As I’ve said , we live very urban, NY-NJ Metro. I’m a city boy . I don’t like to brearh any air I can’t see! ( just kidding. Our local air quality is surprisingly good).

Over the years we tripped to Florida to visit relatives/ friends & taken the kids to Disney World, which I hated. Although, Universal was cool.

Over the years we inherited 2 small places in Florida. One was actually on Singer Island and was kinda nice. But , I couldn’t get past my dislike of the place. We sold them both.

To me , Florida is God’s waiting room! Hot, flat , buggy, filled with objectionable critters and bigoted, slow moving rednecks. Get one mile out of a major metro area and it all starts to look like a bad caricature of Appalachia. Intellectual and artistic pursuits are non-existent. Speaking of lacking intellect ,look at the mess they’re in because they won’t take basic public heath needs seriously..... “. Masks violate my Constituttional rights and so does closing the clubs and the bars!” Better to have tens of thousands sicken , perhaps be permanently medically compromised or even die from Covid19.

Twice my in-laws wife and kids had to evacuate and keep retreating, over a period of days, due to wild fires. Especially tough, as our oldest has multiple handicaps. I will give a tip of my hat to the state’s emergency services on those occasions. They did a good job of protecting the handicapped.

Friends who retired there have bee wiped out by the increasingly common ad mors severe hurricanes and wild fire. As for crime, In the North I feel relatively safe in almost all the areas I frequent, as long as common sense is in gear., Not so much In Florida. And I overall HATE the heat.and year round humidity. Never found a day in the North I couldn’t get warm. I never felt cool & comfortable in Florida.

I get the tax haven benefits and lower cost of housing, especially in retirement. But the trade off is too great for me to ever consider the move. Besides, it’s going to be mostly underwater or the new Venice , in a relatively few years. I feel. Sorry for JI.