Moving...how's St. Augustine??? (Jacksonville, Miami: low crime, home, transferring to)

[ramair5.7]

I am in the process of transferring to Florida Coastal School of Law in Jax. I am trying to avoid moving to Jax as I have not heard nice things (See Uniform Crime Report). I noted that St. Augustine is within a reasonable commute of FCS and seems to have a lot going for it. If someone here can help fill me in about the quality of life in St. Augustine as well as make other recommendations for decent communities within 45 min. of FCS, I would greatly appreciate it. This is a big move for my family and I. It is imperative that I locate an area with nice people, low crime rates, and a good school system for my twelve year-old daughter. Thanks in advance for your response.

[R1v3rRat]

You are seriously misinformed about Jax. And Jacksonville is SO large, you could live your entire life here and avoid the "questionable " areas. If you disclude the Jax area in your search you'll be missing out.

RR

[ramair5.7]

You say that I am misinformed about JAX, yet you failed to tell me why this is so. What am I missing if I do not move to JAX? I'm not averse to moving there, but I do not possess the intimate knowledge that yourself and others have regarding the area, hence my inquiry in this forum. Tell me why it is so great, and you might make a believer out of me.

[SlickP]

Where are you moving from? It's all relative. If you are coming from a very small town and have never lived in a medium to large city then yes crime is going to be worse than where you are moving from. Jax is no different from any other med/large city like Orlando, Tampa, Atlanta, Miami, etc. There are certain sections of town you stay away from but the majority of the city and surroundings are just fine!

[travelingfood]

Standard response for newcomers with kids that works/studies in JAX: St Johns County. St Aug is fine if you live away from the tourist side of the town. [Random] Crime can happen everywhere and it sucks.

[riveree]

Jacksonville is predominantly suburban and family-friendly.

You'll be attending Florida Coastal School of Law, which is in a good part of our city, so you're ahead already. The high-crime heart of the city is located clear on the other side of the city from where you'll be, and it's doubtful you'll have any need to go to that part of the city, so right there you lower your risk considerably.

St. John's County is very nice and you may love living there, plenty of people do. But do not be fooled into thinking it is crime-free because it is not. Just in the past few months, 2 of my friends who live in St. John's County came to realize how true it is that 'crime is everywhere'. One friend's neighbor was brutally raped in her home in front of her children and another friend's car was broken into...she didn't lock it...because she lived in such a nice neighborhood and "didn't think those kind of things happened there" .

That's anecdotal of course, and the statistics may paint another picture. But we're not comparing apples-to-apples anyway. Jacksonville/Duval county is a city of roughly 1 million and St. John's county has not even hit 200,000 people yet, so it's hard to compare stat for stat.

I don't think anyone is here to convince you to move to one place or another, but hopefully after these posts anyone reading will see that moving to St. John's county and commuting that distance is a choice and not a necessity.

[cricketfan]

However you look at it you are going to feel much safer in St. Johns County than in Jacksonville/Duval. This is true statistically but it is also a matter of perception because the media portrays Jacksonville as the crime hell-hole of the south when in fact a city, like say Atlanta, which may be far more crime ridden, does not have the same stigma.

But getting back to St. Johns and Jax/Duval, if you accept that poverty breeds crime then Jacksonville has the larger poverty/crime areas and more gun-related (and maybe gang-related) crime. These areas are secluded in the northern and western parts of Jax and for the most part these areas can be avoided by people who don't live there. But Jax as a whole gets a bum rap. It's a wide sprawling city and you would do well to take the advice of people like Riveree who knows the most liveable parts.

St. Johns has its own pockets of poverty/crime but they are down around the city of St. Augustine. People looking to relocate to St. Johns County are not relocating to the city of St. Augustine imo and since your OP mentioned St. Augustine I wonder if you really meant St. Johns County rather than the city of St. Augustine itself. The population in St. Johns County may be relatively more affluent on a whole (per capita) than Duval (although I may be subject to correction) and that may have to do with the crime factor. But again crime does occur in St. Johns but it is much more sporadic than in Jax/Duval.

Having said all that, if I were looking to work or school in Jax/Duval I would not think twice about relocating there for the convenience and for all that a city offers. As they say there is crime everywhere. I even read that the Garden of Eden had a crime stat, so there ya go.

[gchasse]

I have lived in both Jax and St. Johns County. I am currently living in the World Golf Village area. I must say that the gas prices are making the cost of living here a bit higher than it would otherwise be, but I love it here. I lived in Mandarin for 17 years and love it there, too. However, I see the WGV area as a great place to live as time goes on, with the commercial development on its way here.

The schools are better here and the crime is lower. In addition, the Avenues Mall is about 20 minutes away and downtown St. Augustine is about 15 minutes away, so they are closer.

If you are going to live in Jax, I suggest living in Mandarin, Southside or the intracoastal areas, and either sending your children to private schools, or if they are able to get into the magnet schools, that would work as well.

If you live in St. Johns County, I agree with cricketfan, live in WGV or in the rt 220 area. Both are good and convenient to highway access. There are other parts like Nocatee or Julington Creek, but keep in mind that it will add more time to the work commute.