"Emerging as the city's most ethnically diverse neighborhood."

[SwaggerRebel]

I had to laugh. You Springfield people have a very insular view of your city. You should try talking to people from the lower middle class/working poor neighborhoods. The apartment's I used to live in off Barnes road had some Methodist refugee program that's been going on for years, we had Croats, Serbs, Albanians,  Mexicans, Russians, Sudanese.... hell any place that's had a conflict over the past 25 years seems to have people represented there. Including "the lost boys of Sudan" from the documentary.


I live in Arlington now, here's the make up of my side of the street: Mexican, Vacant, White, East Indian, Black, White, White, Colombian, Black, Dominican, Colombian, White, White. That's ONE side of ONE block. LOL a handful of yuppies amongst Blacks does not mean ethnically diverse, but whatever helps you sell the facade.

[ChriswUfGator]

WTF are you talking about?

Who here is alleged to have made the claim you're disputing?

[BridgeTroll]

Welcome to the forum Swag... this should be interesting...

[ben says]

Whose he talking to? Confused...

[Tacachale]

They appear to be referring to the description under the Springfield board:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php?board=50.0

Springfield

Emerging as the city's most ethnically diverse neighborhood.
   
Riverside/Avondale

Eclectic and gentrified urban communities. Also Five Points & Murray Hill.
   
San Marco

Posh upscale shopping alongside edgy art and multi-million dollar riverfront homes.

[David]

I'm not sure what Springfield's official "claim" is but the Englewood area stretching over to University blvd W down into Baymeadows towards Southside is pretty diverse as well. I find myself surrounded by the Russian, Indian and Asian languages often. Growing up in that area I remember my earliest friends being of Middle Eastern descent. Let's whip out the census data and find out what Jville's most diverse hood is.

I'm thinking somewhere on the Westside, Arlington or near where I grew up by Englewood would probably be the most diverse area in town.

[ben says]

I had to laugh. You Springfield people have a very insular view of your city. You should try talking to people from the lower middle class/working poor neighborhoods. The apartment's I used to live in off Barnes road had some Methodist refugee program that's been going on for years, we had Croats, Serbs, Albanians,  Mexicans, Russians, Sudanese.... hell any place that's had a conflict over the past 25 years seems to have people represented there. Including "the lost boys of Sudan" from the documentary.


I live in Arlington now, here's the make up of my side of the street: Mexican, Vacant, White, East Indian, Black, White, White, Colombian, Black, Dominican, Colombian, White, White. That's ONE side of ONE block. LOL a handful of yuppies amongst Blacks does not mean ethnically diverse, but whatever helps you sell the facade.

We stopped at the Regency Starbucks last night after having dinner at the Panera, and I have to agree with you.  It is one of the most ethnically diverse places in the state.

To be honest, it was almost like dining in a real grown up city, there were so many languages and ethnicities present.

But when we first wrote that moniker about springfield it was likewise true, there was a lot of diversity happening in the neighborhood, unfortunately that was killed in the bud.

Perhaps it is time we revisited the section titles.

Baymeadows is pretty ethnic, too. Latino, Indian, Middle Eastern..

Anyone know why most ethnic populations end up where they do? I lived in Charleston for 4 years....most people coming from abroad always tried to get housing in the historic district because it reminded them most of the places they left. Old city streets, older histories, etc. Intuition tells me that most ethnic populations would try to move towards Riverside. But that's obviously not the case.

[thelakelander]

Yes, it's time to revise those headings.  There are a few zip codes in the Southside that appear to be the most ethically diverse (one being Baymeadows, another being the Sandalwood area off Atlantic).

Click on this link, suggest racial/ethnic distribution for census 2010, and zoom in on Jacksonville:

http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/map

[fsujax]

When I was at LEE HS in the mid 1990's we had a very diverse school population, There were many Vietnamese, Cambodians, Bosnians, etc. An equal amount of black and white students. Not sure how it is there now.

[tufsu1]

Lutheran Social Services is the agency that is responsible for placing immigrant populations here in Jacksonville.  Starting in the late 80s, they preferred to place out near baymeadows and southside (especially beach and University area)

Its become the center of our immigrant community as a result.

many Jewish communities in the U.S. facilitated emigration for Soviet Jews in the late 1980s and early 1990s as well....here in Jax, they mainly settled in the Baymeadows/San Jose area...so as to be near the congregations and JCA

[Dog Walker]

In a five block by four block part of Riverside, I discovered NINE natively spoken languages, five of them Asian.

I think all of Jacksonville is more ethnically diverse than we realize with the exception of some of the gated communities.

[Springfield Chicken]

I was told our unofficial slogan was "we're all here because we're not all there". 

[SwaggerRebel]

Lutheran Social Services is the agency that is responsible for placing immigrant populations here in Jacksonville.  Starting in the late 80s, they preferred to place out near baymeadows and southside (especially beach and University area)

Its become the center of our immigrant community as a result.

Yeah Lutherans, not Methodists. Barnes road was a crazy hood, I'll have to drive through and see what it's like now, been awhile (7 years). They had Slavic cafes, a grocer and bar where you could get a beer at 3 am while listening to "turbo folk". The thing is the immigrant neighborhoods are very transient, they want to move out further into the homogeneous burbs and get their piece of the"American dream" also.

[hooplady]

I was told our unofficial slogan was "we're all here because we're not all there". 

Yep, that fits us to a tee.

Anyhoo, way to pi$$ off an entire neighborhood who had nothing to do with writing that tagline.  Welcome to the forum, SwaggerRebel!

I do miss good ethnic food though.  Is there a good Korean restaurant in Jax?  I have been hankering for bulgogi lately...

[finehoe]

There's an annoying trend in many discussions in the 21st century American media on urban issues that uses the term "diverse" to mean "a large percentage of African-Americans".  Of course this isn't what the word means at all, but much too often I see it used that way and it always grates on my nerves.