Siesta Key vs Wilmington NC

[SoFLGal]

Originally Posted by aquene

What I was referring to, specifically, was the relative lack of renewable/ sustainable energy options as compared to NC and other states. I think much of this is due to politics. The recent vote to allow municipalities to decide whether development is appropriate ultimately will affect the Everglades and will impact habitats for endangered/ protected species, especially the Florida Panther. I understand that you are in real estate and thus have a different POV - I come from an ecology/ health care background so I'm more interested in assessing the impact of humans on the local environment and in turn that effect on human and environmental health. I didn't mean the entire population is Republican - I just meant the tendency to want to open the Gulf back up to drilling and relative lack of investment in new energy is likely at least in part due to the political climate here (at least in the I-4 corridor and SWF).

I did live and work in Wilmington for nine years, and have lived in Charlotte and Sarasota counties for the past ten. Again, just my $0.02.

Forgot to mention - dining out - Wilmington was once the "Fast Food capital of the US" per capita. They do have a lot of restaurants in the downtown and Landfall/ Military Cutoff areas that aren't chains and offer some decent ethnic and vegetarian options. Sarasota has good options, not quite as many in Charlotte county. Before I get flamed for the comment, I just said "not as many" not none at all.

Re: weather: many people move to FL for the weather. It's strictly a matter of personal preference. Many of the people who move here have lived in the Northeast or Midwest and have had very intense, harsh winters. They really enjoy the mild winters here. The summers here I find long and harsh. After ten years I'm tired of them. I try to work out of state as much as possible during the late summer. Wilmington winters were never terrible - for example I was never "snowed in" - the Christmas snow of 1989 did drop 24 inches but that was clearly an anomaly. It does get "cold" but I enjoyed being able to wear sweaters and boots. Again, a personal preference. To the OP: If your aim is to spend as many days a year as you can on the beach or in the boat, then SWF may be for you. At your ages, if you are divers or own a business related to boating or beaching or diving, something similar, that makes sense. If not, consider how long you intend to stay in the area. It's nice to have a change of seasons once in a while too, as a young person. Again, comment generally directed to the OP, I didn't post anything negative about SWF, please save the "why don't you go back" anonymous reps.

I'm not sure if you were directing this at me (I will assume so since you quoted my post) but I didn't give you any rep point. If it were me giving a rep point I would have signed it with my user name.

On the Charlotte county/Sarasota county dining options I would disagree with that as well. IMO, there are a handful a chain restaurants and a few mom and pop joints but not a whole lot of quality dining. I think Sarasota has many more non-chain, quality restaurants.

As I said before, I thought you gave a fair easement of this area. I always encourage different points of view as long as posters are civil and provide logic behind their posts-which you did.

[JimmyRay]

I am 32, used to live in Tampa and have been to Siesta Key many times. I am now living in Wilmington and in my opinion it is the better location overall. From my experience, the people are more down to earth. There is a certain magical quality and a laid back vibe you have to be here to understand. From reading your first post, I think you know what I mean. I also think that the weather is better here for the most part. Although it gets colder in the winter, you experience less extremes throughout the year.

[aquene]

Originally Posted by SoFLGal

I'm not sure if you were directing this at me (I will assume so since you quoted my post) but I didn't give you any rep point. If it were me giving a rep point I would have signed it with my user name.

On the Charlotte county/Sarasota county dining options I would disagree with that as well. IMO, there are a handful a chain restaurants and a few mom and pop joints but not a whole lot of quality dining. I think Sarasota has many more non-chain, quality restaurants.

As I said before, I thought you gave a fair easement of this area. I always encourage different points of view as long as posters are civil and provide logic behind their posts-which you did.

No, that part wasn't directed toward you. Only the portion immediately following the quoted post. I was just trying to clarify what I meant about the interest in/ availability of sustainable energy as related to local and state politics, I wasn't disagreeing with you.

[ It seems that sometimes when honest feedback is provided, someone (I really don't know who, maybe it's a different person every time) takes it as a personal slight. It happens on nearly every board, not just to me.]

I think I'm actually agreeing with you on the dining thing, Sarasota definitely has quality dining, including some nice upscale choices. Plenty of non-chain spots. Fewer in Charlotte County although available. It's hard to compare the Wilmington/ surrounding area and Sarasota/ surrounding areas in terms of restaurants - the two areas are just different. Nobody better or worse.

Wilmington encourages non-chain restaurants - not that they discourage chains necessarily (see Monkey Junction), but they encourage the use of locally-caught seafood and local produce and farmed livestock which in turn encourage entrepreneurs to the area. The turn really came when the film industry blew up in Wilmington - at the time there weren't a lot of eclectic or original dining choices (except the few old standbys that have always been there). Once the studios came to town and brought with them everything that follows, that all changed. Of course restaurants come and go, but generally the town has been able to sustain the economic downturn pretty well as far as the restaurant business goes. At least that was my impression when I was there in March.

[JMC49]

There is no comparison to be made.