Jacksonville housing prices make the national media (for the wrong reason)

[Tonyinchicago]

Transit trackers are the answer.  Mobile you know.  Who wants to wait for transit not knowing how long that transport will arrive?

[JFman00]

I've never taken a trip on JTA because it's not integrated on Google Maps. I only visit Chicago 2-3 times a year but have the tracker app on my phone and can plan a trip from the suburbs into the city via public transit entirely via Google Maps.

[Tonyinchicago]

I have never taken a JTA (bus)..  I had a phobia of buses until i got to Chicago.  Here, the CTA passengers are well dressed professionals who use the system to get out of or into the core.  Meanwhile, Rick Scott, governor of FL, rejects high speed rail development funds that went elsewhere.  And guess where your tax dollars went?

[tufsu1]

Doesn't surprise me. Prices are higher like people actually want to live in Jacksonville when it's actually cheaper to live in a real city with so much more to offer. "Hey, please come live in our trashy mega-town! You pay more for much less, but still... we still believe we're better than all the rest. See? We have a Cheesecake Factory and so many different Wal-Marts to choose from, so that makes us cool!"

I knew that a post like this was coming. So typical, everything here in Jax is complete garbage, and every other city in the USA is so damn appealing, gotcha. 

Well, maybe if this town got its act together, there wouldn't be posts like this.

and clearly folks in other cities never say the same thing

[tufsu1]

as for the transit argument....sure there's lots of room for improvement at JTA....but comparing it to Chicago is wholly inappropriate....they have a metro area of 9 million (vs. 1 million) and a whole lot more density

[I-10east]

Blah blah blah, I'm done with yall Jax haters on this thread tonight. Play the mandatory 'gang up on I-10east' crap like yall always do. If you don't like Jax just leave, simple! 

[JFman00]

Blah blah blah, I'm done with yall Jax haters on this thread tonight. Play the mandatory 'gang up on I-10east' crap like yall always do. If you don't like Jax just leave, simple! 

The military won't let me. So I guess we're stuck with each other.

[I-10east]

^^^I guess that I can jump back in since it's 'morning' now. Do you have a POV (to find something to do nightlife etc.)?

[I-10east]

and clearly folks in other cities never say the same thing

You must have not ever visited websites of other cities (similar to MJ), or type in just about any city on urbandictionary like Baltimore, Philly etc with many jaded locals (like many of yall on MJ) that chime in. The same negative crap goes on other places too, it's just not Jax; C'mon you know that, oh I forgot, Jax is in a 'negative bubble' and everything outside of it is all rosy....   

[Brian Siebenschuh]

I don't have an economics degree, but it seems pretty obvious - if there are a ton of unoccupied properties, prices are too high, right?  If I have a millions widgets to sell at $1 and nobody's buying, I keep lowering my price until the widgets start to move.

If the problem is property owners that are inelastic to the demands of the market (who can afford to sit on empty properties and speculate that some unforeseen upswing in the market will raise the value of their holdings)...  Well, then - they'll either win big when that upswing happens, or they'll be left holding the bag when the property value of the entire city collapses a la Detroit?

[peestandingup]

and clearly folks in other cities never say the same thing

You must have not ever visited websites of other cities (similar to MJ), or type in just about any city on urbandictionary like Baltimore, Philly etc with many jaded locals (like many of yall on MJ) that chime in. The same negative crap goes on other places too, it's just not Jax; C'mon you know that, oh I forgot, Jax is in a 'negative bubble' and everything outside of it is all rosy....

Well, every place sucks to someone. This is true. We're considering a move to Seattle & I've seen people on those forums bitching about how the light rail only runs every 15 minutes on weekends, as opposed to every 5-10 on weekdays. Yes, whatta shame. Try every 2 hours of shoddy unconnected bus service in sprawling Jax & then tell us all how horrible you have it.

My point is, its all relative to who you are, what you've experienced & what you expect from your town. I'm sure there's people in Jax who absolutely love it that we never hear from on here. But this is an urban oriented blog. And Jax has a long LONG way to go in these regards. So IMO people do have a right to bitch about that stuff. Especially the informed members here who've more than likely been around the block. Joe Blow that grew up on the westside you won't ever hear from though. He probably loves it since he doesn't know any better. Jax has too many Joe Blows that are likely ruining it for people like us who do want certain things, but thats another topic.

And look I'm not from here, and will likely not be staying, so I don't really have a dog in this fight either way. This is just a stop for us. But it is a sorry excuse for an urban lifestyle, or even a livable lifestyle for anyone who's not into that "suburban drive everywhere strip mall" type of living arrangement. And the schools are terrible. The city just doesn't provide a lot of perks for people to wanna live here & there's not a good "bang for your buck" ratio at all. And the city leaders do indeed have their heads up their asses & make horrible horrible decisions on our behalf with our tax dollars, with very little real benefits that would make a difference. This is all true, we all know this. And because other people may happen to bitch that their city doesn't do this or that doesn't excuse the facts & give Jax a pass on these things.

But I do agree that simply bitching constantly about it doesn't really do much in the grand scheme of things. I've personally never had high hopes for Jax just because of where it is (conservative southern politics), what's been done to it (the destruction, horrible transit decisions, biggest sprawl in the country, etc) & the lack of thoughtful planning & good leadership to see grand plans through. That stuff is obvious. And those things are pretty major & very difficult to fix. So I don't expect much to tell you the truth, even in the next decade or two. Which is basically why we're looking to move. No sense sitting around moaning about it if we don't have to. But I do understand too not everyone can do that & a lot are probably stuck here for one reason or another.

[Anti redneck]

Blah blah blah, I'm done with yall Jax haters on this thread tonight. Play the mandatory 'gang up on I-10east' crap like yall always do. If you don't like Jax just leave, simple!

Well I'm glad you love the way things are so much. Tell me, what's going to happen when things get worse than they already are because people like yourself don't want to change things? Still look the other way and tell people to leave if they don't like watching things being driven straight into the ground? Because if a change is not made, that's what's going to happen. It's only a matter of time and the effects are just now being felt. Why fight change? Maybe if we got the things we wanted, it might even benefit you. Have you ever thought about that? Think about it!

[I-10east]

PSU's top paragraph is typical of MJers, pick one of the best things about Seattle (15 minute light rail) and turn it against Jax, so typical.

Tufsu, I never compared Jax's transit to Chicago, that would be asinine, in fact I said that we are NOT Chicago by no means, and I went on and said not to many US transit systems are on the level of Chicago.

AR, did I ever say I didn't wanna see some things change here? No

JFman, bus ridership wise, Tampa St Pete, Jax, and G-ville are roughly in the same boat, but you convinently leave out the T Bay area, and solely make it a Jax vs G-ville thing; UF is a top US  five school in enrollment, a freaking mega-university; How many of those people who aren't UF affiliated that ride the bus there? Exactly, hardly any.

Some of yall constantly try to put words in my mouth that I didn't say. Yall keep on chipping away at me with things that I didn't say, I'm a big boy, I can handle it.

[peestandingup]

PSU's top paragraph is typical of MJers, pick one of the best things about Seattle (15 minute light rail) and turn it against Jax, so typical.

You completely missed the point. You were trying your best to shake off real criticisms of the city & chalk it up to "well, every city forum has that", which I agree with. People indeed love to point our flaws & whine about them. But a lot of it seems like minor gripes instead of real structural failures that we talk about here. The weekend 15 min Seattle rail wait vs 2 hour Jax bus wait is just an example. Groups bitch about both, but ours is actually a major issue instead of just a minor inconvenience. Like, to the point of un-usability. I'd say that's a different beast all together, wouldn't you?

P.S. No, I'm not comparing Jax to Seattle (because I know that's where your mind is going). But we can talk about similar sized cities (and way smaller ones too) that blow us away in these regards if it makes you feel like its more even. And I know you hate all of this stuff & it gets old, but Jax has a lot of serious issues. And none of them seem to really be getting better. I think that's prob why you've noticed the heat being turned up lately. People are getting sick of it.

[tufsu1]

and clearly folks in other cities never say the same thing

You must have not ever visited websites of other cities (similar to MJ), or type in just about any city on urbandictionary like Baltimore, Philly etc with many jaded locals (like many of yall on MJ) that chime in. The same negative crap goes on other places too, it's just not Jax; C'mon you know that, oh I forgot, Jax is in a 'negative bubble' and everything outside of it is all rosy....   

I was being sarcastic