Moving from United Kingdom to Boynton Beach or Delray area. (Fort Lauderdale: apartment complexes, rent)

[favouredM]

As a UK citizen (based in London) I am keen to relocate to South Florida esp Boynton Beach or Delray areas. I am currently seeking employers or business owners to act as sponsors (ie offering me employment). I have some years of work experience (mostly in Business Systems Support and Data Support). I have worked with large corporations too. I have spent 3 months and stayed in South Florida (Ft Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines, Coral Springs, Hollywood etc).
[SIZE=2]Having spoken to Florida based immigration lawyers,I've been advised to process a labour certification route which is for skilled people which appear to be a better option.
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[SIZE=2]Grateful for your advice.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=2]Kind Regards
[/SIZE]

[PBCboy]

So what are you looking to know? Are you curious about the areas? Is there a certain reason it has to be these areas? Have you researched these areas?

I am very familiar with both of them so if you have any questions let me know...

[favouredM]

I'm open to other areas (ideally with low-crime, good school (got kids who i'd like to give sound education) and pleasant neighbourhood community + business friendly environment.) My current residence in the UK reflects these features too. In particular I suppose I chose these areas cause during my 3 months stay in South Florida I visited good gated and friendly communities, met a good number of well to do business owners/entreprenuers even in their homes and offices. Again I'm open to equally good areas that satisfy these criterias.
I always believe in these positive statements:
Increase by association - Jerry Savelle.
There are winners, there are losers and there are people who have not yet learned how to win. - Les Brown
Five years from now you will be pretty much the same as you are today except for two things: the books you read and the people you get close to - Charles "Tremendous" Jones

Grateful for your advice on any list of employers or business owners. Also I would be grateful to learn from your vast knowledge on the Ft Lauderdale, Boynton, Delray areas.

Kind Regards

[PBCboy]

Originally Posted by favouredM

I'm open to other areas (ideally with low-crime, good school (got kids who i'd like to give sound education) and pleasant neighbourhood community + business friendly environment.) My current residence in the UK reflects these features too. In particular I suppose I chose these areas cause during my 3 months stay in South Florida I visited good gated and friendly communities, met a good number of well to do business owners/entreprenuers even in their homes and offices. Again I'm open to equally good areas that satisfy these criterias.
I always believe in these positive statements:
Increase by association - Jerry Savelle.
There are winners, there are losers and there are people who have not yet learned how to win. - Les Brown
Five years from now you will be pretty much the same as you are today except for two things: the books you read and the people you get close to - Charles "Tremendous" Jones

Grateful for your advice on any list of employers or business owners. Also I would be grateful to learn from your vast knowledge on the Ft Lauderdale, Boynton, Delray areas.

Kind Regards

The city of Fort Lauderdale itself is not worth moving to, but the suburbs west of it (Weston, Cooper City, Parkland, Coral Springs, etc.) would fit the bill of a gated community in a city with low crime.

Boynton Beach has been going downhill for the past few years. The crime has been increasing and gangs are definitely an issue there. West Boynton is safer, but it's much more generic and boring than the city of Boynton Beach itself - everything looks the same there, and the people are pseudo-snobs. If you're looking for a gated community though that'll fit the bill...

Delray Beach is pretty much divided between wealthy Jewish Anglo's and poor Haitians. Most of it is very safe and clean, but there are areas that you'd want to avoid. If you're price range is right, however, you'll find Delray Beach to be great. You'll dig the downtown area, as well.

[compelled to reply]

What he said, except there aren't many gated communities in Cooper City except for Embassy Creek and a couple of smaller ones. You could even find a no HOA community there. Coral Springs isn't really that gated either, although there are a few gated apartment complexes and a few developments that have gates.

Also, if he only needs good elementary schools, the city of Ft. Lauderdale actually has some excellent ones. The Bayview area of Ft. Lauderdale has one of the best in the state and there are other areas with good ones. Nice family pockets aside, I don't know if I would want to raise my kids around the adult oriented sleaziness of Ft. Lauderdale.

[heydade]

Originally Posted by PBCboy

The city of Fort Lauderdale itself is not worth moving to, but the suburbs west of it (Weston, Cooper City, Parkland, Coral Springs, etc.) would fit the bill of a gated community in a city with low crime.

Boynton Beach has been going downhill for the past few years. The crime has been increasing and gangs are definitely an issue there. West Boynton is safer, but it's much more generic and boring than the city of Boynton Beach itself - everything looks the same there, and the people are pseudo-snobs. If you're looking for a gated community though that'll fit the bill...

Delray Beach is pretty much divided between wealthy Jewish Anglo's and poor Haitians. Most of it is very safe and clean, but there are areas that you'd want to avoid. If you're price range is right, however, you'll find Delray Beach to be great. You'll dig the downtown area, as well.

Boynton Beach has indeed gone severly downhill lately. Lot's and lot's of crime all the time....gangs, thugs. Very scary place to live.

[THX 1138]

Some of the statements on the areas are true, but somewhat over exaggerated.

If you live west of 95 in Boynton Beach you will have more headaches dealing with retirees, snowbirds then anything else, all from driving to dining to shopping at Publix. I don't see it as a scary place though, people make it sound like the South Bronx, Camden, NJ, South Central LA or the likes, not even close, better get out the duct tape and plastic lol, geez!

Sure parts of Boynton like the Cherry Hill Section are areas to avoid, all east of 95 and west of US1 it's has it's areas that are prone to violence, mostly gang vs. gang.

Further west of Jog Road, rent the movie "The Boynton Beach Club" to get a taste of it.

Western Delray and Boynton are safe and clean, west meaning west of Jog Road.

Both Delray and Boynton have a large population of retirees and snowbirds. Both have pockets of bad areas, predominantly east of 95 but in pockets elsewhere you will see areas that look seedy but are predominatly working class people who don't live in the manicured state behind the guarded gates of the presumed Florida Utopia. Not everyone can afford that lifestyle.

One of the worst areas is off of the glitz, fine dining and sidewalk bistros of Atlantic Ave just east of 95. Many that lived here years ago remember it was even worse but the city has slowly cleaned up Atlantic ave west towards 95.

If you have kids, I would suggest Wellington, Coral Springs or Weston. You will be easily within driving distance of potential employers.

Finding a job here, well that's probably the hardest thing for those already here and I think people here are more "scared" of losing their jobs and way of life more then anything. Yes crime is always an issue, but with the economy and the high volume of people living here, crime will always rear it's ugly head unfortunately.

[compelled to reply]

The main crime problem in west Boynton is burglary, which was getting out of hand for a while. You stay west of Military Trail and you won't be seeing any insane violence, it's just kind of uptight (To me). My family up there in BB told me that the local police are catching some of the burglars and it's fine even in that regard nowadays. The number one problem with that area is the pseudo-snobs, otherwise it's very nice in a homogeneous, south Orange County, CA sort of way.

I have seen active gang members in east BB, but they left me alone. But I definitely would not live there. That's an example of an area that actually has gone downhill, not just a bunch of drama queens whining about it. It was a bit cleaner as a whole 10-15 years ago. There were always bad parts but the blight grew in that area. I think it's because of all of the new building out west, so the interest shifted out there.