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My job will be near the Galleria Mall, I hence opted to live in Las Olas area which I understand is only like a 15 min drive from there?
15 minutes at most, only because of construction and always getting caught at that 15th Ave light on Federal/Sunrise. That light takes forever. They are building like 20 new highrise condos at once and trying to widen the road and redo sidewalks on Federal, so once they finish the construction, expect your commute to take only 10 minutes.
Living in Las Olas is a no-brainer. There is no better neighborhood that is remotely as close to your job. Las Olas is filled with young professionals. There are also weekly events going on that would be walkable from whichever building you live. Usually on Las Olas Blvd or in a nearby park. Few places compare to D.C. in terms of the young professional scene, but there are lots of young people in their 20's and 30's in Fort Lauderdale. It is a young city if you ignore the snowbirds who come down in the winter months.
I disagree with the concept that Fort Lauderdale is "relaxed" or laid back. Other parts of FL fit this bill, but South FL including FLL and Miami are high paced and filled with Northeasterners. There is also a hustle mindset here that people are always trying to take advantage of you, so people tend to be less friendly as a defense mechanism. When I visit D.C., people are more friendly and will talk to you in public more freely.
There is no comparison between D.C. and Fort Lauderdale in any regard. FLL would be more comparable to NOVA (Northern VA) in terms of size and layout. You have a small downtown FLL that is comparable to Rosslyn or Pentagon City maybe, but a huge suburban area of 30-40 cities with a large population expanding out about 20 miles. Broward County is similar to NOVA in that regard.
Miami is a more fair comparison to D.C. since Miami is a huge city and far more urban than Fort Lauderdale. SOmeone compared Miami-FLL to D.C.-Baltimore, but I disagree with that because Baltimore-D.C. are located 2 hours apart while there is no separation between FLL area and Miami. It is one large metro area that blends in.
Last edited by Nolefan34; 06-08-2016 at 11:50 AM..
15 minutes at most, only because of construction and always getting caught at that 15th Ave light on Federal/Sunrise. That light takes forever. They are building like 20 new highrise condos at once and trying to widen the road and redo sidewalks on Federal, so once they finish the construction, expect your commute to take only 10 minutes.
Living in Las Olas is a no-brainer. There is no better neighborhood that is remotely as close to your job. Las Olas is filled with young professionals. There are also weekly events going on that would be walkable from whichever building you live. Usually on Las Olas Blvd or in a nearby park. Few places compare to D.C. in terms of the young professional scene, but there are lots of young people in their 20's and 30's in Fort Lauderdale. It is a young city if you ignore the snowbirds who come down in the winter months.
I disagree with the concept that Fort Lauderdale is "relaxed" or laid back. Other parts of FL fit this bill, but South FL including FLL and Miami are high paced and filled with Northeasterners. There is also a hustle mindset here that people are always trying to take advantage of you, so people tend to be less friendly as a defense mechanism. When I visit D.C., people are more friendly and will talk to you in public more freely.
There is no comparison between D.C. and Fort Lauderdale in any regard. FLL would be more comparable to NOVA (Northern VA) in terms of size and layout. You have a small downtown FLL that is comparable to Rosslyn or Pentagon City maybe, but a huge suburban area of 30-40 cities with a large population expanding out about 20 miles. Broward County is similar to NOVA in that regard.
Miami is a more fair comparison to D.C. since Miami is a huge city and far more urban than Fort Lauderdale. SOmeone compared Miami-FLL to D.C.-Baltimore, but I disagree with that because Baltimore-D.C. are located 2 hours apart while there is no separation between FLL area and Miami. It is one large metro area that blends in.
Thank you for your response Nolefan! Your post is very informative! I am glad it sounds like I made a good choice selecting Las Olas as my new neighborhood, it is already nerve racking enough moving into a new area! Do you have any examples of the weekly events that you mention can be found in Las Olas? I am hoping to meet new people and make friendships..
I find your analysis about FLL not necessarily being relaxed very interesting, I seem to be getting conflicting viewpoints on this topic, an earlier poster in this thread mentioned that FLL's relaxed atmosphere would actually be the biggest shock for me culture wise.. I find many people here in DC to always be in an aggressive hustle and bustle, especially on weekdays, this makes being in the city tiresome and stressful, I am really hoping that FLL will be at least slightly more relaxed than DC in that aspect..
SOmeone compared Miami-FLL to D.C.-Baltimore, but I disagree with that because Baltimore-D.C. are located 2 hours apart while there is no separation between FLL area and Miami. It is one large metro area that blends in.
Because I was the one called out on this statement, I'm taking equal time to respond.
First, if you refer to a map of U.S. standard metropolitan statistical areas, you will see that the Washington and Baltimore metro areas share a border. No separation -- just a lot of urban sprawl throughout the D.C.-Baltimore corridor. The metro areas always seemed to blend together on my handful of drives between the cities.
Second, two hours between D.C. and Baltimore? It just ain't true. The city centers are approximately 40 miles apart (central Fort Lauderdale and central Miami are about 25-30 miles). No way that should take two hours, unless there's bad traffic (always a possibility in such a populous corridor) or you're stuck behind a driver going 20 mph. On my last trip to that area, I made the drive from the Arlington, Va., area to Baltimore in just under an hour, albeit during non-peak traffic. At any rate, two hours implies the cities are 100 or so miles apart, which simply isn't so. Matter of fact, I've made the Baltimore-Philly drive in less than two hours, and the central cities are considerably farther apart than Washington-Baltimore.
And I still stand by my original comment, which is that the D.C. and Baltimore areas ARE adjacent, as are Broward and Miami-Dade (again, the SMSA map backs this up) and that in terms of demographics, culture and atmosphere they are every bit as different as Broward and Miami-Dade, perhaps even more so.
I do not mean to sound challenging, but having personally lived in DC for four years this statement is extremely ironic and frankly inaccurate as I honestly couldn't think of a more transient city than DC, this city is essentially a giant revolving door, I cannot even begin to count how many neighbors I have seen come and go over the past four years, most of which relocated to other cities, not to mention, I personally know a handful of DMVers (folks who live or lived in the DC area) who have actually relocated to Florida over the past year and several who are currently thinking about relocating to Florida..
Once again, it is not my intention to sound challenging and I appreciate your responses, however, I honestly find it hard to believe that everyone in Fort Lauderdale has an "anything goes no career-focused very unprofessional mindset" as you say, that sounds like a major generalization and I really hope it is not the case..
My primary reasons for moving from DC to Fort Lauderdale are as follows:
- I work in the hospitality industry and after several attempts I was finally offered an internal transfer opportunity within my company to this new location, my new job in Fort Lauderdale comes with a slight pay increase (even coming from DC) and slightly more responsibility than my current job here in DC..
- I will be much closer to family (driving distance) but not way too close which is a happy medium..
- I am worn out on DC winters and look forward to consistent warmth and sunshine down south..
- I have many close friends in Central Florida which I understand is about a 3 hour drive from Fort Lauderdale..
What are your thoughts?
Hello Mr. Knight you can always DM for more information. Moving for family and friends is always a good thing.
In my experience Ft. Lauderdale workers were very transient. Lauderdale is a tourist and retirement destination with a large foreign-born population. Also I found that a lot of workers and customer service was very unprofessional. Again this is my experience and mine only. Others may have had a different experience in Lauderdale. Three months of winter weather wasn't enough to keep me from all the other benefits of Washington DC area.
Because I was the one called out on this statement, I'm taking equal time to respond.
First, if you refer to a map of U.S. standard metropolitan statistical areas, you will see that the Washington and Baltimore metro areas share a border. No separation -- just a lot of urban sprawl throughout the D.C.-Baltimore corridor. The metro areas always seemed to blend together on my handful of drives between the cities.
Second, two hours between D.C. and Baltimore? It just ain't true. The city centers are approximately 40 miles apart (central Fort Lauderdale and central Miami are about 25-30 miles). No way that should take two hours, unless there's bad traffic (always a possibility in such a populous corridor) or you're stuck behind a driver going 20 mph. On my last trip to that area, I made the drive from the Arlington, Va., area to Baltimore in just under an hour, albeit during non-peak traffic. At any rate, two hours implies the cities are 100 or so miles apart, which simply isn't so. Matter of fact, I've made the Baltimore-Philly drive in less than two hours, and the central cities are considerably farther apart than Washington-Baltimore.
And I still stand by my original comment, which is that the D.C. and Baltimore areas ARE adjacent, as are Broward and Miami-Dade (again, the SMSA map backs this up) and that in terms of demographics, culture and atmosphere they are every bit as different as Broward and Miami-Dade, perhaps even more so.
Thank you for your response Papillons. I have to jump in though as far as DC/Baltimore goes, having lived in the DC area for four years and I can tell you DC and Baltimore are two completely separate cities with very little in common, the culture, architecture, history, economy, people/society, and even local media outlets are all totally different.. Not to mention they are both self-sustaining major cities while in the case of South Florida, FTL is a medium-sized city and Miami is the major city.. While I have not yet arrived to South Florida, just based on research alone, the FTL/Miami metro area is not only geographically closer but also seems to have significantly more commonalities than DC/Baltimore.. With that said, I am very interested in experiencing this first hand once I am down there!
My job will be near the Galleria Mall, I hence opted to live in Las Olas area which I understand is only like a 15 min drive from there?
Five minutes.
Take Broward East and stay on it while it turns into Victoria Park Boulevard. Take a right on NE 6th until it turns into NE 20th. It will drop you off right at the bridge which is the longest part of the commute.
DO NOT take Federal Highway or it will take you 15 minutes. Absolutely no reason to get on Federal Highway.
Always cut through Victoria Park.
When I have to go to the board (GFLBR) I take 15th from Las Olas all the way to 26th in Wilton Manors. Most times I cut through 14th instead of 15th.
Last edited by blueherons; 06-09-2016 at 11:45 AM..
Take Broward East and stay on it while it turns into Victoria Park Boulevard. Take a right on NE 6th until it turns into NE 20th. It will drop you off right at the bridge which is the longest part of the commute.
DO NOT take Federal Highway or it will take you 15 minutes. Absolutely no reason to get on Federal Highway.
Thank you for the advice blueherons! You have been extremely helpful! I was precisely thinking about these back roads as a possible commute option but I just wasn't too sure how easy or doable it actually was..
Thank you for the advice blueherons! You have been extremely helpful! I was precisely thinking about these back roads as a possible commute option but I just wasn't too sure how easy or doable it actually was..
Very do-able.
I haven't driven on Federal Highway in about a year unless I need to go to Trader Joes.
You can bypass that traffic completely.
I suggest you get on your bike and ride around Victoria Park. Lots of great shortcuts.
The closest grocery store to you though is probably going to be Publix on Andrews.
I haven't driven on Federal Highway in about a year unless I need to go to Trader Joes.
You can bypass that traffic completely.
I suggest you get on your bike and ride around Victoria Park. Lots of great shortcuts.
The closest grocery store to you though is probably going to be Publix on Andrews.
How far is the Publix from Las Olas and Route 1 area? I notice it is on the opposite side of the river, is that a safe area? Will I be able to bike/walk to the Publix or will it be best to drive there?
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