I forgot to add Cons! My area isnt perfect even though there are amazing places here!
CONS
Spoiler
Prices of housing and rent are insane! If ypu see a house for sale under $120k- do not go for it unless you are a house flipper! No matter how nice it looks on the outside DONT! It typically WILL have a problem with the foundation due to the chalk and clay shifting, cracks in the walls, or even a bug problem. A GOOD 2 bedroom house will run cheapest $160 if you want basics. $200k+ is average here is a fair place to start. Ive been to sooooooo many open houses here! Downtown Mckinney has Victorian houses that are multi-million dollar houses!
Too many kids running around and their parents dont care. They are all spoiled brats too. All of em, especially in Frisco and Allen. The problem is severe in Allen.
There IS a risk of tornadoes. Its VERY low in Mckinney for whatever reason, ive seen tons of tornadic cells and funnels out west (remember my husband was a storm chaser and trainee meteorologist!) and they will always travel past my city and drop down as soon as they hit this farm town called Princeton. Never seen a tornado here. Hail and flooding is a bigger threat as i live by a river and a park with a pond and hail sucks, make sure your car is under something before a storm! It rains here a ton.
NO basements here because of the clay and Austin Chalk formation. Basments are this thing for rich people here, but we have military-grade storm shelters! DIY projects too, someone here bought a broken down schoolbus and burried it in their yard at an angle leaving the door sticking out as an entry. Genuis!
Drivers in Dallas are CRAZY. Last week i actually went to a funeral for my friend Mario who died in a car accident caused by an impatient butthole. I dont understand because it takes no time to travel across DFW. I HATE the roads here, there are toooo many intertwining confusing roads and toooo many lanes! I always get so lost! Oh yes and people really do drive ridiculous big trucks here and there will always be someone parked in a parking spot in two parking spots at once horizonaly instead of paralell with the lines why just why LOL.
No alligators....*is a hardcore lover of alligators!* so weird since Lousiana is nextdoor! I saw some in Shreveport and when I went close to that area still in the Texas state line I sidnt see any. Gotta drive 4 hours east from here to see them!
Summer here can get very hot but not as hot as most people think! It gets in the 34°-39°C range ( like 90's to 100's in F) here in August- thats the killer month. Its humid here so it will feel muggier than it actually is. My area is a more temperate climate and honestly it stays in the mid to high 80F's most of the summer. Its gotten hotter than that when i lived in Indiana! Go out a few hours west or south yes it can get pretty darn hot above 110°F! My area has tons of trees to keep it cool plus all the rains! It gets humid and the air is very warm before it rains then gets chilly and the air is clean feeling after it rains.
Place: Lakeland, FL
Very warm and sunny place in Central Florida. It was sunny every morning and always really rainy at night. Very humid and less alligators than a lot of other cities.
Spoiler
Pros:
Very short drive to WDW! I lived less than an hour away and being a Florida resident got me discounted admission on not only admission to WDW but to all parks in Orlando!
I loved the part of the city I lived in- a long time ago when I lived with my dad, we had a big house off Lake Hollingsworth. I used to go out to my bus stop everyday I went to highschool, my area of the city was the safest so I could walk out in a cute skirt. Lots of wildlife nearby, I had wild egrets in my yard. I used to let our miniature greyhound outside and chase them after school! I loved my high school as I went to Harrison Arts Center and Lakeland High. I was going to look into animation because I wanted to be an anime artist at the time. Lots of oppurtinites opened up for me there because I wanted to be a marine biologist later down the road which is perfect for a Florida resident. Trip to the beach was an hour and a half, I used to go to Clearwater and occasionally Treasure Island beach! Houses are cheaper there than in my city in Texas. Orange trees in my old backyard! If you wore a Florida Gators shirt- even if you hate football (like me!) everyone loved you. You were the awesomest of you had a bumper sticker, shirt, hat, bag, anything Florida Gators! 2 hours to the north we had natural springs with wild manatees you can pet! Lots of shopping areas and big cities nearby! In Winter Haven, a city very close to where I lived, we had a legit alligator park with FREE ROAMING alligators and no fences! Just a little trail you walk around in the woods on with no cameras, totally safe right!? xD The gators were so used to people you could get really really close! An OK place for families, lots of schools and food choices!
Con's:
Sinkholes. You NEED to have sinkhole coverage if you are a house owner. Also trampolines were apparently banned in my city unless you have a permit? The rise of crime has dramatcy increased since I lived there, Cuban gangs from Miami are about from what I last heard. Flood hazard and obviously potential hurricanes- although Lakeland is inland, we got our deal with damage. A lot of people had a low-standard of living there, although my area in South Lakeland was the safest, the north and middle were bad areas. The sewage plant was in the middle of our city, hated when we drove by it. Rednecks....lots of them there. A lot of whites were really racist in high school, it was terrible and sad. Drugs- this was a huge problem in high school, almost everyone did meth and I was really pressured at several times by the other honor students. Stand your ground law- I was scared at times so I always smiled sweetly like an anime schoolgirl at *anyone* to reassure I wasn't anything threatening! Light pollution- gotta go out into the ocean (as in on a big sturdy boat) at night to really see them! Dad used to skywatch with me, the waves were rough at night. Fire ants....oh my those fire ants. Bug in general, lots of bugs. Oh dear those bugs...sometimes anole lizards got in our house! The soil was actually sand where i lived so we couldnt grow any flowers. Lastly, the drivers. The roads are less confusing there compared to Texas but I say this because of my dads sake. I miss him sooo much! He moved from the north to Florida because of his passion for Disney and nature, I definetly feel it and it was heartbreaking when I had to leave Florida despite its downsides.
Place: Longboat Key, Florida
A beautiful tropical paradise out on the ocean surrounded with serene sea life, out in the western part of Florida in the Gulf.
Spoiler
Pros: The perfect place to visit, let alone live on, if you LOVE the ocean like me. I mean I am hardcore deeply connected to the Gulf-Atlantic and this place was my paradise. It looks EXACTLY like the beaches you see in the Bahamas- aquamarine crystal clear beaches with the softest white baby-poweder sand. Amazingly clean and VERY low crime rate (neighborhood scout gave it a 92 when I lived there which means its 92% safer than all cities in US) so there was no murder, rape, only pitty theft and vandalism. I could seriously go out in the beach skinny dipping if I wanted to (but I didn't hahahaha!). There were sea turtles that would show up sometimes, they were beautiful!!!! Dolphins, sharks, octopus, Forbes sea stars, even some crabs I couldn't identify were only 50 meters from my bed. I used to wake up early with my dad and find buckets of whole sand dollars early on the beach right at dawn! At dawn, the sand looks like a soft pastel purple. Beautiful sunsets that I thought only existed in paintings! Lower light pollution. Resturaunts on the island has FRESH seafood caught locally! Lots and lots of warf crabs and anole lizards- there were the "pidgeys" of the island. There like no other kids, so my siblings and I were pretty spoiled!
Con's:
First off, obviously storms are your enemy living on an island in the middle of the ocean. Even a rainstorm can cause flooding! Hurricane warnings (I never experienced any) you had to evacuate the island. Living there is EXPENSIVE, let alone if you want a condo. There are apartments there but they were like a thousandish a month? I cant remember. NO fastfood chains- but i believe we had Publix! Sunburn. So much sunburn! Also for school you had to leave the island and go to school in Sarasota or another close city, same with your job. It was very hard to get a job there if you aren't like a doctor, dentist, scientist, technician, etc. My dad was a computer software developer so we lucked out! Not a good place for kids, Sarasota and I think...Siesta and Maria Island (can't remember names!) I think are better if you want a family. More of a vacation spot than family-convienience. Everything on the island was expensive and we had to drive off the island to go shopping. Waiting on that BLEEPING bridge to the mainland to FINALLY lower after boats have crossed was annoying! Tourists trash and party the island on holiday weekends- we had a lot of police patrolling doing their best to keep it under control. Bugs- if you hate bugs or other critters don't go there at night. Crabs are everywhere at night on the beach, they looked like spiders and got into our house! Not much to do on the island other than beachcomb, the Country Club, or other touristy things. It was my paradise though, I miss living there.