[Nomad58]

Originally Posted by JBtwinz

I have been in the Jacksonville area for going on 24 years... but it seems something happened to Jacksonville back in time. It was once a booming center of growth as mentioned above, it catered to the film industry when it was in it's infancy, had the largest Sears in the southeast downtown along with a Ford plant and shipyards. Jacksonville is located perfectly as a transportation hub and we still fall behind........the sprawl that was allowed also is decaying the core.....it seems Jacksonville had a brighter future in it's past.....not a Miami but something along it's own standing. Was it the great fire that started the fall or a combination of things?

Comparing Jacksonville to a southern San Diego.......well I spit my coffee out on that one

I believe that the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville has always held far too much influence over the city council. They spearheaded the move to push the film industry out, back in the teens of last century, and have remained staunch opponents of any progress, since that time.

[Nomad58]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

Stats don't sway you and the hatred for your city consumes you, have you thought about moving versus pissing in every one else's cornflakes? Jacksonville has issues, as any other city in Florida has....perhaps you'll be happier momentarily in one of them?

Nope, I'd much rather stay here, and force the delusional residents to finally accept the reality of the city they live in. Nothing will change until people like me finally get fed up enough, and force reality to be a topic of conversation, in this city.

As the old saying goes..."Ignorance is bliss." And let's just say, there are A LOT of blissful people in Jacksonville.

And what stats do you refer to? The stats are all clearly on my side. Poor schools, high crime, slow growth, dead downtown, low wages, a predominantly black high school named after the founder of the KKK. None of those are my opinion. Those issues are all clearly documented facts.

Better go get yourself another bowl of cornflakes.

[CountryFisher]

You people need to ignore Nomad58. He talks out of his a**.

I find it weird how he has a "BA degree" and preaches "live and let live" but makes all of these ridiculous statements about Jacksonville and their "kinds" of people while claiming to be so tolerant and educated at the same time. This also proves that going to college does not always make someone "smart". He's acting in a way that he supposedly vehement against. If you were so "live and let live", it wouldn't bother you what Jacksonville and their residents do.

[OptimusPrime69]

Jacksonville is pretty much known for it's southern culture. It's not a very cosmopolitan or progressive city, let's be honest. Yes, it has it's pockets of nice areas, but by and large it's pretty average, not-so-special kinda place. It's not exactly a pretty place to live and I think the provincial attitude of many of it's residents holds the city back.

I think cities further south in florida have recieved a much larger influx of "northerners" and immigrants from around the world giving it a more "wordly" and vibrant feel. Jacksonville, not so much.

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by OptimusPrime69

Jacksonville is pretty much known for it's southern culture. It's not a very cosmopolitan or progressive city, let's be honest. Yes, it has it's pockets of nice areas, but by and large it's pretty average, not-so-special kinda place. It's not exactly a pretty place to live and I think the provincial attitude of many of it's residents holds the city back.

I think cities further south in florida have recieved a much larger influx of "northerners" and immigrants from around the world giving it a more "wordly" and vibrant feel. Jacksonville, not so much.

I think it's actually a prettier place to live with its old trees, more like Savannah or Charleston. South FL (including Miami) is fairly ugly to me, with all those tacky palm trees and stucco houses.

[Mike1306]

Jacksonville is about the same distance from Miami is as Portland,ME is from NYC. The only things in common are really just being coastal Florida cities.
I don't know why they would be expected to be similar.

[PeteU]

Originally Posted by cityKing

I think the hispanic/carribbean/tropical feel is what makes Miami such a unique exotic place.

My personal opinon about Jacksonville is that it is just like Anywhere USA it lacks the spark that makes it popular.

When I think of jacksonville, I think of ordinary people , ordinary American city, southern feel in culture, and slower paced of life.

Jacksonville almost reminds me of the Florida version of San Diego : Slow paced, laid back beach enviorment, more of a midwest feel.

Whereas Miami is more like Los Angeles in term of being urban, having more of faster more progressive way of life, more of a cosmopolitan feel.

I think I just answered my own question. But I would love to see other peoples thought on this as well.

I think you pretty much nailed it with the San Diego vs. Los Angeles comparision.

For the record, I like both Jacksonville and Miami. They've got their simularities and their differences. Miami is obviously more of a world class internationally reknown city, where as Jacksonville is more of a regional one. But that's not necessarily a bad thing on Jacksonville's part.

I sometimes like to think of Jacksonville as the love child of Miami and Memphis. Florida beach city meets Southern river city. That Lynard Skynrd is a native musical son of Jacksonville makes perfect sense: an even mix of country and rock and roll.

With some ambitious direction and improved infrastructure, I do think Jacksonville could become a major destination city in the coming decades. But that's only if they want to.

But being a proud resident of the Sunshine State, I appreciate the things that both Miami and Jacksonville bring to the state.

[Nomad58]

Originally Posted by CountryFisher

You people need to ignore Nomad58. He talks out of his a**.

I find it weird how he has a "BA degree" and preaches "live and let live" but makes all of these ridiculous statements about Jacksonville and their "kinds" of people while claiming to be so tolerant and educated at the same time. This also proves that going to college does not always make someone "smart". He's acting in a way that he supposedly vehement against. If you were so "live and let live", it wouldn't bother you what Jacksonville and their residents do.

Clearly, you haven't been to college. Education teaches a person NOT to accept the ignorance and intolerance, that is so prevalent in Jacksonville.

So YES, I am intolerant of intolerance, as were the founding fathers of our Country.

US history has clearly proven over and over, that the Deep South has NEVER done the right thing, on their own. They have ALWAYS had to be forced into meaningful progress.

So, with that shameful history in mind, I have no intention of patiently waiting for another 150 years, while the rednecks and bigots decide whether or not they want to finally embrace the values that the rest of the Country has stood for for the past 225 years. And I'm fed up with the idiot rednecks always claiming 'States rights' as an excuse for maintaining their bigotry and ignorance.

So, get used to it. I'm here. I'm fed up, and I'm going to speak out. It's a little thing that I like to call THE FIRST AMENDMENT.

The fact that I am so clearly irritating you, is just icing on the cake. Thanks for making my day.

[iMarvin]

Originally Posted by Nomad58

Nice try, but nothing you said is backed up by the stats. Jacksonville has grown at a slower rate than the rest of Florida. In fact, it's been growing at a slower rate then Georgia too. In order words, everything surrounding it, is growing faster.

At one time, Jacksonville was the largest city in the State. Today, it's 4th largest at best, (behind Miami, Tampa, Orlando) and if you count the Ft. Lauderdale Broward area, Jacksonville is 5th. You don't go from 1st to 5th, if you're growing at the same rate as other cities.

Your housing figures are slanted too. Jacksonville never was the hot spot that Miami, Orlando, and Tampa were, so its real estate market never got as over heated as the rest of the State. We didn't have nearly as far to fall.

Poor schools
High Crime
Southern Baptist fanatics and rednecks, generally stubbornly resistant to any change.
Dead Downtown
An embarrassingly segregated city, with a strong undercurrent of racism still existing
Low wages

If you're looking for good weather, you can find far better, further down the State. If you're looking for beaches, they are far better on the Gulf Coast. Nightlife? What's that?

Jacksonville is being left behind, predominantly because many of the people here want it that way.

Sorry, but for a city of close to a million people, Jacksonville doesn't cut it.

Jacksonville saw a 11.7% increase in population from 2000 to 2010. That's more than all the other major cities in Florida, other than Orlando.

Jacksonville remains to be the largest city in Florida, by both city proper population and land area. It is 4th in metropolitan area population but it IS growing. This article here even says that Orlando's growth has slowed.

Poor schools? Paxon and Stanton are two of the best schools in the nation (TOP 10) and every high school is at least a C school. High crime? Definitely not as bad as people make it to be. It's not even close to Detroit, etc. We do have southern baptists but slowly but surely their presence is becoming smaller and smaller. Downtown continues to grow. The city is just as "segregated" as Miami. In fact, Miami is the 7th most segregated city in America. Low wages? Some jobs have them, some don't. There are high paying jobs here.

The weather is definitely the best in the state, unless you like the extreme heat South Florida offers. The beaches offer the best waves in the state and only a few more even have waves. The water IS blue around St. Augustine, by the way. Nightlife isn't on the same scale as Miami (obviously) but it has grown and continues to grow in the urban core (East Bay Street, Park & King).

Jacksonville isn't going anywhere. A new vision plan modeled after SA2020 is going to help the city become even better by 2025. The metro area has over a million people, btw.

[Trafalgar Law]

Hey sorry, I just found this thread and this my first post ever in the Florida forum.

California, Texas, and Florida are the best states in this country by far and away, they are good enough to be sub-provincial nation states had they developed independent economies and energy sources and imports independently from the rest of the United States.

As for Jacksonville and Miami, I love Miami and it's one of my absolute favorite cities. Jacksonville on the other hand is a small metropolitan but I've learned one thing, is that to never knock the smaller places because they come to surprise you most in the future.

I would like to be a resident of the great state of Florida one day soon.