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Why would anyone retire here?
By TOM ZUCCO, Times Staff Writer
Published December 8, 2007
The Tampa Bay community has gotten its share of knocks lately from the universe of surveys and lists. Foreclosure-central. Least walkable metro area. Now comes AOL.com's Money and Finance section which identifies Clearwater as the worst place to retire in the country. No. 1 among 13 cited in a story by New York City-based freelance writer Carol Vinzant. The problems, she writes, are bland culture, extreme weather, high real estate and homeowners insurance...and simply too many elderly folks here already. "This Tampa Bay area hamlet has the highest percentage of seniors of any city in the United States. The 2000 Census found 21 percent of Clearwater's population was 65 or older, the highest of any city of 100,000 or more," the article notes. Absent from the two-paragraph knockdown of Clearwater are any references to the beaches or quaint downtown. Nor does the article note that some slightly smaller locales such as Sarasota, Bradenton and even Largo have a greater percentage of people over 65 than Clearwater. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
[Last modified December 7, 2007, 22:39:40]
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by Ben
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12/08/07 11:42 PM
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I can understand the high tax and unwalkable city arguments but why the ageism? If anything, it indicates a lot of people want to retire here and you would make a lot of friends in your age group.
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by Rod
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12/08/07 10:19 PM
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I plan on retiring from the Army and relocating to Pinellas County. I wanted to teach school, but the cost of housing, taxes, and insurance prohibits me from doing that. I am fully aware of the negative, but the area's beauty is priceless.
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by Patty
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12/08/07 10:02 PM
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The important thing here is that the tax and insurance problem is nationally known. Why would anyone choose to move here, it's not affordable and the gov and those who can change this aren't and won't. FL is going down.
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by Dan
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12/08/07 06:16 PM
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Recent studies have rated Clearwater tops in Divorce, Anger and Depression. It's a socio-economic backwater with a lowlife moron culture, bad schools, and incompetent government. Clearwater truly is the shallow end of the gene pool. Loser's paradise.
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by Billy Bob
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12/08/07 01:07 AM
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If the shoe fits................St Pete's no better.
I'm moving. After many many years of living here.
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by John
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12/08/07 01:03 AM
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As a former resident, I have to agree with the surveys. The streets aren't walkable, the people really are rather bland (or dangerous), and the beaches are stunning. The question for me was: Is a good view worth the trouble? In my case, it wasn't.
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