Quote:
Originally Posted by mickey100
I'm a New Yorker and proud of it. We are not from the city, we lived in a rural area further north. I see so many misconceptions on this thread I feel compelled to correct. First of all, crime statistics. Not everyone lives in New York City. Many people live in smaller cities in NY or rural areas. But the crime in NYC reached a pinnacle in the 80's and early 90's as a result of the crack epidemic. Crime since then has varied up and down each year, but has overall been on a steady decline. If you compare the NYC statistics with those of Orlando, Orlando has almost twice the level of violent crime and property crime. But being a big city, of course there is going to be more crime, than in a retirement community. Why do people retire to Florida? For one thing, there are tax advantages, depending on what state you come from. People from cold areas such as the northeast, have historically retired to warm places like Florida or Arizona. Some posters here think that politics plays a role. Those same people just love to inject politics into every conversation or lifestyle choice. News flash - In all our years of living in NY, we never knew if our friends were Democrats or Republicans. It was something that was not discussed. Politics were generally private, done in the privacy of the voting booth. That is one thing that just floored us moving to The Villages, and I see it on this thread, the hate and vitriol from people who say things like "don't vote here like you did up north", or "leave the Villages and take your politics with you". There are many things we like about the Villages, but if we do move, that would be the reason why - to get away from small minded, hateful people.
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Agreed. I'm from Connecticut, spent a lot of time in NYC, had life-long friends in Rockville Center, best friend post-college lived in Warwick. I know what my friends thought about specific issues, but politics - who was running for what, who we were voting for - never came up in conversation. None of us had bumper stickers on our cars or flags of our preferred candidates on our flagpoles or signs in our windows or even on our lawns. Some folks did, but that was just a "Vote For [insert name here] for Mayor" and there was NEVER a sign disparaging the candidate they weren't voting for. Ever. Such insanity was completely unheard of. You SUPPORTED your person. You never insulted the other guy.
If you have to insult the other guy, in order for your person to win, then YOU - personally - lost. You lost your integrity, your humanity, and the only thing you had left was your very myopic community of haters. And so - we just didn't ever do that. And we grew up believing this.
So when I moved to the Villages I never checked to see what party people belonged to, when I was looking for a home. The thought never occurred to me to check. I grew up in an incredibly diverse part of the country. We had our tensions, and there were small pockets of areas that one demographic would not feel safe living in. Even then - it had nothing to do with politics. Racial problems, LGBTQ+ issues, womens' reproductive health - none of these had anything to do with politics, in my neck of the woods. Politics wasn't the driving force of them or the reason there was any division. When people fought, no one was asked to answer the question "what political party are you" before they clobbered each other in an alley. No one gave a crap.
Now, politics seems to be the driving force of every single subject. If someone cares about their autistic child getting a decent education, it's a political thing. If someone is upset that they were mugged on a city street, it's the elected official's fault. If someone has a problem with the idea that a person with a ***** is wearing lipstick and a push-up bra, it's political.
It's all rather ridiculous and trust me - as someone from the Greater New York area - if politics were the reason people moved to Florida, there wouldn't be many northerners coming here at all.