YOUNG COUPLE FROM MIDWEST CONSIDERING MOVE..Please HELP! (Miami, Tampa: best neighborhood, how much)

[xsyrax]

Hi, I am moving to Florida from Columbus with my husband and baby son. We are used to having a nice quiet lifestyle with pretty decent middle class living standards. We want to move from Ohio to go to a more fun, diversified area with a bit more to offer. We don't want to end up in another place like Columbus which we find very boring and uneventful. Out of Tampa and Boca which would be a better fit for us? We are both originally from big cities like NY and need that balance of things to do and a busier lifestyle than what C-bus offers us. But don't want to compromise on quality of life, we want a nice home, best neighborhood, best schools and good jobs without the hefty pricetag. Please those of you that have seen and lived in both areas HELP us make our choice!

[didi768]

Moving here will culture-shock you. Be prepared.

[ferret111]

Originally Posted by didi768

Moving here will culture-shock you. Be prepared.

I doubt it will be anything major.

[armystrongmd]

Of those two cities Tampa has got to be your best bet. There will be more jobs unless you're planning on commuting to Miami from Boca, which is completely impractical. I used to live in Columbus too, and decided to relocate to Tampa. I lived in Westerville. I'm going to be back there for Thanksgiving at my grandparents (23 consecutive years I've gone their for T-giving).

Tampa will give you a big city feel in many ways, but has proximity to amazing gulf beaches. If you want to live on the Atlantic Boca or Ft Lauderdale are nice, but you'll likely find them much more expensive. I prefer Tampa anyway. If you ever need to head back up North you're minutes from I-75 which runs all the way up to Michigan. Look at South Tampa, if I could afford to live there I would. It's really not that expensive, but since I'm just getting on my feet down here I need to find a job first.

My .02

[armystrongmd]

Let's go ahead and talk about the differences of living in Tampa vs Columbus.

Traffic is a bit worse in Tampa, as I've never found Columbus traffic to be all that bad
There are intense storms in the summer afternoons, but they cool it off so it feels good
Everyone says it's humid, but I don't think they realize how humid it is in Ohio during summer
The Gulf beaches are simply amazing
You're less than 2 hours from Disney
No Bucks, but we've got the Bucs in town, and the Gators 2 1/2 hours away
Cost of living in surprisingly close
Save money on natural gas, but spend more on electric (cancels out mostly, or Tampa is a little higher)
Great shopping, better than Easton or Polaris
Much more of a big city feel than Columbus with the square grid and taller buildings

[algia]

Boca is VERY expensive and exclusive....we used to live in Fort Lauderdale and drive by sometimes and it is rich "oldie's" world up there....Fort Lauderdale is less expensive than Boca, but unfortunately the crack towns seems to have taken over and schools are horrible unless you can afford the ritzy private ones!

It will be culture shock for real and not necessarily because of ethnicity, but because of the rudeness around.

I am not sure what kind of fun you are looking for but Orlando might fit that description...I don't see Tampa as a "fun" city.... other than water sports...I am from a big city too and this ain't the middle ground...you'd be better off west in Phoenix, because you can at least keep the housing costs down and size but you'd be closer to a LOT more things to do in Phoenix and also Las Vegas, California etc within a roughly 4 hour drive you can have all sorts of fun things to do, in Florida...every 4 hours will land you on another boooooooooooooooooooring beach! Not to mention the humidity here...suffocating...

My 0.2

[algia]

Are you really trying to compare a tropical climate with Ohio?

Florida is a peninsula, surrounded by water on three sides, it doesn't get anymore humid anywhere else other than an island as humid as it gets here and it is non stop, in the last month or so, we had probably 2, 3 days with lower humidity, meaning it was at 50% as opposed to 90 or 100%....we are next to water here, humidity in the winter months (when the temps go down to the 50's) makes it feel a LOT colder outside...there is no comparison I am afraid.

The summer thunderstorms are not cooling anything off here, on the contrary, it makes it feel even more humid and HOT.

What makes traffic bad here are people who don't know the traffic laws. If people driving here would have any knowledge of traffic signs, or at least what their car equipment is supposed to be used for, our traffic would improve greatly.

Yes the beaches are amazing, how much time will you spend on them? if you leave ON the beach then sure, it's great, but if you don't then you have to be prepared to spend time in traffic getting to and from one.

Great shopping? hmm...not sure what that means especially since most everything here is a chain...so, you will find the same things here as you would in Montana or Baton Rouge....Original shopping that's really cool, only in NYC and Miami Beach...we have a nice(er) mall, International Mall...but the merchandise is the same........so I am not sure how that works...I find much better quality/original stuff online these days.

Downtown has some tall buildings, nothing extraordinary compared with Miami.......and if you don't live close to downtown you would only see them if you drive by...who does that?

I give hype when there's hype to give, I am sorry....

Originally Posted by armystrongmd

Let's go ahead and talk about the differences of living in Tampa vs Columbus.

Traffic is a bit worse in Tampa, as I've never found Columbus traffic to be all that bad
There are intense storms in the summer afternoons, but they cool it off so it feels good
Everyone says it's humid, but I don't think they realize how humid it is in Ohio during summer
The Gulf beaches are simply amazing
You're less than 2 hours from Disney
No Bucks, but we've got the Bucs in town, and the Gators 2 1/2 hours away
Cost of living in surprisingly close
Save money on natural gas, but spend more on electric (cancels out mostly, or Tampa is a little higher)
Great shopping, better than Easton or Polaris
Much more of a big city feel than Columbus with the square grid and taller buildings

[Spring Hillian]

Hogwash.

Originally Posted by algia

Are you really trying to compare a tropical climate with Ohio?

Florida is a peninsula, surrounded by water on three sides, it doesn't get anymore humid anywhere else other than an island as humid as it gets here and it is non stop, in the last month or so, we had probably 2, 3 days with lower humidity, meaning it was at 50% as opposed to 90 or 100%....we are next to water here, humidity in the winter months (when the temps go down to the 50's) makes it feel a LOT colder outside...there is no comparison I am afraid.

The summer thunderstorms are not cooling anything off here, on the contrary, it makes it feel even more humid and HOT.

What makes traffic bad here are people who don't know the traffic laws. If people driving here would have any knowledge of traffic signs, or at least what their car equipment is supposed to be used for, our traffic would improve greatly.

Yes the beaches are amazing, how much time will you spend on them? if you leave ON the beach then sure, it's great, but if you don't then you have to be prepared to spend time in traffic getting to and from one.

Great shopping? hmm...not sure what that means especially since most everything here is a chain...so, you will find the same things here as you would in Montana or Baton Rouge....Original shopping that's really cool, only in NYC and Miami Beach...we have a nice(er) mall, International Mall...but the merchandise is the same........so I am not sure how that works...I find much better quality/original stuff online these days.

Downtown has some tall buildings, nothing extraordinary compared with Miami.......and if you don't live close to downtown you would only see them if you drive by...who does that?

I give hype when there's hype to give, I am sorry....

[Maggi07]

Originally Posted by Spring Hillian

Hogwash.

Totally, 100% agree.

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by Maggi07

Totally, 100% agree.

I am also in agreeance!