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I think often the grass is always greener on the other side. I spent a couple years living in Fort Wayne and I loved the city and took advantage of everything it offered. But most of the high school kids I met who grew up there couldn't want to get out. I felt the same way about my hometown.
I grew up in Lafayette, IN. After finishing at Purdue, I moved down to the Miami area for my career. The first few years of living down there were ok. Several years after my move, my parents moved down near me. Both my parents and myself had left all our good friends. Making friends in our new, transient, exotic place was difficult. My love of hiking, camping and fishing along a lakeshore was not shared my many people in my area. I worked 40+ years and retired in 2014. Two years later, I moved back to my hometown. I am soooooooo much happier in Indiana. Hoosiers are more polite, chatty, friendly, better drivers and the cost of living is so much lower in the Hoosier state! I wished that I moved back to Indiana 20 years ago! Nothing was the same after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
I live one mile from a Meijers and other shopping. My Florida house sold within a few days and my new Indiana home is so much cheaper and better in all ways. My stress level has dropped to nearly zero. Scammers, crime and corrupt government is in the past - thank goodness!
I grew up in Lafayette, IN. After finishing at Purdue, I moved down to the Miami area for my career. The first few years of living down there were ok. Several years after my move, my parents moved down near me. Both my parents and myself had left all our good friends. Making friends in our new, transient, exotic place was difficult. My love of hiking, camping and fishing along a lakeshore was not shared my many people in my area. I worked 40+ years and retired in 2014. Two years later, I moved back to my hometown. I am soooooooo much happier in Indiana. Hoosiers are more polite, chatty, friendly, better drivers and the cost of living is so much lower in the Hoosier state! I wished that I moved back to Indiana 20 years ago! Nothing was the same after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
I live one mile from a Meijers and other shopping. My Florida house sold within a few days and my new Indiana home is so much cheaper and better in all ways. My stress level has dropped to nearly zero. Scammers, crime and corrupt government is in the past - thank goodness!
You nailed it, I lived in PB and Broward from 1978 to 2001, my daughter left in 2009 and my son and his family still live on Key Biscayne. SoFl sucks, I hated it. When I left there to move to VA in '01 peeps in VA were all like how could you leave Paradise to come here? They have no clue, it's fun to visit but living there is hell. HOT, sauna-like overpriced high stress status driven showoff idiots HELL.
My daughter is in VA and loves it for raising her children. I raised my oldest two in one of the ubiquitous snooty stupidly overpriced gated communites and when I had more kids I said heellll to the no and moved to a family oriented old fashioned neighborhood in VA. Those do not exist in SoFl. I so wish I'd moved to IND back then in '01 instead of to VA. I LOVE FORT WAYNE (been here since June 2016)
You nailed it, I lived in PB and Broward from 1978 to 2001, my daughter left in 2009 and my son and his family still live on Key Biscayne. SoFl sucks, I hated it. When I left there to move to VA in '01 peeps in VA were all like how could you leave Paradise to come here? They have no clue, it's fun to visit but living there is hell. HOT, sauna-like overpriced high stress status driven showoff idiots HELL.
My daughter is in VA and loves it for raising her children. I raised my oldest two in one of the ubiquitous snooty stupidly overpriced gated communites and when I had more kids I said heellll to the no and moved to a family oriented old fashioned neighborhood in VA. Those do not exist in SoFl. I so wish I'd moved to IND back then in '01 instead of to VA. I LOVE FORT WAYNE (been here since June 2016)
#indianarocks
I must admit that I am still decompressing one year after moving up to Lafayette. My 43 years in south Florida, surrounded by people who were fake, liars, superficial. I met so few genuine people. It always puzzled me....... The lack of common courtesies, awareness (especially while driving ) and lack of trust. Perhaps this is common in many large urban areas.
When I moved back to Indiana I was pleasantly surprised at the most common things: friendliness of employees at the post office (they wanted to help me!), the people who always hold the door open for me (they saw and cared that I was walking behind them), the use of turn signals while driving (a totally lost cause in Miami-Dade), the chattiness of people everywhere. People have a great sense of humor and respond to my joking, etc. This was totally absent/unexpected in Miami.
I never married nor had any children. I did not want to ever raise a child in Miami. Florida (esp. south Florida) is a nice place to visit, but I would never want to live there again. I will never set foot across the Florida state line again. There are too many other places for me to visit .
To those of you that lived in FL (and hated it)- I share a lot of your sentiments and have been exploring other options. My in-laws are interested in moving too, and mentioned Indiana, which I wasn't even considering. I was looking at places like Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Washington... places that offer good job opportunities and a lot of activities, with an emphasis on outdoor recreation. Someone mentioned that Indiana would be "a step down" as far as fun activities go. Can you comment on that? I have 3 boys, about to become teenagers, and I'd like them to learn to drive on safe roads and also have plenty of opportunities for recreation, schools and part-time jobs, and not be bored to death and counting the years until they can move away. What are your thoughts on this, comparing FL to IN?
Florida is the worst state I ever lived in by far especially South Florida. Close to my least favorite place on earth next to Iraq and Syria only redeeming quality of Miami is the winter weather that is about it.
To those of you that lived in FL (and hated it)- I share a lot of your sentiments and have been exploring other options. My in-laws are interested in moving too, and mentioned Indiana, which I wasn't even considering. I was looking at places like Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Washington... places that offer good job opportunities and a lot of activities, with an emphasis on outdoor recreation. Someone mentioned that Indiana would be "a step down" as far as fun activities go. Can you comment on that? I have 3 boys, about to become teenagers, and I'd like them to learn to drive on safe roads and also have plenty of opportunities for recreation, schools and part-time jobs, and not be bored to death and counting the years until they can move away. What are your thoughts on this, comparing FL to IN?
IND is as far from SoFla (panhandle/Northern part/middle part except Orlando area is another story) as one may get in all ways!
SoFLA is crazy expensive; if one isn't affluent you will not enjoy it. Housing for working class/lower middle class is rare and few; the heat is oppressive, crime is bad, in the gated communities (lived in them) there's a strong status/braggart/keep up w/Joneses mentality, traffic is horrendous (ex: it could and often did take me FIFTEEN minutes to get from the gate to a Publix I COULD SEE across the street, due to the having to wait for the turn signal three or four times before I was through the intersection), there are TONS of retirees, I like old folks but many of them drive badly, slowly and dangerously, ditto immigrants (I am not pc; rather, realistic) which abound in some sections, there are many strip malls, MANY, with the same stores over and over again, real estate taxes OMG, homeowner's insurance OMFG, auto insurance OMEFFINGG, spoiled rotten kids galore, sugar daddy situations galore (sit in any upscale restaurant for a 1/2hour and you can count em on two hands, bimbo lookin gals with wizened old geezers), architecture is tacky.
IND is CHEAP cheap cheap! Fort Wayne is 73% Caucasian (pc folks bash me if you want IDGAF), there is little crime and even less stranger on stranger crime, I have been in the so-called "bad" sections and they look FINE, no security bars no graffiti no garbage in street no wandering crackheads neat yards, people are simple and not nosy and are nice but not overly fake friendly, insurance car/home is OMG low low low, weather is bomb (four nice seasons), city is lovely with some nice architecture and a fab walking trail/Rivergreenway, city is big enough to have a selection of whatever you need (~300K) but not so big it is sprawling nor crowded, traffic LMAO nonexistent (rush hour means you may wait 5 min to get through a SMALL section of road), nice downtown with fun festivals, drive 20 min beyond city limits and you are in pretty countryside, nice family 'hoods with sidewalks. I lived 12 yr in Roanoke VA and it was very similar though higher COL.
Last edited by VexedAndSolitary; 11-04-2017 at 04:35 AM..
IND is as far from (SOUTH) Florida (panhandle/Northern part/middle part except Orlando area is another story) as one may get in all ways!
SoFl is crazy expensive; if one isn't affluent you will not enjoy it. Housing for working class/lower middle class is rare and few; the heat is oppressive, crime is bad, in the gated communities (lived in them) there's a strong status/braggart/keep up w/Jonses mentality, traffic is horrendous (ex: it could and often did take me FIFTEEN minutes to get from the gate to a Publix I COULD SEE across the street, due to the having to wait for the turn signal three of four times before I was through the intersection), there are TONS of retirees, I like old folks but many of them drive badly, slowly and dangerously, ditto immigrants (I am not pc; rather, realistic) which abound in some sections, there are many strip malls, MANY, with the same stores over and over again, real estate taxes OMG, homeowner's insurance OMFG, auto insurance OMEFFINGG, spolied rotten kids galore, sugar daddy situations galore (sit in any upscale restaurant for a 1/2hour and you can count em on two hands, bimbo lookin gals with wizened old geezers), architecture is tacky.
IND is CHEAP cheap cheap! Fort Wayne is 73% Caucasian (pc folks bash me if you want IDGAF), there is little crime and even less stranger on stranger crime, I have been in the so-called "bad" sections and they look FINE, no security bars no graffiti no garbage in street no wandering crackheads neat yards, people are simple and not nosy and nice but not overly fake friendly, insurance car/home is OMG low low low, weather is bomb (four nice seasons), city is lovely with some nice architecture and a fab walking trail/Rivergreenway, city is big enough to have a selection of whatever you need (~300K) but not so big it is sprawling nor crowded, traffic LMAO nonexistent (rush hour means you may wait 5 min to get through a SMALL section of road), nice downtown with fun festivals, drive 20 min beyond city limits and you are in pretty countryside, nice family 'hoods with sidewalks. I lived 12 yr in Roanoke VA and it was very similar though higher COL.
I lived in south Florida (south of Miami) for 43 years. I agree with everything you said about the area. I have a few things to add:
People park their cars on their front lawn. Some people keep their hurricane shutters up all the damn time....all year! Folks from third world countries who drive like they are still in their third world country. The lack of traffic based law enforcement by the police. Trash and garbage everywhere - by convenience stores, gas stations, etc. Just plain laziness and trashiness. Could it be the extreme heat? Oh, and stray dogs everywhere.......
Born in NW Indiana and mostly lived there until I finished college and would say that what makes Indiana unique is its plainness and I don't mean that in a bad way. It is vanilla and delivers well in all the basics.
I love outdoor activities and can see a lack of them especially in the center part of the state but if you can travel for a few hours you can find something. The climate is not ideal and is colder the more north you go but it is doable.
Also, anything south of Indy will feel more southern unlike NW Indiana which is anything but that.
Last edited by WildWestDude; 11-04-2017 at 07:15 AM..
As a native Hoosier, it's really nice to read all these positive threads about Indiana. Just goes to show "there's more than corn in Indiana!"
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) and lack of trust. Perhaps this is common in many large urban areas.
