Inquiry for West Palm Beach and surrounding suburbs... (Tampa, Orlando: amusement parks, employment)

[placestogo]

Hi,



My family and I are moving to Florida in the next 2 months. We looked at Orlando and liked it. A friend recommended West palm beach or surrounding suburbs because of the closer proximity to the beach and possibly more opportunities for my business. I've already done research on the opportunities and would have to agree, so my questions are basically...

-For those who are in West Palm beach and surrounding, what do you think about the metro area; weather, etc?

-If you were to choose, would you go to Orlando or stay in West Palm Beach?

-What about the hurricanes? This is one of the big issues we have as we heard the WPB does get hit directly with hurricanes. When was the last major hurricane and did it affect the area much? Was there a lot of damage? What do you do when a hurricane is said to come? Evacuate? Does WPB get hit yearly? About how bad?


That should be all for now!

Any advice and help is appreciated!

[TheLuckoftheDraw]

For many of your questions, you can easily search or just browse through the forum and find a lot of comments and opinions about that stuff.

It seems odd to me that you'd be moving within two months, and you'll also be starting a business in the new area, but you're still not even sure what city you're moving to, but anyway . . .

Aside from employment necessities, probably the only reason I would consider moving to Orlando rather than South Florida ("South Florida" conventionally being Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties) is the proximity of the amusement parks. There are other areas of Florida I might pick over South Florida otherwise, but the big cities in Central Florida--Orlando and Tampa, never "resonated" with me for whatever reason. Tampa I actually used to find unpleasant, although the last time I visited Tampa, a couple years ago, I didn't mind it so much. It wasn't anything specific I found unpleasant about Tampa. It's just an "atmosphere" or "feel" thing. Very subjective and fairly ineffable. But it just didn't "click" with me.

Part of it for me, though, is probably that I grew up in South Florida, so there's that "home" feeling to it for me. I don't think it would be possible for me to imagine what South Florida might seem like to me if I'd never lived there. If I'd grown up in the Orlando area instead, my feelings might be reversed.

Re hurricanes, NO area in Florida, period, is safe from hurricanes. How often hurricanes hit different areas is easy enough to look up. They do not hit any location regularly.