Jax Uneducated? This should get some people talking. The Density of Smart People

[NotNow]

The smartest man I ever met had a sixth grade education.  I never saw him wear a suit.  He lived in the same 1600 sq ft house since he had built it (in the fifties, I believe).  He was marrried to the same woman until the day he died and he could outwork a fifteen year old kid in the dead of summer with no problem when he was in his late sixties.  I remember thinking how hard headed he was.  Now I realize that he stuck to his principles and was just trying to pass on what was right about life.  He loved that woman and she loved him...for life.  He didn't need to hire that stupid kid, or even work that farm.  When he died I learned he was worth millions.  He hired me because he thought I needed the help, and he was right.  When I think back, I believe there was more brains on that hundred acres than in ALL of New York City.

I wish every young person could spend a hot summer or two working on that farm.  This would be a better country.

[JeffreyS]

So Jax is the second stupidest city in the US?? Thats terrible news. As I was going down the list I kept saying where is Jax? where is Jax? 2nd to last? I would think this topic would have more activity than some of the other topics on here.

Yes but the list would most likely be in close to the same order if it were people without degrees per mile.
SanFran will have more people in most demographics good or bad per mile than Jax based on the number of people per mile. I know this has already been spelled out on this thread but it still seems to be going.

[Jim]

So Jax is the second stupidest city in the US?? Thats terrible news. As I was going down the list I kept saying where is Jax? where is Jax? 2nd to last? I would think this topic would have more activity than some of the other topics on here.

Don't forget the part where it's listed by degrees per square mile. 

San Fran and Jax have almost the exact same population but SF is just 46 sq miles while Jax is over 765 sq miles (874 sq miles if you count the inland water).

I'm going to reverse this chart and list what the total number of degrees and population precentage.

Total Degrees:

NYC - 1,937,613
LA - 748,683
Chi - 577,769
Hou - 371,395
SanD - 347,325
SF - 328,347
Sea - 239,281
Pho - 223,203
Dal - 220,227
SanJ - 220,199
Aus - 215,535
Phil - 211,993
Wash - 208,453
SanA - 191,070
Bost - 187,472
Port - 160,354
Colo - 157,725
Den - 156,825
Indy - 148,960
Atl - 136,413
Nash - 134,589
Jax - 128,089
Ral - 114,097
Minn - 109,653
Balt - 107,948
OKC - 96,513
Mem - 94,619
KC - 90,288
VirB - 89,651
Oak - 89,535
Louis - 89,525
Sac - 87,868
Vegas - 80,425
Milw - 77,456
Pitt - 71,539
Tamp - 69,053
St P - 68,270
St L - 61,281
Cin - 61,152
Det - 58,990
Miami - 58,265
NewO - 51,471
Orl - 50,303
SLC - 48,549
Buff - 48,300
Rich - 44,834
Riverside - 40,554
Cle - 35,152
Prov - 31,653
Birm - 31,479
Hart - 10,639


Degree %:

SF - 40.58%
Sea - 39.74%
Bos - 30.21%
Wash - 34.76%
Ral - 29.06%
Aus - 28.44%
Minn - 28.10%
Port - 27.54%
SLC - 26.71%
Den - 25.69%
SanD - 25.55%
Atl - 25.35%
St P - 23.77%
SanJ - 23.22%
nyc - 23.16%
Pitt - 22.58%
Oak - 22.15%
Rich - 22.04%
Orl - 21.82%
Nash - 21.49%
Col - 20.89%
VirB - 20.66%
Chi - 20.25%
Tamp 20.25%
LA - 19.52%
KC - 18.80%
Indy - 18.65%
Prov - 18.45%
Cin - 18.34%
Sac - 18.07%
Buff - 17.82%
OKC - 17.49%
St L - 17.29%
Balt - 16.93%
Dal - 16.73%
Hou - 16.56%
Miami - 16.07%
Jax - 15.85%
NewO - 15.28%
Vegas - 14.40%
Pho - 14.23%
SanA - 14.13%
Mem - 14.12%
Phil - 13.69%
Birm - 13.69%
Riverside - 13.49%
Mil - 12.81%
Loui - 12.54%
Hart - 8.54%
Cle - 8.10%
Det - 6.46%

[Jim]

Did he just pick out 5 cities with consolidated county-city governments and then question the obvious density issue therein?

[thelakelander]

Density leads to synergy.  Low density sprawl does the exact opposite.  This applies to humans as well as transit, retail, walkability, DT vibrancy and other issues commonly discussed here.  Either way we spin the numbers, there's room for improvement locally.

[Jim]

Oh get the concept, I just found it strange that what most of us would find as incredibly obvious wasn't even mentioned as a factor.

It's well understood that cities in the south have larger land areas and less urban density than cities in the north and that the south does far worse in keeping its university graduates.

Further still, he failed to find a reliable land metropolitan land area database yet the Census offers exactly that.

Though one of his charts seemed interesting.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UnYG5zOkgEY/S_bQvmYfUuI/AAAAAAAABnY/7qRDglZnf1w/s1600/residuals_city.PNG

[Overstreet]

OK it is degrees per land area. But is it metro areas or city proper?

For example in St Louis college degreed people are more likely to live in the county rather than the city of St Louis.

For example the college degree percentage is higher in NW St Johns County than in Duval County. Duval County is the boundry of the City of Jacksonville.

[JeffreyS]

This brings back your Failures of Peyton articles.  Specifically that the Art Institute, Florida Coastal school of Law and Florida State medical school all went elsewhere after expressing interest in down town.  I guess we did not want young Lawyers, Doctors and artists Shaping the core.

[buckethead]

Art is largely a hoax.

So is the practice of law.

Let's get some lawyers to finance artists, then call in the doctors to stitch them up afterwards.

Synergy!

[Captain Zissou]

Did anyone else think this thread was going to be a rant against smart people; based on the title??  Every time I see the thread name it makes me chuckle.

[Dog Walker]

Art is largely a hoax.

So is the practice of law.

Let's get some lawyers to finance artists, then call in the doctors to stitch them up afterwards.

Synergy!

If you amend that to "abstract art is mostly a hoax" then a lot more of us will agree.  Some wise man once said that abstract art comes in two forms; neat and messy.  He used Jackson Pollack as an example of the latter.

The purpose of lawyers is mostly to protect you from other lawyers.  However on a couple of occasions, they have kept me from stepping in it in a big way.

[finehoe]

http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/07ccdb/tabd4.pdf

[copperfiend]

Somewhat ironic that Baltimore and Cincinnati are both spelled incorrectly in the original graphic.

[JC]

I am a little offended by this thread    

I did not learn critical thinking in public school and can only imagine learning it in college would be a rarity, therefore I wont waste my time!

[Jim]

OK it is degrees per land area. But is it metro areas or city proper?

For example in St Louis college degreed people are more likely to live in the county rather than the city of St Louis.

For example the college degree percentage is higher in NW St Johns County than in Duval County. Duval County is the boundry of the City of Jacksonville.

City proper which is why this study misses such a critical factor in that city land area fluctuates wildly from Jacksonville's 767 sq miles to Hatford's 17 sq miles.  Even if Jax had the exact same number of degree holders in the central core 17 sq miles as Hatford, the overall density figures for Jax would still be significantly lower because of the massive disparity in total land area.  And that's probably not far off either.  I'd guess that within the central core 17 sq miles around downtown that there very well could be close to Hartford's 10,639 degree holders.  That covers all of DT, Riverside, much of Avondale and San Marco.  But again because of the use of the non-uniform criteria of city land area, you get a very shifty outcome.