I was down there for a meeting - Love South Tampa / Downtown Tampa. We are usually down at the Sail at least once a week drinking a Goose Island and walking the dog.
Help me understand Tally
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I was down there for a meeting - Love South Tampa / Downtown Tampa. We are usually down at the Sail at least once a week drinking a Goose Island and walking the dog.
I grew up in S. Florida, and moved to Tallahassee for school. After graduating, I got a job, married, and have been here almost 15 years. Currently live on the east side of town, and work on the north side, so I rarely venture anywhere near campus. It is crazy when I think back as a student how I didn't care for Tallahassee much, but never really left the area around campus. Now that I live on the opposite side of town, I am never near those areas.
Like others haves said, it is a decent sized city that is a great place to raise a family, and cost of living is relatively cheap. I have sent my kids to public school for years, and they are top notch. Kids have also played sports both in city leagues and others. FSU sports basically serve as minor league sports teams. Baseball and basketball routinely draw larger crowds than low level minor league sports.
Summer is really the only time of year that I don't care for, and its because of the heat and that there just isn't anything going on. All of the other seasons have great events and things to do around town. The airport is horrible, and I feel it will be a while before it gets any better. Wish it was easier to grab a cheap flight to a major city for a weekend trip.
Like others haves said, it is a decent sized city that is a great place to raise a family, and cost of living is relatively cheap. I have sent my kids to public school for years, and they are top notch. Kids have also played sports both in city leagues and others. FSU sports basically serve as minor league sports teams. Baseball and basketball routinely draw larger crowds than low level minor league sports.
Summer is really the only time of year that I don't care for, and its because of the heat and that there just isn't anything going on. All of the other seasons have great events and things to do around town. The airport is horrible, and I feel it will be a while before it gets any better. Wish it was easier to grab a cheap flight to a major city for a weekend trip.
BMW R1200RT
Nice! Have any big rides planned? Here is my R1200 GS ADV. Also have a 2001 HD Fat Boy and picking up a Goldwing on Wednesday next week.
I'd love to make that trip but I've watched too many videos of the Dalton Highway and crossed it off my list (unless I jump on a GS). I was looking at a GS when I bought the RT and went with the RT because the Missus does like to ride with me from time to time. I am headed to the Smokies late April and riding to Gettysburg in June. I did 11 days in Mexico in 2010 and rode to Four Corners in 2014.Nice! Have any big rides planned? Here is my R1200 GS ADV. Also have a 2001 HD Fat Boy and picking up a Goldwing on Wednesday next week.
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absolutelyIs this the part where somebody says, Bless your heart?
Awesome! Have never ridden in Mexico. My Dad has been wanting to make a similar trip.
Looking at going back to BC and possibly up to the Yukon again later this year.The GS is great but I will most likely be taking the Goldwing. We met two riders up on our last trip from Chicago and one was on an older Goldwing. On the Alaska Highway there's not really a way to separate over 2-3 days (because of places to stop) and the Goldwing made it just fine while we were with them. He said it was his second time taking up to Dalton Highway. Now another motorcycle that was in our group was so beaten up during the trip it had bungy cords, duct tape, and extra bolts we bought at hardware store in Tok, Alaska.
Sorry, y'all. It was not my intention to come off slamming Tally. I was more commenting or expressing a thought that if part of the reason for living there was because FSU and all it activities, the civic center always seems to empty. Even the football stadium was half full during the bad years. The post was not articulated properly- probably due to the few pops I had that night.
The local riders try to do an annual ride from Colorado to Copper Canyon each year. I haven't been able to do it, but really wanted to. They always say it is a great trip. Just a FYI destination in Mexico.
Def have Yukon on the list of road trips but I need a more cruiser bike for legit trips. I can do about 350 per day on my sport bike.
Ditto.
I loved FSU's campus but hated what I thought was Tallahassee when I was in college. Then the dot com bust happened. I was working for the State part time and ended up getting hired on full time in an economy that blew. On my state salary I was able to buy a 1 year old house right by work at the ripe old age of 23. A Wife, couple of dogs, couple more houses, and a couple of kids later and we are still here. I am with a private firm now after working for the State for a decade but "Tallahassee" is good for us and nothing like the area around campus.
Curiously, Leon county wasn't as insulated from the housing bubble as it was from the '91 recession (and to a lesser extent the dot.com bubble)
Access to FSU is certainly a perk of living there, but I don't think it's one of the primary reasons folks live there. (Tally folks, correct me if I'm wrong)
You have to remember when Governor Voldemort took over, he laid off several thousand state workers.Curiously, Leon county wasn't as insulated from the housing bubble as it was from the '91 recession (and to a lesser extent the dot.com bubble)
eric, can you expand on that without making it really political with that name? Was it that he froze hiring, did not renew contract positions, or what?
I worked for 3 governors. I voted for all of them. The third and final, Voldemort, talks a good game but IMO internally is both unethical and a dumpster fire in how things are run. Lots of reasons but the main one is ethics. Shook the hands of employees, looked them in the eye and told them how great a job they were doing, then ran off behind closed doors and laid them off. If you can't tell someone straight you are a loser IMO.
The second is the pension... Claimed the employees needed to contribute to make it financially viable.... Cut the states part by more than the employees contributed netting in less overall and the history proved having employees contribute costs more. Not conservative at all, just a dog and pony show to make conservatives think he is doing good while actually screwing people and doing bad for the state in the long run.
Many many more but holy crap... I got the heck outta there. And like I said... Voted for him and did not receive what was claimed from the inside out. No politics here, just experience, and will leave it at that.
More to the OP, I grew up in North Florida, including middle school thru high school in Tally. The hint of four seasons was OK, but I moved away partially because of the summer heat and low elevation.
I am there routinely visiting my mom and the thought of moving back to the area sometimes comes up, but the crime and general "stagnation" of the town turn me off. Tally seems to be in a time warp that will not let old racial tensions die out.
I would much rather be in a spot like Apalachicola if we ever left the mountains.
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All of the above and laid off several thousand state worker. He then cut funding to FSU which also cost many many jobs.
No. We now contribute 3% and I'm fine with that, as it what I would have to do in any other government job or in the private sector for that matter.
Just did my taxes and the state contributed over $17K last year to my health insurance for family coverage. I pay $180 a month. A small amount compared to the private sector.
The whole pension reform thing has been one big scam, and Scott's biggest supporters fell for it completely. Worst part of it was that pretty much every sheriff, police chief and fire chief in the State did the same thing. Their budget magically had a nice surplus late in the year (courtesy of the fact that the employees were now paying a portion of the contribution). They all looked like they were doing a great job of managing their budgets. What did they do with the surplus? Pay bonuses or provide raises, to make up for the decreased take-home pay of their staff. Long-run result - now-higher compensation to all of them, which will result in eventual higher payout requirements for the pension fund, since the payout is based on salary.
It's ultimately a sophistry to obscure a pay cut, because the employment was accepted with understood stipulations. To come back later and say, 'to get the same deal you accepted you need to pay 3% of your salary to X' is a pay cut by that amount.
I have no problem with the governor deciding to cut state payrolls, or pay rates, as the economy shrinks and tax decline. Ultimately an unsatisfied employee can go elsewhere.
Florida from a government fiscal position, seems to be in a pretty good place. One of just over a dozen states with AAA credit rating (not even the USA has that anymore, and very few countries do).
I had seen where Florida's pension system was over 100% funded during the property boom, but has fallen subsequently and last I saw was at something like 84%. I would bet even that is a rosy calculation in a world of ZIRP or NIRP.
For pension payout purposes is the employee's salary calculated prior to 'paying' into the pension, or net the 'contribution'?
I'm not aware of state employees getting raises overall that put them back over the pay cut, but I imagine Sheriff's have a lot more flexibility with their own budgets when taxes are flush.
The state employee salaries are publicly posted. If someone wanted a PhD thesis on the intersection of politics/policy/accounting the numbers should be available for crunching.
The scandal you see all the time with govt. pensions is when they game the last few years with massive overtime, etc.
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