[lilmn]

My husband and I were thinking of moving down to FL from MN. We have 4 children and wanted to know more about the area of Lakeland FL, the employment, cost of living (rent), schools, and what part of town is best to live in. We are quiet people and love to do family stuff like to go out to the park with the kids and so on. I'm planning on going back to school for nursing, and spoke with someone from Kaiser University, is this a good college and what else is there to do around town? I'm very interested in this town since my husband has family in Tampa and I have some in Orlando. We also plan to do some traveling to visit his family in Puerto Rico. Any comments or suggestions are welcome. Thank You.

[annerk]

Look at Auburndale. Polk County schools in general aren't known for being very good, although Auburndales are aupposed to be about the best in the county. There's not much going on in that area, it's just kind of a half agricultura/half industrial area stuck out in the middle of nowhere. The unemployment rate there is probably up around 12%, you're not going to have an easy time finding work.

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by lilmn

My husband and I were thinking of moving down to FL from MN. We have 4 children and wanted to know more about the area of Lakeland FL, the employment, cost of living (rent), schools, and what part of town is best to live in. We are quiet people and love to do family stuff like to go out to the park with the kids and so on. I'm planning on going back to school for nursing, and spoke with someone from Kaiser University, is this a good college and what else is there to do around town? I'm very interested in this town since my husband has family in Tampa and I have some in Orlando. We also plan to do some traveling to visit his family in Puerto Rico. Any comments or suggestions are welcome. Thank You.

Lakeland is a very nice little city in a great location between Tampa and Orlando. It is a very community and family-oriented town. Like any city or town, it has it's good and bad. The nicest parts of Lakeland are around downtown and south of downtown. But you can also go farther north and it's nice also. Just stay out of the area immediately north of downtown, and also stay west of Bartow road. Lakeland Highlands is very nice. Lakeland does have some good schools, but I can't tell you which are the highest rated, you will have to do some research for that.

Lakeland has a lot of beautiful parks and lakes, and more recreation than one usually finds in Florida towns. Sorry, I don't know much about Keiser, but another nice thing about Lakeland is it has quite a few small colleges, the most notable being Florida Southern on Lake Hollingsworth. People come from all over the world to see the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.

You can do a search above for more posts from me in the past, we lived in Lakeland for a couple years and enjoyed it very much.

[Minus Florida]

If you are looking for a nice, safe, wholesome city to raise a family, then Lakeland is definitely not where you want to move!

For my job, I travel all over Lakeland, and a few of the surrounding polk county cities and while there are some extremely beautiful homes & communities, they are all surrounded by the scum of western society. Drugs are a HUGE problem in polk county. Sex predators make it very scary. I refuse to let my daughters play outside unsupervised EVER, even outside our front door. The school system is also not very good and it is made 100 times worse by the types of kids who go to these schools.

I have 2 girls here and we are planning on moving before they get out of 5th grade, because I could not send my kids to the middle & high schools here.

There is also a very big homeless society here. You will see them quite often at the stop lights, and around all the convenience & liquor stores looking for money for their natural ice & busch quarts.

And as I have said before, i hope you enjoy looking at men's boxers. Because almost the entire young black male population loves to show them to you as they walk around with their pants down to their knees. That's not a racist comment, it's simply a very accurate observation.

Traffic is very bad here as well. You might not think it would be, but using the main 98/south florida road takes about 45 minutes to go from one end of lakeland to the other. And that's not rush hour traffic time.

Just in general, the overall attitude by most of the locals is very unsettling. It's a very selfish, me-first community. Everyone is better than everyone else. I've lived in 4 different states, and no where have I experienced the attitude that these people in general have.

Now like I said there are some nice areas, and it's not all doom & gloom as I have met a few very nice people. Lakeland is pretty much half way between the 2 big cities of orlando and tampa, so there is always something to do.

But to me, I will be leaving the first chance i get, and I would never recommend somebody else to move here, especially with a family and kids.

Not to mention it is unbearably hot here most of the year. Good luck.

[invidia]

Keiser has universities all over Florida. It is a for-profit school that charges more than most top tier private schools. It's not a top tier or even middle tier school. I tried applying there once (30k for an associate's and they were serious). I didn't even spent that much on tuition going to a top tier state school for my bachelor's.

Florida has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country (last checked March 2010, I think we were in the top 5). It is also a terrible, terrible state to look for any technology based jobs. That sometimes doesn't make up for the good cost of living.

[AnnieA]

Originally Posted by annerk

Look at Auburndale. Polk County schools in general aren't known for being very good, although Auburndales are aupposed to be about the best in the county. There's not much going on in that area, it's just kind of a half agricultura/half industrial area stuck out in the middle of nowhere. The unemployment rate there is probably up around 12%, you're not going to have an easy time finding work.

good choice though public schools are about par with the rest of the county. Lots going on in Auburndale re sports for children, as well as, Winter Haven. Lakeland is a very pretty town to me, especially in the hilly areas.

eta: Kaiser too expensive. Apply at one of the community colleges. Polk State College in Winter Haven routinely has students with the highest scores on certification exams. But as with all nursing programs, space is limited.

[Nomadicus]

South Lakeland is almost all new and as nice as any city of the same size. See for yourself. Get your own unbiased opinion. Auburndale and Winter Haven have both good and bad sections just like Lakeland.

[Lakeland Yankee]

The OP started this thread 5 months ago and never returned. She probably visited Lakeland and witnessed the extreme poverty, run down areas, meth addicts, unfriendly natives, rude people, backwardness, etc first hand.

South Lakeland and downtown are ok but you have to go through the run down areas to get to them. Overall I'd say to stay away from Polk County and find a place in Tampa or Orlando if you MUST move to Florida (which I don't recommend). Of course as more and more northerners move to Lakeland it will slowly get better and the backwards Bubba way of life will fade. It still has a long way to go though imho.

One really great positive though is that this area has a lot of beautiful parks and lakes. There are plenty of areas here to enjoy the outdoors and to view the abundant wildlife.

Still I'd never recommend this area to people with children. Too many drug addicts, child molesters, and people with a lack of common decency.

[Jimrob1]

I know if one pulls up the online edition of the Lakeland Ledger it could send them running. Everytime I pull it up there is a headline picture of someone that has killed someone, or some new evidence on a prior murder. If its not that it is in reference to drug busts.

Lakeland has some good points and I really like the downtown area and the lakes. I know life in Lakeland isn't going to just evolve around those points only. I agree Lakeland and the general area there, does seem to have a very high crime rate for its size.

Still I think there are some good points to the area. Its location and lower cost of living compared to surrounding Metro's for one thing. Its sort of a self contained smaller city and a nice alternative to very large cities. It has a more hometown more manageable feel to it, but its crime rate and the reasons for it do have to be considered. Considered for anyone family or single person moving to the area.

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by Jimrob1

I know if one pulls up the online edition of the Lakeland Ledger it could send them running. Everytime I pull it up there is a headline picture of someone that has killed someone, or some new evidence on a prior murder. If its not that it is in reference to drug busts.

Lakeland has some good points and I really like the downtown area and the lakes. I know life in Lakeland isn't going to just evolve around those points only. I agree Lakeland and the general area there, does seem to have a very high crime rate for its size.

Still I think there are some good points to the area. Its location and lower cost of living compared to surrounding Metro's for one thing. Its sort of a self contained smaller city and a nice alternative to very large cities. It has a more hometown more manageable feel to it, but its crime rate and the reasons for it do have to be considered. Considered for anyone family or single person moving to the area.

Remember, Jimrob, the Ledger reports crimes from the whole area, many of those crimes are in Polk County. We lived in the southside downtown area for two years, and it was nice and safe and quite enjoyable. As mentioned, Lakeland, like any city does have its bad areas. But frankly, if you pull up the Bradenton or even Sarasota papers you will often see a lot of the same type stuff. Florida has it's share of crime for sure. One thing I will say, Polk county has one of the best sheriffs (Grady Judd) I have seen in this state.

That said, there is plenty of good to offset the bad in our nice Florida towns, and one just needs to do research and choose a good neighborhood in whatever town they choose to live in.