Everything but the weather stinks
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11/1/2017
I rated Sarasota just one star. I don't know about the rest of Florida but Sarasota is definitely the most antisocial place I ever lived in (not anymore). The militarism is especially obnoxious. I'm a college graduate and I’ve traveled quite a bit. Strangers insult you on the street. Privacy invasion by random strangers is common. Don't be surprised if you get cracks about your personal life 20 years ago from people you don't know. I've never seen such an abnormal interest in the personal lives of strangers. I'm not a celebrity and I don’t use Facebook. At one point three sheriff's deputies came to my apartment banging on the door at 3 o'clock in the morning. I was sound asleep and it scared the heck out of me. Before I opened the door I called 911. When I finally did open the door the deputies appeared to be putting away their guns. I have no criminal history. They said they were looking for somebody I don't know, but I very much doubt they were telling the truth. I had been at that address for several months already. They could have easily found out who was living there ahead of time, even at night. This was in a middle-class neighborhood just a few years ago.
You can't live in a place like Sarasota. Too many people don't mind their own business. Too many people try to annoy you, apparently just for their own amusement. People won't leave you alone when you go out. Some shop and restaurant owners are exceedingly rude to their own customers. The vast majority of residents here are transplants from the northeastern US, north of Virginia, or military retirees. Many people, civilians of all ages, are obsessed with the Navy and won't shut up about it in public. Older veterans are a big part of the problem. Many of them have a some kind of mental disorder where they walk around in public and repeat out loud the word “enlisted." People in the Navy do not address other sailors as “enlisted." Nobody in the Navy is going to say to you for example, “Hey, Enlisted, come over here a minute.” Doesn’t happen. I was a Navy medic in the ‘70s and I have no idea what they’re talking about. Maybe they were tortured in Gitmo and called “enlisted” at the same time. Who knows. Civilians don't want to hear about the military all the time anyway. Sarasota is a rude, combative, confrontational, and hostile environment. That’s not an exaggeration. Like I said, I never lived in a place that bad.
Tom Paine | Fayetteville, AR