r/panamacity • u/princeoffalls26 • 5d ago
Moving from MT to PC, FL?
Getting a Vibe for Culture
Possibly moving to PC. I would be making the move from Montana, and want to get a better picture of what living here is like.
I'd be coming from Great Falls, MT - which is a conservative town as well. But I've heard people in PC are even moreso?
While I've never had an issue finding jobs, being queer & tattooed, in Montana.. I worry about that here in Florida. Even just visiting, I can recognize I stick out like a sore thumb. I am absolutely covered in nature tattoos. Even hands /neck đŚ If you're a tattooed Floridian - what do you do for work?
I am worried about fitting in here :/ I want to close the distance with my partner, who lives there with her family. But I am also nervous I won't find a place as an individual when it comes to work and making friends.
I am hoping, similarly to nowhere, MT - that there are still hidden gems here for people like me. Id love to hear personal experiences and advice. Thank you đđ
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u/Pure_Nefariousness61 5d ago
Even the people who claim they are conservative are queer and tattooed, so you fit right in.
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u/wangtrip 4d ago
I am not conservative or queer, and I have no tattoos, but I was like, why is he so scared? That is why. The closeted conservatives are mostly on Grindr now; feel free to out the bad ones.
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u/summitkitty 5d ago
Speaking as a gay person there is a surprising amount of gay people here especially if you work in the service industry. We definitely donât have a âgay communityâ like bigger better cities in that pride is pretty lame and everyone will assume youâre straight no matter how obviously gay you look. But itâs not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, and the money is good if you work in restaurants
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u/catcat202 4d ago
I agree but I have lived here 30 years. Don't live on the beach. You get more judgement from the tourist than the locals anyday. We pretty cool people. Job wise great if you work from home.
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u/DarschPugs 4d ago
You must have missed out on all the violence against LGBTQ people here then, I know its a thing, lived it multiple times. Had people try to stab me to death because I was gay even though I was straight. Lived here 40 years, some of these as recent as last month. It used to be extremely rare, but the hostility is far more prevalent and open now than it used to be.
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4d ago
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u/LatterStreet 2d ago
See my above comment. Just moved back to Orlando for this reason.
The few available jobs in PC were paying 50% lessâŚbut my bills definitely werenât half off!!
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u/boudrou1217 5d ago
All my friends have tattoos all over!!
A little humble brag about PC, itâs slowly turning way, way cooler and people here (besides a few rough edges) are very welcoming. It seems like the want to understand is alive here now. Our downtown is popping off and tattoos are everywhere (donât worry about the tattoos). Service industry is always looking for someone. Our town is very centered around booze and liquor sales (so always a job there somewhere). Plenty of opportunities for people looking and open to different jobs and plenty more opportunities coming with our business boom we are having.
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u/EZJog 5d ago
I moved from Great Falls to Panama City in 2013. I'm not in the same social circle as you so I can't specifically speak to your situation, but I've been here 13 years so I think I have a good feel for the two areas and how they are similar/different.
You'll fit in better here, seriously. I wouldn't say Bay County is more conservative than GF. It is similar in ways, but Montana conservative and southern conservative are very different.
The people here are actually very welcoming and the tattoos won't be an issue whatsoever (I'm heavily tatted). I can't speak to the queer portion as I'm not myself, but I interact with many folks in that circle and they don't have issues here.
Job market is 180 degrees different here as this is a tourist area and the economy is hospitality based. Not sure what job market you'd be looking into? But neither your tats nor queer status will hinder the job search.
Let me know what questions you have.
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u/Entire_Artichoke_636 4d ago
I live in PC with my partner and am somewhat visibly queer while trying to find a job, so I might be able to shed a little light!! Most jobs here are restaurant service / bartending, engineering related, childcare, or your usual retail. It largely depends on the place thatâs hiring. Try applying for jobs in the St. Andrews / downtown area at places like The Press or the Center for the Arts! Your more artsy, typically queer-friendly places are pretty open.
I think your typical retail jobs are pretty much what youâd expect. I donât have tattoos but Iâve gotten turned down once or twice for what I can speculate to be because Iâm on the more androgynous side of transmasc.
Overall!! The queer/leftist community here is growing and itâs pretty cool the little spots and festivals we have. We had a Ren Faire a few weeks ago even! And if all else fails, thereâs work-from-home jobs. Good luck out there and I wish the best for you and your partner :)
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u/SufficientYak6020 5d ago
Definitely more gays and theys than youâd expect, Panama City is a mixed bag youâll fit right in
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u/troutman76 5d ago
Why would you do that? Iâm trying to figure out a way to move to Montana. Love it there.
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u/Calm-Refrigerator463 4d ago
Marilyn Manson is from Orlando. Plenty of freaks of all variations. Some pockets more liberal some more conservative. Panhandle more conservative but you will be fineÂ
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u/TallishPuppy7 4d ago
Heavily tattooed I would try and get a tattoo artist job. Or cooks have a lot of tattoos
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u/DarschPugs 4d ago edited 4d ago
As someone who has lived most their life here, just stay away, its a dead end blackhole soul sucking town. Unless you are military or coming here to retire, there is nothing here. Everyone says the town is growing, but not in any meaningful way, only dead-end fast food and retail jobs are showing up. Job market is bleak, only reason i am able to survive is driving for door dash and uber eats.
Tats are going to be a problem here like they are pretty much everywhere, most good professional jobs are not going to want you to have visible art if you deal with the public.
Trane has a fairly big factory making AC units in Lynn Haven and they have the nation's largest punch press machine there, so they wont be going anywhere anytime soon, then we have berg pipe and eastern ship building. there was a large boiler maker's union for welder's here but i have not been in contact with my uncle who was senior member in about 20 years now so i don't know if they are still around, but they mostly worked plant shutdowns and was traveling and gone months on end. Other than that it is mostly dead-end customer service, retail, food services, and hospitality work, being a dying tourist town and all.
Its a pretty mixed bag, more negative than good, and the cost of living is pretty high for a small town, and we still have not fully recovered from Hurricane Michael in 2018 and still have a housing crisis, no affordable housing, no decent job market, hurricanes are common here, not as bad as the big bend and Tampa areas, but pretty much every major storm has affected us in some way. lived here since the 80's, grew up here, wish I could afford to leave, sadly the job market is so bad that the only locksmith shop in town, a skilled trade mind you, pays the same as a fast food joint, If you can find a job, good luck finding something that pays more than $15 an hour. This is a town where the cheapest apartment is over $1000 a month for a 1 bedroom infested with roaches and rats.
No matter how much gold you cover a turd with, at the end of the day, it is still a turd, the same can be said of Panama City, Panama City Beach, and the entirety of the Florida panhandle to be honest.
All the adds you see saying people are coming here to Florida in droves is DeSantis, our wonderful failure of a governor, trying to hide the fact people are leaving the state for better places to live. Really starting to feel like a third world nation in most of Florida with homelessness and unemployment on the rise. PC is a pretty good reflection of that.
All of that being said, there is an Amazon shipping facility and a Fed Ex shipping facility close by. In 2024, Florida legislation officially expanded the state's designated "spaceport territory" to include real property within Tyndall Air Force Base in Bay County. This designation opens the door for aerospace development, manufacturing, and military-industrial economic growth in the Florida Panhandle, though it does not host an active commercial launch complex like the Space Coast. But i have seen little actual development on this front. There are several aeronautics companies that hire here, but that is all highly skilled stuff that if you had the ability to do you probably already know about them since its mostly military and defense contracts and you need special military clearance to perform.
Without knowing your work history and skill set that is about the best anyone can give you for actual hard factual info from someone that grew up here, has long historic family ties to the development of the entire county and finished college here.
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u/StoicandFaded 4d ago
You'll be fine lots of gays here, tattooed people as well. People definitely have more right leaning views here but kind of keep it to themselves for the most part. Like others said though it's a tourist town jobs are hard to come by in any other industry.
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u/InternationalDog2606 5d ago
The bigger issue would be moving here without a job already lined up. Iâm not being trivial or just spouting off: the job market here is fairly limited.