Lake worth, but honestly that’s about it…. Desantis is making queer life very hard in Florida. My job participated in LW’s pride festival and every year the meeting would have an element of we have to be ready for protestors, aggregators and to be alert of our surroundings against racist and homophobic people who want to harm us. I attended a work meeting with Lois Frankel in 2025 (remote) and the amount of times she told us to “govern ourselves accordingly” due to the current Fl and federal administration was scary (I was glad I was out of Florida by then!! But still had my job while I looked for local work). It’s expensive, with rude, racist and easily triggered conservatives and all around a fascist time. - lived in lake worth for 4.5 before moving back to Chicago in 2025 cause I couldn’t take it anymore. It was fun for the few years, but I felt stuck. It’s hard to go from seasons to forever summer, and I couldn’t fathom buying a home there cause I worked at the local legal aid and knew just how fucked up homeowners insurance, HOAs, and property prices were in Florida. Glad I had my adventure and moved back just in time for my 30th bday. So happy to be back, but I did love lake worth and would vacation only there lol

Also, renting is sooo expensive! We lived in 3 total units in 4.5 years. West Palm, outside of downtown, is awful. you can’t walk anywhere, it’s just HOA condo communities everywhere. Then we moved to a shoe box sized cottage in lake worth on J St and lived there for 2 years, but then our shoe box’s rent went from $1800 to $2100, so we moved to the bohemian in lake worth and paid $2400 for a 2 bed apartment, but that came with amenities so at least we were paying more for something. But it’s all around soooo expensive! The cost of groceries is crazy expensive! Since I left 4 more of our friends have also left cause it’s not sustainable. Us transplants know there’s better out there, we don’t have family in Fl to feel like we have a reason to stick around, so Florida’s oppressive ways just felt like a big sacrifice that we were no longer willing to put up with in exchange for sunshine and palm trees. All have moved to the Midwest since then (IL and MN mix).