FTL V. NYC

Yesterday I got an email from a friend who recently left NYC for Fort Lauderdale:

Hopefully by the time Spring rolls around, I’ll be back in NYC full-time. I don’t know how you handled living down here. I am BORED OUT OF MY MIND. The only thing saving my sanity is that I have some decent friends down here. I can understand why there are so many crystal freaks in FTL – there’s nothing else to do! BORED. BEYOND. BELIEF.

It’s a common complaint from New Yorkers, who seem to constitute the largest group of new Lauderdalians. People who move to Fort Lauderdale from less manic places are more wowed by the beautiful beaches and jumping bar scene, and less worn down by the endless strip malls and eternal traffic gridlock.

There’s a puff piece in today’s BAR, a tourist board generated (I’m guessing) story that gushes that Hurricane Wilma was a good thing for Fort Lauderdale’s gay guesthouses, because “the reconstruction that followed made them better than ever.” (Emphasis mine.) Wow, maybe we can hope for a tsunami and get some really great new places out of the deal!

I don’t recall being bored when I lived in Fort Lauderdale, but then, I’d yet to live in San Francisco and New York. I’d be interested in hearing from New Yorkers who have moved to Fort Lauderdale and regretted it. So far, the traffic seems to remain southbound.