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So here's my story:
I'm a 31 year old single female, no kids, never married. I have lived in Chicago my entire life (same goes for my family, we've all lived here, never moved or ventured out) - I'm starting to feel restless! I've visited my cousins in the Ft. Myers/Estero area a few times and really enjoyed it, so of course I get this crazy idea to move down there. I've been stalking these forums for some time and it seems a lot of people believe the cons of Florida outweigh the pros; so what am I missing? For those of you who moved down there, do you love it or completely regret it? Can you give me some advice? My plan is to try it out for at least a year, if I absolutely hate it I can always come back to Chicago.
Now, to further dive into why I'm thinking of moving: Chicago is a big, beautiful, bustling city that I never get to enjoy. I'm never downtown - why?- number one, everything is too expensive. Restaurants, movies, Navy Pier are all ridiculously expensive. Also, there really is no reason for me to visit downtown as I'm not too much into the arts, club scenes, fancy restaurants or anything like that. I'm an outdoorsy person who would take a good hike over visiting an art gallery any day. Cost of living is really high in the city. We are taxed on EVERYTHING, property taxes are on the rise and let's not ignore the elephant in the room - the city is broke, so taxes and cost of living sure aren't going down.
Another issue is parking. I don't know if it's Daley's fault or Emmanuel's, but our parking situation is a joke. And this extends to other areas of the city as well. I live on the south side, if I wanted to visit my friends who live up north I would have to be willing to pay $10, $20 for two hour parking - and that's on the street at a meter! And forget about the private lots, I'm not rich. And while our public transportation is, I guess, (barely)acceptable, sometimes it's nice to be able to drive in your own car.
Third, the crime. Yes, it's bad here. You'll have people say, "oh you're exaggerating, it's not that bad." Those people are generally northsiders and/or transplants to the city who aren't really affected by the crime. It IS bad here. I guarantee you cannot go through one weekend in the summer without at least 10 people being shot. I think there were 350+ murders last year alone, it's ridiculous. And as a native of Chicago (the actual city, not a suburb. I'm not from Tinley Park), yes of course there are "rough" neighborhoods where most of the crime happens but the truth is (and many Chicagoans don't want to admit) crime is spreading out of the "rough" neighborhoods. It's hitting close to everybody's homes now.
Fourth and finally, the weather! November - April you don't want to leave your house. Sometimes you can't because you're buried in snow or ice, or it's too cold and your car won't start. There is no sun in the winter which makes everybody miserable, and in the summer the lake water is barely warm enough to swim in.
Please feel free to counter any of the "negatives" I just wrote about, that's why I'm posting here! Help me see the other side of things......
So, back to Florida, what's the job market like? Of course I wouldn't move down there w/o first being employed. I currently work at a large law firm and have over 7 years legal assistant experience, will I have a hard time finding something? Is it ridiculous of me to think I can find an assistant job for $45k a year?
How about rent? I'd be looking for a 2 bedroom, $1000-1300 a month, in the Estero/Bonita Springs area. Are these nice, safe, clean communities?
How are the people?! I'm still relatively young, I guess, and would like to make some friends. The old joke is Florida is where people go to die (awful, I know).... Are there single people (ahem, men) down there? Are there other young(ish) people looking to hang out on the weekends?
And finally, help this northern girl out, how oppressive are the summers? LOL That's a crazy question, I know, but try to put into words how bad the summers are. I'd appreciate it.
Hey! I just posted a similar thread so I'm going to follow yours also. I've been looking for positions for part-time work while I try to get my business started but I noticed this on the cape coral gov't website related to an assistant in the city attorney's office! Seems to fit what you're looking for. I'm not sure if they allow to post links on this site but I'll post that separately but if you google "cape coral jobs" it's one of the first links.
Job Title: Assistant City Attorney/City Attorney's Office #3145
Salary: $47,731.95 - $113,362.20 Annually
Job Type: Full-Time Regular
Location: CITY OF CAPE CORAL, Florida
No Problem! My family has had a house in the Cape for 10 years now and we love the area. I see a lot of negative comments on the internet but I have yet to find out why. Hopefully everything runs smoothly during our transition!
My cousins moved to Ft. Myers/Estero about 10 years ago, from Chicago, and they love it. They've never even considered moving back so it surprised me when I saw all the negative comments. Hopefully somebody will see my post with some good advice.
I've never been to Cape Coral - what kind of crowd/atmosphere does it have? We usually hang out around Ft. Myers Beach when we visit, and I like the small beach town feel, is CC comparable?
It's definitely different from what I've experienced. Fort Myers is more city-like in my opinion. What I love about the Cape is how there are canals everywhere. I believe it is the city with the most canals/waterfront in the entire world, even more than Venice! My parents home is right on a canal that leads to the river which is really nice. Cape Coral only has one beach though, which is decent and has a restaurant shaped like a boat, but it's technically on the river not on the gulf. They're really close to eachother though so it's only a drive over the bridge into Ft. Myers. If you do decide to move down definitely look into the Cape!
I've owned a home in Cape Coral for 5 yrs and my wife and I finally made the move down here full-time this past April from the NY/NJ area. Absolutely love it down here and often find myself saying I can't believe we live here. Anyone moving to this area needs to come down with their eyes wide open.
First, Salaries are about half of what you earn in Metropolitan Areas. Jobs can be hard to come by. I'm one of the fortunate ones who was able to keep my NYC job and move here.
Depending whether you own or rent. Housing is much cheaper. However, some costs are higher, such as Home Owner's Ins, Flood Ins, etc.
Groceries are much higher here than in the Northeast, however, dining out is much cheaper.
The summers can be brutally hot and humid, but that's a small price to play for not dealing with harsh winters and having to shovel snow.
During the winter months there is a large influx of Snowbirds (Folks who come to FL in the Winter) which causes increase congestion on the roads. This may be an issue if you need to travel for work.
Hey! I just posted a similar thread so I'm going to follow yours also. I've been looking for positions for part-time work while I try to get my business started but I noticed this on the cape coral gov't website related to an assistant in the city attorney's office! Seems to fit what you're looking for. I'm not sure if they allow to post links on this site but I'll post that separately but if you google "cape coral jobs" it's one of the first links.
Job Title: Assistant City Attorney/City Attorney's Office #3145
Salary: $47,731.95 - $113,362.20 Annually
Job Type: Full-Time Regular
Location: CITY OF CAPE CORAL, Florida
Not to take anything away from the generous sharing of info (am always impressed by how many people take time out of their day to help others here), but OP stated she is a legal assistant. "Assistant City Attorney" is an attorney, not (non-attorney) assistant to an attorney. If you scroll down to the minimum education requirements in the full posting, it says the job requires a JD (law school) degree. (But again, kudos to the poster I quoted for his or her thoughtfulness--it's what makes this forum such a great resource.)
I don't have any idea about the salary for a legal assistant here. I can say this is a great place to live in many respects, but while there are people who do quite well here with jobs and salaries, there are many others who are making a trade-off to live here in terms of job opportunities, salaries, and benefits compared to what they might be able to find in certain other areas around the country.
Might be worth starting a separate thread to try to get info from knowledgeable local people on legal assistant opportunities/salaries specifically.
Last edited by City__Datarer; 05-07-2015 at 12:29 AM..
So here's my story:
I'm a 31 year old single female, no kids, never married. I have lived in Chicago my entire life (same goes for my family, we've all lived here, never moved or ventured out) - I'm starting to feel restless! I've visited my cousins in the Ft. Myers/Estero area a few times and really enjoyed it, so of course I get this crazy idea to move down there. I've been stalking these forums for some time and it seems a lot of people believe the cons of Florida outweigh the pros; so what am I missing? For those of you who moved down there, do you love it or completely regret it? Can you give me some advice? My plan is to try it out for at least a year, if I absolutely hate it I can always come back to Chicago.
Now, to further dive into why I'm thinking of moving: Chicago is a big, beautiful, bustling city that I never get to enjoy. I'm never downtown - why?- number one, everything is too expensive. Restaurants, movies, Navy Pier are all ridiculously expensive. Also, there really is no reason for me to visit downtown as I'm not too much into the arts, club scenes, fancy restaurants or anything like that. I'm an outdoorsy person who would take a good hike over visiting an art gallery any day. Cost of living is really high in the city. We are taxed on EVERYTHING, property taxes are on the rise and let's not ignore the elephant in the room - the city is broke, so taxes and cost of living sure aren't going down.
Another issue is parking. I don't know if it's Daley's fault or Emmanuel's, but our parking situation is a joke. And this extends to other areas of the city as well. I live on the south side, if I wanted to visit my friends who live up north I would have to be willing to pay $10, $20 for two hour parking - and that's on the street at a meter! And forget about the private lots, I'm not rich. And while our public transportation is, I guess, (barely)acceptable, sometimes it's nice to be able to drive in your own car.
Third, the crime. Yes, it's bad here. You'll have people say, "oh you're exaggerating, it's not that bad." Those people are generally northsiders and/or transplants to the city who aren't really affected by the crime. It IS bad here. I guarantee you cannot go through one weekend in the summer without at least 10 people being shot. I think there were 350+ murders last year alone, it's ridiculous. And as a native of Chicago (the actual city, not a suburb. I'm not from Tinley Park), yes of course there are "rough" neighborhoods where most of the crime happens but the truth is (and many Chicagoans don't want to admit) crime is spreading out of the "rough" neighborhoods. It's hitting close to everybody's homes now.
Fourth and finally, the weather! November - April you don't want to leave your house. Sometimes you can't because you're buried in snow or ice, or it's too cold and your car won't start. There is no sun in the winter which makes everybody miserable, and in the summer the lake water is barely warm enough to swim in.
Please feel free to counter any of the "negatives" I just wrote about, that's why I'm posting here! Help me see the other side of things......
So, back to Florida, what's the job market like? Of course I wouldn't move down there w/o first being employed. I currently work at a large law firm and have over 7 years legal assistant experience, will I have a hard time finding something? Is it ridiculous of me to think I can find an assistant job for $45k a year?
How about rent? I'd be looking for a 2 bedroom, $1000-1300 a month, in the Estero/Bonita Springs area. Are these nice, safe, clean communities?
How are the people?! I'm still relatively young, I guess, and would like to make some friends. The old joke is Florida is where people go to die (awful, I know).... Are there single people (ahem, men) down there? Are there other young(ish) people looking to hang out on the weekends?
And finally, help this northern girl out, how oppressive are the summers? LOL That's a crazy question, I know, but try to put into words how bad the summers are. I'd appreciate it.
I'm not sure of the salaries for legal assistants but Downtown Fort Myers is loaded with attorneys.
You would not need nearly as much income to live here as you would in the windy city. Working in Downtown Fort Myers could be a dream, if it is not in the ghetto. You might be able to rent near work and save on commuting too.
We moved here (Cape Coral) from the NYC area 3 years ago and love it. We wish we had come down sooner. Downtown Fort Myers is an 11 minute drive from our home and it is one of our favorite places.
As far as the summer goes, it can not get hot enough for me. The late afternoon thunder storms are cool. But I am not working outside and I have a pool. You should give it a try if you can find a job.
chrissy106 I did lots of research on area's to move to when we retire and we picked Cape Coral. I know our situation is much different then yours in many ways but in many other aspects they are the same. We live in northern US too and weather was a big thing for us. All times we have visited there in the winter and research on the internet we feel other then Hawaii weather maybe the best in US. Summers of course, are hot and muggy but much better then 10 below and snow in the winter. SW Florida is growing at one of the highest rates in country. That will create many more jobs and sounds like more and more large corporations are moving there. We have found many costs are the same but eating out is much cheaper. The think we love is your close to about every where. Tampa, Miami, Ft Lauderdale, Orlando. I think this would be a good time to move before the rush gets worst. Also the SW Florida Airport is growing and will continue to grow. Very easy to get to and can fly most places in US. There will be negative comments about every place in US so you have to take those with a grain of salt. Hope it works for you.
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