Hmmm.......I'll give my impression - after 4 years of living here and 12 years of visiting: 1. Depends. My neighbors are nice and so are the various volunteer groups I work with - county and city services have been nice also. 2. I'd agree with poor drivers - only a subset (probably young locals) are crazy drivers. But older people are not known as the best drivers either. 3. While things are getting better, this is somewhat of a truism. Lots of eateries and most people (who are not foodies) find them quite good. But we don't (Vegetarians). - still, lots of good produce and farm markets and trader joes, whole foods, sweet tomatoes, etc. - Note - we find this true in most place (Philly burbs, Newport RI, etc.) where we have lived. Eating out is always a crap shoot. 4. We received no tickets in the last 25 years but 3 when we moved down here in the first month. So the enforcement, IMHO, is too strong. 5. No doubt the dead bodies pile up. This is true in any area containing such a high volume of high speed traffic - but Florida adds booze, old folks, drugs and lack of proper public transit to the mix. 6. To this I would agree - however, you can find a lot of honest hard working blue collar trades people. Most stuff, however , are franchises and try to sign you up for contracts, etc - however, any populated area is much the same. You must use word of mouth or knowledge of costs involved. I am a DIYer so get away easy. Sometimes I pay higher prices (A/C maintenance, for example), but I know exactly what I am paying and why. Sure, I could DIY and save a few bucks, but I make the decision to leave it to someone else.
Craig | Sarasota, FL | Report Abuse

1. Coming from the west coast and Las Vegas area (for the last four years), I'd have to disagree. If you think the people in Sarasota, FL, are rude then you should probably take a trip to a larger city. 2. Again, I recommend a larger city than Sarasota, or perhaps the entire state of Connecticut, before you decide that Sarasota drivers are aggressive. You're close to beaches, incredible ones at that. Of course there's going to be a lot of traffic. 3. Some of the best food I've had, came from restaurants in Sarasota. There are plenty of larger chains that you can find here, and there are some very nice 'hole in the wall' niche locations that are worth the visit if you know where to look. 4. Again, I heavily disagree lol. I've seen the streets quite thick with police activity even on non-holiday occasions, and know plenty of people who have been held accountable for not following applicable traffic laws. 5. You can't reasonably blame a city for people not knowing how to drive. That's just ignorant. People are dumb, and they're always in a hurry to get there faster than the person behind them. They're distracted by their cell phones, and thus, run lights/stop signs and cause accidents. Don't blame the city for the average human's stupidity. 6. People will try to pull one over on you wherever you live. There is no veritable Utopia within the continental United States, dude. Bad people exist, and they will always try to find a way to make an extra buck off of someone gullible enough to fall for it. As with most of what you've said: It's not Sarasota's fault.
Robyn | Sarasota Springs, FL | Report Abuse