[NYBill]

Brian..I spent 52 years of my life on Long Island, worked as a union steamfitter ( pipefitter) in NYC, the other 4 boroughs and on Long Island.

I grew up on the water on the South Shore of LI, fished and boated my whole life there. There is no doubt the Apple shines best in NYC but in light of the last 5 years the Big Apple has lost a lot of it's shine.

I have been upstate NY in my younger years when I was hunting, been to West Point, Bear Mountain, Catskill Game Farm, the Worlds Fair in 1964 that was in Queens which still has the UniSphere. Been to Jersy, and all the New England states and was a nice place to visit PERIOD.

Today all people are aware of what the sun can do and yet there are people that are out there everyday..there choice Same can be said for people that smoke and they still do it.

I have more them one reason for being here and it health related having back and neck surgery 6 years ago. Winter time for me was like doing time in jail. I was literallly a prisioner in my own home becuase of the cold damp weather, which usually lasted from late Dec untill March, even then just the damp days with a chill was enough to keep me inside.

I'll give you one thing about the heat during the summer which is hotter then blazes but you only have to deal with that fro 3-4 months, just like winter up north except here we can where shorts and jump in the pool if so desired.

The average age where I am is about 42 and not like the older days when the population was mostly retired people. You know your in the wrong spot when you see a sign that says DENTURES FIXED WHILE YOU WAIT!!

I miss my buddies up there for sure but go back now and then to visit and fish.

Please read the above thread where I posted about Cape Coral.

[brian_2]

My comments don't really pertain to someone like you NYBill. You spent most your life up north. Enjoy Florida. I wish you could have lived in the Florida of the times I was living there - not as a visitor, as a full-time resident. It was much better overall..still, everything changes, and those carefree times are lost forever. Development can't take the beach, sun, and ocean, although it's sad to see highrise condos blocking ocean views that used to be nice - some of this is going on in California too. I am appalled, and never tolerated private beach access well. Greed and profit motives keep the development growing ever on, but taking away stretches of coastal beach for a select few?

My overbearing sun warning was directed at young people, and if I can prevent a younger person from going through what I, and others have gone through in relation to sun damage, I am going to do it.

Enjoy those nice fall and winter Florida days & evenings - and I wish you and yours well.

[NYBill]

Thats what I liked about the area I am in. Ft Myers beach has not errupted into the 20 story condo's yet, although there is a few up the river and some 10 story by Sanibel before the bridge, but none on Sanibel or Captiva

Futher south in Naples, Bonita and Marco Island there is serious development down there.

We are coming into some of the best times of the year now, in fact I may even fish on Thursday early though before the sun really comes on...LOL

[Southside Shrek]

Originally Posted by NYBill

Thats what I liked about the area I am in. Ft Myers beach has not errupted into the 20 story condo's yet, although there is a few up the river and some 10 story by Sanibel before the bridge, but none on Sanibel or Captiva

Futher south in Naples, Bonita and Marco Island there is serious development down there.

We are coming into some of the best times of the year now, in fact I may even fish on Thursday early though before the sun really comes on...LOL

NyBill
ditto. I love being out on Sanibel and also going to Captiva but the rat race of Ft Myers traffic is not something I really enjoy, especially during the busy Christmas holiday period. Will be down there again in November.

[NYBill]

It gets a little crazy here during the holidays, but that's OK better then a ghost town with nothing going on

The first time I came over the Cape Coral bridge during Christmas the city has there decorations up. Instead of Santa and his reindeer they had Santa with his sled and 8 aligators pulling him. My whole family went wild with laughter

[Nancy Lynne]

Thank you very much for your response.

[CURT]

I lived in nj until 1991. I always loved the outdoors. I felt shut in, trapped, caged most of the year there. Since I have been here there has almost been no days that i couldnt be outside. even in the summer. It was an instant feeling of freedom for me. I do alot of kayaking and I can almost pick any day to go. I'm not waiting for it to be nice enough outside. I always liked nice landscaping and mowed grass and I have it all the time. In the winter during the day it could be anywhere between 68-70 degrees and at night in the low 40's (dead of winter). I get up on a saturday in february and if I feel like kayaking, I go.
This to me is worth everything. If I feel like doing anything outside anytime, I do it. It is my freedom.

[dudeman135]

My wife and I lived in the Rochester/Buffalo NY area for 31 years. We moved to Jacksonville 3 years ago. We're 34 with no kids. We'd finally hit our pain threshold for the 100+ inches of lake effect snow, lack of sun for what seemed like months on end and other issues such as high property taxes, state taxes, lack of activities that we enjoyed, etc.

We had done alot of research and visited Jax a few times. We chose Jax over other FL cities due to lower housing costs, people were much nicer than western NY, larger change of seasons over South FL, proximity to Ocean/Beach, lots of parks, close to other beaches/orlando theme parks/tampa, less prone to hurricanes than other areas and it seemed to have more of a hometown feel (very few snowbirds).

After three years, I have to say all the good things have met our expectations, but here's the bad side...Housing costs have gone up significantly, yes they are slowing a bit now. We got a house right away, so we're fine, but if we wanted to move here now it would be too costly. If we wanted to move even locally, taxes would be too high, due to being based on purchase price. You lose that max 3% increase.

The constant reports of crime on a daily basis wears on you a bit. Yes it appears that no city can escape it, but in many places in FL it seems that it happens much closer to home and much more often. Lots of graffiti not too far from home and we live in a decent area, newer cookie cutter neighborhood.

In general, the public schools especially many high schools are poorly ranked. There are several areas which have great elementary and middle schools and my sister teaches in one of them, so it's not all schools. The majority of my co-workers all pay thousands of dollars a year to send all their kids to private school. Not used to that, we had very good public schools.

Summers can be hot, but doesn't bother us. We escape to the beach or A/C. Nights are still beautiful even if days are in 90s.

Wages are lower in general. We knew this and took pay cuts for the lifestyle/weather change and lower cost of living at the time and after 3 years we're back up to what we were making in Western NY between the two of us.

People are generally nicer, but also can be rough around the edges and somewhat ignorant/rednecky. For most part isn't a major issue, but is more noticable the longer you're here.

So it's not all fun in the sun/vacation 24/7 but weather definitely rules, if only there were no crime, great school systems and low insurance/taxes, no hurricanes, etc.

[pianogal]

So it's not all fun in the sun/vacation 24/7 but weather definitely rules, if only there were no crime, great school systems and low insurance/taxes, no hurricanes, etc.

That's so true. But then again, if it were completely perfect EVERYONE would want to live here. Thanks for your honest post.

[bchlver596]

I grew up in Southern Ca. I went to Florida to visit a family member who had moved there in 92. From the minute I arrived in Florida I loved it. I grew up a beach girl. I moved to Florida a year later and I was there for 10 yrs. I moved back to Southern CA 6 yrs ago to be near my parents, they had wanted me to move back for a long time. Although, I love my parents I miss Florida terribly. And I plan on moving back next year to go to nursing school. There are many who don't like Florida, I don't understand why? Things I miss: I miss the thunderstorms in the spring and summer. I looked forward to those dark clouds rolling in everyday. Being at the beach and seeing the dark clouds and feeling the warm rain and running for cover. Always in a bathing suit swimming in the ocean or pool. Fishing all the time. Camping and fishing in the keys-Big pine key! Shelling on any beach. Boating on the St. John's river spotting gators and turtles. Blue sky and fluffy white carribean clouds. Warm clear, clean oceans. Humidity? You get used to it. Bugs? You get used to them. I have heard about the crime. The whole ten years I lived there I had no problems, although being from Cali I know to stay out of the bad areas. See there are some happy floridians.