For an idea on how much St. Johns County has changed...

[Florida2014]

Have you ever actually been to Saint Johns Co? Many, if not most, of the newer communities here have housing that would preclude most of these 'people of Wal-Mart' that you describe from even sniffing a house here. You can say "cookie cutter" all you want but a $350K house isn't going to bring in the criminal meth-head types who I think you might be referring to. Sure there are bad pockets but aren't there bad pockets in every county in Florida??

[kiggy]

It's interesting to note that St Augustine (the city, not the poster) has grown from a population of 1,708 in 1830 to only 12, 975 in 2010. I wonder why the low growth if it's such a desirable area, schools, diversity, etc.

[trobesmom]

Originally Posted by SavannahLife

When you don't have zoning, but at the same time population is exploding, crap happens. Clearcutting, endless stripmalls and people of walmart roving around everywhere. thank goodness Amelia Island hasn't been ruined yet. That's a lovely spot! Beach and town.

They're trying hard to ruin it, Savannah. Really hard.

[StAugustine]

Originally Posted by fsquid

Sounds right to me

Originally Posted by Florida2014

Perfectly said, lol.

Does this come as any surprise to anyone?

[StAugustine]

Originally Posted by kiggy

It's interesting to note that St Augustine (the city, not the poster) has grown from a population of 1,708 in 1830 to only 12, 975 in 2010. I wonder why the low growth if it's such a desirable area, schools, diversity, etc.

Again, "shallow internet knowledge" rears its ugly head. "St Augustine" is a relatively small area, geographically speaking, but its used as a shorthand for what is basically the majority of Central St Johns County.

[StAugustine]

Originally Posted by SavannahLife

When you don't have zoning, but at the same time population is exploding, crap happens. Clearcutting, endless stripmalls and people of walmart roving around everywhere. thank goodness Amelia Island hasn't been ruined yet. That's a lovely spot! Beach and town.

St Johns County took a major hit in the late 90's and early 00's during development mania as far as building all the 'Owls Ridge Tortoise Landing Eagles Nest on Herons Cove Way' crapholes (in terms of being soulless, crassly banal and full of annoyingly herd-like people who are horrible and will live their sad, bland lives already forgotten. Not necessarily impoverished, though.).

Most of the communities were at least middle income, but some weird things happened during the Reckoning of 2008-2010.

A lot of those houses that are now back up to 300K were down way, way below replacement cost for a couple years. Granted, there was no lending going on but people of means who were liquid were snapping them up left and right and the owner-occupancy rate in some of those places is lower than you might think.

If you want to see Strip Mall Hell, Port St Lucie is as bad as I've ever seen it anywhere.
That place is repugnant.

[Newporttom]

St Johns County (especially north St Johns) is the best area in Jacksonville metro. StAugustine (the poster) is totally off-base as far as I'm concerned.

[Florida2014]

Originally Posted by StAugustine

St Johns County took a major hit in the late 90's and early 00's during development mania as far as building all the 'Owls Ridge Tortoise Landing Eagles Nest on Herons Cove Way' crapholes (in terms of being soulless, crassly banal and full of annoyingly herd-like people who are horrible and will live their sad, bland lives already forgotten. Not necessarily impoverished, though.).

Ah, I think I understand. You have to live in an older house with "character" that was built pre-1950s to be considered intelligent, thoughtful and to be happy.

The irony of this all is that if you do, indeed, fall into the above category, you seem to be quite miserable and angry. In fact, looking through most of your posts, about 90% of them are nothing but argumentative attacks onto just about everyone here and elsewhere.

[StreetSmarts]

And as a FL native like me, its kinda strange. Most natives are laid back, cool people. And awesome like me. But I guess not all lol