Thread: America's Newest Refugees....South Floridians

Paradise lost? South Florida moves to tipping point
Published January 1, 2006


From her seat behind the rental counter at the U-Haul Center on State Road 84 near Interstate 95 in Fort Lauderdale, Belkis Lopez has noticed a shift in the past year.

More trucks are leaving town than arriving.

"A lot of people are getting out of here," Lopez said. "Working people who say they can't afford living here, people who've been here 50 years, retirees who say their money can go a lot further up north."

Some go as close as Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie. Many have been going to Pensacola and Tallahassee. Some go to Georgia, North Carolina and beyond.

She rattled off the list of one-way rental destinations for the past week: Ohio, Las Vegas, two in North Florida.

"I hear the same complaints [about South Florida] all the time," said Lopez, 23, who has worked at the U-Haul Center for two years. "Too expensive, too crowded, too much traffic."

It's a new year in South Florida, and there seems to be a new vibe, too.

Not too long ago, this area seemed like paradise: great weather and a relatively affordable lifestyle, with housing that seemed a steal compared with other major metropolitan areas.

But now paradise has been lost, what with hurricanes every other week, a real estate market that only a Wall Street millionaire could afford, the cost of everything from health care to FPL bills soaring and salaries not keeping pace.

During the past few months, since Hurricane Wilma, almost every interview and casual conversation I've had with ordinary people inevitably drifts to thoughts of leaving.

"I'm seriously thinking about getting out of the area," Linda Mastriana, 57, said a few days after Wilma. She has lived and worked in Fort Lauderdale for 28 years, but she said the coming increase in windstorm insurance rates might be her breaking point.

"The cost of living is just getting out of hand, and the wages are simply not keeping up," Mastriana said. She said her native Ohio keeps looking better, winters and all.

South Florida has always been a transient area. But now it's also longtime residents, people who thought they were going to be lifers, who are pulling up stakes.

People like Martha Norona. Norona's family moved to South Florida from Massachusetts in 1957, when she was 4. In August, one week before Hurricane Katrina hit, Norona sold her house in Dania Beach and moved to Tallahassee.

Norona, 52, moved to be near her two grandchildren and daughter, who works at Florida State University, but also for a less hectic lifestyle.

"I knew things were expensive [in South Florida], but I didn't realize how expensive until I got here," she said. "I only need one insurance policy for my home now. It's wonderful."

In South Florida, she paid more than $2,000 a year for homeowner's, flood and windstorm insurance, another $2,000 in property taxes and $159 a month for auto insurance. In Tallahassee, she pays $800 a year for property insurance, $1,200 in property taxes and $88 a month for auto insurance.

She sold her South Florida house, a small two-bedroom, for $325,000. In Tallahassee, she bought a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a fireplace, wooden deck and two-car garage for $180,000. She had plenty left over to buy a winter wardrobe.

"I paid off everything I owed, put money in the bank, bought a beautiful house and can afford to work part-time," she said. "I don't regret it for a minute. I miss my friends and my family, but to me it's like heaven up here. … Everyone's in a good mood. Even the stock boys at Wal-Mart say hello to you. People don't cut you off in traffic. If you put your blinker on, they actually let you in."

Government planners and private builders still forecast unbridled growth for Broward, with no shortage of high-end developments and high-rise condominiums on the drawing boards. But you wonder, who'll be able to afford it?

The big question for the new year and beyond: Can South Florida's middle class hold? Or will more people cash out, pack up and escape from a lost paradise?


And what do you think caused this You get one guess. Twenty people in a house making the cost of housing WAY out of control.

My husband's boss told us the other day that people used to give anything to get a job with their company and they especially loved the idea of moving to south Florida. He said even with higher than usual pay offers every qualified person they attempt to recruit now flat out REFUSES to move to South Florida. As a result, they are being forced to hire people and let them work out of their homes in other states.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/colu ... mailedlink

The SECOND the window of opportunity opens for this family.....all you will see is the dust we will leave in the road !! We're gonna be FLYIN up I-95 NORTH And I don't believe in speeding, but THAT DAY I'm going to tell my husband to "floor it, honey!!"

Hey, if you love concrete and speaking Spanish...move on down. You're gonna love it. :P

Want a governor who speaks to everyone in Spanish on TV...come on...what are you waiting for !? It's all here waiting for ya !!

Legal, NC sounds better than South Florida. It depends on what you're looking for. We have mountains, coast, pretty good temperature too. Give us a look see.

Who'll take care of the illegals there if taxpayers leave I wonder.
We have 400,000+ with more coming every day because of the unemployment and depressed wages in California plus recent jumpers.

Originally Posted by LegalUSCitizen

Hey, if you love concrete and speaking Spanish...move on down. You're gonna love it. :P

Want a governor who speaks to everyone in Spanish on TV...come on...what are you waiting for !? It's all here waiting for ya !!

I have relatives in central Florida who sold out a couple of month ago to move farther out in the country. Their town had been overrun.

I think YOU are going to have to visit US in NC, Legal. I just think I would STROKE OUT the first time I heard a bunch of people speaking SPANISH in AMERICA! And, talk about MAD--if the GOVERNOR started speaking Spanish, I WOULD be SPLATTING HIM WITH THE ROTTENEST TOMATOES I COULD FIND. He makes me SICK, SICK, SICK!!! Just THINKING about him made me run for the BARF BUCKET!

Better not put out the welcome mat out too fast for North Carolina. The truth is North Carolina is everyone's MOST POPULAR destination from here to relocate. Everyone feels it will be more like America and that's what they're searching for.

So what does that mean for your state ??

Which reminds me, I need to send an email to some friends of ours from here. We only see each other twice a year at both of our youngest kids birthday parties . Last June at the birthday party, they were telling us they were seriously considering moving to North Carolina. We received their annual Christmas card and guess what ? They informed us of their new addresss.....they ended up moving to NC in August.

I will say this.....you did get a super nice family out of that one. Let's hope they're all so nice for you guys up there !!

But still, it means a lot of people are going to NC and you know the effects that will have. Higher housing costs, more crowded schools and highways just to start. Too bad South Florida couldn't have been saved from this massive illegal invasion. This is what put Florida over the top. This is what has caused Floridians to run like scared rabbits hoping to find a place that will enable them to feel they still have their country.

OH PLEASE don't send those CUBIANS up here!! My first husband's family lived in Miami in the winter for YEARS and his great-grandmother used to call them, "CUBIANS" and I just still cackle when I think about that!

What part of NC did your friends move to. That sentence was disjointed. TO WHAT PART OF NC DID YOUR FRIENDS MOVE???!!!!

Bootsie, I was just going to come back and add something. North Carolina is ALSO the most popular destination for those who choose not to speak English down here who have decided to spread their wings, shall we say.

You guys better get busy with your reps. Your state is doomed if you guys don't CRACK DOWN HARD on illegal immigration.

As I've said before.....I hate to say this......it would seem virtually impossible to save Florida. It is a HAVEN for illegals and for so many it is their first stop.

If North Carolina doesn't take a strong stand you guys are going to have the same problems as we have here, and where will the North Carolinians run to ? Goodbye America UNLESS you just say NO to illegal immigration and guest worker programs which will bring more illegals and those here will NEVER go home in six years !! What a joke of an idea.

You have laws....ENFORCE THEM !! Save your great state from being a haven for those who disrespect the laws of the United States of America.

I COMPLETELY AGREE, LEGAL. We will be DOOMED unless there are DRASTIC CHANGES.

Bootsie, another thing that never ceases to amaze me is the stupidity of the American law makers. Don't they SEE that they are also selling themselves out and giving up their jobs with this massive invasion ?

Just as in Florida, this is what other American politicians can expect.
In the 2004 election, BY FAR the best candidate was Bill McCollum.
He was running against Mel Martinez. He was the most qualified, he had an impressive background including outstanding military service. MANY people were for him, with the exception of the Hispanic community who , surprise, surprise were mostly for Mel Martinez. Why? Because he's Hispanic. Great REASON to elect someone, huh? Well, along came George Bush showing up every five minutes on TV and radio here in Florida telling everyone to vote for his good friend, Mel Martinez over Bill McCollum.

Yes, like a fool, I listened to Jorge, stupid as I was. So did everyone else.
Now we have Mel Martinez a representative who has an F- on enforcing immigration laws. SO this is the future for American politicians all over the country, and if they have children interested in politics....they better change their plans.

I know there are SOME (FEW) so called Hispanic politicians who are not for the temporary worker program. Those people need to be brought into the American spotlight as an example of what it means to be true Americans, ready to put the best interest of our country in front of favoritism and choosing lawlessness over having a lawful country.

Once you get these Quasi-Americans in office.......that's when your state will never dig itself out from the rubble. The pile of rubble (lies, ant-Americanism, lack of assimilation, disrespect for Americans, our culture, language, values, outrageous housing costs, and just an extreme dropping off and decline in the standard of living for your area will occur.)

You will never regain it, UNLESS the people of a state DEMAND that your elected officials stop playing around and get serious.