I don't think this news should come as any surprise to most of us given our past. If you grew up here, just go back to most anytime since WW II to see us descend into "boredom".
Our poor support of education, intolerance of diversity and up-tight "moral" standards have been keeping creatives away going back to the silent film days. We have shed a good bit of that but it takes time to dig fully out of the hole we created. And, issues remain to this day. The current State government's anti-everyone stance and its mirrored image among our partisan City Council members isn't helping.
That said, some commenters remarked that if it slows down our growth, that this is a good thing 8). Others point out lifestyles here are not much centered on the criteria used in the ranking so not a problem. For others, they cite the poor city leadership we have had here... hard to argue with that over the years.
QuoteBored New City of the South?: Jacksonville ranked as most boring city in the country, study finds
....Unfortunately, one study conducted by FinanceBuzz, an auto insurance advisory company, deemed it all irrelevant, listing Jacksonville as the most boring city out of 75 big cities in the country based on multiple factors, including population makeup, culinary scene, outdoor activities, nightlife, celebrations, and overall things to do.
Across the five categories, the study assigned a numerical rating from 0-20 for each one, and then combined the scores to determine which cities were the most boring, with a lower score equating to a more boring city. Jacksonville had an overall excitement score of 14.3/100.
The city scored particularly low in the culinary scene and nightlife and celebrations, which the study weighted higher than other factors.
"Fifty-four percent of all restaurants in Jacksonville are chains, tied for the fourth-highest rate in the country, while the city has the third-lowest rate of nightclubs and fourth-lowest rate of concert venues per capita of any city," the study read.
The cities ranked under Jacksonville, meaning they're not as boring, included Wichita, Kansas, Corpus Christi, Texas, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Columbus, Ohio.
"America's major cities all have their own identity and appeal, and even those that scored the lowest according to the data we evaluated offer plenty of unique attractions and opportunities," Finance Buzz wrote....
....Among the most exciting cities in the country, the study listed Atlanta, Georgia, at the top, followed by Miami, St. Louis, Missouri, Orlando, and New York City.
"While Miami's nightlife scene is comparable to Atlanta's, food is an area where the city really shines," the study read.
Regarding Orlando, the study cited the city's large number of amusement parks and high number of international visitors.
(https://res.cloudinary.com/graham-media-group/image/upload/f_auto/q_auto/c_scale,w_900/v1/media/gmg/CCXI4KO66ZFTLPOBMI6A7KNCNM.png?_a=DAJHqpE+ZAAA)
https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2025/06/19/bored-new-city-of-the-south-jacksonville-ranked-as-most-boring-city-in-the-country-study-finds/
Jacksonville has its problems, but these studies are so goofy. As a data scientist in the marketing field, with a lot of experience in the tourism space, I can attest that they almost always have either a dumb methodology or a sponsor CVB pulling the strings for PR.
For this one, you can clearly see by the "20 most boring cities" list that the study is heavily weighted in favor of large tourist traps with a lot of disposable income flying around, pulling in metrics like number of Top 100 Restaurants in America, volume of international tourists, Michelin-restaurants, etc. It's ridiculous to use per capita metrics for cities like Orlando and Las Vegas when 60% of the population on any given day aren't residents. Cities are rewarded or penalized for their climate, which - spoiler - is outside of their control. It's just pure Chat GPT, clickbait drivel that News4Jax should be ashamed of themselves for amplifying.
Would also argue that the study seems like it was put together by a 60-year old with no idea of what fun looks like in 2025. "Night clubs" have lost their luster to much of the young population. Chain restaurants, which are deemed as boring in the study, are red hot with Gen Z (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/business/chilis-chain-restaurants-popularity-economy.html). And one of their primary sources, in 2025, is the Yellow Pages.
Many, many things we could do better from an urban development, transportation, and education perspective, but someone has to be a dreadfully dull, bitter human being to find Jacksonville overly boring. Which, again, is a subjective metric to begin with, that can't be quantified by reading the Yellow Pages :P
Can we merge the two "boring Jax" threads?
Reading both is boring.