Whenever I come down here to visit my boomer family members it's just suburban wasteland, traffic and oppressive heat/humidity. Plus all the Trumpers down here rolling coal, I regret everytime I have to come down here.
Good. Dont come. I direct access to a 10,000 acre nature preserve less than a mile from my front door that has miles and miles of running, hiking and cycling trails. I can ride out of my driveway, in 1/10 of a mile, I can be in a bike lane and still in my neighborhood. Less than two miles later, I have access to a 15 foot wide bike path that I can take north, South, east or west for over 100 miles and never have to ride on the road.
Florida has some great places from a running perspective. The panhandle has forest with dirt roads that are great for running. There are some places to train around Jax. Some of the state parks on the west coast are great for running. Tallahassee has some amazing trails. The atlantic coast, miami, the keys, etc. suck for running yes - but they don't suck more than half the suburban blight cities in the US. If I was doing crappy suburban runs, I'd rather it be 50 to 60 in the winter than 0 to 20. Its hot and humid in the summer - but that is most of north america too. It gets to 90 in maine - so if its 101 in florida, that is a fair trade off for not having to train through a blizzard or do repeats on a 10 lap to a mile indoor track.
Whenever I come down here to visit my boomer family members it's just suburban wasteland, traffic and oppressive heat/humidity. Plus all the Trumpers down here rolling coal, I regret everytime I have to come down here.
There are a lot of nice parts of Florida. Suburban sprawl is ugly, but most places in the US have that issue now.
Weather is often nice.
Boating on either side of the peninsula.
Tampa and Miami are interesting cities. Jacksonville is not bad.
No state taxes.
Easy access to Caribbean.
Alligators.
Petty and Skynyrd.
Petty and Skynyrd are dead. And you never had to go to Florida to listen to them.
There are many reasons the Tampa Bay Area is the fifth fastest growing area in the country.
We covered taxes, weather, and some of the best beaches in the country. Some of the cheapest in-state public university tuition, with a top 5 public university.
Three great pro sports teams, I only go to Lightning games.
St. Petersburg is quite progressive with museums, James Beard award restaurants, and a 40 mile dual purpose paved trail stretching the entire county. Cathie Wood just moved the Ark headquarters here. Raymond James is also headquartered here. Running 365 days per year, even though 150 of them are humid, it beats 20 degrees. I get to drive my sports car on summer tires all year.
Interior FL is bad, and 45 minutes from any city gets very redneck. St. Pete has also become very expensive. Not quite CA housing prices, but pretty much $1M for a decent 2,500 sq ft house on a nice area of St. Pete, Clearwater, or Dunedin. $2 million for a beachfront vacant lot. You have to go north or east of Tampa to get something decent in the half million range unless you want to live in a rough part of town, and that defeats the purpose of living in FL.
This might be true in Florida. In CA - 45 minutes from LA, SF, or San Diego gets to LA, SF, and San Diego! Jokes aside, I think I drove through Jacksonville for an hour straight at interstate speed once.
Florida is drained swamps which now grow invasive developments as their major crop. There is little actual access and integration to the environment. The whole state feels like the grounds of a Caribbean hotel. Cheap mini malls, Trumpers, and hardly an independent restaurants. Panera Bread, Chipotle are considered fine dining.
It’s a good state if you can sit at the beach all day( I can’t) or are comfortable driving around for 6 hours doing errands.