Why do you stay in Jacksonville?

[ben says]

I am from here, moved away at 18, lived all over south Florida, the Northeast, and LA, CA.  Moved back in 2003 due to job loss in CA and change of careers to law.  At 39, I wasn't interested in big city nightlife;  I've enjoyed the growth of happening bars for grownups in this town (especially downtown and Riverside - thank you Dos Gatos and Kickbacks).  I miss my friends very much, most of who live in NYC or LA, but I have family and close friends here too and for a while it was econimically good to live here.  lately though my job situation has been bad and I just got a fantastic career opportunity, so I will be leaving Jax Monday and moving to Tallahassee for a couple of months, then West Palm Beach.

Where did you go to law school, and what kind of law do you practice? I assume both questions are valid, as you mentioned you changed your career to law...

[David]

It's cheap, but it's not middle of Alabama cheap. You get some elements of a larger city while keeping the overall cost of living down. But hey, you get what you pay for.

What's really kept me here is that the things I like to do in other cities when I visit (aside from seeing some a-list bands, shows etc) I can do here.

The more I travel the country the more I realize we all do pretty much the same routine. We have a set group of people we hang out with, a set list of places & events we go to & attend (even in a city like NY, with 100,000,000 options, people fall into their routines)

The determining factors for staying or leaving Jax are basically, what you do for a living and is there a strong job market for it here, what are you truly looking for in a city?  If you want that fast, diverse urban bustle you'll have to plant yourself somewhere else.

If you want a decent sized city that has growth potential, a moderate cost of living or a place that's small enough it'll let you make your mark on it, it's not that bad.  If you want a city that pulls in the best music acts and artist from around the country or a city that will cater to a very specific niche ...it's not your first pick.

Jacksonville, It's like limbo!

For all of you 20 something’s that are thinking about leaving , you should probably get out and experience a larger city while you're in that mindset because one day you'll wake up and realize that it actually doesn't suck that bad and you might enjoy it here! (or you'll get "stuck" here as some of my friends say.) But seriously, there's no right or wrong answer.It’s a case by case basis.

[JaxNative68]

family

[arb]

I am still fairly young, but I was born and raised here. I'd love to move to a city like Portland, Denver, or Seattle (3 favorite cities after my mothers hometown of NYC), but the thought of leaving Jacksonville just makes me sick. I just have faith that this place will change for the better, thats all you can do when this place is all you know.

[simms3]

I have already left Jacksonville, but I'll offer what would keep me there and what I would miss that my current city has:

I occasionally miss the small town feel where everyone knows everyone and their business (sounds bad, but that can be fun and interesting sometimes as long as you stay on the good side of "business").

I miss the waterfront and palm trees.

I miss boating on real bodies of water (not a lake).

I miss grid street patterns, timed lights, and having no traffic.

I miss having cheaper gas, cheaper food, cheaper places to live, cheaper everything.


What I enjoy in Atlanta that I can't get in Jacksonville, per se (and wy I'll put up with Godly traffic, higher COL, and higher stress to live here):

-On the flip side of missing the small town feel, I normally prefer to be anonymous and in an environment where people care more about your intelligence and accomplishments than your social standing (more transplants and smaller, tighter social networks, so therefore a lot less gossip and superficial talk)
-Borderline true urban living
-Transportation alternatives
-Just being around smart, ambitious, success seeking people
-Faster way of life (people walk faster and drive faster and think faster and perform tasks faster...Jax is so slooooowwwww)
-Every single amenity one can think of
-Much higher pay
-COL is still not nearly as high as in DC, Boston, NYC, SF, or LA
-Stuff is happening...new projects, new construction, heck Bain & Company is in my building...there are big players, big money, and big time investors everywhere
-2 top tier colleges and several other notable colleges with UGA nearby creating a huge research and start up synergy/climate
-I can go anywhere from the airport without connecting (and take the train to the airport)
-If I want to move up the ladder from Atlanta to say DC, NYC, or LA it's not that difficult to do (or to go international), I would think it's a lot more difficult to move up from Jacksonville which many people haven't heard of and where it’s more challenging to develop a bomb resume

[Clem1029]

Best way to describe why I stay in Jacksonville is "inertia" - ended up here more or less by accident, Put down some roots in the manner I may have in any random city, and the cons of leaving at this point (wife and I both have great jobs for starters) outweigh the cons.

[dougskiles]

Best way to describe why I stay in Jacksonville is "inertia" - ended up here more or less by accident, Put down some roots in the manner I may have in any random city, and the cons of leaving at this point (wife and I both have great jobs for starters) outweigh the cons.

Ditto

[floridaforester]

I was born and raised in Jax, spent 4 yrs in G-ville and 6 in St. Aug but soon discovered Riverside/Avondale and wouldn't live anywhere else in NE FL.  I have traveled quite a bit and like to dream about living in other cities but I've found a week or two staying elsewhere is sufficient to satiate my curiosity.

Jax is far enough south to have a tropical feel but far enough north to have an 'Old South' feel and a nice season change where you actually have a winter and a transition of fall and spring.  Many places in Florida can't say that.  You can say 'good morning' to someone on the street and they don't look at you like you have an ulterior motive.  Generally someone will let you merge in traffic and, in my experience, folks are very friendly and willing to help if needed.

The history of this part of Florida is amazing when you really look into it and the natural spaces are incredible.  Where else do you have hundreds of waterways to explore, a beach that's just minutes away (some where you can be completely alone), barrier islands that are lost in time and a pretty reasonable cost of living on top of all that.

Last, but not least, Jax has a HUGE upside that many metropolitan areas cannot claim.  Many other cities have peaked and are somewhat on the decline but Jax is still growing in terms of population and granted, that can be done poorly with continued sprawl.  But we have an opportunity to create a denser city core and improve overall quality of life in the city and protect natural areas outside the city.  That would take more progressive leadership and maybe, one day, we will all get a chance to see that.

[grimss]

Sometimes, you have to be from somewhere else to appreciate your adopted home town.

I'm a D.C. native, went to college in Pennsylvania, lived in London for a year, then in Manhattan for 5 years, and yet I genuinely love living in Riverside Avondale. It's refreshing to be in a place whose future is ahead of--not behind--it. The people are cool, the architecture is great, the culture is vibrant, the streets are walkable, the trees and parks are awesome, and the living is, comparatively, way cheaper than elsewhere. I can easily hop a plane to NYC for my big city fix, but as far as a place to live and raise kids, JAX (at least my corner of it) is pretty damned sweet.

[Timkin]

I've been here for seven years now, and as optimistic as I was when I first moved here, I'm really reaching that point where I kind of see Jax as a legitimately lost cause.

I'm only here because I am making money hand over fist and someone has to do it.

Do tell.  Are you selling lift kits for pick up trucks?? 

LOL.... quite amusing

[fieldafm]

I was born in Riverside Hospital, where the Riverside Publix now stands.  
I was adopted at a very early age by a native of Jacksonville and a native of New York.  My father is a native of Jacksonville and went to far away exotic lands while in the Air Force, my mother always a traveling willbury.  They both chose to forge out their own American dream right here in Jacksonville, FL.  I've had countless opportunities to leave, but I am honored to say that I have stayed.  I've traveled all over, but there is no better feeling then when you return and the Jacksonville sun kisses your face as if to say 'welcome home'.

I fell in love with Jacksonville because of FCCJ.  They, along with the Jacksonville Historical Society, produced a television program called Jacksonville: The Inside Story.  Our daily neighborhood football game was interupted by rain one day, and I came inside only to turn on this show by sheer happenstance.  The rich, often untold/untapped history of this city was mesmorizing to an impressionable young boy.  Not but one week later, we had an assembly at school where divers that studied the shipwreck Maple Leaf showed us pictures of the ship and let us touch artifacts uncovered from the wreckage.  From that point, I bought into Jax 100%.

Waking up everyday and seeing the sun sparkle over the St Johns River, I am reminded why this is home.

Where else can you wake up and choose to either go surfing at the Poles, ride a bike trail at Hanna Park, go windsurfing at Hugenot, go fishing(Stockton Park for mullet, Northside for sheephead-drum, offshore for world-class Snapper-grouper-kingfish,  Jax Beach fishing pier for mackerel-flounder), take a hike through Timucuan Preserve, go sailing along the majestic St Johns, waterski/wakeboard on black creek, paddle a kayak off Dutton Island, take a stroll along the riverwalk, ride your bike down the beach, eat a meal on the waterfront at the Landing that doesnt cost you an arm and a leg, take a stroll down tree lined streets in Avondale, ride a bike under a majestic tree canopy in Old Mandarin, get up one March morning and go to the NCAA basketball tournament, have a picnic at Memorial Park, take a hike at the Jacksonville Arboretum, see a butterfly garden at Tillie Fowler Park, browse through unique vendors at RAM, watch Division 1 college basketball(tonight at the Arena JU vs Kennesaw State), spend a lazy afternoon at the premier minor league baseball statdium in America, watch your hometeam take on the NFL's best at Everbank Field, play golf at any number of world class facilities, bike amongst the white-tailed deer along the Baldwin Trail, have your choice of musuems to appreciate art(MOCA or Cummer), attend a blues festival at the beach, attend the jazz festival dowtown, attend the shrimp festival in Fernandina, attend the seafood festival at Jax Beach, watch F-18's perform acrobatic ariel displays right over your house, experience fine dining in San Marco/Riverside-Avondale/Downtown/Beaches at a fraction of the cost it would set you back in other cities of similar size, watch live music at Freebirds-Jack Rabbits-Florida Theatre-Symphony @ Times Union Center or just kick back with beer in hand and enjoy the weather... did someone notice that in mid-February we have temps in the 70's??

I live in a city where you can walk around town and people smile at you.  People ask how you are doing and sincerely anticipate your answer.  If you're lost, people will let you know where you need to go.  If you're happy, people here will give you a high five(try it).  If you're not so happy, people here will lend you a helping hand.

If you took a quarter and placed it on a map where my home is, half of my family lives within that quarter .  Just the other day I ran into my aunt jogging across the Ortega River Bridge.  Where else are you going to see someone you know no matter where you go?  It's a big city that still manages to keep a small town charm.

I can live in Jax, travel to NYC and live it up for a week. Or live in NYC and deal with living in a shoebox or making sure I have enough roomies and hopefully scrape enough money for a plane ticket home to see everyone.

Here, here!

A lot of people complain about what we don't have.  We're working on making some changes, no doubt.  But the minute we remove the insecure complex we hold as a city, the easier it will be to enjoy what we have.  Because what we have is pretty fantastic.

[Dog Walker]

Thirty years ago I reluctantly gave up a career as a government administrator and returned to Jacksonville (reluctantly) from a happy life in the Tampa/St. Pete area at the request of my family who needed help with their businesses.

You think Jacksonville is bad now?  You should have seen it then!  Downtown was just as dead, but so were Springfield, Riverside and San Marco.  Jax Beach was trashed.  The River was more polluted.  The air stank from the paper mills.

To eat out at a decent restaurant you had to go to St. Augustine or be a member of one of the private clubs in town.  We celebrated the opening of the first and only Japanese restaurant in North Florida downtown on Duval St.

We were horribly homesick for the cultural diversity we had become used to in Tampa.  Jacksonville was completely whitebread/redneck to us.

Because family roots and then business roots were here we stayed and have marveled at the growth in sophistication and energy that have occurred here in the past three decades.

Now that we are happily embedded in Riverside again, I tend to get hives and nosebleeds if I go into a zip code area that doesn't have a zero in the next to the last position.

(Quavery voice)  "Ya thinks it's bad now, sonny!  Ya should have seen it in MY day!"

[Noone]

+1
Well said. Dan O'Byrne the new CEO of Visit Jacksonville needs to read it. One more activity to put on your bucket list is to go under the Times Union building on McCoys Creek. Bring your fishing pole and lets see who catches the first fish.

I wrote this in response to Field but DW +1 to you too.

[PeeJayEss]

Where else can you wake up and choose to either go surfing at the Poles, ride a bike trail at Hanna Park, go windsurfing at Hugenot, go fishing(Stockton Park for mullet, Northside for sheephead-drum, offshore for world-class Snapper-grouper-kingfish,  Jax Beach fishing pier for mackerel-flounder), take a hike through Timucuan Preserve, go sailing along the majestic St Johns, waterski/wakeboard on black creek, paddle a kayak off Dutton Island, take a stroll along the riverwalk, ride your bike down the beach, eat a meal on the waterfront at the Landing that doesnt cost you an arm and a leg, take a stroll down tree lined streets in Avondale, ride a bike under a majestic tree canopy in Old Mandarin, get up one March morning and go to the NCAA basketball tournament, have a picnic at Memorial Park, take a hike at the Jacksonville Arboretum, see a butterfly garden at Tillie Fowler Park, browse through unique vendors at RAM, watch Division 1 college basketball(tonight at the Arena JU vs Kennesaw State), spend a lazy afternoon at the premier minor league baseball statdium in America, watch your hometeam take on the NFL's best at Everbank Field, play golf at any number of world class facilities, bike amongst the white-tailed deer along the Baldwin Trail, have your choice of musuems to appreciate art(MOCA or Cummer), attend a blues festival at the beach, attend the jazz festival dowtown, attend the shrimp festival in Fernandina, attend the seafood festival at Jax Beach, watch F-18's perform acrobatic ariel displays right over your house, experience fine dining in San Marco/Riverside-Avondale/Downtown/Beaches at a fraction of the cost it would set you back in other cities of similar size, watch live music at Freebirds-Jack Rabbits-Florida Theatre-Symphony @ Times Union Center or just kick back with beer in hand and enjoy the weather... did someone notice that in mid-February we have temps in the 70's??

A lot of people complain about what we don't have.  We're working on making some changes, no doubt.  But the minute we remove the insecure complex we hold as a city, the easier it will be to enjoy what we have.  Because what we have is pretty fantastic.

+1 million. That was refreshing.

As an aside, there was a conference in town at the Hyatt last week. We were looking for a quick bite, and a took a couple people to the food court at the Landing. The guy from NYC commented how great he thought it was to have a place like the Landing right there on the river. Its easy to forget that, for all its shortcomings, its not a bad place.

[fieldafm]

As an aside, there was a conference in town at the Hyatt last week. We were looking for a quick bite, and a took a couple people to the food court at the Landing. The guy from NYC commented how great he thought it was to have a place like the Landing right there on the river. Its easy to forget that, for all its shortcomings, its not a bad place.

Seriously!  Go down for lunch at the Landing, you might see me on the weekend, and ask any out of town guest to our city what they think of Jacksonville.  You'll have plenty to choose from b/c you're always going to find someone in town on business.  I make a point to do it.  In the last two months I've ran into people from NYC, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Minneapolis, Nebraska and even as far away as Zimbabwe at the Landing.

The feedback you're gonna get is incredible.