environment)

[**NoodLes**]

Great post, all those points there are spot on. I've been here a little over a decade and have seen it change drastically like most other places, yet wages go nowhere. When I went to Valencia I had to take classes over as well, freshman math in college was like 8th grade math in Texas, no joke. In Orlando it doesn't matter because you will not get a high paying job so it doesn't really matter and thats the sad reality of it. That's another reason crime has skyrocketed because you can make quicker easier money than working hard for it here.

Another sad thing is whenever alot of people make the points you have we get bashed on. They say "you don't like it here then leave!" or "you have personal problems" or whatever lame excuse they come up with. But that's typical Orlando fashion for you, most of the miserable people here have tricked themselves into thinking everything is okay here and settle for less. I cannot stand it here anymore especially with the high cost of living and bad traffic. It seems now 70% of this area is spanish and I don't like it anymore. Oh well a few more weeks and I'll be gone as well. Good luck wherever you go!

[freeinspirit]

my folks live in Clermont. they love it. nice area but it was built up too fast. the schools are very overcrowded if you have school age children.

[HockeyMom72]

Originally Posted by WinterberryFarm

I grew up coming to Florida every spring with my family...to see sunshine, white sandy beaches and palm trees in the dead of an Illinois winter was a heavenly paradise! Then, throw a brand new Magic Kingdom in...and that was it...there was no place better in the world to be.

In my 20's I moved to Florida and left 2X because of low wages compared to Illinois. Waited 15 years and decided to give it a try again. Moved here in 2001 from south central PA with 4 children--all of whom were very good students in Pennsylvania public schools. We made 3 trips down here at different times of the year before we dicided to try Florida again.

For the posters who want specifics and not generalities on why people want to leave Florida...Quality of education would easily be my number 1 reason to leave..or not come at all. My kids all went to public schools in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. They ranged from 1st grade to 8th grade when we moved here...2 in elementary school and 2 in middle school with the oldest ready to enter high school. I am very blessed and fortunate, as my kids are all A students. I am not kidding or exaggerating one bit when I say that all 4 of my kids were 1 full year ahead of where their classmates were when we came down here...and yes, that means even my 1st and 3rd grader. My daughter learned to write cursive in 2nd grade up north. She had to go back to printing until the end of 3rd grade because the rest of the class had not been taught cursive yet. My son entering high school used the same math book as a Freshman that he had just had in 8th grade. These are 2 specifics that I distictly remember...but unfortunately for my kids, they were not challenged during the first year here and eventually fell in line with what the schools here were teaching. I try to not live with regrets, but that pill is a hard one to swallow.
2nd Reality--you come down to Florida expecting the cost of living to be less expensive..after all, you live close to the water so one would think the cost of fresh fish would be cheaper....NOT! We have a year round climate for growing fruits and vegetables..so fresh produce will be cheaper...NOT! I could buy all of this for less money at Giant Foods than I can at Publix. True, we have no state income tax here in Florida..while in PA you feel taxed to death. The $$$ that we thought we might have extra get quickly absorbed into higher food costs,higher utilities, water & sewer bills that are far higher than up north, higher auto and home insurance. Generally, the only thing one might conceivably save $$$ on is clothing because you don't need a 4 season wardrobe...however, coming here from Pennsylvania which does not or did not tax clothing, we adjusted to sales tax on all clothing. In 2001, housing in Florida was less expensive than where we came from in PA...but not anymore. Cost of medical and dental exceeds what we paid up north also. For all of the people working in the service industry in Orlando, I do not see how they can afford housing which far exceeded 200,000 and 300,000 for an average 3br home. Fortunately, the market has had to make some corrections and perhaps that issue will even out a bit better.

Bottom line..I don't think you should come to Florida thinking the cost of living will be less than where you are without doing some serious investigation into this. For our family, everything in the necessity category cost us more in Orlando than in PA.

3rd Reality--Coming to Florida because you love the water? Watch out...obviously, you already know about the gators, snakes, etc. But do you know about all of the beaches and lakes that are not safe to swim or fish in because of high fecal content and other nasty little microbial creatures in them?

4th reality--Yes, Florida is the sunshine state...and yes, we have plenty of that. We also have rain or a high probability of rain daily during several months of the year...these are the months that are already oppressively hot and humid--without a daily dose of rain. Summers can be very hot and very humid. Just standing outside will cause sweat to run whether you are moving or not.

5th Reality--You must be willing to accept a demographic population that can be far different that what you are used to. If you come from a predominantly white, English speaking area...and that is what you are looking for...you will be disappointed. I personally don't have trouble accepting other nationalities and races....but I do not like to feel as if I am a minority in my country. There will be no escaping this issue just about anywhere in Florida that you go..some areas will have higher influxes of non-whites than others and in some areas people speaking English will be almost non-existant. I just finished a year of school in Miami and people in Miami would routinely start talking to me in Spanish--expecting me to understand every word they said. The sad thing to me was that neither one of us could understand the other. I didn't understand them and they didn't understand me.

6th Reality--Driving on Florida roads is extremely hazardous to one's health. Many factors contribute to this, but it is a fact and it is verifiable by checking out for yourself the deadliest cities in the US to drive in. Out of the top 10, I believe Florida has 5. I know USA Today published survery results on this. I'm sure this data would be easy to find. I have also had the unfortunate experience of learning this first hand and having never been in an accident in my life until moving here.

There are many, many other things that I could cite, but many of those things are more my own perspective of things and why I choose to no longer deal with them. In reality, all of the above things are from my perspective and you might not find them true for you...depending on where you are coming from and what your life experiences have been.

I am leaving Florida within the next 30 days after being here for 7 years. I am not leaving hating it, but I am leaving because it just isn't for me anymore. There is good and bad everywhere so when one throws in all of the variables in life, true utopia will be hard to come by...life is not supposed to be perfect.

I was in total shock at costs of insurance in this state. I used to pay with low HMO, $48 biweekly for family coverage. When I switched to the high PPO to cover my husband here in Florida (my coverage was better than his) and my daughter away at college, it was $85 biweekly. This was not just for medical, but included prescriptions, dental, and eye care.

I now work for the schools district. For just a spouse it is $400 a month, and $700 for family coverage. This does NOT cover dental or eye care. I do not pay anything for my own coverage, but I have heard that in other counties the employee does pay. That may be coming for me too soon.

Why is medical insurance so expensive here? I know people like to say it is cheaper here because of no state taxes, but it is all these other higher expenses that creep up on you and add up.

[Lindsey_Mcfarren]

Originally Posted by HockeyMom72

I was in total shock at costs of insurance in this state. I used to pay with low HMO, $48 biweekly for family coverage. When I switched to the high PPO to cover my husband here in Florida (my coverage was better than his) and my daughter away at college, it was $85 biweekly. This was not just for medical, but included prescriptions, dental, and eye care.

I now work for the schools district. For just a spouse it is $400 a month, and $700 for family coverage. This does NOT cover dental or eye care. I do not pay anything for my own coverage, but I have heard that in other counties the employee does pay. That may be coming for me too soon.

Why is medical insurance so expensive here? I know people like to say it is cheaper here because of no state taxes, but it is all these other higher expenses that creep up on you and add up.

Part of the problem with insurance is who you work for. Get a job with the right company and your golden, it hardly costs anything and the coverage is amazing. I used to work for a large company and the insurance was inexpensive and included everything, PPO and had dental and life. Then I started working for a small company and I couldn't believe how expensive it was.

[kinglouix]

Originally Posted by WinterberryFarm

I grew up coming to Florida every spring with my family...to see sunshine, white sandy beaches and palm trees in the dead of an Illinois winter was a heavenly paradise! Then, throw a brand new Magic Kingdom in...and that was it...there was no place better in the world to be.

In my 20's I moved to Florida and left 2X because of low wages compared to Illinois. Waited 15 years and decided to give it a try again. Moved here in 2001 from south central PA with 4 children--all of whom were very good students in Pennsylvania public schools. We made 3 trips down here at different times of the year before we dicided to try Florida again.

For the posters who want specifics and not generalities on why people want to leave Florida...Quality of education would easily be my number 1 reason to leave..or not come at all. My kids all went to public schools in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. They ranged from 1st grade to 8th grade when we moved here...2 in elementary school and 2 in middle school with the oldest ready to enter high school. I am very blessed and fortunate, as my kids are all A students. I am not kidding or exaggerating one bit when I say that all 4 of my kids were 1 full year ahead of where their classmates were when we came down here...and yes, that means even my 1st and 3rd grader. My daughter learned to write cursive in 2nd grade up north. She had to go back to printing until the end of 3rd grade because the rest of the class had not been taught cursive yet. My son entering high school used the same math book as a Freshman that he had just had in 8th grade. These are 2 specifics that I distictly remember...but unfortunately for my kids, they were not challenged during the first year here and eventually fell in line with what the schools here were teaching. I try to not live with regrets, but that pill is a hard one to swallow.
2nd Reality--you come down to Florida expecting the cost of living to be less expensive..after all, you live close to the water so one would think the cost of fresh fish would be cheaper....NOT! We have a year round climate for growing fruits and vegetables..so fresh produce will be cheaper...NOT! I could buy all of this for less money at Giant Foods than I can at Publix. True, we have no state income tax here in Florida..while in PA you feel taxed to death. The $$$ that we thought we might have extra get quickly absorbed into higher food costs,higher utilities, water & sewer bills that are far higher than up north, higher auto and home insurance. Generally, the only thing one might conceivably save $$$ on is clothing because you don't need a 4 season wardrobe...however, coming here from Pennsylvania which does not or did not tax clothing, we adjusted to sales tax on all clothing. In 2001, housing in Florida was less expensive than where we came from in PA...but not anymore. Cost of medical and dental exceeds what we paid up north also. For all of the people working in the service industry in Orlando, I do not see how they can afford housing which far exceeded 200,000 and 300,000 for an average 3br home. Fortunately, the market has had to make some corrections and perhaps that issue will even out a bit better.

Bottom line..I don't think you should come to Florida thinking the cost of living will be less than where you are without doing some serious investigation into this. For our family, everything in the necessity category cost us more in Orlando than in PA.

3rd Reality--Coming to Florida because you love the water? Watch out...obviously, you already know about the gators, snakes, etc. But do you know about all of the beaches and lakes that are not safe to swim or fish in because of high fecal content and other nasty little microbial creatures in them?

4th reality--Yes, Florida is the sunshine state...and yes, we have plenty of that. We also have rain or a high probability of rain daily during several months of the year...these are the months that are already oppressively hot and humid--without a daily dose of rain. Summers can be very hot and very humid. Just standing outside will cause sweat to run whether you are moving or not.

5th Reality--You must be willing to accept a demographic population that can be far different that what you are used to. If you come from a predominantly white, English speaking area...and that is what you are looking for...you will be disappointed. I personally don't have trouble accepting other nationalities and races....but I do not like to feel as if I am a minority in my country. There will be no escaping this issue just about anywhere in Florida that you go..some areas will have higher influxes of non-whites than others and in some areas people speaking English will be almost non-existant. I just finished a year of school in Miami and people in Miami would routinely start talking to me in Spanish--expecting me to understand every word they said. The sad thing to me was that neither one of us could understand the other. I didn't understand them and they didn't understand me.

6th Reality--Driving on Florida roads is extremely hazardous to one's health. Many factors contribute to this, but it is a fact and it is verifiable by checking out for yourself the deadliest cities in the US to drive in. Out of the top 10, I believe Florida has 5. I know USA Today published survery results on this. I'm sure this data would be easy to find. I have also had the unfortunate experience of learning this first hand and having never been in an accident in my life until moving here.

There are many, many other things that I could cite, but many of those things are more my own perspective of things and why I choose to no longer deal with them. In reality, all of the above things are from my perspective and you might not find them true for you...depending on where you are coming from and what your life experiences have been.

I am leaving Florida within the next 30 days after being here for 7 years. I am not leaving hating it, but I am leaving because it just isn't for me anymore. There is good and bad everywhere so when one throws in all of the variables in life, true utopia will be hard to come by...life is not supposed to be perfect.

Very well written and you didn't even mention crime. Per Capita crime in Orlando is the worst in Florida and one of the worst in the country!!!

[d2131]

last night there were 7 cop cars with lights on and a helicopter with a search light over polos east apartments in waterford lakes....did anyone hear anything???? i live there please let me know!!!

[TKramar]

I've lived in Florida for over 20 years. Not near Orlando. But I have no problems that I wouldn't be as likely to experience elsewhere.

[Jrom]

I am sad to read so many unhappy people living in Orlando. I love it. I am from London, been here for 9 years, my experience is Sunny, Friendly, and wages not bad! The property market has come down, so you can pick up a bargin and in another 6 months it will be even better. Good Luck

[xtoolmaker]

d2131.I live in Waterford Lakes also, did not hear the police that night but have had the copter over our development twice in the past 3 months and can not find out what they were looking for. It would be nice to have a phone number to call when you have that much police activity going on. they could be looking for someone that may break into your home trying to get away .I arm myself and stay up for awhile after they leave.So far so good .But you never know anymore.I thought about getting a police scanner but was told they are going to start broadcasting so only they can hear.Do not know for sure that it"s true .I am going to look into it.

[amax41]

you think you have problems??? That guy they are looking for that hit the police officer? Yea this is cute - I now have 7 unmarked in the street ...they now have tracked him to living a few houses away....

on the bright side, I have 7 police cars practically in front of my house ....(yea that is twisted isn't it)