Top cities to live in Florida?

Which cities in Florida are best to live in with these requirements and please detail an avg price for a nicer 2 bed/1-2 bath apartment/duplex/townhome and an avg wage for a general laborer for construction, sales associate in retail store, receptionist, operator at a factory, or a forklift driver in the city you name. Here are the requirements: Near beach (less than 20 miles) No/Low Crime Near Mall (less than 30 miles) Not Southern Florida Not Small City (Somewhere with abundant jobs) Lots To Do/Attractions College (Or list colleges in Florida that let you take classes at home). Only name a large city if you can prove its good/safe/etc, Im skeptical about a large one.

Public Comments

1. port st john/ merritt island/ brevard county florida. I LOVED florida .. best place i have ever lived in my life.. your 1-2 hours from disney your 1/2 hour from nasa at cape kennedy. malls all over the place.. when i was there a 3 bedroom house was 30k (port st john) with much of that exempt from property tax. the whole place is warm .. xmas evei was in shorts on the beach.. it's in the 70's when new england is below zero.. the sun.. it's called the sunshine state..it seems like it is always bright and sunny.. everyone has a pleasant disposition.. to get a drivers license you just go to almost any mall and there's no lines.. in ri the lines are like an hour.. and then they send u back to back of line for forgetting a peice of paper.. florida is an amazing place.. the only thing you have to worry about is dibold stealing your vote.. getting disenfranchised is a common thing in florida.. so there is some corruption.. after all a bush was running it. I wish i was in florida now.. i miss that place.. it's also a melting pot of the whole country.. people go there to retire. so people are friendly and from everywhere. If you dont like bugs tho.. like a lizard on your wall.. or you cant handle the state bird.(mosquito) .. .. or if you dont have air conditioning or a swimming pool... florida might get unpleasant at times. good luck.. btw brevard county is around cape canaveral on the map orlando . which has all the entertainment in the world.. is close by.. 1-2 hours away.
2. St Augustine- Steeped in history with plenty of attractions. Great beaches, shopping, food, and of course the tourist stuff.
3. Suburbs of Tampa. Two universities-USF and University of Tampa. USF has a low tuition for Florida residents. You can go to the beaches in Pinellas county. Lots of malls including International Plaza, which is the best shopping on the west coast of Florida. People come up from the other cities to shop there. Busch Gardens-we had annual passes for everyone when the kids were little. We would go for a part of a day, then home for a nap. Now just the kids have the passes and we stay home. As Tampa is a city there are a lot of jobs. There are certain high crime areas like the projects, but we don't go there. There are a lot of houses to be found at very low prices right now. My son just bought a 3 br, 2 bath 2 car garage home for $180,000. I do not know the average wages for the jobs here. The best place to work in retail sales would be Dillards as they pay a commission as well as a base salary and they have a lot of good sales. There is also Saks, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom's, Macy's etc. General laborers are out of work all over Florida as the construction industry took a dive. I would go to yahoo yellow pages and find companies that might hire forklift operators to find out how much they pay. I would also check out a job with Home Depot or Lowes as they hire people with a knowledge of construction and who can use forklifts.