Jacksonville: Near the Bottom in Economic Performance? (real estate, schools)

[904jax]

Today's Times Union ran a story claiming Jacksonville ranks near the bottom in the nation in economic performance. Is it really that bad? Is this short term or are we going to be in the economic basement for years to come?


Here are the links to the reports:


http://www.jacksonville.com/business/2009-06-17/story/study_jacksonville_among_weakest-performing_areas


http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2009/06_metro_monitor.aspx


Jacksonville is a great city, which in many ways offers the best lifestyle in Florida; however, for folks considering relocating to Jacksonville and looking for work, the attached links are worth a look.

[ocarina113]

904jax, after reading several of your posts, I can only determine that your motive is keeping people out of Jacksonville. You scare away law students with obviously biased and elitist information (I know several people who have went to school there and they are all doing fine) and now you try to keep others who are just looking for work from moving here. Jacksonville could always use qualified professionals. Perhaps you should consider getting out of Jacksonville and letting the rest of us enjoy it.

[Joe 4520832257]

Those are both links to a study about which economies were hit the hardest since the current recession.

Jax is on there because 1) it's in Florida and the real estate bubble hurt the economy, and 2) the Jax economy was doing so well before hand that it had a longer way to fall. But the absolute health of the economy is still quite a bit better than most of the non sunbelt cities. It just had a larger temporary drop.

Anyway, Jax has never had an abundance of high paying white collar jobs - but with the low taxes, the port, and the Navy, it's an extremely stable economy in the long term.

[904jax]

ocarina113,

The purpose of the post was to generate discussion about the article on Jacksonville's economy. The post actually compliments Jacksonville's lifestyle.

With regards to Florida Coastal School of Law (“FCSL”), take a look at the national rankings. http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/rankings It is not elitist, just providing sound advise to potential law students from an experienced perspective. If FCSL were ranked higher, I would, of course, have been more positive in my assessment.

Best Regards,

904jax