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my wife and I took the trip down to palm beach last weekend....the flight was good coming in, considering we had SNOW here in houston for only the second time in my lifetime that I can remember...that same front brought snow to new orleans, parts of mississippi and alabama as well. It brought the rain that hit us in Palm Beach as soon as we landed, so we had to navigate in the rain showers for a few hours.
We stayed in Juno Beach, and before we checked into the hotel, we rode around in some areas in north palm beach. I pretty much decided to stay away from the areas of southern palm beach, because they look kinda bad, but more on that later. We were on a house hunting trip, and knew we'd spend considerable time in Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Juno Beach, and the Abacoa area. we drove around and were impressed with the building designs and layouts. it was rather beautiful, but we knew it would be very costly to live in those areas.
We encounterd our first rude "snow bird" at the Publix in Jupiter on Hwy 1, right off of donald ross...she was an employee working the register..she scanned our items, didnt say hello, even after we said so, nor told us how much we owed, and was pointing at the screen in front of us saying "theres your total"..we thought what an old azz hag.....
After we checked into our hotel, we looked around for something to eat, and the majority of the places on PGA blvd were closed at 830...I couldnt believe it....if you didnt know where a particular place, you were SOL, because there were no signs on the road advertising such place...we had to actually go into the parking lots to find a place that was open....we saw a number of sushi resturants, asian theme restuarants, and way too many sandwich shops...we finally settled on barbeque because they were still open.
We drove thru Lake Park, and found a kmart on northlake blvd, which we ran into to get some items for our trip. Kmart closed all of thier Houston area locations in 2003, so its been years since we actually saw the big "K". Lake Park seemed a lil more user friendly, as they had many options to choose from, including mass merchandisers like Kmart, Target, Marshalls and Ross.
The next day, we met the retailor over in the new Palm Beach Gardens area Mirabella. It was a very nice looking area, with lakes and a golf course community with all the bells and whistles, but the homeowners over there, in Abacoa, and in the PGA area are sure proud of their homes...we perfer to rent first before we purchase a home due in florida due to economic conditions, and rents in those areas are a min of $2k a month, with first, last and equal security deposit up front....$6k to move into a tiny 1800 sq ft house is not my idea way to live....we saw about 8 properties, and we inquired with our retalier about others areas, like Stuart and Palm City up north, or even Green Acres and West Palm to the south....
she immediately blew us off, saying we dont want to go up north because the "demographics" are different....I asked what demographics she was reffering too, older folks, families, less glitz and glamour, and she just said we wouldnt like it.....she said going south down toward the airport was a waste of time, but if you go that way, she reccommended Wellington or Boca, which are very expensive areas, more so than Palm Beach Gardens. After we were done with her, we went and ate in Jupiter off of Indiantown, went back to our hotel, and headed down the the Hard Rock hotel in Hollywood using the turnpike.
the turnpike was great....only a little traffic at the toll plazas, but we got from Donald Ross and the turnpike to Hollywood in a lil over an hour. I didnt like the fact the the hard rock had all their tables at least $25 min, but being the only card action, I can see why....we played slots for the most part, got down about $300, then stormed back on the Troy machines, and walked out of there up $280.00.....we valet parked our car, left around 11, and there was a lot of traffic coming in.....we took 95 north back to the hotel in Juno, but stopped by the Isle of Capri in Pompano Park first, and being at a dog track, I knew they would not have blackjack....so we played some slots for about 30 minutes, lost $80 and left, heading toward the hotel.
One thing I will say about our trip is that we saw a heavy police prescence, esp in Jupiter, Juno Beach and Palm Beach Gardens area..we saw plenty of state troppers on both sides of 95 too....dont know if those areas have been targeted for crime, but we even had a road block on northlake coming from the casino.
On saturday, we decided to venture out up north to Stuart and Palm City to see the "demographics" We went to Palm City, rode around, and it looked rather boring...a couple of nice communities on golf courses...we just drove around 714, drove into Stuart, and it looked closer to what we are used to here in Houston..we immediately noticed stores and restuarants that we have here..it was like a taste of home....we drove on US 1, went over the bridge and were in Jensen Beach where it really reminded us of home...a big six lane highway with a middle turning lane, stores galore on both sides of the street....new homes, new apartments, what looks to be a fairly new high school in Jensen Beach High, and of course the treasure coast mall....we knew that Port St lucie was straight ahead as well, but it appeared that we were sold on the area...We loved it...
we went back to palm city and stuart on sunday before we flew out to look at some apartments and townhomes....the prices are fairly decent anywhere from 1000 to 1400, but my future employer gets a big discounted rate at area businesses, so the apartment that goes for 1000, will only cost me 800, and moving to Florida, that is a good thing...
All in all, we liked Martin county better than the wine and cheese crowd over in northern palm beach county....it felt more down to earth, and we were even invited to stay at a christmas party for one of the complexes we toured on saturday, which would have been unheard of anywhere in Palm Beach, from what we were told.....If everything works out with my employment package, I will soon be heading for Florida...I will keep you guys abreast.
as for the areas in southen Palm Beach, after reading on here post like: "is Lake worth a ghetto" or reading about the gang activity in West palm beach, we decided to drive down there before we flew out....
Yes, Lake worth is a ghetto.....considering its only minutes from all the rich and glitzy Palm Beach, its a darn shame it looks as bad as it dows, espically the east side of Lake Worth.
Boynton Beach looks a lil better, but not by much...
I can understand the issues going on down there, and as all of the criminal element gets run out of broward and dade county, they will need a place to perform their garbage, and it looks like those southern areas of palm beach county are getting hit hard......even the people on fox news 29 said the gang activity in west palm beach is out of control...
Location: Palm Beach County. Where people get murked by the grocery store.
164 posts, read 793,966 times
Reputation: 64
the east side of lake worth is probably the best side of lake worth. anything west of dixie or federal is most likely ghetto. especially south of 6th ave s. riviera, northern west palm beach(north of banyan blvd to riviera), the southside of delray. seacrest and cherry hill in boynton. all of belle glade, and pahokee. its all bad. definately not no Port St. Lucie. The closest thing to these cities in SLC is ft. pierce.
Interesting report . . . I'll give my impressions where relevant.
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Originally Posted by v2four
considering we had SNOW here in houston for only the second time in my lifetime that I can remember...
Not sure there if you're saying you got to see it? I'd be bummed if something that rare happened while I'm out of town.
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We encounterd our first rude "snow bird" at the Publix in Jupiter on Hwy 1, right off of donald ross...she was an employee working the register..
It's not clear to me why you believed she was a snowbird? "Snowbirds" are folks who live in a place other than Florida for part or most of the year, but live in Florida for say, 3 to 6 months during the cold weather up north.
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she scanned our items, didnt say hello, even after we said so, nor told us how much we owed, and was pointing at the screen in front of us saying "theres your total"..we thought what an old azz hag.....
Any possibility she didn't really hear you say hello? I've actually been in situations like that where I confronted the person about it and it turned out that they were thinking about something else--kind of in a daze, or they didn't hear that well, or whatever. Maybe she was having a bad day, etc. But yeah, maybe she was just an unfriendly grump.
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After we checked into our hotel, we looked around for something to eat, and the majority of the places on PGA blvd were closed at 830...
Yeah, some parts of the country, some neighborhoods, seem to close up shop at night much earlier than others--you should try to find something to eat in that area on Christmas or Christmas Eve! My wife and I were driving up US-1 trying to find something to eat on Christmas a few years ago in that area and went maybe 20 miles before we found a Perkins that was open.
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way too many sandwich shops
That's not something you'd ever hear me say, lol.
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in Abacoa, and in the PGA area are sure proud of their homes...we perfer to rent first before we purchase a home due in florida due to economic conditions, and rents in those areas are a min of $2k a month, with first, last and equal security deposit up front....$6k to move into a tiny 1800 sq ft house is not my idea way to live....
Ouch, me either. I'd never look in a place like that, though. Too trendy, too many uppity yuppies, etc. Just not my bag.
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we inquired with our retalier about others areas . . . she immediately blew us off,
As soon as something like that happens with me, I go, "Oops! This person is just concerned with getting their maximum commission. They're not really interested in helping me find what I want", and then I usually go to another realtor. I don't want to deal with someone like that. When my wife and I were first looking, we had a couple realtors we hooked up through my wife's company. They both sent us a bunch of properties in only two "narrow" areas, which immediately made me suspicious. I told them why I wasn't interested in the areas they showed us in a couple cases, and suggested other areas I was more interested in, and they ended just blowing us off, lol.--I guess they didn't want a commission that bad. It could be that they're worried about doing work for not as much money, it could be that they're not really familiar with the other areas, etc.--whatever it was, I don't want to deal with someone like that anyway.
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saying we dont want to go up north because the "demographics" are different....I asked what demographics she was reffering too, older folks, families, less glitz and glamour, and she just said we wouldnt like it.....
Holy moley--like she's going to know what you're going to like when she first meets you and before you even have any idea what the area is like.
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she said going south down toward the airport was a waste of time,
lol--get another realtor!
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but if you go that way, she reccommended Wellington or Boca, which are very expensive areas, more so than Palm Beach Gardens.
Not really true. You can find very expensive properties in all three places, and you can find affordable properties in all three places, too, but there's much more to look at that those three areas.
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dont know if those areas have been targeted for crime
re the State Troopers, that means they're targeting for revenue.
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new homes, new apartments, what looks to be a fairly new high school in Jensen Beach High, and of course the treasure coast mall....we knew that Port St lucie was straight ahead as well, but it appeared that we were sold on the area...We loved it...
Glad to hear that you found a place you liked.
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All in all, we liked Martin county better than the wine and cheese crowd over in northern palm beach county....it felt more down to earth,
You'd see very different things if you would have explored other parts of Palm Beach County (but not Wellington and Boca--they both have tons of uppity yuppies too).
as for the areas in southen Palm Beach, after reading on here post like: "is Lake worth a ghetto" or reading about the gang activity in West palm beach, we decided to drive down there before we flew out....
Yes, Lake worth is a ghetto.....
Just curious what road(s) you drove down that looked ghetto to you.
Location: Palm Beach County. Where people get murked by the grocery store.
164 posts, read 793,966 times
Reputation: 64
lake worth is ghetto.
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