Pros and Cons of living in South Florida - by a nonresident (Miami: insurance, hotel)

[Shoegal1075]

HMMM - As I said before those who type on this forum are typing quickly and as they think things out. I have found most people to be intelligent and operate with common sense. That being said, there are some times when I can't even read a post because it has so many misspellings - LOL. I don't toss that up to intelligence though, just bad typing skills - :-)

[jhlcomp]

You forgot that this is a cleaner state than most and we have better roads.

[vvolin]

Originally Posted by fauve

Oh no Chelsa, she definitely referred to us...this is what I was responding to:

True, but no one of us in particular. The fact is, I understand we come here often in a rush, just a break from whatever activity we are busy with. And spell checking and grammar may not be a priority, and that is fine. I make mistakes myself and I accept it because I do not want to spend too much of my time on this board, and I want the little I have to be about communication. Unfortunately, though, this rush, coupled with ignorance from at least a few of us, trickles far away from this board, on reports, letters, and even newspaper articles.

Don't get upset, we have plenty of ignorance in Europe as well, but here it seems that it is tolerated instead of fought.

[fauve]

I'm not upset. I meant us generally, as posters. Not me and Chelsa. Gosh, you didn't name names! I directed this to Chelsa's assertion that you didn't mean "us." And, you did infer that it was a great number of errors and that it scared you, so I took that to mean "most."

Oh, and "us" Americans are neither ignorant on the whole nor intolerant. I'm surprised to hear a tolerant intelligent European such as yourself not giving me the benefit of the doubt! And, quite frankly, speaking as condescendingly towards Americans as you are.

[Moderate Guy]

One of the pluses of South Florida and indeed of all America is that here we aren't straightjacketed about language. We speak from the heart and we speak fervently. We say what's on our mind with a minimum of superfluous language. We recognize that language is sometimes fluid and we make allowance for regional, local colloquialisms and vernacular, and we have no problem incorporating into our spoken and written language the most recent additions and adaptations reflective of a relatively young nation on the go, a vibrant, eclectic country expanding its frontiers even as we speak.

To be sure, proper spoken and written language does have its place and time and America has a legacy of some of the most brilliant writers and speakers in the history of the English language - a language which we took from the English, stripped it of its unnecessary impediments, superfluity, outdated verbiage, and transformed it into a meaningful, easy, artistic form of communication.

Here on these South Florida boards and elsewhere we need not have an albatross around us dictating that every "t' must be crossed, every "i" dotted, every comma inserted. It's the content of the post that matters most as in the discussion of the enormous pros and cons of living in South Florida and in any part of our beautiful country.

True, we must teach kids in school and at home the proper structure, rules, use of the language so that they can communicate well at work, at school, in formal settings. They must understand grammar, sentence construction, good diction, the elements of proper writing style, etc. We must however also understand that in fast typing for a forum, speedy conversation, impromptu spontaneous dialogue, content takes precedence to formality if the latter impedes the former.

The expression of our innermost sentiemnts on these forums in helping people make the best decisions about life altering events supercedes any pretense at highfalutin grammatical correctness. Sure, we may not be invited to dine with the Queen.......but a bunch of tea thrown in a harbor centuries ago best demonstrates what we think of such an invitation and a cleavage to must use so-called proper collective nouns dictated by any royalty, country or continent sometimes still stuck in medieval times.

We in America continue to lead the way into the new millenium unencumbered by centuries of anachronistic language, culture, behavior impeding the progress of others struggling to keep apace with us.

[fauve]

^^ Well said. Way to represent!

[vvolin]

Originally Posted by fauve

I'm not upset. I meant us generally, as posters. Not me and Chelsa. Gosh, you didn't name names! I directed this to Chelsa's assertion that you didn't mean "us." And, you did infer that it was a great number of errors and that it scared you, so I took that to mean "most."

Oh, and "us" Americans are neither ignorant on the whole nor intolerant. I'm surprised to hear a tolerant intelligent European such as yourself not giving me the benefit of the doubt! And, quite frankly, speaking as condescendingly towards Americans as you are.

Too much misunderstanding for my like. I can't even start fixing this. Besides, I am not sure you would give "me" the benefit of doubt. So I'll leave it that way. You can certainly read what you want to read into people's comments, and there is only so much we can do to be clear. I am very sorry for your interpretation.

[fauve]

Whatever.

[Nolefan34]

Allow me to correct the OP on a few things:

"Life operates at a slower, less efficient pace than up north"- It depends where "up north" you are talking about. If you mean NYC, then I agree. If you mean the midwest, CT, VT, or anywhere outside of the northeastern corridor then I disagree. Life in South Florida is relatively fast-paced compared to most of the U.S.

"Lots of retirees driving too slow or in a hurry causing horrible traffic"- That was 30 years ago. South Florida has changed 180 degrees. The roads are dominated by young and middle-aged aggressive drivers who don't use turn signals and cut you off. You can add hot-shot doctors, lawyers, and soccer moms to that last. Also, I find that women talking on cell phones are particularly bad as they cannot juggle driving and talking on a cell phone simultaneously. South Florida has so many aggressive drivers that it was ranked as the worst area for road-rage in the country. Also, South Florida is by far the worst for hit-and-runs.

Also, the "horrible traffic" part depends greatly on what part of South Florida. Miami has horrible traffic. Fort Lauderdale does not. The traffic in Fort Lauderdale is worse than most of the U.S., but nowhere near as bad as NYC, DC, LA, or Atlanta. Also, the aggressive drivers make the traffic seem worse than it really is.

State income taxes- Any benefit is outweighed by the lack of investment in public infrastructure. Roads are good in Broward, but there's no public transportation. The roads in Miami-Dade county are terrible and out of date, although they have a public transportation system, underfunded nevertheless.

The schools- are severely underfunded and have been that way for decades. The teachers are severely underpaid, and all of the good ones go out of state as a result. The state has never put much importance or emphasis on education even during good times. Its no surprise that we consistently rank as one of the worst states for education each year.

Property taxes- skyrocketed after the hurricanes in 2004-2005, but plummetted afterwards due to the high rate of forclosures and falling home prices. Whatever revenue the state accummulated prior to 2007 was spent, and then the falling home-prices drove property tax revenue back down. Now the state is in a fiscal crisis because they don't have enough tax revenue coming in.

Jobs- No manufacturing jobs to speak of in South Florida, only service-based economy. Doctors and Lawyers thrive here, as do nurses and others in healthcare as someone else pointed out. Beyond that, just a bunch of lower-end service jobs. You guys wonder why the service is so bad here in South Florida? Well what do you expect when these people are making minimum wage with no benefits? I'd hate my job too if I were them. I wouldn't wanna kiss someone else's you know what.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by jbclown

I find it funny that the only pros mainly are just stating warm, winter weather in different ways, to try to make it look like theres a lot of them. But we all know thats all Florida has to offer.

...and beaches.