What’s it like living in Lakewood Ranch with teens?

[Anonymous]

Considering a move from the east coast of Florida to there, so any insight is appreciated.

[Anonymous]

What? Why?


Lakewood ranch is garbage.

MAGA conservative haven filled with wanna bee idiots

Its in the middle of nowhere getting to the beach is not close with traffic schools stink privates are worse than public hard to imagine

It’s a pretty big place filled with dummies

[Anonymous]

Let me rephrase.
Husband has a job in LBK. We prefer downtown Sarasota, but are concerned that the kids are few and far between (and they are based on my 4 visits).

We are 44 and 45. Kids are 14 and 13 and it seems like people our age and kids are live out east.

Hope that helps clarify the why.

[Anonymous]

I've lived in Sarasota for a few years now and I can't relate to anyone wanting to live in LWR although I will concede that many do. As PP said, too far from the beach, very bland suburbia vibe, I will say it is close to a lot of shopping though.

I have a nice condo that works for me but if I had a couple of teens I'd either move to Southside Village, here's a cool listing https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1913-Orange-Ave-Sarasota-FL-34239/47621562_zpid/
or if that's too high maybe look in the Gulf Gate area.

There are plenty of kids in Sarasota and I'm pretty sure they all don't live in LWR. The best public high school is Riverview by the way.

[Anonymous]

That house needs a complete gut job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That house needs a complete gut job.

Do you like this one better? Houses are not cheap in that neighborhood. Actually these two are at the lower end. There are some nice places nearby for 7M, 13M, 30M, same neighborhood.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1846-Datura-St-Sarasota-FL-34239/66763829_zpid/

[Anonymous]

Op here. We do love SS village and all of downtown. It is way more our scene. However, i have never seen older kids in the neighborhood and the demographics of that area do skew 50plus.

I picked LWR cause our age demographic does fit that area and has more options for school. But it is bland suburbia.

Looking for some insight for people that actually live there.

Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. We do love SS village and all of downtown. It is way more our scene. However, i have never seen older kids in the neighborhood and the demographics of that area do skew 50plus.

I picked LWR cause our age demographic does fit that area and has more options for school. But it is bland suburbia.

Looking for some insight for people that actually live there.

Thanks again!

Good luck, I'd be very surprised if anyone who actually lives in Lakewood Ranch is on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

The school’s are horrible

No one with brains moves their kids to Lakewood ranch.

It’s full of racists and right wing nut jobs .

[Anonymous]

Where on the east coast do you live?

[Anonymous]

LWR is a wonderful neighborhood in that there are a TON of families, especially those who have moved from many different areas. Most of the area (including Sarasota/Bradenton) is a MAGA hot spot. (Most of Florida is too). But there are wonderful schools in LWR, its a good central location in the area to the airports and shopping, about 30 minutes to the beaches.

[Anonymous]

Another sarasota person here who doesn't understood why people move to LWR, even though I understand they do.

We have MS age kids and live west of the trail. All our friends with similar age kids live near us, in Palmer Ranch, or siesta key. Tons of families. Everyone goes to Pineview, sarasota middle school, or one of the privates -- which aren't that expensive down here relative to up north. Don't live in LWR if you're commuting to LBK. Terrible life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another sarasota person here who doesn't understood why people move to LWR, even though I understand they do.

We have MS age kids and live west of the trail. All our friends with similar age kids live near us, in Palmer Ranch, or siesta key. Tons of families. Everyone goes to Pineview, sarasota middle school, or one of the privates -- which aren't that expensive down here relative to up north. Don't live in LWR if you're commuting to LBK. Terrible life.

Isn't that the truth! I'll never understand the allure of Lakewood Ranch. I have been tempted to go to that little indy movie theater over there once or twice but haven't done it yet. The one downtown will do.

I totally love living in Sarasota but will keep on avoiding LR thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another sarasota person here who doesn't understood why people move to LWR, even though I understand they do.

We have MS age kids and live west of the trail. All our friends with similar age kids live near us, in Palmer Ranch, or siesta key. Tons of families. Everyone goes to Pineview, sarasota middle school, or one of the privates -- which aren't that expensive down here relative to up north. Don't live in LWR if you're commuting to LBK. Terrible life.

Update: I’m OP and we did rule out LWR.

We have moved and are renting in downtown while we look to buy west of trail. I drive through it daily and still don’t see kids many kids but I’ll take your word that they are somewhere here.

Thanks for input.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another sarasota person here who doesn't understood why people move to LWR, even though I understand they do.

We have MS age kids and live west of the trail. All our friends with similar age kids live near us, in Palmer Ranch, or siesta key. Tons of families. Everyone goes to Pineview, sarasota middle school, or one of the privates -- which aren't that expensive down here relative to up north. Don't live in LWR if you're commuting to LBK. Terrible life.

Update: I’m OP and we did rule out LWR.

We have moved and are renting in downtown while we look to buy west of trail. I drive through it daily and still don’t see kids many kids but I’ll take your word that they are somewhere here.

Thanks for input.

If you want neighborhoods where kids are out running around, look in Palmer ranch. Pineview has a whole bus that fills up just from its stops in turtle rock - and that’s just one community in Palmer ranch. I have many friends in Palmer ranch, and there are tons of kids around, book clubs, wine groups etc. We aren’t really hoa people, so we skipped it, but it is filled with kids.

We are west of the trail between siesta and the landings and there are lots of kids around, but the vibe isn’t for kids to play outside. We wish it was, but it just never has been. But I’d say 20-25 percent of the houses have school age kids in them. And if you include recent empty nesters with college age kids, it’s about half of our neighbors. So we hang out with neighbors quite a lot, though the kids don’t hang out. But there are random pockets of awesomeness that you never know about until you move there. Like, we have friends on water view ct behind river view high, and it’s kids bonanza.

But realistically, by middle school, most kids are doing organized activities, homework, hanging out with friends from school, and playing on their computers inside. So I’m not sure how much id worry about finding a neighborhood with kids, so much as making sure it’s not just old people. But I don’t think anywhere in srq is all old ppl anymore.