two positions, Sun Sentinel

Hey, the job market in Florida is great. The sunshine is nice as well, but let's not sugar-coat the reality.

Perhaps you don't have much frame of reference for comparisons. But I can assure you that people aren't carjacked while pumping gas in most American cities. I believe Sunday's Orlando Sentinel had a story about a guy who severed his little boy's hands and slit his throat. The shocking part isn't that it happens. It's that it doesn't even faze people because this kind of stuff happens nearly every day here.

I can drive just five miles to a house where seven people were murdered over an XBox. If I drive five miles in another direction, I can come across the home where a lady was murdered just last month by a man who broke into her house and waited for her. Just to add a little twist, he was seen wearing a Scream mask as he sprinted away from the scene.

In 2000, there was one violent crime committed for every 123 people living in the state. That is twice the rate in my home state, where the majority of the violent crime takes place in one city. And, as you can imagine, that rate increases for people who take dangerous risks, such as going for an after-dinner stroll after dark.

Now, I'm not saying that there's not a difference between Orlando and Fort Lauderdale. I'm sure there is. I'm just pointing out facts.

As for the danger on the roads, I'll just save time by noting that my auto insurance premium increased dramatically when I moved here.

But I doubt that people are going to base their decisions regarding employment on the roads and the crime. So let's just drop this subject.

 

Reference the old Germany or Florida bit they used to do on Loveline. Their theory was all weird crimes either happen in Germany or Florida.

 

States that don't have a state income tax will kill you with property taxes (and you pay that even if you're renting -- why do you think rent is so high?) or higher sales tax (or both). The government gets your money one way or the other. I paid much less taxes overall when I lived in a state with an income tax than in one that doesn't have one.

 

I know what you mean. From where I live, I can drive 5 minutes to a house where a girl was recently reported missing and her parents are rumored to have killed her and buried her in the backyard. I can drive 10 minutes the other direction to a place where a high school student stabbed fellow classmates. Right outside my front door, I had my car stolen a couple months ago, and my neighbor has had his stolen twice. The mall 4 miles from my house has had several shootings and stabbings in the 4 years I've lived here.

In 1999, a few miles away, there was a high school where two kids came to school with guns firing, killing 13 people before killing themselves. I can name at least 4 high schools within 30 minutes of me where teachers have been arrested for having sex with their students.

There's a story in the paper today about prisoners pouring into our state's cellblocks 5 times faster than the national average.

Of course, I live in Colorado, not Florida. My point? HeinenkanMan sounds ridiculous. There is crime everywhere. If you're careful, and pick a decent part of town to live in, you can avoid most of it.

 

In the world of reporting, BH33, we tend to use these little things called facts. The facts I am looking at say that there were 129,000 violent crimes committed in Florida in 2000 and only 14,000 for the same year in Colorado. There were also 134 murders in Colorado and more than 900 in Florida.

 

Since it's a prep job in South Florida, are you issued a pair of jorts and a Miami Hurricanes hat with instructions to wear it backwards? From making the rounds of the different state high school finals 3-4 years ago, that seemed to be the official uniform of most.

I won't mention the gold chains and obnoxious comments in the press box. Whoops, I just did.

;D

 

HeinekenMan, considering there are 16 million people in Florida and 4.3 million in Colorado, Florida should have a lot more crimes.

I'm not disputing that Florida has high crime. My only point is, you can find crime everywhere, whether it's Miami or Milwaukee (which had a higher murder rate than Miami from 2001-2003) .

 

Not to take sides in this (because I really don't care that much), but according to the numbers you've thrown out there, Florida has a little less than four times the population of Colorado. Therefore, if the crime rates were equal, you'd expect a little less than four times the crime. Instead, Heineken Man's numbers show Florida has more than nine times as many violent crimes and about seven times as many murders.

God, I love math.

Carry on.

 

LOL....

Give me your address, and I'll send you a pacifier.

The whiter a state is, the less violent crime there is.

You should move to Minnesota or North Dakota.

 

Again, I admit Florida has high crime. I could have told you Florida had higher crime rates than Colorado before looking at the numbers. The numbers just back it up and enforce the point.

I will also say that HeinekenMan does a good thing to bring it up, in case crime rates might influence someone going after this job (such a family man or woman). My only point is that it doesn't matter where you live; you can read about and hear about violent crimes and murders in every city. (Seriously, who would have guesses Milwaukee has a higher murder rate than Miami?)
And, if you live in Fort Lauderdale and decide to hang out in bad parts of town, you'll probably be a victim. Same if you live in Denver, or Minneapolis, or somewhere in North Dakota.

But, if you're looking at this job as a way to move up in your career and enjoy a little sun and sand, you get an apartment in a decent part of town, and you don't put yourself in bad situations, your chances of escaping Fort Lauderdale without harm are pretty good. I'm sure half the state is full of evil people, but isn't the other half full of retired folks? Just hang out with them!

 

Into this late, had no idea the direction it had taken.

There's crime in every busy, vibrant, diverse, somewhat crowded place where there's a lot of money flying around. You never know where it will randomly strike, but you CAN live in South Florida, not travel into the bad areas and have a pretty good chance of making it to retirement.

I certainly know a lot of people on here think New York City is THE place to live. How come when a New York job is posted, we don't get diatribes about all the crime there?

There are a lot of things that are a pain in South Florida, but overall, it can be a great place to live.

As to them getting their money one way or another, I can say absolutely that the lack of state income tax is NOT offset by much higher property and sales taxes. That's why people like Tiger Woods move here -- and I'm sure he has some pretty good advisers on such matters.