Why would anyone move to Jacksonville? (Orlando, Jacksonville Beach: city hall, to rent, crime rates)

[worldpeace1]

Every place is going to have good and bad areas. I work in Jax but have lived in Orange Park, Fleming Island since 1994. I think when crime is committed in certain areas they show it more on the news. I know there was a carjacking last year or the year before on Fleming Island I saw it on the news once but if it's the north or westside they show it over and over. You just have to be careful regardless what city or state you are in.

[Calculon]

Originally Posted by wb3690

eh we liked it when we lived there and are planning on happily moving back this summer. Sure it's military orders, but we really enjoyed it the first time we lived there.

Military orders are why Jacksonville even has half its population.

Originally Posted by crash330

I love it here! I have lived here for 6.5 years and just bought my first home last April. Housing prices are still some of the lowest compared to bigger Florida cities and I love Florida. I love how Jacksonville still has a small town feel even though it's so big. We're still in the south, people are friendly and the weather is awesome! Obviously you haven't invested time her or wanted to because I think it's awesome. I've lived in Orlando and would never go back.

It has a small town feel because its basically a bunch of small towns stiched together and slapped with the label Jacksonville. There is absolutely no reason for Jacksonville to be as large as it is and this makes getting around a huge pain in the ass.

The weather is not awesome unless you like 12 months of humidity interspersed with a few days of cold randomly thrown throughout the months of December and January. One day it's 80 the next its 50. I can expect to wake every morning either freezing cold or sweating during the "winter" because Jacksonville can never decide what temperature it wants to be.

Originally Posted by KerryB

Yes, Jax is almost as terrible as your grammar. Which is funny since you speak so negatively about Jacksonville's education system.

When you have no argument resort to pointing out spelling and/or grammatical mistakes.

Originally Posted by ShakenStirred

Life is what you make it, no matter where you live. If you're bored, you're probably a boring person. If you're miserable, you're probably a miserable person.

If it is so horrible, you should be out looking for a second job so you can afford our "high" cost of living rather than wasting your time posting on an internet forum. That way you can afford to get the heck out of here quicker and we don't have to listen to you *****.

Yeah there's nothing wrong with Jacksonville, you just must be a horrible human being that doesn't like this utopian paradise! Get the **** out and don't let the door hit you.

Must remove every post of dissent in the Jacksonville forum, must not let people considering a move here think otherwise.

Originally Posted by LoveBoating

Well, we are moving to Jax this coming weekend! We can't veryify your comments about Jax until we have lived there! There are plenty of folks who like/love Jax, if you don't, then it's time for you to "move on" somewhere else to be happy. People in the CD City Forums don't think to highly of folks who want to "trash talk" the city they live in........no matter how bad YOU think the place is.

Negative points about a city does not automatically mean trash talk. This is supposed to be an open discussion forum.

Originally Posted by riveree

The city is definitely spread out, and that can be a pain sometimes. You can make it better or worse for yourself though. You can chose to live in a more convenient location where you have everything you need nearby, including your work location, or you can chose to drive 30-60 minutes to get to everything by choosing to live further out. So much of the "driving around" is by personal choice, IMO.

Overall, I think there are more positives than negatives about Jax and I would not want to give up some of those positives. The beautiful weather, bright sunny sky, clean air, plenty of greenspace, plenty of elbow room, somewhat affordable housing, decent job market, the ocean, the river....this city has a lot going for it .

It's the same everywhere though. You live further out in every part of Jacksonville - if you decide to live in one part you are excluding yourself from whatever is offered in the other. I'd hate to be someone that wants to shop at Whole Foods that doesn't live in Mandarin. As for your positives about Jacksonville, we can basically some that up as "The Weather" which means there is nothing.

Originally Posted by crash330

Well then be gone with you. Jacksonville will be better off without negative nellies like you.

Yeah get the hell out we don't want you here... you know, the supposed friendly south were everyone says hello and is willing to help their neighbors, unless you're a negative nelly or don't enjoy the comedy stylings of Jeff Foxworthy.

Originally Posted by MAI1229

Parks, I think you have too much time on your hands. Honestly, Jersey has issues, but there's no way in h*ll I would post a "why would anyone move to xxx" thread.

You're offending the good people who consider Jacksonville their home and who go out of their way to help folks who are moving/contemplating moving to Jacksonville. I highly doubt anyone is paid for their participation/responses and I truly appreciate their opinions/insights.

I also echo ShakenStirred's response . His/Her response is not only applicable to your thread, but to a few others who also have too much time on their hands with all their b*tching/whining about your community.

Have a little more respect for the town you consider home, or move. It really is as simple as that.

Ah the irony of telling people to get a life who are posting negative opinions about a town on an internet forum about said town as you post a positive opinion about said town on the same internet forum. Hopefully those of us that know what Jacksonville is really like can convince a few [misguided] people to stay away and move to a city that is actually a city.

Originally Posted by Joe 4520832257

How much you want to bet that this guy lives 15+ miles from the city center, if not outside the county entirely? Most people who b*tch and moan about Jacksonville like that don't live in the traditional "city" but rather in some far-flung subdivision that's only part of Jacksonville by technicality of our huge city limits.

Yes, exactly, Jacksonville is ridicuiously large for no reason. And no, you don't have to live in Orange Park to think Jacksonville is too large and takes forever to get anywhere.

Originally Posted by heatrnnr

Parks, i'll speak for myself and my family. We moved from a Chicago suburb about 6 months ago and love it.

You lived in Chicago. Pretty much anywhere is an upgrade.

Originally Posted by Kool

parks71, you are not being entirely honest ... you hate ALL of Florida not just Jacksonville. I came across your other post on the Denver forum:
Those are your words. You prefer cold to heat and there's nothing wrong with that, alot of people do. But why give Jax the finger before you move out west?

Yeah so I was just doing a little internet detective work and found this one post you made......

You don't have to like the cold to think Jacksonville stinks.

Originally Posted by madkins4570

parks71,
I wish you luck with your, hopefully, impending relocation. Regarding your factually challenged statement "You are 2 times more likely to be murdered here than the average major city in the US. We are top 5 in the nation for aids, STDs, drunk drivers.": the murder and nonnegligent homicide rate for 2007 nationally for cities with populations exceeding 500,000 was 13.7 per 100,000 residents according to the FBI's statistics. Jacksonville: 15.7. Aids: while our rate is quite high, we don't make it into the top 10. Std's: not even in the top 20 for syphylis or gonorrhea. Drunk driving: 69th according to Men's Health. In fact the Morgan Qunito Awards lists Jacksonville as the 10th SAFEST city in the Nation for cities with populations exceeding 500,000. Parks, that took me about 10 min. to research and compose. I would hope that a $100K earner could do better. Misinformation FTW.

It's not fair to compare Jacksonville to other cities because Jacksonville is not a real city. Once again stiching a bunch of small towns together and giving it one name does not make it a "city" in the real sense of the word. And then you end it by insulting his intelligence, something I would expect a defensive duvalian to do.

Originally Posted by jsimms3

15.7 is not 1.55 times 13.7, which is the average for comparable cities. We can't compare Jacksonville to Lincoln, Nebraska, but we can compare it to Baltimore or Charlotte or Birmingham, etc. I would say in the danger department we compare very favorably to Bmore LoL.

I don't quite understand your post but I don't think you'd want to compare your town to Baltimore.

Originally Posted by crash330

Ok, we get it. You don't like Jacksonville and now you're planning a relocation. Stop bringing the rest of us down.

LOL. Stop giving us facts about the ****ty crime in this wondeful big-little-city, we want to continue pretending Jacksonville is a great place to live.

Originally Posted by LoveBoating

Yea, no sh*t dude.....we FULLY know that you hate Jacksonville for your own reasons. All of the people who live in the area and love Jacksonville and the new people moving there (like us) will be damn glad to know that you moved to your "better area". Go, Go, Go, Leave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God you people are insufferable. I hope when you move to Jacksonville you grow to resent it like most of us sane people but then get stuck because you lose your job and have to continue living here for the rest of your life.

Originally Posted by coolyfett

Interesting rant. Although I will agree that Paxon is in a bad part of town, Stanton's area in Durkeeville is not some rough, BUT those are both Black areas of Jacksonville, do you feel uncomfortable with that aspect? It is ok if you do, just curious to know. I am assuming your child goes to Sandlewood or Fletcher not exactly sure....and you stated they have a D-Rating? The Media in Jacksonville does love their crime stories...why? I really don't know but I think they blow too many of the stories up. Have you tried getting your kids into Bolles? Isn't that like a special school also?

Post Translation: Jacksonville has black people so if you don't like black people make sure you move to one of the small towns that makes up Jacksonville that doesn't have black people.

Originally Posted by worldpeace1

Every place is going to have good and bad areas. I work in Jax but have lived in Orange Park, Fleming Island since 1994. I think when crime is committed in certain areas they show it more on the news. I know there was a carjacking last year or the year before on Fleming Island I saw it on the news once but if it's the north or westside they show it over and over. You just have to be careful regardless what city or state you are in.

First of all, I'm very sorry that you live in Fleming Island. Also don't worry once those McMansions that you guys can't afford are foreclosed on the riff raff will start moving in and start turning the utopian gated paradise of fleming island into the rest of Jacksonville. This will probably be when they annex Orange Park and make it apart of Jacksonville so they can call themselves the biggest city by landmass in the entire world as opposed to the entire United States and move up a couple notches on population.

DOOOOOOVALLLL.

Edit: Oh also for all of the inevitable "get the hell out of my 'doooooooval" posts I'm trying really I am, I hope to be gone by the summer.

[Keith-n-Jax]

You need a hobby real bad ^^^^

[HollyinJAX]

Negative sarcastic mean-spirited posts coming from someone with a screen name like "violent world" are to be expected, I suppose. Jacksonville is a great place to be. We love it here for so many reasons. We are intelligent, educated, travelled, and discerning. But this comes from someone who sees the world in much more positively.

[BabyBoomers2]

Does the comment "open Forum" mean that anyone can say anything they want to??? There is "spell check" on each Reply area, so if you don't want someone to comment on your spelling......USE IT!!!
For anyone who hates the city/area they live in, please DON'T bore all of the other Forum posters with how much you hate the city/are........just MOVE somewhere else!!!!!! This thing about "trash talking" the city you are living in (and it is "trash talking") just isn't good for people who want to move to the city you hate living in.
I'm sure there are lots of CD posters out there that will agree with me!

[HollyinJAX]

Amen LoveBoating.

[KerryB]

This thread just gets more & more retarded from both ends.

I personally think that just as someone can make posts about how much they like Jacksonville, they should be allowed to make posts why they dislike Jacksonville & not have everyone jump on them, beating them away with sticks. That just shows intolerance to different views & opinions other than your own.

Not that I'm agreeing with them, but still. You gotta take the good with the bad. I do like Jax overall, but I personally think we get more than enough of the Jax cheerleaders here on the forum with everyone high fiving each other, so other opinions should be welcomed too.

Point is, nowhere is perfect & everyplace has its flaws. Talk about them without telling people to get lost or either just don't post at all.

[parks71]

So when the paper writes about how the crime is terrible and one of the worst in the nation, do you write them and say stop bashing your city while you stick your head in the sand?

Seriously, my main complaints, crime, schools and how the cost of living went up. You really dont have concerns for any 3 of these?

You guys seem to like to argue that the crime is EVERYWHERE, so its ok. There are magnet schools! We dont need the rest of them to be ok! WTF is wrong with you people, get your head out of the sand.

We have "great" beaches? Which one is "great". Any beach on the golf coast is better. Any beach south of jacksonville is better. Maybe your one of these thugs making Jacksonville beach THE HIGHEST CRIME AREA IN THE UNITED STATES PER CAPITA so you like to convince people to move here to take advantage of them? Sure, if your a crook, its a "great" beach because you can do what you want and get away with it.

The weather, ok, you can say it has "great" weather but once again I disagree. The weather is good, not great. Great weather would be san diego or somewhere out west because I cant think of anyone that says, "I hope its humid as hell tomorrow so I can sweat like a pig".

Sure, a lot of places are humid but GREAT weather would not include HIGH humidity. There are lots of states and places with the same weather of florida and some with much better but jacksonville alone does not have GREAT weather.

[PhotoZel]

So sad, you need a life, so you try to make others miserable. Okay. You don't like yourself nor JAX.

I hope you have a great day and you have others wishing you well too.

Please, just go somewhere else to spout your venom.

[Joe 4520832257]

Originally Posted by parks71

Seriously, my main complaints, crime, schools and how the cost of living went up. You really dont have concerns for any 3 of these?

Personally, my only issue would be the schools. Jax's schools are pretty awful. But even then, if your kid is actually smart there are great magnets and private schools. If high school is just a free day care until your kid goes off to community college or trade school, then yeah, Jax's schools are very problematic.

As for crime, the stats are clear. Jax has between 1.3 - 1.5 times the national crime rate. I don't find that problematic for me since I'm a middle-class white, and unfortunately the overwhelming burden of that crime rate falls almost exclusively on poor blacks. It's a horrible situation, but simply not something that impacts the actual lives of the vast majority of people who live in Jax.

The cost of living doesn't bother me either. It has certainly been a shock to see prices double in the past 7 years, but that also reflects the popularity of Jax, as the metro population has swelled by a couple hundred thousand people. I guess cost of living is high compared to the midwest or Charlotte or something. But Jax still compares quite favorably to most cities on either coast. Especially the Northeast or West Coast. Our cost of living blows them out of the water.

As for the weather complaints, I don't even know what to say. In my opinion Hawaii, Southern Florida, and Southern California are the only regions in the nation with better weather than us. No one else can boast such warm winters without suffering from even worse summers.