Reviews & Comments
Jacksonville Beach, FL
DYING TO LEAVE JACKSONVILLE -
3/1/2007I moved to Jacksonville in '92 and have seen it grow tremendously! With the growth I have seen SOME good... nothing really worth mentioning!
In '92 it felt like a little town because at that time people really never crossed over into other areas. Example: Beach-goers hated to cross the bridge and enter the middle portion of the town. West-side dwellers pretty much stayed on the west side of the river. This gave Jacksonville a small town feel.
BUT... with growth comes problems! Yep, I moved to Arlington where the crime is getting worse and the police don't give a HOOT! We called the police because a drug deal was happening at the house across the street.. What did they do? Funny you should ask!!! They took the GALLON SIZE BAG OF POT... AND ISSUED A CITATION! Didn't take them to jail... gave them a ticket! I have hundreds of more stories for you but this gives you an example of how bad the police department is. OH YEAH... let's not forget the media coverage over the JSO's corruption! Jacksonville really isn't different when it comes to other cities of it's size BUT... the difference is they don't seem to be interested in doing much about it!
They have no preventitive program to keep teens out of jail! Once the teen is "in the system" then they look for reasons to pick them up. But a parent has no one to turn to for a rebellious teenager until they have been arrested. I have a neighbor that has been begging the JSO to arrest her son so he can enter rehab and get his diploma (he's 16) and NO ONE is willing to help. EXCEPT Childre Services and they are trying to put him a foster home. What good is that going to do? The kid needs serious help that the parents are unable to give him.
The public school in Jacksonville are horrible! I have pulled my boys to homeschool them and no longer have to battle the "thug wanna-be's" this city is encouraging to take over! Basic education is not an option! NO-O-O-O-O they must teach the children how to test for the FCAT and if the children fail... then the teacher could lose their job! Every teacher I ask HATES THE FCAT and want's it removed! There are other ways to measure a child's progress than this crazy test! Parents stand outside of the school & school board protesting this test! I have never seen parents protest like this EVER!!!
Yet, the first year it was given most of the children failed and the Florida admistrators couldn't understand why (of course!) so, they took the test to prove