We moved away from that neighborhood last September. With the exception of a few couples, we don't miss it. Without giving too much away, the subdivision is situated in the poorest county in Florida. The childhood poverty level there is among the highest in the country. When we moved down from Boston, we felt like kids in a candy store. Real estate prices were 70% lower than comparable housing in greater Boston.
We loved Boston, but the weather up north chased us away. When a company headquartered in central Fla. offered my wife a job, we didn't hesitate. I was a marketing consultant at the time, so my business was portable. I opened my photo business several years later. I converted the 600 sq. ft. garage into a fine art reproduction studio. With a ten foot high ceiling, central air, and three 20 amp circuits, it was an ideal space.
Our mortgage was about the same as it was in Boston. Except instead of living in a modest two-story house on a 3,000 square foot lot, we moved up to a 3,000 sq. ft. home with lovely landscaping and an inground pool on a 2/3 acre lot.
After six or seven years, I began to have second thoughts about living halfway up the hill. I loved the weather, however I missed the friendships and goodwill of the folks we'd left behind in our densely packed Boston neighborhood. The mix included teachers, firemen, cops, young professionals, and some whose families had been in the same house for two or three generations. Our Boston neighborhood was tidy and quiet.
I had also grown weary of maintaining our Florida house. It was disproportionately large for three people and two small dogs. But mostly, I got tired of the haughtiness and hubris of half of the people who lived in the subdivision. They were not friendly. The kids at the top of the hill, and their friends, drove their cars too fast and often trenched our yard as they whipped around the curve. We ended up having to set three boulders on the front yard to defend our turf. I am apolitical, however my wife would put out signs before election time supporting views contrary to the beliefs of 90% of our neighbors. Her signs frequently disappeared. At least three of the people in the subdivision were notorious tailgaters. even though the street terminated in a cul-de-sac. The majority of the people living on the top of the hill sped up and down at 30-35 mph even though 15mph was the posted speed limit. I got clipped once while walking our dog.
At the annual HOA meetings, I was the guy who year after year suggested we give a raise to Daniel, the gentleman who has mowed and maintained the common areas since 1999. It took me five years to convince the HOA to give him that raise. They upped his pay $60 a month. I had been lobbying for a $100/month raise five years prior. The guy who protested the loudest was a surgeon who earned buckets of money. Daniel the "lawn guy" stopped one or two break ins and wrote down license plate numbers of suspicious cars. It turned out that one of those license plates belonged to a stolen car. The man driving it was casing the neighborhood. The police arrested him. Daniel keeps an eye out for everyone. He's more than just a lawn guy with a "hard to understand accent" who came from some island down in the Caribbean.
Then there is the meanie who kicks his small white fluffy dogs when they "dare to misbehave." Winston and Cedric are nice dogs, their owner is not ... however "Busy Bob" is among the worst of the homeowners. He continually harassed his neighbor, a simple cognitively disabled middle aged spinster (Her deceased mother had the foresight to set up a special trust to sustain her) to keep her lawn nice, thick, and green. A bit of crab grass or weeds encroaching on the small bit of his yard abutting hers puts him into a tizzy. A couple of years ago, Busy Bob went ballistic during an HOA meeting. He shouted his disapproval of her lawn situation. She turned red as a beat ... I scolded him. The room went dead silent. I offered to help her get her yard in shape. Instead, she was swayed to spend tons of money to have her yard sodded with a variety of grass that is not native to Florida--it's is extremely expensive to maintain.
And now, we are renting a nice little house in a quiet neighborhood in Sarasota. Our neighbors are a motley bunch: a deputy sheriff, a chef, a CPA, a few teachers, a second-hand car dealer, and several retirees. Once again, we are on a dead-end street. Cars do not speed up and down the road. The neighbors don't tailgate. We all wave to each other. And best of all, since we are renters, we do not have to join the HOA. I believe the dues are $35 per year.
