Moving to Jax: Any chance to find walking neighborhoods/urban living in St Johns or Clay counties? (Springfield: rental)

[junebee]

Hi,

I am a new member and moving to Jax with my husband and 4 yr old kid. I lived in Manhattan and Hoboken, NJ (right across NYC) in the past ten years and love the opportunity to walk anywwhere I want and run my errands with no need to drive.

I have been reading the posts about moving to Jax in the past few days...Well, as far as I understand, the urban living is mostly in Riverside/Avondale, Springfield and San Marcos and all of them are in Duval County.

My husband and I with a 4 yr old kid will be moving to Jax. Based on my readings here, I think we have an obstacle here and I need your help. It seems that schools are much better in St Johns and Clay counties than Duval but walkable neighborhoods are all located in Duval. Now, my question is if we need to choose one over the other?

Is there any neighborhood in St Johns or Clay counties that I can at least walk to the grocery (such as Publix) and post office? Because I am running my small business from home and use USPS services all the time, I would like to be in walking distance to a post office. Of course, grocery is a must. It would be great if there are couple of restaurants, cafes, dry cleaner, and a movie theater around in walking distance...but I do not know if this sounds like a dream to have in St Johns and Clay counties.

Because my son will start the Kindergarden next year, we would like to be in a county with great schools and feedbacks about Duval county elementary schools make me hesitant to move there.

On additional note, we are looking for a rental until we get to know the city well...we may consider buying 1-2 years later once we settle down and make an educated decision to purchase.

I would love to hear your recommendations about St Johns and Clay counties, or any other if there are, with a chance to have both the urban living and good schools together...Any help?

Also, please let me know if you recommend any good realtors to help us with our rental search.

Thanks SO MUCH!

JB

[Robyn55]

Easy answer. You can find neighborhoods to walk all around here - mostly for exercise. But no neighborhood where you'll be able to walk and get all your errands done - particularly as a young work at home mother. "Urban" here is a lot different than "urban" in Manhattan. For example - take a look at the post office and grocery store locations in and around downtown JAX. In short - you'll need a car to get things done no matter where you live in the metro area. So pick a place that has what you're looking for. Robyn

[Robyn55]

Just noticed that there are 2 identical threads here. Perhaps the mod can consolidate them. Robyn

[fsu813]

Moving to Jax: Any chance to find walking neighborhoods/urban living in St Johns

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by fsu813

Moving to Jax: Any chance to find walking neighborhoods/urban living in St Johns

Thanks. I'll paste my reply into the other thread - flag this thread - and ask the Mod to delete it. Robyn