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My whole life I always see some magazine put out an article like "Port Charlotte ranked in the top 10 places in the U.S to retire" or it's North Port or Sarasota. And I lived here my whole life and this area kind of sucks, so I started wondering how they calculate these things. "North Port most affordable place to live in the U.S." yet people working a full time job and living homeless here and massively homelessness.
"North Port best place in the world for job seekers!" Yet all kinds of people can't find a good job here.
So I started looking closer at these articles- how do they rank these cities. And why is it always the exact same handful of places on every list? It seems to be complete BS- there is never any data cited to back it up. I try to find any common thread among the cities and towns they always list. The only thing I can find is these places have the highest amounts of population growth in the country.
The people keep flooding down here because of a really good PR campaign I guess. A lot of people like it here, but others don't. But it certainly doesn't seem to be the best place in the country to live. Or in this case the best place for a job seeker.
This is one of the worst places to work if you actually talk to people who work here. I don't know why but most of the employers here are super greedy and treat their workers like garbage. Most retail and restaurants have managers that they hire who have no qualifications and badly mismanage the place. Yet I ask to be manager and they refuse to do it. Not sure, I guess you have to sleep with somebody or be related to the right person or have friends in the right places to get into a management position around here. It certainly isn't based on merit. Most managers are female. And if you want to be a bartender or server you need to be female. So if you are female you can make decent money.
As a male your only option is working in construction, which its so hot that you get heat stroke and have medical problems from the sun and heat- all for relatively low wages.
Just as an example, some years ago I worked in Cincinnati as a dishwasher making $14 an hour. Worked at the pizza place next to it for $15. I didn't work hard. I sat down and chilled when it wasn't busy. Even though the job was super easy, they would hire people all the time and they would quit in a week. There were construction jobs pay $20 an hour just for labor in the city.
Everything in Cincinnati is cheaper than Florida- groceries, gas, rent etc. My rent was $450 a month for a nice one bedroom apartment.
I came back to Port Charlotte. All the dishwashing jobs paid $10 an hour. When I work there, instead of having you come in at open and stay until close like up north, instead they just let dishes stack up to the cieling then have you come in at the last minute in order to save money. They scream at you "faster! faster!" no matter how fast you go it isn't fast enough. Then they stole money off my check and didn't pay me for hours worked.
All of this so the manager could get $10,000 bonus checks for saving money on labor. Everything goes to the manager in Florida, yet the managers don't manage here. It's like a big pyramid scheme or something.
Meanwhile, after taking a huge cut in pay, the rent is twice as much here. Work a full time job and live homeless. All the kitchen help at the restaurant riding bikes to work because they can't afford a car. The waitresses who are tipped make good money as do managers. The rest can starve.
It's just a nightmare working here. It's kind of bad working at no skill jobs in other places- but here it's like unbearable. You have to have parents supporting you or be getting a social security check or dealing drugs on the side or something because you can't live on a full time job here. You are better off begging for change on the side of the road which is why a lot of people do it.
Just to put this in perspective: In Cincinnati the restaurant was less busy, made less money but paid me 40% more in wages (despite a lower cost of living).
In Port Charlotte the place was raking in tens of thousands of dollars a day, making massive profits, but actually after they stole money off my check I made less than minimal wage and worked to death for it. And it's virtually every restaurant is like that and most of the retail places. Meanwhile the manager gets $100,000 a year and living like a king/queen.
I was really shocked that they have been able to keep these places staffed for the 20 years this has been going on. Finally the straw that broke the camel's back has come and there is a mass exodus of workers. Wages have gone up some because of the extreme worker shortage here but at the same time housing prices have gone into the stratosphere. So unless you got a cheap place to stay or living out of your car or something, it still isn't worth having a job here.
My whole life I always see some magazine put out an article like "Port Charlotte ranked in the top 10 places in the U.S to retire" or it's North Port or Sarasota. And I lived here my whole life and this area kind of sucks, so I started wondering how they calculate these things. "North Port most affordable place to live in the U.S." yet people working a full time job and living homeless here and massive homelessness.
"North Port best place in the world for job seekers!" Yet all kinds of people can't find a good job here.
So I started looking closer at these articles- how do they rank these cities. And why is it always the exact same handful of places on every list? It seems to be complete BS- there is never any data cited to back it up. I try to find any common thread among the cities and towns they always list. The only thing I can find is these places have the highest amounts of population growth in the country.
The people keep flooding down here because of a really good PR campaign I guess. A lot of people like it here, but others don't. But it certainly doesn't seem to be the best place in the country to live. Or in this case the best place for a job seeker.
This is one of the worst places to work if you actually talk to people who work here. I don't know why but most of the employers here are super greedy and treat their workers like garbage. Most retail and restaurants have managers that they hire who have no qualifications and badly mismanage the place. Yet I ask to be manager and they refuse to do it. Not sure, I guess you have to sleep with somebody or be related to the right person or have friends in the right places to get into a management position around here. It certainly isn't based on merit.
Just as an example, some years ago I worked in Cincinnati as a dishwasher making $14 an hour. Worked at the pizza place next to it for $15. I didn't work hard. I sat down and chilled when it wasn't busy. Even though the job was super easy, they would hire people all the time and they would quit in a week. There were construction jobs pay $20 an hour just for labor in the city.
Everything in Cincinnati is cheaper than Florida- groceries, gas, rent etc. My rent was $450 a month for a nice one bedroom apartment.
I came back to Port Charlotte. All the dishwashing jobs paid $10 an hour. When I work there, instead of having you come in at open and stay until close like up north, instead they just let dishes stack up to the cieling then have you come in at the last minute in order to save money. They scream at you "faster! faster!" no matter how fast you go it isn't fast enough. Then they stole money off my check and didn't pay me for hours worked.
All of this so the manager could get $10,000 bonus checks for saving money on labor. Everything goes to the manager in Florida, yet the managers don't manage here. It's like a big pyramid scheme or something.
Meanwhile, after taking a huge cut in pay, the rent is twice as much here. Work a full time job and live homeless. All the kitchen help at the restaurant riding bikes to work because they can't afford a car. The waitresses who are tipped make good money as do managers. The rest can starve.
It's just a nightmare working here. It's kind of bad working at no skill jobs in other places- but here it's like unbearable. You have to have parents supporting you or be getting a social security check or dealing drugs on the side or something because you can't live on a full time job here. You are better off begging for change on the side of the road which is why a lot of people do it.
Just to put this in perspective: In Cincinnati the restaurant was less busy, made less money but paid me 40% more in wages (despite a lower cost of living).
In Port Charlotte the place was raking in tens of thousands of dollars a day, making massive profits, but actually after they stole money off my check I made less than minimal wage and worked to death for it. And it's virtually every restaurant is like that and most of the retail places. Meanwhile the manager gets $100,000 a year and living like a king/queen.
I was really shocked that they have been able to keep these places staffed for the 20 years this has been going on. Finally the straw that broke the camel's back has come and there is a mass exodus of workers. Wages have gone up some because of the extreme worker shortage here but at the same time housing prices have gone into the stratosphere. So unless you got a cheap place to stay or living out of your car or something, it still isn't worth having a job here.
Our area keep getting placed at the top of list after list of places to be in America.
I doubt the criteria included the wages being paid for these jobs, but its still nice to have our area recognized for creating jobs.
Yea lol. I live in the area too. No way it means wages. For service jobs like big box retail and waitresses sure always hiring but we have no industry in the area.i guess for a retired person we got a lot of part time jobs if they want to earn some extra cash or stay busy.
My whole life I always see some magazine put out an article like "Port Charlotte ranked in the top 10 places in the U.S to retire" or it's North Port or Sarasota. And I lived here my whole life and this area kind of sucks, so I started wondering how they calculate these things. "North Port most affordable place to live in the U.S." yet people working a full time job and living homeless here and massive homelessness.
"North Port best place in the world for job seekers!" Yet all kinds of people can't find a good job here.
So I started looking closer at these articles- how do they rank these cities. And why is it always the exact same handful of places on every list? It seems to be complete BS- there is never any data cited to back it up. I try to find any common thread among the cities and towns they always list. The only thing I can find is these places have the highest amounts of population growth in the country.
The people keep flooding down here because of a really good PR campaign I guess. A lot of people like it here, but others don't. But it certainly doesn't seem to be the best place in the country to live. Or in this case the best place for a job seeker.
This is one of the worst places to work if you actually talk to people who work here. I don't know why but most of the employers here are super greedy and treat their workers like garbage. Most retail and restaurants have managers that they hire who have no qualifications and badly mismanage the place. Yet I ask to be manager and they refuse to do it. Not sure, I guess you have to sleep with somebody or be related to the right person or have friends in the right places to get into a management position around here. It certainly isn't based on merit.
Just as an example, some years ago I worked in Cincinnati as a dishwasher making $14 an hour. Worked at the pizza place next to it for $15. I didn't work hard. I sat down and chilled when it wasn't busy. Even though the job was super easy, they would hire people all the time and they would quit in a week. There were construction jobs pay $20 an hour just for labor in the city.
Everything in Cincinnati is cheaper than Florida- groceries, gas, rent etc. My rent was $450 a month for a nice one bedroom apartment.
I came back to Port Charlotte. All the dishwashing jobs paid $10 an hour. When I work there, instead of having you come in at open and stay until close like up north, instead they just let dishes stack up to the cieling then have you come in at the last minute in order to save money. They scream at you "faster! faster!" no matter how fast you go it isn't fast enough. Then they stole money off my check and didn't pay me for hours worked.
All of this so the manager could get $10,000 bonus checks for saving money on labor. Everything goes to the manager in Florida, yet the managers don't manage here. It's like a big pyramid scheme or something.
Meanwhile, after taking a huge cut in pay, the rent is twice as much here. Work a full time job and live homeless. All the kitchen help at the restaurant riding bikes to work because they can't afford a car. The waitresses who are tipped make good money as do managers. The rest can starve.
It's just a nightmare working here. It's kind of bad working at no skill jobs in other places- but here it's like unbearable. You have to have parents supporting you or be getting a social security check or dealing drugs on the side or something because you can't live on a full time job here. You are better off begging for change on the side of the road which is why a lot of people do it.
Just to put this in perspective: In Cincinnati the restaurant was less busy, made less money but paid me 40% more in wages (despite a lower cost of living).
In Port Charlotte the place was raking in tens of thousands of dollars a day, making massive profits, but actually after they stole money off my check I made less than minimal wage and worked to death for it. And it's virtually every restaurant is like that and most of the retail places. Meanwhile the manager gets $100,000 a year and living like a king/queen.
I was really shocked that they have been able to keep these places staffed for the 20 years this has been going on. Finally the straw that broke the camel's back has come and there is a mass exodus of workers. Wages have gone up some because of the extreme worker shortage here but at the same time housing prices have gone into the stratosphere. So unless you got a cheap place to stay or living out of your car or something, it still isn't worth having a job here.
Don't get me started on rants about restaurant quality in southwest FL. Of course you can read the countless other threads on CD about the crappy, inconsistent food here in SWFL.
I'm in Punta Gorda. So much of the food is fried crap about here inconsistent. Always seems in Sarasota, Venice, PG, PC places come and go.
I like to call it tourist trap food. Beer, fried food. Stuff you'd eat on vacation. But paying cooks low pay will cause inconsistent quality when there is high turnover.
Sharkies on the Pier, Pioneer Pizza, Brewhouse, and believe it or not Applebees are the only places that seem to be consistent in this area.
I have to disagree because even 4 years ago this was an affordable area housing wise!
but the healthcare in general in southwest FL is seriously lacking too which is why the list is suspect. Maybe with the new SMH Venice and soon SMH in North Port in a couple years that will change that but if I was older and had health issues I would not trust any of the hospitals around here. my PCP even tells me go to SMH system if I have an emegerncy and can make it there.
What restaurant was this btw? You can PM me if you like. Just curious cause I wouldn't want to eat there if they're cheating their workers which is illegal.
This was longhorn in port Charlotte but they are all the same around here. The food is also a lot better in the Midwest or Texas due to being close to farms. Steak or chicken is generally better than Florida.
Longhorn their steak is legit and they have really good baked potatoes not sure where they get those potatoes but all the sides are out of a can or bag and not that good. Every franchise is the same, sides out of a can then over priced.
I can't afford these places and have no friends to warrant sitting down at a restaurant but I'm a fast food junkie. With higher wages and inflation fast food has gone sky high lately.
My boss from my old job for Christmas took us to an expensive steak house where it's $80 to eat. That place was amazing but generally the restaurants around here food is ok not great and over priced yet during season every restaurant has a line out the door even bad ones. Another reason I don't go.
My whole life I always see some magazine put out an article like "Port Charlotte ranked in the top 10 places in the U.S to retire" or it's North Port or Sarasota. And I lived here my whole life and this area kind of sucks, so I started wondering how they calculate these things. "North Port most affordable place to live in the U.S." yet people working a full time job and living homeless here and massive homelessness.
"North Port best place in the world for job seekers!" Yet all kinds of people can't find a good job here.
So I started looking closer at these articles- how do they rank these cities. And why is it always the exact same handful of places on every list? It seems to be complete BS- there is never any data cited to back it up. I try to find any common thread among the cities and towns they always list. The only thing I can find is these places have the highest amounts of population growth in the country.
The people keep flooding down here because of a really good PR campaign I guess. A lot of people like it here, but others don't. But it certainly doesn't seem to be the best place in the country to live. Or in this case the best place for a job seeker.
This is one of the worst places to work if you actually talk to people who work here. I don't know why but most of the employers here are super greedy and treat their workers like garbage. Most retail and restaurants have managers that they hire who have no qualifications and badly mismanage the place. Yet I ask to be manager and they refuse to do it. Not sure, I guess you have to sleep with somebody or be related to the right person or have friends in the right places to get into a management position around here. It certainly isn't based on merit.
Just as an example, some years ago I worked in Cincinnati as a dishwasher making $14 an hour. Worked at the pizza place next to it for $15. I didn't work hard. I sat down and chilled when it wasn't busy. Even though the job was super easy, they would hire people all the time and they would quit in a week. There were construction jobs pay $20 an hour just for labor in the city.
Everything in Cincinnati is cheaper than Florida- groceries, gas, rent etc. My rent was $450 a month for a nice one bedroom apartment.
I came back to Port Charlotte. All the dishwashing jobs paid $10 an hour. When I work there, instead of having you come in at open and stay until close like up north, instead they just let dishes stack up to the cieling then have you come in at the last minute in order to save money. They scream at you "faster! faster!" no matter how fast you go it isn't fast enough. Then they stole money off my check and didn't pay me for hours worked.
All of this so the manager could get $10,000 bonus checks for saving money on labor. Everything goes to the manager in Florida, yet the managers don't manage here. It's like a big pyramid scheme or something.
Meanwhile, after taking a huge cut in pay, the rent is twice as much here. Work a full time job and live homeless. All the kitchen help at the restaurant riding bikes to work because they can't afford a car. The waitresses who are tipped make good money as do managers. The rest can starve.
It's just a nightmare working here. It's kind of bad working at no skill jobs in other places- but here it's like unbearable. You have to have parents supporting you or be getting a social security check or dealing drugs on the side or something because you can't live on a full time job here. You are better off begging for change on the side of the road which is why a lot of people do it.
Just to put this in perspective: In Cincinnati the restaurant was less busy, made less money but paid me 40% more in wages (despite a lower cost of living).
In Port Charlotte the place was raking in tens of thousands of dollars a day, making massive profits, but actually after they stole money off my check I made less than minimal wage and worked to death for it. And it's virtually every restaurant is like that and most of the retail places. Meanwhile the manager gets $100,000 a year and living like a king/queen.
I was really shocked that they have been able to keep these places staffed for the 20 years this has been going on. Finally the straw that broke the camel's back has come and there is a mass exodus of workers. Wages have gone up some because of the extreme worker shortage here but at the same time housing prices have gone into the stratosphere. So unless you got a cheap place to stay or living out of your car or something, it still isn't worth having a job here.
I honestly don’t know why I came back to Florida. I had a 5 month hiatus in Sedona AZ last year working at juice bar and averaged $27-29 (with tips) full-time every single paycheck. I came back thinking I was going to rejuvenate my real estate career but then realized as a 34 year old young guy I didn’t want to deal with old baby boomers anymore who are so out of touch with reality.
When I left Naples in late 2020 the Wholefoods couldn’t even staff the coffee bar so they closed it and I believe to this day it hasn’t reopened. I see the rust belt states making huge comebacks the next decade. The cost of living is becoming just as bad as California now since all these remote workers move down, only pay property taxes and spend money but don’t actually produce labor or goods driving up the prices and pushing out the lower income people.
I guess the old saying Florida pays in sunshine is true. Unless you give up your entire life and work 50 hours a week in management in the restaurant industry there is absolutely no way you can survive. Sure most those jobs are meant to be entry for younger people but wages and cost of living is so out of whack.
I kind of miss Chicago where I was born and raised. Sure the winters can suck but the change of seasons are nice.
Ultimately I will end up back in AZ and actually become a resident there or maybe Tennessee / North Carolina. Florida has been great to me but things changed since the pandemic and I am not attached to this state emotionally like I use to be.
Ultimately I will end up back in AZ and actually become a resident there or maybe Tennessee / North Carolina. Florida has been great to me but things changed since the pandemic and I am not attached to this state emotionally like I use to be.
I'm looking at South Carolina, North Carolina, or maybe Augusta GA which is on the border of South Carolina. Tennessee too many people moving there same as Florida big population explosion. But when I talk to working age people, especially on the younger end- 20s, 30s, that's where most of them are going. North Florida, Georgia, maybe Tennessee, North Carolina.
I just to move to the closest place possible that I like. I don't want to make 1,000 mile trip to Cincinnati then I freeze to death because its a total climate shock. If I lived there the whole time I wouldn't mind the weather- actually like it slightly better than Florida, but jumping from one climate to its opposite is a shock to the system. If anything have to gradually make my way up north like a deep sea diver making his way back to the surface.
If you go out to the Florida panhandle by Tallahassee its really cheap, but really ghetto. Or Ocala is still quite affordable but its in the middle of nowhere just not much work or anything to do. Anywhere in Florida that actually seems desirable is way over priced and over crowded with tons of people moving in. So I think Georgia is probably when you start finding places that are desirable to live but reasonably priced. A lot of Georgia is super cheap but with low paying jobs or no jobs too- just middle of nowhere sites. Atlanta is over crowded with gridlocked traffic. My uncle moved to North Georgia one mile from the Tennessee border. No many jobs or much to do there, but its cheap cost of living and beautiful scenery and he was retired anyway. When he got bored he could just travel to Florida. He said the weather was a lot better than Florida. It's only hot for three months out of the year, then its nice. Unlike the six to eight months of boiling heat in South Florida.
I'm looking at South Carolina, North Carolina, or maybe Augusta GA which is on the border of South Carolina. Tennessee too many people moving there same as Florida big population explosion. But when I talk to working age people, especially on the younger end- 20s, 30s, that's where most of them are going. North Florida, Georgia, maybe Tennessee, North Carolina.
I just to move to the closest place possible that I like. I don't want to make 1,000 mile trip to Cincinnati then I freeze to death because its a total climate shock. If I lived there the whole time I wouldn't mind the weather- actually like it slightly better than Florida, but jumping from one climate to its opposite is a shock to the system. If anything have to gradually make my way up north like a deep sea diver making his way back to the surface.
If you go out to the Florida panhandle by Tallahassee its really cheap, but really ghetto. Or Ocala is still quite affordable but its in the middle of nowhere just not much work or anything to do. Anywhere in Florida that actually seems desirable is way over priced and over crowded with tons of people moving in. So I think Georgia is probably when you start finding places that are desirable to live but reasonably priced. A lot of Georgia is super cheap but with low paying jobs or no jobs too- just middle of nowhere sites. Atlanta is over crowded with gridlocked traffic. My uncle moved to North Georgia one mile from the Tennessee border. No many jobs or much to do there, but its cheap cost of living and beautiful scenery and he was retired anyway. When he got bored he could just travel to Florida. He said the weather was a lot better than Florida. It's only hot for three months out of the year, then its nice. Unlike the six to eight months of boiling heat in South Florida.
Yea good point about not moving to the other places that are the opposite extremes of Florida as far as climates. What gets me is the lack of sunlight up north, not so much the cold. That’s why if I could pick one place I could live right now with the snap of a finger it would be Flagstaff AZ. You’re surrounded by gorgeous National Forest, you have all 4 distinct seasons, including very snowy but sunny winters, and you’re located in a part of the country with so much outdoor diversity for a lifetime.
After living in Illinois for the first 26 years of my life to moving here, I use to think Florida was immersed in nature but it’s really not. Sure the beaches are great and one of my favorite natural features of Florida, the cold water springs in Central and Northern Florida, get inundated with tons of low life people that trash the state parks with beer cans and cigarettes butts. Seriously Florida you need to ban all smoking and drinking from your state parks and actual monitor the hot spot areas around the spring heads so people can enjoy the natural beauty. Sure you can visit the springs on a weekday or when the weather gets “cold” but during the summer when a swim in 72 degree crystal clear water sounds like heaven it’s tarnished by many low class people who have no respect for the environment (or themselves by the looks of their disgusting beer guts).
The warm mineral spring in North Port I must say is actually managed properly (privately not state) and the $20 fee I think keeps a lot of people away and that’s a good thing. Mostly Ukrainian and Russian crowds who actually understand what respect and consideration is.
The hiking in Florida is horrendous as well. Florida has horrible light pollution. Florida needs to start inspecting cars like other states on a yearly basis to help protect air quality. Florida needs to ban fertilizers on golf courses. I love many things about this state but many areas are due for improvement.
I just tell it like it is. I don’t sugar coat things!
Last edited by JPrzybylski07; 09-12-2022 at 10:27 AM..
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