Can someone please give me something more positive about Jacksonville (Miami: best cities, to rent)

[lashun79]

I was born and raised in Alabama, currently living in Birmingham. I have a possible job opportunity in Jacksonville, but have grown skeptical due to so many negative comments. Now sure, I am not going to allow these comments to dictate my total decision, but it sure makes a person wonder. I have applied to many state and government jobs all over, but Florida seems to respond more than other places. I have never visited Jacksonville, but will be visiting soon because of the possible job opportunity. I have read about crime, lack of diversity, and low wages. To be honest, I have seen those same posting on many of the other cities I have looked into. I don't like going out on the scene as much any more; As long as there are good places to eat, a good bar, and some type of good entertainment, I think I will be okay with the night life. Other than Miami, what are some other places in Florida to consider given the information provided? Oh, by the way some of the other places I have considered besides Florida: Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Columbia, SC, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham NC, and Tennessee

[jenniferashley99]

I just left Jax. I mean the pay is not great but the price of rent is low. I have lived in Miami, Chicago, Daytona and Jacksonville. By far, Chicago was the best.

Something positive: Jacksonville has beautiful sunsets. Yup. Oh and Riverside has lovely parks. You can get lost by just walking around. It depends on your adventure in Jacksonville. To each is own. I didn't like it but doesn't mean you wont. I met some really great people there. So relax and go visit. You might surprise yourself.

[parks71]

If you dont have kids and your not one to want top notch entertainment (which Alabama may not have either I dont know) there are good things about jacksonville. Jacksonville is much different than those other cities you are talking about. It has a much smaller city feel but is VERY spread out. The crime is bad in some areas but a lot of it is black on black crime in bad areas of town.

A week ago or two they had two guys riding scooters shooting people. People were calling it a scoot by, leave it to jax to come up with some redneck new way to do a drive by on scooters.

[tercel95]

Originally Posted by lashun79

I was born and raised in Alabama, currently living in Birmingham. I have a possible job opportunity in Jacksonville, but have grown skeptical due to so many negative comments. Now sure, I am not going to allow these comments to dictate my total decision, but it sure makes a person wonder. I have applied to many state and government jobs all over, but Florida seems to respond more than other places. I have never visited Jacksonville, but will be visiting soon because of the possible job opportunity. I have read about crime, lack of diversity, and low wages. To be honest, I have seen those same posting on many of the other cities I have looked into. I don't like going out on the scene as much any more; As long as there are good places to eat, a good bar, and some type of good entertainment, I think I will be okay with the night life. Other than Miami, what are some other places in Florida to consider given the information provided? Oh, by the way some of the other places I have considered besides Florida: Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Columbia, SC, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham NC, and Tennessee

The crime is exaggerated by most of the JAX haters when in reality JAX statistically ranks somewhere near the upper-middle of metropolitan cities... The crime is extremely isolated and if you want to look at crime per square mile JAX is probably one of the best...

The salaries are slightly less in some fields but it isn't proportional to how much cheaper the cost of living is in JAX... But if you're working for the gov't that shouldn't even matter...

[Joe 4520832257]

If you like Alabama you'd probably like Jax. It would be an easy transition, as the culture and climate are extremely similar.

Honestly, Jax is a lot like Alabama's cities, only bigger and with better opportunities.

[EricBoyd]

What Jax does NOT have that B'ham does is a beautiful terrain. The mountainous views offered by your current city are fantastic. It's flat here.

[datacityjunke]

Don't be discouraged by what you read here!!! Jax is a great place.

Part of the reason people may not think so is because it's more of an overgrown suburb. It is VERY spread out - it's the largest city (geographically) in the continental US.

I've lived here for six years. It's not a metropolitan area with tons of entertainment, but it does have a few hidden gems. Here are some of my favorite things:

1. The Beach - it's not a typical touristy FL beach. The beach (mainly Neptune and Atlantic) has a family atmosphere. The beach also has great public schools - Atlantic Beach Elem, Jax Beach Elem, Neptune Beach Elem, Seabreeze, San Pablo, Fletcher Middle, and Fletcher High are all top-notch Jax schools. Also, if you like a nightlife that's not overwhelming, there are two great bars - The Lemon Bar, which sits on the ocean and attracts a good not-too-young crowd and The Brix in Jax Beach which draws mostly young professionals.

2. The Library System here is really amazing. There are a wide variety of locations for all the different parts of town. Many of the buildings are modern or have undergone upgrades. The website is really easy to use - I just pick out what I want online and they email me when it's ready. They also have a ton of DVDs to rent FOR FREE!

3. Art Walk - Art Walk is the first Wednesday of every month RAIN OR SHINE! Local artists set up in makeshift galleries downtown and tons of people come to walk the city and view their work. There is usually live music at the bars and a ton of young people gather at Burrito Gallery.

4. Restaurants - We've got a ton of chain places, but if you dig hard enough you'll find plenty of wonderful locally-owned places. I recommend Slider's at the Beach, Marker 32 by the Intercoastal, and Jackie Lee's in Baymeadows to name a few. There is also a really good Indian restaurant in Mandarin, but I can't remember the name.

5. Riverside Arts Market - This takes place April thru November in downtown Riverside. It's a big, open farmer's market where tons of people including local, organic farmers and artists sell their goods. There is plenty of "festival food" there as well, and usually live music or performances. It's right on the riverwalk, so you can do that during the day, too.

Crime here is like crime everywhere. It's pretty isolated to certain parts of town but with the economy the way it is, crime is growing. I don't think it's any different than any other large Floridian city.

From your description, I'd recommend moving to either Riverside/5 Points area or to the Beaches. Those are my favorite parts of Jax. The cost of living is relatively low here, too.

Don't let the haters get you down, Jax can really be a great place!!

[fsu813]

Jax is a great place to live, despite the continous negative comments by some posters. Don't worry about them, they got burned somewhere along the way.

I got feed up with the same people spewing the same crap (ie, telling evberyone Jax sucks, basically) and went on a little rant in a previous post. Here it is:

omg.

perseverate. perseverate. perseverate.

after reading these skewed "descriptions" of Jacksonville i'm surprised anyone would ever want to move here (ha).


to various points:

- find some new friends if you're tired of hanging out with conservative, overly religous ones. this
isn't hard to do.
- there are plenty of great schools to go around, if this is a priority it isn't hard to enroll.
- the south is hot & humid half the year. everyone knows this. has been for thousands of years.

Here's the avg high for 12 months:
(18)67
(19)73
(23)79
(26)84
(29)89
(32)91
(33)89
(32)86
(30)79
(26)73
(23)66
(19)78
(26)64
and the average low for 12 months:
(7)47
(8)53
(12)58
(14)66
(19)71
(22)74
(23)74
(23)71
(22)63
(17)55
(13)47
(8)58
(14)45

perseverate. perseverate. perseverate.

ya know, i think a lot of people are just ill-informed about thier own surrondings, b/c they don't put forth the effort to find out or to investigate. Then they're left with a false impression.

I think it's good to see how others view our city, from the outside looking in:

Here are some examples:

- Jacksonville has been a Top 25 "Big City for the Arts" for 5 years in a row : http://www.americancraft.com/americanstyle/


- Jacksonville was recently profiled in Delta's SKY Magazine & Southwest's SPIRIT Magazine, here's thier impression of the city:

http://www.visitjacksonville.com/inc.../spiritmag.pdf
&
http://www.visitjacksonville.com/inc...sky-spread.pdf


- Boston.com's 8 Things you didn't know about Jacksonville & Top 10 Places to visit In Jacksonville (albeit, outdated......so there would be some changes probably): Eight things you didn't know about Jacksonville, Fla. - Boston.com
&
10 places to visit in Jacksonville - Boston.com

- in the past few years, Jacksonville has been named.....to Mobility Magazine's top 10 cities for Relcoating Families ('04), National Geographic's top 10 Beach Towns ('06), and Black Enterprise's top 10 cities to work, play, and live ('07), Forbes Magazine's top 10 Best Cities for the Outdoors ('08) & Best Cities to Buy a Home ('08), & Cleaniest Big Cities ('08), among Bizjournal's Least Stressful Metro-areas ('08), Fit Pregnancy Magazine's top 10 cities To Have Baby ('08), Stroller Friendly Cities ('08) & Best Cities for Childcare ('08), Next Generation Consulting's top 10 cities for Young Professionals to Live an Work ('09), and Healthcare Inc's top 10 Medical cities ('09).

I'm sure there are others.

Get out. Explore. Meet new people. This is how you find out what is in a city.

[lashun79]

Just wanted to say thanks to the responses! Keep them coming...Thanks also for the possible places in Riverside/5pts area. I will look into the area on my visit. I think that everyone will have something to say good and bad about where they live or come from.

[cricketfan]

To the OP, there are negative comments, and then there are negative comments. There are certain posters, in and outside of Jax, who get their jollies by bashing Jax. Then there are people who honestly want to put the focus on ways that Jax could be a better city. You can usually spot which is which.

But you may have noticed that there is an uptick in negativity lately which may have more to do with the general malaise that people feel in this bad economy. So some people get a kinda release by ranting, which is OK.

Bottom line, there are things to like and there are things to dislike about Jax. That is true of any city. But we don't usually hear from the vast majority of people who really and truly enjoy living here . I guess that would be much too boring.