Why Does Everyone Hate Florida So Much??

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I live in Chicago and have visited almost every part of Florida, I am actually going to be visiting Ft.Lauderdale at the end on January. I ask anyone here that has ever lived in Florida and they have nothing but terrible things to say. They tell me the schools and education systems are bad and that the majority of the population have low Iq's and are poor. I don't know why this is, everyone seemed pretty normal to me?? I would like to move there one day and start a new life with my husband but I'm worried about salary and job placement for both himself and I. Why are some peoples experiences so bad, its so beautiful and the people are very nice. I just don't get it. Can someone help me understand why this is??

Again, even though FL is a top retirement state, the stats from 2006 say that folks > 65 accounted for only 16.8% of the population, whereas the under 18 group accounted for 22.6%.

http://www.fedstats.gov/qf/states/12/12103.html

There was a winkie, Angie.

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Specializes in Utilization Management.
There was a winkie, Angie.

Dang, I'd better put those bifocals back on, Sue. :chuckle

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Specializes in Cardiac.

WHAT who hates Florida?

Is it the humidity, the 96 yr old with drivers licenses, the horrible wages, lack of jobs, or the crazy young people?

Nah I love it here. 20 yrs born and raised, been in the city and in the country. The heat in the summer does suck, but snow sucks more IMO lol.

If you love beaches, then your gunna love it here.

It isn't for everyone, yes in many places the education is poor-fair, but I for one was in A schools all my life, and heck my parents made darn well sure that I was in the best programs my schools offered, and no we didn't have the money for private schooling. So, that isn't an issue really, do your homework on schools so your kids can learn something from theirs.

and as far as cost of living, according to all those surveys you see, yes Up north and Cali is more expensive than FL, but no one said FL was the cheapest, its like TX or some mid west state. because realestate is still quite high here, and now its high and nothing is selling.

I love FL, I have visted all over the east coast, and couldn't live anywhere else, and I hope I don't have to.

plz excuse my spelling and grammer errors, because I am rushed ATM

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While I'm not neccessarily parading down the street with my I heart Florida sign, I don't know that there's many more places that I'd like to live. I was born and raised in Central Florida, in fact I'm 6th generation.

As for the i.q. and poverty, I'm fairly certain that you'll encounter people with poor i.q.'s and people in lower income brackets anywhere that you may go. The school systems? While I have no first hand experience to compare them to, I'd like to think that I'm a fairly well educated and articulate person. My children are receiving good educations. There are plenty of charter/magnet school opportunities there for you to take advantage of as well. Bugs, alligators, et al? Yes, mosquitos are annoying but they're not out in force year 'round. Alligators, well, my parents lived/live in a classified swamp area so I've seen a few. I live about 20 minutes away and while I can drive by a lake and maybe catch a glimpse of one I certainly don't see them walking down the street or in my backyard. The heat? I'm a wimp who truly hates cold weather and freak if I hear it's going to be lower than the 70's. I'll take my hot, humid weather over cool and/or cold weather any day. The freedom to wear a tee and flip flops 90% of the year is pretty awesome in my opinion. Not having to worry about snow, blizzards, etc? Awesome. Quick access to beaches and amusement parks? Awesome. As for the people and their attitudes and such, never a problem. Maybe it's different in South Florida but here, generally speaking, everyone is nice for the most part and I'd bet we have our fair mix of personalities just like anywhere else. My only major complaint is the influx of elderly drivers during certain months and my penchance for cursing at them if they're in my way :) Truly the only thing that I can't speak to regarding Florida is working in the healthcare field.

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I have lived in Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Alaska. Florida in summer is just as uncomfortable as Alaska in winter. No lie.

There is NO mosquito problem in Florida compared to Maine or Alaska. Not even close. If you hear Floridians talk about Palmetto Bugs, they are really talking about cockroaches the size of a Twinkie.

I'm moving after a couple of years of RN experience to a place that has law enforcement instead of crime scene investigators.

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Specializes in med.surg, LTC.

If you like the ocean move to panama city, but if you do not

i wouldn't move here, the pay is extremely low and you are sorta isolated since the airport here is very expensive and the closest big city is 4 hours away, Atlanta or New Orleans, i personaly cant wait to move, but the people are very friendly and i have wonderful friends.

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I know everyone is free to have an opinion but why so much hate towards Florida and so much of it very generalized? All of Florida is not the same. I think every single state has areas with higher crime, poor schools, people with low IQ's, strip malls with chain stores and restaurants as far as the eye can see, etc etc. This is not unique to Florida alone. It is everywhere in this country.

There are not half blind blue haired ladies behind the wheel of every car on the road. Cockroaches are not flying through the air every time you turn around and gators don't just meander through the neighborhood on a regular basis. What a bunch of stereotypes.

I think for many people, the grass is always greener on the other side. If you are not from a place, it has a hard time measuring up to your hometown (even though you were in big hurry to grow up and leave that place behind as soon as you finished high school!) As a military spouse, I have lived in a lot of different places and going into each with an open mind (that's important), I've liked them all. Some more than others but Florida was the best and where we plan to retire to (not as old people but as young 40-somethings when hubby's military time is up).

Northwest Florida in particular is unlike most people's stereotypical view of Florida. We have a change of seasons there. You need a coat in the winter time. It is not the part of Florida where most snowbirds flock to for the winter season. The beaches are among the most beautiful in the world (and I've been to beaches all around the world so I can truly attest to that!) The wages were lower there but so was the cost of living, no state income taxes, no personal property taxes. Real estate property taxes were pretty much the same there as where we currently live.

The hospitals in the part of Florida where I lived were first class facilities. Good places to work. In fact, at my current workplace in the DC area, during orientation they mentioned one of these hospitals as a place to emulate due to its very high patient satisfaction rates. This is thanks in large part to the efforts of Quint Studer, a legend in the healthcare industry.

But anyway, I felt like I needed to jump in and defend Florida. I don't hate it and it's not such a bad place. We are all different in our wants and needs and not everyone wants to live there but that's okay. That leaves more room for the rest of us. :onbch:

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Specializes in ED.

I agree with you some, joseash. I say "some" only because I haven't lived up in northern Florida, but I have visited, and I can say that I never feel like I'm in Florida when I'm up there. I have a friend who lived in Tallahassee her whole life, moved down here (south Florida) for several years, and moved back because, in her experience, it is so much nicer (and cheaper) to live there.

Now what I will say is that I really dislike SOUTH Florida. Southeastern Florida, to be exact. It would take about a 7 hour drive for me to just get out of Florida, and its about a 9-10hr drive for me to visit family members who live IN northwest Florida. I HATE the humidity. I can deal with summer being hot, heck its summer for Pete's sake. But when its 80 degrees AT NIGHT in October, its getting a little ridiculous. Sorry, I know a lot of people who love Florida because of the warmth, but I don't. I would love to have seasons change. Autumn is soooo beautiful, and we never see it here.

About the drivers- its not really fair to generalize the bad drivers into a specific category. The issue is that no matter the age, race, sex, etc, there are REALLY dangerous people on the roads here, and it doesn't help that there are a lot of people here which make the roads more crowded. People don't pay attention, talk on their cell phones, which I don't have a problem with if you can actually TALK AND DRIVE CORRECTLY at the same time, people cut people off dangerously, etc. So, the problem is just that there are an awful lot of bad drivers on the roads here. Crime is getting worse. I am sure it is everywhere, but we've had a lot more of it lately, and the criminals are getting more brazen. They've killed or tried to kill quite a few cops around here in recent times, and if the criminals are willing to shoot at a cop, they won't stop at anything else.

As for the schools, I am a product of the public school system. From what I have seen, there are good teachers, good students, and good classes at most schools. But I have heard of at least one school in particular where the kids couldn't even read when they graduated high school (I actually have heard this several times about this one school). But for the most part, the schools were decent. I can't obviously compare that to a top rated school in another region or state, but they weren't that bad.

And I must add one more thing, the majority of the people here are NOT very nice. I've encountered people who don't bother to hold the door open for someone (and I'm even talking as little as walking into a store and holding it open long enough for the person behind you to grab the door), people who can't be bothered to say hi to a 2 year old little kid who looks up and smiles and says, "HI!!". Nope. They can't even look at you. I don't know....there's so much I can get into, but I'll stop here- the people, for the most part, are just not nice.

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Specializes in ED.

Oh and the beaches are definitely more beautiful in northwestern Florida. Destin has the best beaches I have ever seen. Aqua blue water, beautiful white sand....south Florida beaches pale in comparison.

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I really appreciate you posting this topic, I've been wondering the same thing myself lately and even mentioned it to my sister. I live in northeastern Florida (Jacksonville) and absolutely love it. We live in a very safe area that's comfortable, close to major shopping but not too close to have to deal with the traffic. We have enough close by within 10 miles to keep my family content. Our sunsets are beautiful (I don't know too much about sunrises because I'm a night owl!) and I can't get enough of the beach during summer. I've been to a couple different cities in Florida though and noticed some of them (in my opinion) have prettier scenery...I wish we had palm trees up here. =( My dad lives in Atlanta and while I feel they do have a prettier Autumn than us, I couldn't deal with the cold and the hills can be pretty scary since Florida is so flat and that's what I'm use to. I think the schools just depend on the individual district. I've heard horrible things of the Duval county school system (my mom's godson goes to an elementary school in Duval and they don't even have a school speeding limit during school hours, cars can go 45 mph anywhere and anytime near the school and lots of kids ride their bike/walk!). But I've heard wonderful things of Clay schools and attended them my whole life, and I feel I got a great education...but they also have excellent ESE programs (my little brother is mentally handicapped) and do tons of out-of-school programs for them for free (my brother, through his school, has been fishing, camping, had a special Zoo trip day, among many other things).

I agree too that I think it's just a preference of living places. Yeah, the humidity sucks and it's usually the only thing I complain about living here but you get use to it. And while I might want to live somewhere else when I'm older, I'll always love Florida and want to come back to visit often. =)

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Nurses down here in Florida have less education. There are too many LPNS and ASNs from 2 year community colleges and not enough highly educated RNs with their BSNs here in the Tampa Bay area. Nurses up north are better educated. Here in Florida, the hospitals don't care if you have your BSN. The salary for an ASN nurse is exactly the same salary for a BSN nurse. I never see job postings down here that say "BSN required". The hospitals do not give enough incentive for their nurses to go back to school and further their education. Tuition reimbursement is not great down here.

You sound like a fool:down:

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Specializes in CVICU.

I wondered how it would be before I moved and figured people were throwing a diversion to keep others from moving to their paradise. That wasnt correct at all. I like this place about now cause its warm. The summer was hot but I lived in PHX for 9 years so Ive seen 115+ for 90+ days in summer and nite temps in the 100s.

The thing that makes this place suck is the people. Ive lived and driven the roads in south america and spain were its more dangerous but for some reason the drivers here are more annoying. Also, no cops on the roads enforcing the rules.

Walk into a store and ask for something in english and get spanish reply(out of spite). I speak spanish so its no biggie but its disrespectfull.

For some reason people turn into animals here on the roads. Ive heard NY and Boston are bad too but these people will run you over in a crosswalk and honk at you in the process.

The haitan and carribean nurses that come here with degrees in hand from their home countries and sit for nclex here and imployed by jackson are a mixed bag. Mostly its not a nice mix. They have a different way of handeling pt care alltogether. Its not american manners, and im not even talking about comparing them to the famous souther ones.

18+ hr er waits at jackson 8+ at baptist. Awfull economy (excluding nurses but they are still underpaid). Overpriced apts, food, milk and blah blah blah.

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