Jacksonville or Tampa???

[4merWNYer]

Originally Posted by OnlyTheLonely

I've lived in both Tampa and Jacksonville. And being from the Midwest as well (Michigan) I can tell you right now, that you will like Tampa better, the job market sucks everywhere in Florida, not just Tampa, not just Jacksonville. It's just how the economy is. On a few things you mentioned I will make my best comparisons:

1. Jax and Tampa are not alike in a lot of ways, other than both being located in Florida, nothing is the same.

2. Beaches: Tampa's beaches are 110% nicer, the water in the Gulf is cleaner, the sand is softer, and there is little to no driving on the beach as there is here in Jacksonville.

3. Tampa has Busch Gardens, and you are only an hour away from Orlando, which has all the famous theme parks (Disney, Downtown Disney, Universal, ect. ect.) Jacksonville has nothing, we have Adventure Island (I think its called) with a tiny water slide and some go-carts, woo hoo havin fun now.

4. Night life, Tampa has Ybor, historically located, with tons and tons of clubs, bars, patio bars, ect ect. Jacksonville has Bourbon Street, it's located in a building similar to an open warehouse with walls. Ybor has 2 major events, that I have had the pleasure of attending, 1 of which is Guavaween which is a halloween celebration with many musical venues, stages, parties, costumes.

Some nice places to live in Tampa are New Tampa (north east of central tampa) Carrolwood area, South Tampa, and a few other places, I never really explored much of the residential areas as I only lived there for 4 years. But in those 4 years, it was a fantastic experience.

Tampa is more of a college town as well than Jacksonville is, Jacksonville is more of a cumulation of people with a bunch of imposter areas, Downtown is more corporate related than historical or fun, the beaches are riddled with people who think that because they live a block away from the beach in a crap rented duplex, that they are upscale, and the rest is either slums, or imposter country folk.


IMO, if I had the cash, and I didn't have the job security that me and my wife have atm, I would move back to Tampa. I'm 28 and she is 25, so that can kind of give you an idea of our likes and dislikes in general.

on your other post OnlyTheLonely.....Jacksonville hasn't smelled BAD since the paper mill shut down YEARS ago. I travel a lot, leave Jax then come home. Never noticed a smell other than the ocean.
Maybe if you put your nose down instead of up in the air all the time you would not smell "things"...

Also, there is NO driving on the beach in Jax. You can drive at certain parks and down by Vilano and areas of St Augustine, not anywhere else...it is NOT Daytona.

There are very nice areas of Jax....more nice than bad. Yes, there are bad pockets, but EVERY city has the bad...same goes for Tampa. When we visited there 2 years ago there were lots of areas I thought were way worse that here. So you do have to take the good with the bad no matter where you go.... So OP, please keep that in mind.

Do your research, visit places and drive around ALOT and explore!

[Alphaman]

Maybe it`s the paper mills, not to offend anyone but I agree I did think Jacksonville had a bad smell.

But I haven't been there in a long time.

[riveree]

Originally Posted by Alphaman

Maybe it`s the paper mills, not to offend anyone but I agree I did think Jacksonville had a bad smell.

But I haven't been there in a long time.

Those are gone, since the 70's I think. You'll find them in Nassau county and Putnam county, but none left in Duval as far as I know.

I know stinky cities - I came here from NYC - and Jax is not a stinky city. Yes, there are a few small spots here and there where you can smell some swamp gasses, but this is Florida. When I look to live in an area, I give it the sniff test, everyone should .

I'm suprised about the poster's comment about driving on the beach...maybe in the 60's ! Maybe the poster was thinking of the beaches in St. John's county to the south of us. Hugenot is about the only exception I can think of.

Also, Orange Park is not considered Jax, it's Clay county. That's a new one for me .

[OnlyTheLonely]

Originally Posted by 4merWNYer

on your other post OnlyTheLonely.....Jacksonville hasn't smelled BAD since the paper mill shut down YEARS ago. I travel a lot, leave Jax then come home. Never noticed a smell other than the ocean.
Maybe if you put your nose down instead of up in the air all the time you would not smell "things"...

Hey, like I said before if I hurt someones feelings I apologize, just stating what I know when I drive around Jacksonville on a daily basis.

Also, there is NO driving on the beach in Jax. You can drive at certain parks and down by Vilano and areas of St Augustine, not anywhere else...it is NOT Daytona.

erm....Next time I won't include the areas within 10-15 minutes of Jacksonville. I guess when I look into moving into a new city I also consider the surrounding areas, not the immediate area, and plan to never leave said city boundries.

There are very nice areas of Jax....more nice than bad. Yes, there are bad pockets, but EVERY city has the bad...same goes for Tampa. When we visited there 2 years ago there were lots of areas I thought were way worse that here. So you do have to take the good with the bad no matter where you go.... So OP, please keep that in mind.

Do your research, visit places and drive around ALOT and explore!

Depends on what you consider nice, and when you do that take into comparison the actual crime rates of a city. Just because an area doesn't live up to the $350,000 home standard of the relatively new Fleming Island, doesn't always mean it is a "bad" area of town.

You are trying to compare a city that is 109.9 sq miles to a city that is 874.3 square miles. Of course driving around Tampa it may appear to have more "bad" areas, but it's physically impossible, unless all of Tampa is a sespool for slums. The Carrolwood area, and New Tampa area, and some of the area around Lake Egypt is all rather nice, all consisting a good mixture of homes ranging from $100,00-$500,000+.

Most of the "bad" areas, are like most cities, in the down town area, on the outskirts of what would be considered the "historical" district of homes. And also the immediate areas surrounding Busch Gardens, so about 4-5 miles in any direction from Busch Gardens would be a bad area.

I apologize that I've actually lived in both Tampa and Jacksonville, and thus have an actual opinion outside of just "visiting".

[jsimms3]

When comparing city size you cannot just look at the population of the city limits, because for here the population of jacksonville is almost the entire population of duval which is a good majority of the population of the metropolitan area, which includes duval, saint johns, clay, and nassau counties. That pins us at a about 1.3 million. Tampa is a part of hillsborough county, which in combination with pinellas, pasco, hernando, and sometimes people include manatee county, tampa's metro population in roughly the same area as jax's metro is 2.7 million, or over twice the size. Tampa is a much larger city, so naturally there are going to be more things to do.

[agreatlife]

I lived in Tampa for 3 years, in between Jacksonville, and moved back to Jax. I agree with jsimms, while Tampa is smaller than Jax, most people look at the surrounding areas, and if you include all of Tampa Bay - conventionally considered Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties, then the population swells to nearly 3 million.

To get to those beautiful gulf beaches, you have to leave Tampa and go over to Pinellas county.

I really didn't care for living in Tampa Bay (Apollo Beach). I loved my home and being on the water, but everything else was a real pain. Traffic is a nightmare, getting to the beach wasn't easy, (cross over the skyway bridge - it took us an hour to get parked in St. Pete.)

Ybor certainly has the nightlife, but they also have the fights and crime. I wouldn't be there after 10:00PM. I did like Channelside however.

Tampa has a great airport, but it's still easier to get into and out of Jax.

Like riveree said, cost of living is about the same, and both cities have their share of crappy neighborhoods. So, Tampa has more nightlife, and hotter weather longer. (about 1 month total). Tampa has no beaches, but Tampa Bay has great beaches in Pinellas, and warmer clearer water. Jax has an ocean with its attendant waves. You'll be driving a lot in both locations.