My “local” TV stations are from Orlando. Plenty of crime to report. Like any city, there are good and bad areas. The suburbs are mostly beautiful, typical Florida, with stucco houses, palm trees, and swimming pools. The housing is fairly reasonable.

Is he thinking of actually living in or near downtown Orlando? Or, near the amusement parks? For instance, if you work at or near Disney, you can live South our west of there pretty reasonably, and probably not a lot of crime. I’m not sure, like you said, you can google the crime rates.

I would move to the Orlando area without hesitation. The biggest negative is the traffic on I4 that goes through Orlando proper, and traffic in general near downtown. Oh, and lots of toll roads in Orlando. We like to tax the tourists. :)

Well, Florida has 148% above the median crime rate in America. That’s what Google says.

I’m not sure exactly where he’s going to live.

Yeah, criminals like to come here. It’s almost a “saying” at this point.

You can’t look at the state, you have to look by zip code.

I just asked him where in Orlando. He doesn’t know yet.

His Mom was here illegally, didn’t speak English. She dragged her kids from state to state. Jauvy finally found some semblance of stability with me. He lived with us for a year. He was doing SO well (except for the part where he kept flying his “colors”—The Mexican flag—outside of his upstairs bedroom!)
But he was. He was seriously considering a career in law enforcement, or another trade that could really use his bilingual skills.
We went through so much together. I gave him all that I could and I was so proud of how far he’d come.
Then, just as he was set to graduate from High School, one night he was gone.
That was 15 years ago.

Lots and lots of Spanish speakers in Orlando. Many of them Puerto Rican, but from everywhere also.

Someone told me once that any tourist area has lots of drugs in it because lots of people are coming in and leaving. Not sure what that has to do with drugs but I do think it tends to be true.

If he has a history of drugs and being in jail, I’d say law enforcement is probably not a good idea. Too much temptation. Being on the other side of the law still puts you around the criminals and the criminal activity.

@JLeslie I said his thoughts of law enforcement were 15 years ago, when he was still a kid (16 -17). Of course he can’t get into law enforcement now, not with a prison record.

My mistake.

This information has been helpful. Hopefully I’ll find out today exactly where his sister lives.

Compared to rural Illinois, or Chicago? I’ve been there once over a decade ago, and my impression was crime was probably in between the two.

Also there is Orlando, the old town, which I thought was interesting but seemed low-activity and had some run-down parts with dive bars and people whom I’m sure could hook you up with some crime. ;-) But I didn’t think crime would come looking for me.

Then there are the bizarre expanses of greater Orlando, which include the theme parks, long strips of shops for people who are there for the theme parks (including lots of hawkers of discount theme park tickets), some golf/condo developments, and some odd Floridian strips with odd Floridian things, and some fairly nice laid back hot ex-swamp terrain with houses.

It really depends on the neighborhood. It’s not hard to find trouble to get into anywhere in Florida, though.

Are there support groups that could help him….like TA (Thugs Anonymous)?

I would think there are support groups. I know where I live there is a Christian group of some sort that helps ex-cons. A man we know who helps there once asked us if we would consider hiring one of the guys. There must be other organizations. I’m an hour north of Orlando, I’d bet there is more help near the larger cities.

I’ll do some checking around. I still have a couple of connections with the KDOC, not that I really need them. But it’s nice to talk to people you know personally.

BTW, FWIW, he was never in prison for drugs, “just” theft. Stealing seemed to be a part of his psyche, like, that’s just what you do in Mexico, even though he wasn’t in Mexico.
He never stole from me, though…except once. The day after Thanksgiving I went to the fridge to get some turkey out for the boyz…and it was GONE!!! Even the platter!
I yelled, “Jauvy!”
He came in, “What Mom?”
“Why did you steal our turkey??!!”
He said, “What makes you think it was me?”
I just looked at him like, “You’re kidding, right?”
Then he said he took it home to his mom and sisters.
I said, “Why didn’t you just ask? I would have sent it. You didn’t have to steal it! In fact…we should have had them over yesterday….. Just bring the platter back!”
A couple of days later his sister showed up at the door with our platter.
I wish I could go back in time and invite them all to Thanksgiving.

How about this coming Thanksgiving?

Oh honey. They are long scattered to the winds. Mom may be in Mexico for all I know.