Left Jacksonville and not looking back
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4/14/2011
If you have a family, Jacksonville is not for you. The school system sucks. You will not live in Duval County and send your kids to public school. There is a charter school Paxon that is nationally ranked but it is very hard for kids to get accepted. There are some private school options that are religious based that may be another optiuon if you live in Duval County.
St. Augustine and Clay are neighboring counties to Duval that have the top public school systems in the state if you want your kids to get a good education.
I lived in Jacksonville for three years and I can honestly say that I did not enjoy my time there. I was living in the Midwest (MN) at the time so I thought that it would be nice to live in an area that does not have any winters. When I got down there, I realized that I made a huge mistake.
Jacksonville is a very violent city. While I wasn't a victim of a crime while I was there, news reprts of shooting occured daily. The police force is extremely aggressive and will shoot first and ask questions later. Being black,college educated and from the north, I was NOT well received by both southern Blacks and Whites.
The company that I worked for was a division of a Fortune 500 company. I assumed that people at work would have a more progressive way of thinking. I was completely wrong. The people at the company were unhappy, mean, and backstabbing. My manager had the audacity to say to me one time in a 1:1 how it's rare that someone like you to have a college degree. WTF?.
Anyway, I was making too much money for the area so the company laid me off in March 2010.
I wasn't able to find a job until May 2010. My new job paid me almost 35K less than the previous job.
Luckily in January of this year I found a job in MN that made me whole. I have left and never looked back. I am glad to be out of that city and I wouldn't consider moving back. Jacksonville is great in terms of no snow but that is about it.
Bill | Saint Augustine, FL