Jax makes the worst list

[copperfiend]

No surprise. So many in this city enjoy a steady diet of takeout chinese food, fried chicken, cheeseburgers and pizza.

Is that not everywhere?

I really don't think it is. I have lived in Seattle and it's not like that. I have also spent time in Minneapolis and it's not.

[BridgeTroll]

You make it sound as if temperature is some kind of limiting factor for outdoors enjoyment and exercise...

Here is the truth in temp...  As you can see -20 is more an anomaly than the norm.

[obie1]

Shwaz, think about it for a second.
When a municipality puts so many roadblocks in the way of integrating exercise into daily living but making it dangerous to walk or jog or bike outside don't you think that has a huge effect on the population AS A WHOLE? I am not talking about really motivated outliers who join gyms and pencil in working out come hell or high water. That is not what this survey is about. As far as cracked sidewalks how do a pair of nikes help with trying not to trip every two feet. have you ever tried to jog or even walk on these crappy sidewalks? They are a lawsuit waiting to happen. Impossible to navigate without picking your way carefully over them. Complete booby trap city. Say goodbye to your teeth. Also a much larger percentage of the population is Jax are smokers and proud of it. That alone causes way more health problems than lack of exercise or being overweight combined.

[jtwestside]

It has nothing to do with takeout or Pizza. Or school lunches (that's just silly). It has nothing to do with anything I've seen mentioned yet. The truth is Jacksonville has a very large poverty rate in the Urban Core. My fiancée was just showing me yesterday the statistics for volunteer work she is doing with the Azalea Project. The core is where the city's diabetes, obesity, STD, infant mortality, lowest life expectancy .. you name it is concentrated. It's also the highest density of Jacksonville’s population. So all of the warm weather and surfing in the world by us isn't going to help them, or Jacksonville over all on some stupid list. They're not going to get out and jog either when they're worried where their next meal is going to come from (which is probably one of the crack marts on 8th).

[Shwaz]

There are definitely some cracked sidewalks in Jacksonville... but that's just a poor excuse in my book. My girlfriend jogs almost every day in Riverside and still has (all) her teeth.
For instance Herschel St. = bad sidewalks but Riverside Ave & Park St. are just fine. The track that leads from the Fuller Warren to past the Landing is phenomenal. We have organized marathons like the Gate River Run that people train for all year. 3K's 5K's 10K's etc.

You make it sound as if temperature is some kind of limiting factor for outdoors enjoyment and exercise

What I'm trying to say is place like Jax with mild temperatures year round seems much more conducive to exercising IMO. If anything it's a mentality problem vs. a shortage of available activities here.

[Lunican]

Your Neighborhood Affects your Health
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/771/115/

[Joe]

The core is where the city's diabetes, obesity, ... is concentrated.

They're not going to get out and jog either when they're worried where their next meal is going to come from

I disagree with your logic. Massive obesity rates are not indicative of a population that's going hungry.

However, I agree with your point in general. Jacksonville has concentrated urban poverty, particularly among the black community. That's a strong trend in almost all the "unhealthy" cities on this list, and other similar lists. There's a huge correlation between ethnicity and obesity, presumably because of poverty rates.

On one hand, I suppose it's nice to have the uniquely American problem that our poor are too fat. On the other hand, it's yet another problem for communities that already have too many problems.

[jtwestside]

I disagree with your logic. Massive obesity rates are not indicative of a population that's going hungry.

Where did I say anyone was going hungry?

I think my point was that the poor are more worried about living day to day, not about how healthy that moonpie they're about to eat is. They eat what is available, convenient and affordable to them . They also are not going to be concerned with things they would consider as a waist of time (and probably socially unacceptable no matter how nice the sidewalks or weather is) such as jogging, or surfing.

[jtwestside]

Your Neighborhood Affects your Health

That's like putting up a map of average salaries in Jacksonville and saying "Your Neighborhood Affects your Salary", when it most certainly doesn't. Living somewhere doesn't determine ones health any more than salary. It's more like "Your income dictates your available Neighborhood, Food, Healthcare and Lifestyle choices which affect your health"

[uptowngirl]

I am a little confused, a bag of doritos costs more than a head of lettuce or six apples. I don;t think it is a matter of what is affordable, I think it is a matter of knowledge. Knowledge that moonpies and doritos will kill you. Why would jogging be socially unacceptable, yet sitting on a bus bench drinking all day is acceptable? Why would taking a morning walk around the neighborhood be considered socially unacceptable? If it is, again, this is knowledge issue.  Day to Day survival? How about getting rid of the cell phone, mad dog 20/20, and brand name clothes.... that would help out a lot with the bills for day to day survival I think. The funds for food and the time for a walk or jog are there, yet it is not happening...sounds like education and motivation are the bigger culprits here.

[jacksonvilleconfidential]

No surprise. So many in this city enjoy a steady diet of takeout chinese food, fried chicken, cheeseburgers and pizza.

OMG and that was just my lunch

[KenFSU]

I’m glad someone finally stated the obvious. It’s really easy to oversimplify this issue, dismissing the cause of the local obesity epidemic as lazy and slovenly behavior and overlooking complicated matters like socioeconomics.

It’s delusional to suggest that the answer to the obesity problem is simply walking into Moncrief and urging the local residents working multiple minimum wage jobs to simply use their surf boards and road bikes more often during their off hours, which are probably between the hours of midnight and 6:00 am. Or perhaps buy themselves a new pair of Nikes.

The worst foods in the world tend to be the cheapest. You can feed a family of four at McDonalds or Taco Bell for less than the price of a sandwich at Subway. Go into gas station, supermarket, or drug store and try to maximize your dollar. Are you going to get the $3 bag of lettuce, $2 tomato, $4 gallon of milk, etc. Or are you going to get the $.25 fudge brownies, $.99 potato chips, $.49 burritos, and $.49 bottle of generic soda. Sure, they are loaded with hydrogenated oil and saturated fat, but they keep you alive.

Research has shown that stress and sleep are two of the most significant factors in physical health as well. I’m guessing that the lower socioeconomic class in Jacksonville, or anywhere else, has a surplus of one and a deficit of the other.

I’m in the best shape of my life right now. I run seven miles after work each day, eat healthier than I ever have, and have literally never felt better. But I’m one of the lucky ones. I work 9 to 5 and live in a neighborhood with a nice, 1.7 mile sidewalk looping around a golf course. I can afford a gym membership and have working hours that allow me to get there while it is still open. I can afford healthy, organic food. I have a reasonable degree of financial security and thus, a relatively low level of stress. I have the luxury of 8 hours of sleep per night if I want it.

A different toss of the dice, who knows, I could be the 18 year old father of two in Moncrief.
Seattle, Minneapolis, and San Francisco and other affluent cities with exorbitant costs of living are healthier than Jacksonville? You don’t say.

Patching the sidewalks isn’t going to solve this problem. Nothing short of a major social reform will. Education, not surfboards, is the only real solution.

[Shwaz]

I believe you're over simplifying the argument by saying this about rich vs. poor and the education that coincides with your social class. If that were the case wouldn't the poorest metro area's top the list?

Jacksonville doesn't even crack the top 20 of cities with 250,000 or more in population


Poorest American cities
(Population over 250,000)

Median household income

1 Miami, FL $24,031
2 Newark, NJ $26,309
3 Cleveland, OH $27,871
4 Detroit, MI $27,871
5 Buffalo, NY $28,544
6 St. Louis, MO $30,389
7 Philadelphia, PA $30,631
8 Milwaukee, WI $31,231
9 New Orleans, LA $31,369
10 El Paso, TX $31,764
11 Tucson, AZ $31,901
12 Pittsburgh, PA $31,910
13 Cincinnati, OH $31,960
14 Memphis, TN $32,399
15 Baltimore, MD $34,055
16 Toledo, OH $35,239
17 Tulsa, OK $36,255
18 Oklahoma City, OK $36,347
19 San Antonio, TX $36,598
20 Stockton, CA $37,322

[KenFSU]

Oh no, don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that there aren’t a million other factors that play a part â€" walkability, local cuisine, ethnic demographics, and (yes) a lazy and slovenly lifestyle â€" I just think socioeconomic positioning happens to play a particularly large part. It’s far from black and white though. Nothing is.

[Shwaz]

There's a million reasons why people are unhealthy... theres another million why this top ten list is bs.