Need honest opinions about moving to Jacksonville with a family (Hollywood: best town, crime)

[cricketfan]

Originally Posted by Nomad58

Cricket,

a simple minded, shameless pimp for Jacksonville

LOL ... wash yer mouth out, Nomad, git a hold of yerself.

The original post is asking for honest opinions. It's very simple. Give us one comment that you have made on this forum since 2007 that is even slightly favorable about this city in which you live (even Parks can reference a couple, I think) and that will demonstrate to me and others on this board that you are not just another rabid Jax-hater. Failing that, every negative comment you make, (justifiable or not) will be suspect.

Originally Posted by Nomad58

It isn't you that is waiting for an answer. It is me. I answered your post, but I still don't have any single example from you where you walked your talk, and made a post that addresses inner city crime solutions.
.

OK, here is one example posted on 4/23/08 addressing inner city Jacksonville crime.

Originally Posted by cricketfan

We need greater law enforcement resources but that aint gonna happen without the will of the people to finance that with tax dollars. And this business about JSO not concerned with crime is a myth.

But we also need more job opportunities, more investment in those depressed areas but that aint gonna happen either without the commitment of our business leaders to belly up to the bar.

Now it's your turn, I'm still waiting, Nooomaaad.

[fsu813]

- you said you weren't going to post anymore on this subject. thankfully you didn't follow through.

- I've come to the conclusion that no matter what is said, you'll mistate it. Also, you are either lying or you honestly don't know exactly Downtown is, on the map.

First of all, which map are you referring to? I asumme the first since that's the only one where you can "count" anything. I'm beginning to think you really do not know where Downtown is, as there is not a high amount of icons in that area, even from the start of the year. There is very few of anything to count in Downtown. I mean, i can't count them for you ya know.

There are many icons outside of Downtown, mostly Northwest of Downtown. Is this what you are referring to?

Yes, i know it's pretty ridiculous to have a discussion with someone about Downtown when that someone doesn't know where it is.

But that is my conclusion. That you really have no idea about Jacksonville. If you don't know where Riverside is, then why would I expect you to know where Downtown ends and begins?

I think you are including the general Lavilla / Brooklyn area (ie, Myrtle Ave, W. Beaver Street, etc) as part of Downtown. That's the only explanation as how you could mistake Downtown for having a high crime rate.

If that is the area that you are mistakenly including, then yes.....it does have a very high crime rate. But it is not in Downtown. At all.

Questions: What are Downtown's general boundaries?

- I linked JSO crime map with official stats. Does that count as "stats to back it up"? I would think so.

- yes, if i wrote a research paper about this subject you'd be correct, i couldn't use the CD forum as a reoputable source (you're example 1).

- i don't claim to know about all of Jax, just certain parts. Certainly not "Mr. Jacksonville".

- Someone else asked me about the per capita crime issue in the "best of jax" thread. How do I explain that? Simple: there are specific areas which are very high in crime, while the vast majority of the city does not have a high crime rate. It skews the numbers. I guess you didn't take my qoute to heart previously............. "There are lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics".

[rtt]

Ah yes, take nice, quaint San Marco for example. Bishop Kenny student steps out for his cross country run after school in the daylight, and gets attacked by a band of local thugs who jump out of their car and hunt him down like he's an animal.

[batman71]

Great place to live I am from the Northeast and have lived all over Florida.
Jacksonville has a little city flair and yet still has the small town feel to it its the best of both worlds. San Marco and Ponte Vedra although nice are pricey. Southside is a centrally located area if your working downtown and lots to do yet reasonabliy priced. The Northside of town is up an coming but you still have some beautiful neighborhoods surrounded by some trailers - again its cheaper than Ponte Vedra. Jacksonville schools have whats called a magnet program - this means you can apply to any public school regardless of where you live. Some schools specialize in the arts/science/engineering, etc even elementary schools can be magnet schools. This can also be an advantage if the school you live near is not the greatest school you can send the kids to an A school somewhere else in the City.

Orange park is a good place to live but traffic is hell if you work downtown and have to commute there.

[parks71]

Rtt, that student was really a bum and it was probably bum on bum crime according to Fsu.


Fsu, that crime stats are misleading, they are MUCH HIGHER than they look because jacksonville is so large as I have said a million times before, jacksonville gets to include all the great areas to dillute the statistics. Mandrin, West beachs, southside, far northside, far westside. Jacksonville is so much bigger than other cities its not funny.

This is not rocket science, it is basic math.

[fsquid]

I went to Riverside and then to Kickbacks and I didn't get mugged

[cynical geezer]

Denver and Jacksonville may as well be on two different planets. I remember the last time I went through the Denver airport there was a billboard of some sort inside with the likeness of the Dali Lama on it, propagating some bland sentiment like world peace. In Jacksonville some redneck would have pumped a couple of loads of double ought through that billboard within hours of it's erection and the following weekend the reverend protector of the flock would have mobilized a huge protest against it's celebration of idolatry. The whole incident would make the local television news and inspire at least one editorial against forcing heathen sentiment on the god fearing people of Jacksonville by the paleoconservatives who own the local mullet wrapper.

[cricketfan]

Oh no, I don't mean to be cynical either but methinks the crazies are out. Is there a full moon?

[cynical geezer]

Originally Posted by makennamomerin

Thank you - this is our struggle - Denver, CO and surrounding areas is really great and we've loved living here. We would also love to be by the beach though and you can't get that here. It's also so much cheaper in the Jacksonville and surrounding area than here too and I've always had a hard time trying to figure out why, but maybe it is the safety thing, not sure. I love the historical areas in and around Jacksonville, but when we look up houses we like online then look up the www.familywatchdog.us site to see how far away an offender is - it's like 5 blocks away which to me seems pretty close. I keep running the numbers and around here it's 1% or less for offenders - really low on the children crimes (like .0005) where a lot of the neighborhoods - even the ones like St. Augustine way down south are so much higher - 2.8% of the population offenders and 1% of the population against children. It gets higher the close to the city, but it's all over, even the nice areas. Here you won't find them in Cherry Creek, Washington Park or Denver County Club or the affluent parts of downtown (and we have a small downtown in comparison). The metro area outside of dowtown south and even north up to and in Boulder it's really low too. I just can't get my head around why there are so many offenses against children in Florida (I even checked down to Miami and same thing). Again, thank you for your responses. They all really help give me more perspective. We still don't know if we are moving or not so still welcoming more opinions.

It's cheaper for the same reason most of the south is cheaper. They don't cotton to unions around here - never have and never will. I wouldn't worry so much about sex offenders. What I would worry about is that Jacksonville is really a prototypical southern redneck city, with a culture less evocative of Florida than of south Georgia or Alabama. There's an anger that seethes just beneath the surface here waiting for the slightest spark to ignite it, and when it ignites it often explodes in serious violence.

I know the Jax lovers are going to want to jump me in an alley and throw a little blanket party on my behalf for uttering that heresy to the Chamber of Commerce's Come on down ya'll saccharine inducements, but check out Malcolm Gladwell's book 'Outliers' on violence and southerners for documented shore enough scientific evidence backing that assertion up (though that doesn't mean much in an area where entertaining any idea that deviates from a literal biblical interpretation puts one in a deviant class ranking only slightly above those convicted sex offenders).

There is a problem with violence here and everyone knows it. The local paper ran an article a few months ago on the problem with trigger happy cops dropping everybody from old men to kids defending neighborhoods against drugs or something. That's a statistic you should look up - the number of police shootings per capita.

Of course the cops aren't shooting at everything that moves without reason. There's plenty of gunplay coming from the other side of the criminal justice divide as well, and they are well advised to keep their trigger fingers in position whenever they have to get out of their vehicles in certain neighborhoods

Of course, you move to the beaches or Ponte Vedra and you're in a different universe altogether. The southside or the westside - better get your concealed carry permit. Florida wasn't the first state to recognize an affirmative right to carry a concealed weapon without a reason you know.

*Interesting Jacksonville fact: The movie industry originally tried to establish itself in the Jacksonville area in the twenties. But the local city leaders ran them off because they didn't want them and their immorality contaminating the minds, lives, and souls of the godly people of Jacksonville. I am not making this up.

[cynical geezer]

Originally Posted by fsquid

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

Give it some time