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I would think for a family, job and security plus education and medical access would rate higher than "I dont like the winters". We are coming back to the Johnstown area to visit elderly relatives. If there were jobs in upstate, I would consider it. I really want to live in Ithaca. Four beautiful seasons and Saratoga Springs is so pretty.
Yes, winters are killing our 80 year old parents but there are the senior apartments we are trying to get them into before one of them breaks a leg on the ice. They love their community and the people are so darn nice. No one has much but they all share. We have ended up being the benefactors since we ship DVDs and books to his parents and they share them all over town.
I thought about Florida and discounted it due to all the factors mentioned previously. Plus, the insurance and tax situation is in total flux and it needs to settle down. Give it at least two years.
We tried NC and loved it. Only moved due to a corporate move back home. It is known as the half way move.
llong...stay upstate in paradise! There is no place like home...for everything! Please don't have the "grass is greener" thought, and don't be persuaded by family members to move to a place where the much of the year is hot as heck and the crime is rampant (many Floridians do NOT ever admit that). My family, like many others, moved from Long Island to the suburbs of Tampa. I stayed on Long Island. They always try to make me move down there and the decision is very simple for me. As I drive along on route 60 in Florida, I pass many adult stores, gun shops, pawn shops and within a few miles of where my family lives, I pass a few 24-hour Bail Bond buildings! When I sit down to a cup of coffee and look at their newspapers, I cringe when I read the crime reports. Believe me, I know crimes happen everywhere, but some place are bad as can be. After visiting, and my plane is landing at MacArthur Airport, I get a peaceful, easy feeling when I see my beautiful NYS! I kiss the ground I walk on. I know, taxes, taxes, blah, blah blah...at least we are getting good school systems for our money. But there is no place like home. I can drive upstate to see mountains and beautiful lakes...I can go see a world famous beautiful village and museum, Cooperstown...I can see culture and the arts and beauty of Saratoga Springs...I can vacation with my kids in Lake George...I can visit the beauty of the Finger Lake Region...and come back home to my beautiful beaches on Long Island! Now...why the heck would I love anywhere else, away from such a beautiful state? No thanks..I've come to realize that NYS is a beautiful place to live. Don't move!
It sounds to me like you don't need anyone's convincing......if you made this thread, it's pretty obvious that you don't want to move to Florida and would rather stay in NY...so, by all means, stay in NY
OH how I enjoyed all the posts about FL, because they are all 100% true. Don't do it!! I moved from the Hudson Valley to the gulf coast of FL to follow my parents, who had relocated there. My mom went kicking and fighting but her generation was all about not telling my Dad to go enjoy shuffleboard by himself. It was hell on earth. Everything everyone else mentioned:
1) Giant flying cockroaches that you must pay an exterminator to spray toxins in your house every month to keep at bay. My mom died of cancer, and her doctor felt that the continual pesticide-spraying may have been a contributing factor to her rare form of cancer. The dog got cancer too, and no wonder. You can't leave ANYTHING out in your kitchen, i.e., wash all dishes IMMEDIATELY, bag up your garbage or take it out every single night, don't leave pet food out, and be continually on guard for dropped crumbs of food, etc. You even have to wash your recycling, because emtpy cans and bottles with one drop of food on them attract armies of sugar ants, roaches, and God knows what else. Oh, and lizards. IN YOUR HOUSE. And even if you develop OCD and clean your house fanatically, you will still have roaches creeping under doors that you thought had tight seals, because the *$#@&^! things can flatten themselves to paper-thin proportions. You can't sit outside in the evening with a drink or food without finding one floating in your drink, and one flew into my hair once and I went running around the yard flailing at my head like a crazy person. It is totally, utterly disgusting. You have to buy hundreds of dollars worth of Tupperware, because you can't leave ANYTHING in the box it came in without bugs getting into it. And then, because of all the construction, the coral snakes get displaced and guess where they end up? Your mailbox, your barbeque grill, your garage, or how about in you toilet? True story, my sister lived on one of the gulf-coast keys and found a snake in her toilet more than once.
2) EVERY DAY is a bad hair day, because the humidity is so bad and the air is like a heavy wet blanket.
3) Never any fresh air in the house except for those two weeks in "winter" when it dips below 70.
4) Two seasons: "Big Summer" and "Little Summer"
5) Really deplorable race relations. Enough said about that.
6) Third-world-country wages. I'm surprised we don't need passports to visit FL. I moved to another state and instantly made $7K more per year doing the exact same type of work.
7) Condo Commandos in black socks, dress shoes and shorts, bossing everyone else around. Watch out: they're organized and they're dangerous.
8) No greek pizza, no canolis, no teriyaki...no "ethnic" food at all, just lots and lots of Menonite home-cooking places, early-bird specials, and all-you-can-eat buffets.
9) The never-ending beehive of activity with traffic clogging up the roads 24/7, and the drivers are soooo scary. You'll get behind a huge cadillac going 8 mph on the highway and you'll swear no one is driving it because you can't even see the head of the 90-year old driver.
10) The brainwashing conspiracy: everybody who's moved there tries to act like it is "paradise". If it rains even one day (which is such a blessed relief from the monotony of the weather being the same, same, same, every darn day), they all complain, "I didn't move here from Ohio to have it rain like this!"
11) Barbie and Ken live in FL. You will recognize Barbie because she has perfectly coiffed blonde hair, tons of makeup, lots of jewelry, perfect manicures, weighs 95 pounds, and she wears heels and dresses up all the time, even to go out to the mailbox. It's a lot like Texas that way. And Ken belongs to a health club and is a body-builder, of course. Their numbers are legion. Beware.
Seriously, don't do it. You'll go broke from the low wages plus spending all your money on pest control, $300/mo electric bills (AIR CONDITIONING 24/7), and shopping at Dillard's to dull the pain of living in the most boring state in the country, and then you'll be trapped and unable to afford to escape!!
Well, to Takemehome and Raven and Bear. Thanks. I have been contemplating relocating my family to Florida because I am so unhappy with the school system where we are in Westchester. After reading your posts and just about everything on Florida that this forum has, We have decided to relocate to another area of NY. You are right with everything you said. Florida is impressive for a vacation, but roots etc there really aren't any. Here today gone tomorrow. What the heck was I thinking. My husband makes 3 times as much here on a great job,( not to mention the benefits) he doesn't bust his butt and to work down there for something in the $20,000 is just plain crazy. We thought it might be a better family life for us but not when you have to struggle and work 10 jobs to get ahead. Thankyou for bringing me back to reality and bringing back the appreciation of what NY has to offer. We were also asking ourselves something really stupid "Where do you want to be buried when you die" and we all responded NY. Crazy to think about but true. We too have family in the south and they ask when are you moving here? Now we will just say we'll see you on our next VACATION.
Thanks again
homeward bound- I love what you said about the stars. Where I live in Florida a night sky consists of two dim stars A couple of years ago I went to Lake George while visiting my parents in NY. When I walked outside that first night I gasped loudly...The stars were amazing...hundreds of them all around. Words really can't describe how beautiful a clear summer night is in upstate NY. I think that's why so many New Yorkers move to Florida...they love summer so much they want it all year round. Too bad it's nothing like that here. Even if we could see the stars we wouldn't want to lay on the prickly grass filled with creatures to look at them. I guess in exchange we get beautiful sunsets here in Florida.
Alezu, you made me laugh. First, you are so right, I forgot about how even the night sky seems swampy in FL. It's all that heavy wet humid air hovering over FL. But what me laugh was your comment about the grass. Yes, it was like astro-turf! I forget what they call it, but you sure don't want to go barefoot in it, and oh yeah, the fire ants! Sheesh. Give me the soft grass of anyplace in New York State, the dark night sky and the stars, and all the rest.
The lovely "grass" here in Florida is St Augustine, or a variant of the same. You have to constantly water it, treat it with chemicals and then pray that Chinch Bugs and the like don't destroy large patches of it.
Nice comments on the fire ants, too...........VERY TRUE! If you don't watch where you stand for more then a few seconds, you could have a very rude surprise in your shoes and pant legs.
As far as lawns in NY, I remember living in South Kortright (Delaware County) as a kid. We never did anything to the lawn, other than mow it in the spring, summer and fall. That lawn was pleasant to walk on, or even lay down on (and I was never swarmed by bugs while doing so).
Florida has it's charms, but they are overshadowed by crowds, heavy traffic and oppressive heat from late April through October. Having lived in both places, I agree with some of the other posters on this thread.......Florida is a nice place to VISIT, but NY is and will always be a better place to LIVE.
I WILL move back home to NY someday, hopefully soon.
Hi Yonkersmom. Florida is good for vacation, I do have a good time with my relatives, but that's because I know I have a return ticket home! Stay here! There's no place like it!
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Don't do it!!!
A couple of years ago I went to Lake George while visiting my parents in NY. When I walked outside that first night I gasped loudly...The stars were amazing...hundreds of them all around. Words really can't describe how beautiful a clear summer night is in upstate NY. I think that's why so many New Yorkers move to Florida...they love summer so much they want it all year round. Too bad it's nothing like that here. Even if we could see the stars we wouldn't want to lay on the prickly grass filled with creatures to look at them. I guess in exchange we get beautiful sunsets here in Florida.
