I currently live in Central Arkansas.  I deliver hospital beds, oxygen equipment and other miscellaneous medical equipment to long-term care facilities (used to call them nursing homes but whatever)  Our company is expanding throughout the South, and I found out this week we are picking up 5 to maybe 8 homes in Florida that will be needing service.  I am considering trying to get the boss to consider sending me down there to take care of the homes.  I lived on the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in Orlando for about a year, but that was 20 years ago.  I really enjoyed Florida and I keep telling myself that if I get the opportunity to go back I should jump on it.

My primary concern is my son.  I am a single father, and he's about to turn 13.  We've moved around a lot, so I don't think that part will bug him much, but I do want to be sure I can get him into a nice school district and a neighborhood where I don't have to worry about him too much as I might be on the road up to 12 hours a day sometimes.  From what I've gleaned so far, we are opening a storage facility in Lakeland, and if I get the go-ahead to move, I will want to be as close as I can get to that facility without worrying about 'the neighborhood'.

As I mentioned, I lived in Orlando briefly but I know nothing about Lakeland - what else is close?  How are the schools?  Is crime an issue?  What's fun there?
Any info I can get from you awesome ARFloridians is greatly appreciated!

Polk county?  No thanks.  Home of Florida man.  

Paging Banditman! Banditman to a white courtesy phone!



5th generation Polk born. Lakeland is a great town.  It has it's bad areas. Like any town. Trust me, you are not going to rent a single wide for $400 in a great school district. I would have no problem moving back.





http://www.bestplaces.net/city/florida/lakeland



Plenty of info on the google
 

Lakeland is no better or worse than anywhere else.  I personally like it.  Close to Tampa and beaches, Orlando is 45 minutes or so in the other direction, close to theme parks, etc.

I live in Winter Haven, and work for the City of Lakeland.
Plenty of places to shoot, plenty of places to hunt/fish. Close enough to Legoland, 40 mins to Disney, 40 mins to the coast.....pretty much a place that is close to everything, but far enough away not to get the tourist idiots.
If you start to look at building something let me know, I know almost all the neighborhoods and can tell you what the place is like. General rule though, AVOID the NW of town. (North of Jenkins Blvd, West of S Florida. South of I-4, that whole triangle.)

Central Florida sucks, head to the coasts.

i just sold my place on lake hollingsworth and moved 2 counties away. i loved it, BUT there are not many other places i would live there. it can be a shitty place. my neighborhood was clean and well patrolled. it was close enough to downtown, everything you needed was in biking distance (if that is your thing). with in 5 miles of my house you had everything in every price range you could imagine as far as restaurants / bars / mature night life go. i miss it, but i do not miss the traffic or the crowds. i still make my way over there a couple times a month for breakfast, dinner, entertainment, or whatever.

if you do move there check out s&l restaurant (cheap diner, best burgers ever made) on combee (near the bartow hwy intersection), it is the only reason to ever go to combee, but once you've eaten there you'll never forget it. there is fantastic food down town also.

average price of decent just starting out people level houses is about $1200 a month, anything much less than that is super suspect (in my opinion).

check out 33803 (my old zip code), most of it is nice historic area. nice houses range 100k - multi million.


edit to add - 33803 puts you in the 5 to 10 mile radius for LRMC (hospital), watson clinic, a couple of pretty decent colleges.

Lakeland is fine. I've lived in other places and moved back. Lakeland Regional is getting HUGE. Middle schools are mediocre to bad in all of Polk County, unless it's private/magnet.

Good: Clean town, low crime, affordable.

Meh: Shopping, dining isn't great, but is improving. Higher incomes have brought better places, but still mostly chains.

Bad: Traffic sucks, schools are neighborhood dependent, kinda low of the entertainment scale (better find your own fun).


South Lakeland is where it's at for quiet suburban living.


Do you like Publix?, because you better like Publix.

lakeland has the best BBQ in central fl, do you like frankloyd wright.  Its' a nice town.

disagree that would be Nassau IMO

South Lakeland is where you should go.  Stay away from Combee Rd.

Actually Aurburndale...




Peebles.....mmmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmmmm.
 

My favorite 2 things in Lakeland Are the Cubans on the square downtown at the Silver Ring and the Saddle Creek range. We have family that lives off Socrum Loop Rd. They love it there. Nice area.

Sent you a email.

I live in winter haven currently. There are a few ok areas of lakeland, but even they are 10mins or less by bike to the hood. Thats the problem with central FL. Even windermere in orlando where shaq and tiger lived are a whopping 20mins by way of pedal bike to a high crime area. Look in winter haven or mulberry as they have nicer areas and less crime. But every city in America has some "bad part or town". Im actually looking to sell soon because of needing to relocate closer to therapy services for my special needs child. So I will be listing my winter haven home, it has some nice upgrades including security upgrades. If your interested hit me back, im not looking to make a dime, just selling to cover the mortgage. I gotta get kiddo to a different area.

It's been a while since I've been there but my old boss lived in the Lakeland Highlands area (S Lakeland) and it was nice.  I'd stay away from inside the loop and the closer to I-4 the worse it gets.

Grew up there. Couldn't pay me to move back. so many assholes in Lakeland. The Sheriff of Polk County is GTG though.

I still stop in 2-3 times a year when I am in town. I haven't lived in Lakeland for 25 years and my wife I can still run in to 6-8 people I know. In one little restaurant.



Lakeland is still "home" to me. I think it would be a fine place to live.





 

My question is, why are you looking to get out of where you are at now?

I'm not trying to get away from Arkansas, I was born and raised here and love it.
But as it stands now I get hourly pay as a driver for the company, which is based here in my home town. If I can convince the management to let me handle my own territory, I can negotiate a salary that will likely be considerably higher.  I have some family here, but a recent divorce has left me financially compromised and a move to Florida represents a sort of 'back to square one'  for me.  I know I like the area, I know I like the job, and I know I can handle the responsibility so there is very little downside.

Thanks everyone for the info, I spoke to management today and got a firm 'maybe'.  I'll keep you guys updated.
As I mentioned I'm very interested in finding a good school nearby for my son who is going into the seventh grade.
I will probably be limited to public schools for a while so any recommendations in that direction are greatly appreciated!

I'd probably live in Plant City and commute.

Peebles is good BBQ.

And Grangers in N. Lakeland. Good BBQ and, IMO, the best steaks in Polk County.

Well, if you can get a pay raise to move down here, do it. I took a yuuuuuuuge pay cut to move to FL and I don't regret it for a second.

Schools are quite variable so, do your research in depth on that. Lakeland is 1/2 way between Tampa and Orlando. Traffic on I4 is going to suck ass either way you go.

When I first moved here in 2001 my Job was in Lakeland.
At that time there wasn't much in the way of new housing.
We decided to buy closer to Tampa (Riverview), glad we did.
My job is now in Tampa.
Lakeland is not a bad place, housing is much better now.

I lived in Lakeland for a couple of years.  I would not recommend it to anyone.

Gonna get bitch slapped for this. I'd move to Plant City before Lakeland. I've live in both to on and off for 40 yrs.
Plant City is right next to Lakeland in Hillborough County

20 years ago or so Lakeland was not bad. But now forget it. Use to have quite little neighborhoods but as always more people more crime. Lot of meth and drugs. I was with Hillsborough Fire rescue my buddy was with polk he could tell some stories.

Last year I drove over that way to what use to be really nice areas. Man it is sad to see how bad lakeland as a whole has gotten. The city just neglects those areas annexes more county area and expands it's city limits.

Plant City is a booming little town alot going on and lots of shopping and places to eat now. The police do not take crap either. The city has a great Fire/Paramedics along with Hillsborough County Fire. I was a FireMedic with the county before retiring.

I lived in Walden lake in Plant City for 10 years and out on a farm on Joe Mcintosh loop growing up. Live and worked in Lakeland in my 20s. I remember the XYZ Candle lite. JR on Hwy 92 at county line man those were the good days.

Publix warehouse right on 92 in lakeland. We have clients that retire from there with kick ass retirements. Wife owns an accounting office in Plant City for 45 yrs.

Good info guys I really appreciate it.
If the Florida deal goes through I won't mind commuting some from a smaller town if it means getting my son into a nicer school.
I will be doing some homework on this and let you all know when I find out something certain.