Savannah VS Jacksonville (compare, places, America, homicides)
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Downtown - Savannah is a great downtown for vacation, but as far as day to day living, probably Jacksonville just b/c we are a bigger city. Our DT sucks compared to most cities activity wise, but there are many 9-5 jobs there still.
Nightlife - Jax, the beaches have some good nightlife for younger crowd, and then riverside has a good amount for the young professional crowd
Schools (K-12) - Not sure, Jax has some amazing Magnet school and some horrible public schools and everything inbetween.
Schools (College) - Jax
Suburbs - Jax, its what we are. Savannah is much smaller
Shopping - Jax
Dining - Tie IMO
Beaches - Jax hands down
Crime - Savannah probably has less but its much smaller. Jax has some horrible areas, but the good news is you dont have to live near it.
Cost of Living - Tie
Sports - Savannah has no pro teams, Jax at least has the Jags.
Dating Scene For Singles - Not sure, never been single down here
All in all I would have to say Jax wins. Savannah certainly has some amazing areas, but its more of a tourist place where Jax is a city people live in. Size wise you cannot fairly compare the two, that's like comparing Dallas to Corpus Christi. I love Savannah and go there often, but from a real life stand point, Jax has more to offer on a day to day basis.
Seriously, one of the worst questions I've seen on this forum.
I agree with you, but that's a typical American (esp. Southern) attitude on C-D: if a city has more high-rises, it's more vibrant; if it's older and historic, it's not vibrant. Based on that, Columbus, Macon and Augusta have more vibrant downtowns, while Savannah, Charleston and New Orleans do not. Yet the total the opposite is true.
Downtown - Savannah is a great downtown for vacation, but as far as day to day living, probably Jacksonville just b/c we are a bigger city. Our DT sucks compared to most cities activity wise, but there are many 9-5 jobs there still.
Savannah has the better downtown hands down in every way except jobs.
Downtown - Savannah is a great downtown for vacation, but as far as day to day living, probably Jacksonville just b/c we are a bigger city. Our DT sucks compared to most cities activity wise, but there are many 9-5 jobs there still.
Uh ... There's lots of 9-5 jobs in downtown Atlanta too but that doesn't make it a great downtown. The beauty of Savannah's downtown (besides being the largest urban historic district in the nation) is that people LIVE there. Several thousand in fact, which is part of the city's charm. Plus the culture and energy created by 10,000 SCAD students. SAVANNAH FOR THE WIN
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Nightlife - Jax, the beaches have some good nightlife for younger crowd, and then riverside has a good amount for the young professional crowd
TWO WORDS: Open containers. SAVANNAH FOR THE WIN
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Schools (K-12) - Not sure, Jax has some amazing Magnet school and some horrible public schools and everything in between
The same can be said for Savannah so this is probably a tie if we're comparing Duval County to Chatham County. So this is prolly a tie.
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Schools (College) - JAX
What are all these great colleges in Jacksonville? I honestly don't know. Savannah has two state universities (SSU and Armstrong) in addition to SCAD, South University, Savannah Tech, satellite campuses of Georgia Southern and GA Tech, the Savannah Law School and a few others.
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Suburbs - Jax, its what we are. Savannah is much smaller
Shopping - JAX
Agreed
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Dining - Tie IMO
Sorry but Savannah wins this easily. The Grey in Savananh was recently named one of the top 5 restaurants in the country, and there are numerous others in Savannah with national profiles (Elizabeth's, The Florence. Zunzi's, The Olde Pink House, Leopold's, Ele). NY Times food critics come down and review Savannah restaurants/ I can't name one that's unique to Jacksonville (though I'm sure there are some).
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Beaches - Jax hands down
Crime - Savannah probably has less but its much smaller. Jax has some horrible areas, but the good news is you dont have to live near it.
Cost of Living - Tie
Sports - Savannah has no pro teams, Jax at least has the Jags.
Dating Scene For Singles - Not sure, never been single down here
All in all I would have to say Jax wins. Savannah certainly has some amazing areas, but its more of a tourist place where Jax is a city people live in. Size wise you cannot fairly compare the two, that's like comparing Dallas to Corpus Christi. I love Savannah and go there often, but from a real life stand point, Jax has more to offer on a day to day basis.
Everything else above I agree with except your last paragraph. Sounds like you've never been anywhere in Savannah out of the downtown historic district. Did you realize that beyond the downtown it's a pretty normal city with people who work for a living? The largest employer in Chatham County is Gulfstream Aerospace with 10,000 employees. They build airplanes. Just saying. Oh, and the Port of Savannah is the fastest growing in the United States, second busiest port on the eastern seaboard after New York, and fourth busiest port in the nation. Yep, Savannah is just a tourist town!
It's curious that several people from Jacksonville seem to think they have the better nightlife, especially since scores of Jacksonville residents drive up to Savannah every weekend to partake of Savannah's nightlife. There are numerous valid reasons for Savannahians to drive down to Jacksonville for a weekend, but outside of the Georgia Florida game, nightlife is not one of them. No one in Savannah ever says, "hey let's go to Jacksonville to party!"
It's curious that several people from Jacksonville seem to think they have the better nightlife, especially since scores of Jacksonville residents drive up to Savannah every weekend to partake of Savannah's nightlife. There are numerous valid reasons for Savannahians to drive down to Jacksonville for a weekend, but outside of the Georgia Florida game, nightlife is not one of them. No one in Savannah ever says, "hey let's go to Jacksonville to party!"
There's perception and then there's reality. Jacksonville nightlife dollars are easily several times larger than Savannah's. F&B at the Town Center alone was seeing revenue at 3x the national average. The SJTC was sold about a year ago and it traded at the highest price of any commercial sale in the country in the past 6 years or so (across the country it was hailed as a symbol of the end of the recession). Savannah is awesome and has some world-class level weekends, but it doesn't outdo Jax. Not even close. And I'll reiterate, I'm not saying Jax is anything special in this regard...but it's just the nature of being almost 4 times larger and having much more disposable income and younger crowd. Savannah is the one that's special considering its size.
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Originally Posted by Newsboy
Uh ... There's lots of 9-5 jobs in downtown Atlanta too but that doesn't make it a great downtown. The beauty of Savannah's downtown (besides being the largest urban historic district in the nation) is that people LIVE there. Several thousand in fact, which is part of the city's charm. Plus the culture and energy created by 10,000 SCAD students. SAVANNAH FOR THE WIN
Lol...are there only a few thousand residents in downtown? Jax has over 2000 residents, and it's really pathetic. Savannah sure wins this by a landslide but I think several thousand living in downtown isn't very impressive. Seems like much more (I guess the college students help a lot)
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Originally Posted by Newsboy
TWO WORDS: Open containers. SAVANNAH FOR THE WIN
No doubt. Last time I checked only about 8 districts in the country allow open containers which certainly makes it special. Jax has been toying with this idea for many years and it seems like there's a concerted push right now. They're discussing open containers and extended hours til 3am. I won't believe it til it happens but we'll see. As it is, currently, there are actually over 30 de facto open container days in downtown...that is, when it technically isn't legal but the police allow it.
Jags games - 9/year
Art Walk - 12/year
FL/GA weekend - 3/year
One Spark Festival - 6/year
Jazz Fest - 3/year
Factor in the occasional other major sporting events (college football, soccer, etc) and it seems we get plenty of opportunities to walk around with alcohol in downtown. Even the other day I went to the Jaguars open scrimmage and we were all carrying drinks in front of the police.
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Originally Posted by Newsboy
The same can be said for Savannah so this is probably a tie if we're comparing Duval County to Chatham County. So this is prolly a tie.
Sure, but just to be clear Jax has 3 or 4 schools in the top 100 public schools in the country. (When I was in high school we were better...mine was #1 and 2 others were in the top 20)
Granted, it's because most of the good students are all pooled together at certain schools, but it needs to be acknowledged since we always acknowledge the flip side of this (that most of the other schools are really bad as a result)
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Originally Posted by Newsboy
What are all these great colleges in Jacksonville? I honestly don't know. Savannah has two state universities (SSU and Armstrong) in addition to SCAD, South University, Savannah Tech, satellite campuses of Georgia Southern and GA Tech, the Savannah Law School and a few others.
Well we have two research universities with many special graduate programs which is why I said that. Kinda like the nightlife thing, Jax is not a world beater but just due to sheer size it beats Savannah. You can look up Kiplingers, Us News, Newsweek, etc to find rankings but UNF and JU usually make the top regional lists and top value lists. JU has several one-of-a-kind programs that attract people from around the world. UNF has a strong MBA program.
Other schools include the HBCU Edward Waters College, Florida Coastal School of Law, and Florida State College which used to be like the 4th largest community college system in the country is now a state college granting bachelors degrees and building dorms. So it's attempting to transition into more of a typical college environment (with its ~75,000 students)
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Originally Posted by Newsboy
Sorry but Savannah wins this easily. The Grey in Savananh was recently named one of the top 5 restaurants in the country, and there are numerous others in Savannah with national profiles (Elizabeth's, The Florence. Zunzi's, The Olde Pink House, Leopold's, Ele). NY Times food critics come down and review Savannah restaurants/ I can't name one that's unique to Jacksonville (though I'm sure there are some).
Jax is about on par for its size for the entire country. The first year the Best Chefs America list came out we had 19 locals honored, which was about the right percentage given the population. This year we have 15 chefs. Savannah has 13.
The largest employer in Chatham County is Gulfstream Aerospace with 10,000 employees. They build airplanes. Just saying.
Northrop Grumman, Flightstar Aircraft Services, Unison Industries, Logistics Services International, Kaman Aerospace Corporation and Industrial Technologies, Boeing and AvMax Montana are the large employers in Jax that build airplanes, as of 2014. More have been coming for complementary services.
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Originally Posted by Newsboy
Oh, and the Port of Savannah is the fastest growing in the United States, second busiest port on the eastern seaboard after New York, and fourth busiest port in the nation. Yep, Savannah is just a tourist town!
Port of Savannah kicks Jaxport's ass. This is one of the two areas, the other being historic preservation and infill development/planning, that Jax leaders must learn from Savannah. (I guess they've been trying to just not very well) Jax's Port isn't small potatoes, but it could be much more and if they're not careful could be left in the dust. Savannah is dominating straight up, not even factoring in the smaller size. To be fair, Jax competes with 5 other large ports in Florida while Savannah gets all of its state govt support.
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