HELP ME !! ( Moving to Jacksonville) (Miami, Madison: transplants, living, restaurants)

[jimbo13]

jax is cheap to live in and you WILL be shocked moving from toronto. i'm shocked when i go back and i used to live there.

[vdecapio]

Jacksonville still has Asian markets, hispanic markets, etc. They are smaller here than in big cities, and the supply is not as good, but you can still do basic stuff.

BUT IF YOU WANT AN ITALIAN DELI, JACKSONVILLE IS NOT THE PLACE. THIS IS THE MOST ANNOYING THING ABOUT JACKSONVILLE. MOST ANNOYING.

I was living in the NYC area before coming here, so I might have to argue with you about diversity in Toronto being better than NYC...but that's for another place. Each city has tons of diversity though. Jacksonville has much less, but still some. It is not completely black and white, but a lot of the faces you see are either black or white.

Anyway Jacksonville's housing is affordable. Utilities are affordable as well. Groceries are about the same as New Jersey. Gas is more expensive in Jacksonville than New Jersey. Eating out at restaurants is about the same as New Jersey/New York ....but there are not as many fancy restaurants in JAX so the upper limit of cost is not as high as New Jersey/New York. Also, it is harder to find cheap ethnic food here than in New Jersey, NYC, Miami, Orlando, so the lower end of food for eating out is not as low as those other places. In all those places, I could get a pound or two of ethnic food for 5 bucks if I wanted to, but here the cheapest ethnic meal I can find is probably around 8 or 9 for comparable servings. The lone exception is that Filipino place in the Regency Mall....Island Cafe. That place is awesome.

[cricketfan]

Originally Posted by surewin

no im not expecting in to be Toronto. because when it comes to diversity no city in the world compares to Toronto. But if i do decide to move down i dont want to be shocked thats there's only either caucasians or afro americans living in jacks. just want some diversity. i need to go get some groceries in an asian market it would be there, if i need to eat some jerk chicken it would be there. u know what i mean .

I would go as far as to suggest that you NOT move to Jacksonville if ethnic diversity is your first priority. You mention caucasians and afro-americans as though they were two homogeneous races. Within those races there are people from all different origins here. But what you won't find here in Jacksonville (or Jactionville as one anti-Jacksonvillian likes to call it) are enclaves like you would find in Toronto or NY or any other cosmopolitan city.

I would not want you to come to Jacksonville expecting to find jerk chicken or beef patties or knishes or kielbasa or any kind of international food on every corner. Then you would be disappointed, like our Vdecapio, that no one forewarned you that those foods are not exactly at your doorstep. Believe me, being an ex-New Yorker sometimes I yearn for those exotic foods myself but I have to get in my car and go find them somewhere in the Jacksonville sprawl because those restaurants do exist: Haitian, Jamaican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Greek, Brazilian, you name it.

But I will tell you that while it is true that Jacksonville lacks the kind of ethnic mix that you will find in Toronto and places like Chicago, Montreal, Miami, Boston, New York etc., (all of which I have either lived in or visited) there is a certain level of civility, casualness and friendliness on the street here that you won't find in those cities. Maybe it is a southern thing here but it is not uncommon for total strangers to smile or strike up a conversation or offer a hand. Not that we don't have our share of obnoxious people. And crime too!

But then again this is a much slower pace here in Jax. The result is that the atmosphere here is relatively "lay-back" and there is less tension, less stress compared to those other cities where people scurry around during the day and then hunker down at night in their own respective enclaves.

But somehow it would be nice if we could live in both worlds.

[agreatlife]

Originally Posted by vdecapio

BUT IF YOU WANT AN ITALIAN DELI, JACKSONVILLE IS NOT THE PLACE. THIS IS THE MOST ANNOYING THING ABOUT JACKSONVILLE. MOST ANNOYING.

hmmm. And here I thought you had said the most annoying thing was no olives.

[apvbguy]

Originally Posted by agreatlife

hmmm. And here I thought you had said the most annoying thing was no olives.

the most annoying thing in JAX is xplanted NJ people who refuse to let it die,
I'm from NJ and I enjoy the differences here like the slower paced lifestyle. Big deal if I can't find a decent pizza, bagel, pork roll and cheese or italian cold cuts, if everywhere was alike, that would be boring

[vdecapio]

Originally Posted by apvbguy

the most annoying thing in JAX is xplanted NJ people who refuse to let it die,
I'm from NJ and I enjoy the differences here like the slower paced lifestyle. Big deal if I can't find a decent pizza, bagel, pork roll and cheese or italian cold cuts, if everywhere was alike, that would be boring

And this is Jacksonville's problem. Ok so lets say I can't the find pizza, the bagel, the olives, the sausage, the cheese here. So, what is filled in to replace it. Sweet Tea. Come on. If Jacksonville had something unique to fill in the void I would shut up. But, Jacksonville has no identity to fill it. It doesn't matter if I came here from Jersey, Miami, Chicago, DC, Philly, Toronto, Boston...West Viginia for that matter..I would come here and say ok what does Jacksonville have that is unique....and all I find is sweet tea and a slow pace. Come on. Give me something. Give me something.

[Magnolia Bloom]

What decap is describing is not NJ foods, but regional foods. Just as in Jersey and other areas of the northeast, there are so many good regional foods here. I am not a sweet tea person, but with little thought, I can come up with:

a plate of fried catfish (bone in), with cheese grits, cole slaw and hush puppies

greens- collard, mustard, turnip, with corn bread

all kinds of southern vegetables- summer squash, beans, eggplant, zuccini....

peppers- some many that they get their own line item here- bell, cubanelle, hungarian wax, jalapenos, banana

biscuits

peanut butter pie

shrimp boil- Mayport shrimp, of course!

oysters on the half shell

blackened fish- almost any kind fresh off the boat

Florida lobster- not really lobster, but very Florida

crab cakes

grouper- fingers and square*

(*with a peanut butter pie chaser- LOL!)

Bacardi rum

Budweiser beer- tour the plant and sample their wares

Peterbrook chocolate- on popcorn, cherries, pretzels

What am I forgetting?

[agreatlife]

And good barbeque!

[travelingfood]

HIF is that tonights dinner menu?

[jimbo13]

don't forget an endless sea of strip malls. and strip clubs. well, there are many strip clubs located IN strip malls for that matter. lots of pawn shops, too.