Need honest opinions about moving to Jacksonville with a family (Miami: coupons, car insurance)

[fsquid]

I've been here a month now and I haven't been shot.

[parks71]

So what you are saying is you are happy or ok with the amount of crime in jacksonville compared to other cities?

I dont care how big a city is land wise, it matters how many people are in the city. Usually, not always but usually the inner core city has the worst areas so if you were to say add the suburbs of denver, the crime per 100,000 would be much LESS than I stated not more. Since the land area of Jacksonville is so big, it allows the stats to include the GOOD areas unlike other cities where you do not get to include the suburbs which are usually MUCH BETTER.

Another great example is Miami, the crime rate in miami is slightly higher than Jax however its based off only 300+k people. We all know Miami is MUCh bigger than 3oo some odd thousand and if you included all the nice rich suburbs the crime rate would be PROBABLY be much lower than Jax. I have no statistics to back this up nor am I going to go research all the suburbs.

If you guys are happy with the amount of crime in Jax, thats great. I am not and until the crime is down and the schools are better I will continue to tell my side of the story which is I do not think this is a great city to raise a family in. It is good for other things, but not for that IMO.

[fsu813]

Wow. I'd like to see your reading comphrension, reasoning, and deductive skills at work in person.

No, noone said they were 'happy' with the level of crime.

It would be better if it were lowers.

What I and others have commented on, young man, is that there is no need to be OVERLY worried about crime unless you live in certain areas. Normal, everyday, typical precautions will suffice for the vast majority of residents.

[Nomad58]

Wow is right, fsu813.

I could not disagree more with your short sighted thinking.

I think parks71 hit the nail right on the head. The fact that Jacksonville is so large in square miles, should serve to LOWER it's overall crime stats. For us to still have a far above average crime rate, even with the inclusion of the 'safer' suburbs, means we really do have a problem.

Your attitude seems to be "as long as it doesn't immediately personally affect me, I don't have to worry about it."

It's that kind of short sighted, self serving thinking that will insure that our schools and our crime rate will continue to get worse.

[cricketfan]

Originally Posted by Nomad58

Wow is right, fsu813.

I could not disagree more with your short sighted thinking.

I think parks71 hit the nail right on the head. The fact that Jacksonville is so large in square miles, should serve to LOWER it's overall crime stats. For us to still have a far above average crime rate, even with the inclusion of the 'safer' suburbs, means we really do have a problem.

Your attitude seems to be "as long as it doesn't immediately personally affect me, I don't have to worry about it."

With all due respects you may not be short sighted but you are definitely wrong sighted. The crime index that is reported annually has nothing to do with square miles, it is per capita rating. But the report does not show a bias for where most of those cases are concentrated in the city. The fact that Jacksonville is so large geographically will NOT necessarily serve to lower that rating but it does mean that the shootings and other crimes are less likely to pervade throughout the entire 800+ square miles the way that they would in a more condensed city, say like Newark. It's only logical.

That is not to say that people who live in safer neighborhoods should not be concerned with crime in the less safe areas of town. That is a lesson that people in Orlando have been learning the hard way in recent years.

And nobody is saying that we don't have a problem because crime is always a problem.

[parks71]

Sorry cricket, you are wrong. Are you trying to say that if you included all of the suburbs of miami (You know all those rich suburbs) to make it the same size square miles wise as jacksonville, the crime ratio would go UP??? No, I dont think so.

The inner city in MOST cities is where most of the crime is JUST LIKE JACKSONVILLE. However, Jacksonville gets to include all the less crime ridden areas like the eastside and mandrin to lower the actual crime rating.

I hope you understand what I am saying here but either way, its not the worst and it is FAR from the best.

[Nomad58]

Sorry, but I can't agree with you cricketfan.

The only reason that being a larger geographical city would not have a positive impact on overall crime stats is if the additional outlying areas that are included in the geographical area actually have a greater instance of crime then the core central city does.

That obviously IS NOT the case in Jacksonville. The outlying suburbs of Jacksonville, have a far lower rate of crime then does the central city, as shown by the numerous crime stat links that have been attached to past threads.

fsu813 seems to be suggesting that as the Jacksonville city limits expanded, it was forced to take on many bad crime areas.

"Jacksonville is largest city land-wise in the US.
Most cities, even with much larger populations than Jax, will have city limits MUCH smaller.
Therefore many of the bad areas are not technically "in" those cities, while they are "in" Jacksonville."

The reality is quite the opposite. The expansion of the city limits brought in many areas that had far lower crime rates, then did/does the traditional center core of Jacksonville.

My short sighted comment is also valid because of fsu813's feeling that as long as they can drive around the cities bad area's, it shouldn't be a problem for them.

"there is no need to be OVERLY worried about crime unless you live in certain areas. Normal, everyday, typical precautions will suffice for the vast majority of residents."

Whether you live directly in a high crime area, or whether you live in an area that allows for you to never enter a high crime area, it should still be a big concern for all citizens. Your reference to what happened in Orlando, is a great example of the pitfalls of fsu813's kind of thinking.

We should all be overly worried about our city's high crime rate.

It's only logical.

[fsu813]

Jacksonfville is not like most other larger cities. It's extremely suburbanized. It's "bad" neighborhoods are NOT Downtown or directly surronding Downtown, but farther out.

Downtown, Riverside, Avondale, San Marco & Springfield (the urban core of neighborhoods) have very little violent crime. The vast majority of violent crime is concentrated on the Northside & Westside, generally speaking. (ie, Golfair / 103rd Street for example).

These sides of town wouldn't be in the city limits of many cities.

Furthermore,

you are incorrect about your guess as to my philosophy on crime. If you think you need to be OVERLY worried about crime in most areas of town, i'd say you're nuts. However, you can want to act to lower crime in those areas that do have an issue. They aren't opposites.

[Nomad58]

Ah, you're one of those fsu813! Why didn't you say so?

There are many people that make up their mind, and then refuse to allow the actual facts to confuse them.

Sorry that in this case the facts don't back up your 'Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce" cheerleading. But, reality is reality.

The fact is that Jacksonville has a far worse than average crime rate.

The fact is that it's reported crime rate would be far worse, if it was not able to include the many, many, safer than average outlying area's that it has annexed over the years.

The fact is that having an "as long as you can avoid it, it won't hurt you" ostrich attitude about crime, will only serve to allow crime to spread.

I invite you to join the rest of us in the real World, whenever you're ready.

[cricketfan]

What's the point in dealing with all the hypotheticals? The land mass of Jacksonville is what it is, the population is what it is, the socio-economic status of people in certain areas of Jax is what it is, and the crime index as reported in the FBI Uniform Crime Reports is what it is. The "what if's" and "what would be's" only raise more questions than answers.

Let's all agree that the crime rate, although higher than some cities and lower than others, needs to come down. I am never in denial about Jacksonville crime, I just have a problem with people with an anti-Jax agenda who revel in crime stats. What we really should be talking about are positive solutions to inner city crime everywhere.