My concerns about Nocatee, and what is it REALLY like?! (Jacksonville: neighborhoods, public schools)

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by insomniac911

Yes there are alot of retired MOS. A bunch of retired firemen too. Some of us are very friendly with each other. Personally, I love Nocatee. My advice is, if you have little kids, this is the place to be. Tons of other kids, activities, splash park, etc. If I had older kid's, i would have chosen Durbin Crossing over Nocatee. Nicer homes for the money, and a nicer development if you ask me. We are not void of crime. There were recently car break-in problems here. I will tell you something though. They build these houses, and on more than ten occasions I observed entire kitchens boxed, sitting I garages with no doors installed, and they were never stolen. I keep thinking 'man, I didn't live in a bad neighborhood in NY, but if I left an entire kitchens worth of brand new kitchen cabinets in my driveway or open garage, they wouldn't make it overnight'. Traveling outside of ponte vedra fruit cove area, you can find some pretty sketchy areas quick. I didn't see that till we moved here, but i liken it to.... would I not live in Dix Hills because it is close to Wyandanch? (Don't know if you know the neighborhood's but one is upscale, the other not so much) What I can say is the people that live here are the type of people you want your children growing up with. Now there are tons of people that worry about whether this cdd will fail or not. I can tell you this, it will not be failing in our lifetime so it worries me little.

What "sketchy" areas are you talking about? Don't confuse low income or rural or non-white people with "sketchy" here. Unless you're talking about certain not so great areas in the north of Duval County - and perhaps a small part of the City of St. Augustine (which is only sketchy perhaps at times - like 2 am). Assuming by "sketchy" you mean areas where you wouldn't feel safe. My husband and I are seniors. And my husband walks with a cane. We have never felt unsafe anywhere in SJC (or the vast majority of Duval County) in the almost 20 years we've lived here (although I have to admit we're not on the streets anywhere at 2 am).

See - that's one of the things I object to in terms of you guys from up north. You're totally ok with other white middle class people - but really uncomfortable with lots of other types of people. Whether they're wealthier white people - poorer white people - people of color - people who don't speak English as a first language - etc. So you all want to huddle together in a place like Nocatee - and ignore the rest of your county and your state.

FWIW - as a retired police officer - well I think you can appreciate that one reason we don't have a lot of opportunistic/violent crime here is that we (as well as most places in Florida) are communities that prosecute to the hilt. Lock the prison cell door and throw away the key. Unlike a namby pamby state like New York where just about everyone can literally get away from murder in the first degree - we have more people on death row than any state other than California (and I wish those guys - they're mostly guys - would fry sooner than later). No reason to live by the rule of law if breaking the law has minimal consequences <shrug>. FWIW - my husband and I were ADAs in Philadelphia for a short while. before we moved to Florida in 1973. What a joke in terms of a criminal justice system. If someone here stole a kitchen - they'd be in jail for many many years (with an occasional outside afternoon cleaning up side of the highway yard trash). Works for me. Does it work for you? Robyn

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by Florida2014

Guess you missed his sarcasm.

So what did you imply from the message? For some people in Florida - living off SS is swell. Robyn

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by snuffybear

Are you talking to me ComSense? I'm just sick of Robyn's snobby attitude that none of us are good enough or smart enough to live there. And her posts are not always as helpful as she thinks. And due to numerous PM's and reputation likes, I'd say many here agree with that.

You can live wherever you want to live. So what's stopping you from moving here? I sure didn't ask approval from anyone when I made a move from Miami to here.

And no - not everything I write is useful. But unless I had clued you in on the history - you'd still be thinking that a new high school in Ponte Vedra Beach was in your future. Sometimes - having "boots on the ground" is useful. Robyn

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by Peter the Brit

Lets be nice
Robyn has a point of view which many may not agree with but lets not lose members by making this a ...."personality Board"
Live and let live

I'm not going anywhere Peter. But sometimes some of these threads on the JAX board sound like personals:

"New Yorkers seeking other New Yorkers" .

If one - even one - had brought us a good NY deli in the last 10+ years - I would perhaps be a bit more forgiving. But so far - all I hear is "we're coming with lots of kids - build us more schools before we arrive".

In all honesty Peter - I'm happy with SJC the way it is now - with perhaps 5% or less population growth/year. You're in real estate. You probably want to see more growth. But - if I wanted wall to wall ticky tacky (or even high end) development with lots of NE you aren't doing it right people - when I left Miami - I would have moved to Broward or Palm Beach Counties or similar.

I skipped all those counties and moved here (for various reasons). And am quite content here - taking into account the good points and bad points of this area. If SJC turns into the worst of Broward County coupled with the worst of what's here now - this place will suck big time IMO. Robyn

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by insomniac911

Prdanib, ponte vedra beach is an equivalent of the Hamptons. 8 million dollar houses on the beach. I would say ponte vedra is like Hampton bays, nice, close to the beach, shares a common name, but is nowhere the same as the beach properties it shares a name with. (Remember, I relate everything to where I grew up and lived so if you don't know the area, I guess this doesn't help much). Everything in the A1A beach area seems to me to be beautiful and upscale. Sawgrass area is really nice. As for NY sentiment, there may be people who don't care for northerners, but like I said before, here in Nocatee where the majority are transplants, we have not felt any of that. I have family in Tappan and it is beautiful there but yes, the taxes are sick. I met someone here that lives on the intracoastal and he told me he bought his house 15 years ago and swore to me his taxes have not gone up over a hundred since he bought. How true? I'm not sure, but it's nice to hear. I suspect with us having this cdd thing, our taxes can sway a little more. We can only see, but they will never be Tappan high.

Just to clarify - there aren't and never have been $8 million places in PVB. Not even at the height of the real estate bubble. Although $4-5 million wouldn't be off the mark.

And there are still houses to be had in the 32082 zip code today in the $400k range. And everything in between $400k and $4 million.

We've been here since 1995 - and our taxes are pretty much the same as they were in 1995. Because we vote against higher taxes! If like 100k people move into areas like Nocatee and similar and vote for politicians who want more taxes to pay for things like more schools - we'll have more taxes, CAN YOU CONNECT THE DOTS?

Money for nothing and chicks for free is only a song. Robyn

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by insomniac911

...Now there are tons of people that worry about whether this cdd will fail or not. I can tell you this, it will not be failing in our lifetime so it worries me little.

What "due diligence" did you/your lawyer/anyone do to arrive at this conclusion? Robyn

[Peter the Brit]

Robyn I am in full agreement with you on your views of SJC expansion and would hate to see the County overpopulated in what is left of my lifetime .

[snuffybear]

Originally Posted by Robyn55

See - that's one of the things I object to in terms of you guys from up north. You're totally ok with other white middle class people - but really uncomfortable with lots of other types of people. Whether they're wealthier white people - poorer white people - people of color - people who don't speak English as a first language - etc. So you all want to huddle together in a place like Nocatee - and ignore the rest of your county and your state.

Completely wrong Robyn. People living in NYC suburbs are totally used to people of all colors, religious beliefs, nationalities, etc. NYC is still a melting pot. And there are plenty of highly educated people of all backgrounds working and living in suburbs of all socioeconomic levels. In fact, as an example, colleges and medical schools are getting fewer qualified white male applicants than other races. For example, did you hear about the African American HS student from Long Island, NY that just got into all 8 Ivy league schools? He is from a first generation family from Ghana that emigrated to the US. I'm sure any of us would be fine with having students like the above in our childrens' classes. And by the way, Nease, PVHS, and Creekside all have quite a few Ivy admittances -- I verified that after you implied that Ivies are only getting students from Stanton, Paxon, and Bolles - which isn't true.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...rsity/7119531/

It is YOU that comments on skin color etc...maybe it's too many years in Florida. But this is not how people up north think - people just don't comment on that - and they make friends with people from all backgrounds. This is really a necessary skill in today's economy where we are working alongside people from literally, all over the world. Example: want to go to med school? There will be many international students in your classes. Want to work in a corporate job? There will be people of all nationalities working alongside you at many companies, and you may work on the phone with co-workers in India or China.

It's about the school ratings, beach proximity, lower taxes/cost of living, growing economy, better weather, and melting pot of non-Floridians that makes the area attractive to northerners.

[fsquid]

I just hate Yankee fans. If you are into the Jeter worship take your ass to Tampa.

[houseconfused]

I guess this thread is giving you a insight into what the "locals" will think of you when you move into Nocatee.