St. Johns County Info here (Jacksonville, Fruit Cove: crime, home, to buy)

[votive]

Hi,

I live in St. John county. St. Johns cover the following areas and more: Ponte Vedre (big money beach area), Fruit Cove, Julington Creek etc. A very nice area with good traffic (speeder) enforcement and no real crime to talk about. No traffic concerns in my local area.

Live/Play:

I used to be a big night club guy. Nightlife here my sucks if you like to shake your tail feather. There are a few clubs spinnin the jams but this isn't NYC or London. If you drink, there are plenty of bars, but not enough upscale, classy ones IMO....Ladies, guys wear their hat backwards (dumb) and all of them wear short and flip flops (also dumb imo) to the club or bar. I don't do the nightlife stuff anymore so it's not an item for me. This is truly a family town. Raise your kids here with a decent amount of confidence. Winter is awesome here and weather overall is great but a bit too hot in summer for me. Cars are pretty bike/bicycle friendly in my area of Julington Creek, where many group rides take place. There are about 3 good MX tracks an hour away and 1 motorcycle only track at Jennings, Fl, about 2 hours away. Generally, people keep to themselfs but are never extremely rude. Guys, if you expecting hotties forgettaboutit Some exist but most 30/40 something women eat too much and the good ones are married. Like I said good family town.

IMO, areas that suck: Near city northside, westside. Arlington and Orange Park (OP) are okay. OP has too much traffic and is a cluster at rush hour.

Schools:

St. Johns county has the best public schools in the area bar none. I believe they were some were awarded best in the nation recently. I don't have kids but I purchased our home here just for the resale. Our home has nearly doubled in value in 3 years. Growth is experiencing a dip as the rest of the nation's housing market corrects itself so now is the time to buy people. Best areas IMO: Mandarin -trees glore, and anywhere St. Johns county really. New construction is huge in St. John's county.

Working:

I'm in IT, specifically networking. IT in Jax is skint unless you are a programer it seems. The city still has the "bubba/goold ol boy" theme a bit, but is emerging from that. Healthcare? Huge Banking? Huge. This is a service and banking town. Jobs are scattered all over.

Getting to work:

Anywhere in 20 minutes pretty much sums it up. 30 minute drive downtown, even in peak traffic most days (accidents cause huge delays here -they like to stare at accidents here, weird) That's a 23 mile drive for me when I did work downtown. Add about 2 minutes more every year to your commute...I've been in Jax 10 years now and plan on a move to Denver so help me out if you're from CO(!)

Maybe this will help someone take a small bite out of wondering. Please rate this post.

Please ignore my grammer and/or spelling. I'm tired lmao

[jmc]

Hi Votive, thanks for all the great info on Julington Creek! I've been searching around the net and found a disturbing story about a man who was beaten and had his Infiniti stolen in Julington Creek. YIKES!!! I thought my husband and I would be safe living there...should we be worried??? We're moving there soon. Has the awful crime in Jacksonville started seeping down into Julington Creek, too? Thanks again for the info! Merry Christmas!

[GGV]

I have a niece w/ 3 kids that is going to live in SJ county. Can you tell me what bad zip codes to have her stay away from? I know every town has bad areas. Thanks