Florida has seen a population boom in recent years, but many longtime residents and recent transplants say rising costs and divisive politics have them fleeing the Sunshine State.
One of the first signs Barb Carter’s move to Florida wasn’t the postcard life she’d envisioned was the armadillo infestation in her home that caused $9,000 in damages. Then came a hurricane, ever present feuding over politics, and an inability to find a doctor to remove a tumor from her liver.
After a year in the Sunshine State, Carter packed her car with whatever belongings she could fit and headed back to her home state of Kansas — selling her Florida home at a $40,000 loss and leaving behind the children and grandchildren she’d moved to be closer to.
“So many people ask, ‘Why would you move back to Kansas?’ I tell them all the same thing — you’ve got to take your vacation goggles off,” Carter said. “For me, it was very falsely promoted. Once living there, I thought, you know, this isn’t all you guys have cracked this up to be, at all.”
My parents were just telling me about a friend of theirs who moved back to Ohio… fucking Ohio… after discovering that retirement in Florida was terrible.
Yeah it must be pretty bad if Ohio and Kansas are looking better.
My grandparents retired to Florida in the 1970s. They never went to the beach. They rarely even went outside. They went for the climate after living in New York their whole lives and just stayed in their apartment with the air conditioning on.
I didn’t get it then and I don’t get it now.
And that was before Florida turned into a MAGA hellhole.
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Deerfield Beach, but one of the Century Villages.
My grandfather, who was a bit of a joker, used to say, “no deer, no field and no beach.”
I remember they had a restaurant where you had to be 50 and older to get in after a certain time.