Magazine declares Jacksonville 8th worst city for number of fast food restaurant

[thelakelander]

Congrats.  Fast food chains love us.

Men’s Health magazine has ranked Jacksonville as the eighth worst city in the country when it comes to the sheer number of fast food restaurants and the number of people who frequent them more than seven times a month.

On the magazine’s chart, the top 10 actually is the bottom 10. And Arlington, Texas grabbed the No. 1 spot for the city with the most McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell and similar eateries and the percentage of people in its population who eat there. At the other end of the spectrum, the city that ranked 100th, or did best on the chart, was Buffalo, N.Y.

1) Arlington, Texas

2) Anchorage, Alaska

3) Charlotte, N.C.

4) Sioux Falls, S.D.

5) Raleigh, N.C.

6) Indianapolis

7) Fremont, Calif.

Jacksonville, Fla.

9) Lexington, Ky.

10) Wichita, Kan.

11) Aurora, Colo.

12) Boise, Idaho

13) Colorado Springs, Colo.

14) Bakersfield, Calif.

15) San Jose, Calif.

16) San Antonio

17) Fort Worth, Texas

18) Phoenix

19) Columbus, Ohio

20) Durham, N.C.

21) Anaheim, Calif.

22) Houston

23) Greensboro, N.C.

24) Montgomery, Ala.

25) Lincoln, Neb.

26) Kansas City, Mo.

27) Riverside, Calif.

28) Las Vegas

29) Nashville, Tenn.

30) Corpus Christi, Texas

31) Fort Wayne, IN

32) Omaha, Neb.

33) Des Moines, Iowa

34) Oklahoma City

35) Modesto, Calif.

36) St. Paul, Minn.

37) Dallas

38) Grand Rapids, Mich.

39) El Paso, Texas

40) San Diego

41) Fargo, N.D.

42) Little Rock, Ark.

43) Madison, Wis.

44) Jackson, Miss.

45) Fresno, Calif.

46) Manchester, H.H.

47) Albuquerque, N.M.

48) Jersey City, N.J.

49) Chicago

50) Austin, Texas

51) Memphis, Tenn.

52) Billings, Mont.

53) Tulsa, Ohio

54) Cheyenne, Wyo.

55) Toledo, Ohio

56) Los Angeles

57) Lubbock, Texas

58) Salt Lake City

59) Sacramento, Calif.

60) Portland, Ore.

61) Detroit

62) Minneapolis

63) Seattle

64) Oakland, Calif.

65) Denver

66) Columbia, S.C.

67) Milwaukee

68) Boston

69) Honolulu

70) Norfolk, Va.

71) Charleston, W. Va.

72) Baton Rouge, La.

73) Yonkers, N.Y.

74) San Francisco

75) Birmingham, Ala.

76) Atlanta

77) New York

78) Wilmington, Del.

79) Spokane, Wash.

80) Orlando, Fla.

81) Burlington, Vt.

82) St. Petersburg, Fla.

83) Philadelphia

84) Tampa, Fla.

85) Baltimore

86) Newark, N.J.

87) St. Louis

88) Cincinnati

89) Washington, DC

90) Tucson, Ariz.

91) Cleveland

92) Louisville, Ky.

93) Bangor, Maine

94) Richmond, Va.

95) Providence, R.I.

96) Rochester, N.Y.

97) Miami

98) Pittsburgh

99) Hartford, Conn.

100) Buffalo, N.Y.

http://www.jacksonville.com/news/2009-08-19/story/magazine_declares_jacksonville_8th_worst_city_for_number_of_fast_food_restaura

[stjr]

Orlando, 80th?!  Could have fooled me.

[thelakelander]

Get away from the tourist traps and Orlando is loaded with none fast food establishments.  The same goes for Tampa and Miami.  I guess the good part of the story for a list like this is that we have room to grow in the area of "quality".

[reednavy]

Orlando's #s are skewed, or so the appear. Due to the incredibly messed up city limit boundaries, most of the FF joints are technically in unincorporated Orange County.

[TheProfessor]

This poll makes since due to the fact that our city boundaries go way out into suburbia being it is one of largest cities landmass wise in the country.  If our city boundaries were more compact then I am sure we would not be so high on the list.

[thelakelander]

So what does this say about other spread out or consolidated cities like Nashville, Louisville, San Diego and Oklahoma City?  What is going on in these places that isn't having much of an impact here?

[sheclown]

We could be known for worse.

[Deuce]

I'm sure our size is part of the problem in a poll like this. Total number of fast food restaurants is a pretty bad measure of their penetration in a market. Kind of a sloppy ranking on Men's Health part. It wouldn't have taken much math to get a ratio of the number to total population. That would be a far better measure and may have significantly changed our ranking (depending on the weight they assigned to the two variables). Of course improving our ranking in a survey like this starts with the people. I personally only eat fast food once a week, sometimes not even at all.

[second_pancake]

They missed one key component...the SIZE of the people.  Arlington may have ranked as number 1, but if you've ever been to Arlington, which is home of Six Flags over Texas, the new Dallas Stadium, and the Texas Rangers Ballpark, it makes sense to have all the fast food places for the visitors. The residents themselves (and this is North TX in general) while they may frequent these places, are not morbidly obese. 

Jacksonville is ridiculously overweight.  The worst part about it is, it has become normal to the point that those that aren't overweight, still manage to make themselves look that way by squeezing into clothes 2 sizes to small in order to acheive that ubiquitous 'muffin-top'.  I don't think the number of fast-food restaurants has caused this syndrome so much as the restaurants are there BECAUSE of it.  There was obviously a demand to have a McDonald's, or the like, on every street corner in the city, and so it is.

[copperfiend]

Two of the greatest players in Jaguars history, Brunell and Boselli, went into business together and opened up Whataburger franchises. How Jacksonville.

[Ocklawaha]

God knows this fat old fart loves it! Hell how can we rank like that and not even have a "Jack-in-the-Box,"  or “Der Wienerschnitzel.”

By the way, Whataburger has some excellent fast food! Hey does Waffle House count?

OCKLAWAHA

[Captain Zissou]

I think in addition to our city size, the high concentration of fast food joints can be attributed to the huge interstates that pass through our city.  How many of the fast food hubs (JTB & Phillips, University blvd, 301 @I-10, Old St Augustine @95, Philips & 95) are within a half mile of interstate exits.  Perhaps our convenience to major interstates is a negative in this respect.  
For example, try getting a burger or some chicken fingers at midnight in San Marco or Riverside.....  Many a night have I driven all the way to the Krystal on 103rd or the Whataburger @ JTB & Phillips to get my fix.

[copperfiend]

Get away from the tourist traps and Orlando is loaded with none fast food establishments.

Agree. Seasons 52 comes to mind.

But I also assume that buffet places like Ponderosa that serve the greasiest, disgusting food I wouldn't feed my dog don't go under fast food.

[Joe]

So what does this say about other spread out or consolidated cities like Nashville, Louisville, San Diego and Oklahoma City?  What is going on in these places that isn't having much of an impact here?

Fair enough - but I don't think you can ignore the effects of consolidation on the validity of this ranking. 4 out of the top 10 on this list are consolidated cities. Anchorage, Indy, Jax, and Lexington.

Also, the fact that Cincinnati is #88 proves that this ranking is completely flawed. Cincinnati is totally saturated with fast-food "Chili Parlors" that the locals frequent in shocking numbers. Seriously, there are HUNDREDS of them. But I'm guessing that since they aren't national chains, the magazine probably didn't count them in their survey.

[copperfiend]

Also, for reasons unknown to me, people in Cincinnati swear by Frisch's Big Boy. But because it is a Shoney's style restaurant, it wouldn't go under fast food.