Information about Orlando (Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee: spring break, crime, house)

[vegasmike]

Good Evening Room,

Currently I live in Las Vegas and I am a Police Officer. I am interested in moving to florida, specifically Orlando area and working for an agency in Florida. I was on vacation last week in florida with the family and I knew they would love florida. I spent alot of summers and spring breaks in Florida while going up in NY. Since a small fraction of time has gone by from being a kid to adult (LOL) and I know Florida has changed as I observed last week I need some help in making the best decision possible.

What can people tell me about the Orlando area? Would you recommend another area over Orlando? I know that the cost of living in Fort Lauderdale is higher and to be honest I am not looking to have every dollar we are making goin out to keep up with the Jones. I am a very simple person, work hard and pay my bills. I have a daughter that is a Sopomore in College and she wants to be a cardiologist so colleges will be important as well because I want her to be able to take care of me..lol. Anyway your help and time are truly appreciated. I thank you all in advance for your help and time.

Mike

[EndersDrift]

If you think you're daughter is going to stay close to you than Orlando would be the best place in Florida right now. It has a huge medical industry thats growing constantly.

Aside from that I don't know what to tell you - there's lots of nice places in Florida, depends on what you like and what you don't like.

I'm sure not going to answer, "What can people tell me about the Orlando area?" Its the most generalized question I've seen so far on these forums. Go read the forum, read some websites, read the wikipedia page, and come back when you have a specific question to ask.

[Broker Dave]

This is the area at the moment for medical jobs with the opening of the new Medical City and the fact area hospitals are expanding their facilities, even Arnold Palmer is opening neighborhood emergency care locations based on kids.

Have a family member that started as an open heart nurse that is VP of one of he big hospitals groups today.

Hope this helps,

[annagurl333]

Hello!

I've lived in the Orlando area for a few years as a college student. I think your daughter would get a very good education here in the medical field becoming a cardiologists. UCF has a really good medical program with many different options. There are also other colleges in the area that may/may not offer such degrees. Right now UCF is in the processes of constructing another large building for medical sciences. Orlando also has many hospitals and medical centers all around town. Many of the industries in Orlando have seen declining opportunities for employment, but the medical field isn't one of them; comparatively speaking.

As for Orlando itself, its one big urban sprawl IMO. There is the actual city of Orlando, and then many suburbs, such as Avalon, Bithlo, Windermere, Altamonte Springs, Winter Park, Oviedo, Maitland, Kissimee, etc.

I would say the negatives in the area would be:
Orlando is pretty crowded feeling, noisey, and the traffic can get pretty bad during work commuting hours. Also, if your not used to a lot of humidity, it is definately something you won't like at first and will have to get used to. Orlando is a bit too expensive IMO for what you actually get. There are a few areas of town that pretty much run up the crime statistics everywhere else, such as near downtown, and the UCF area.
Also, perhaps I'm just basing it on where I was raised, but the proportion of young adults that do drugs seemed very high, or at least that I noticed. Almost every person I worked with in 5 differnet jobs talked about drugs openly at work to each other!?!?!

However, if these things don't seem to bother you too much, there are many nice things about the Oralndo area , such as:
The weather - never snows and is almsot always warm. Half of the year the sky is sunny and gorgeous looking. Orlando pretty much has any shopping you could possibly imagine. It has culture such as museums, zoos, and theathers. The city doesn't close at 9pm - you can actually get a good meal at 1am on the weekends. Orlando area has toll roads that in some cases, can allow you to escape the horrid traffic conditions on the main roads. It is 45 minutes away from the beach on the east coast (think Cocoa beach and Titusville).

If you do decide to live in Orlando, make sure that :
1. any house that you buy is a bit upon a hill by a couple of feet, and not at the same elevation as the road. Orlando is known to flood.
2. have your family avoid at almost all costs having to take I-4 to get to work or school everyday when your choosing a house location. It's the most horribly crowded road, and very dangerous. As a police officer you will soon get far too aquainted with this one.

I would also check out: Lakeland, Tallahassee, and Jacksonville.

Good luck!