Top 10 U.S. Cities for Young People

[Overstreet]

For what it's worth, Jacksonville has a lower median age than most cities in Florida. Of course, Florida in general needs to fight the "full of old people" stigma that even still exists in my own mind.

When I first came to Florida I was in Sarasota. It seemed to me that everyone was over 65 but me. So I looked up the demographics on the census report and found it to be 13%. Where Tidewater VA, where I came from was only 7%. Still either way not FULL of old people it only seemed that way.

[finehoe]

Must be true for either side of the spectrum...

Can someone with data mining software do an analysis on what the percentage of BridgeTroll's responses fall along the lines of "the other side does it too".  I'm sure it must be in the 80%+ range.

[north miami]

Welcome to Duval.. Things will never change.. Just a bunch of racist extremists in this city.. City will always be far behind

which is why Alvin Brown won the mayoral race?

And we just passed a mobility plan.
And have an NFL team.
And now have an Art Walk.
And well I guess tufsu said it all with his quote.

Jazz Fest 2011 for young and young at heart a big contribution to "Stay in Jacksonville" Bucket List.Brought tears to my eyes,and my wife Lindsay.
"Judge" would be so proud!

[duvaldude08]

Strangely enough, I looked up the census results and Jacksonville there are actually more young people in Jacksonville than older people. The problem is the young people never stay! If we can find a way to retain the younger population we will succeed.

[duvaldude08]

Jacksonville is somewhat at a disadvantage here because it doesn't have a top-tier university or even an urban university. The city could better leverage the advantages that a university brings had UNF been located downtown. But in the absence of that, perhaps Jax can do what Charlotte is doing: luring some functions of UNC-Charlotte in the urban core as well as satellite campuses of other universities, and landing a small niche school (Johnson & Wales).

Well UNF has partner with the MOCA now in regard to art classes, etc etc. So that is a start.

[jcjohnpaint]

We now own the museum.  We curate shows and hold classes for the Fine Art Department.  I am usually down at the MOCA a few days a week.  The museum has a great new director and I will be running the UNF gallery next fall.  If anyone saw the Wolfbat performance at Hemming Plaza last semester- it was just amazing. 

[jcjohnpaint]

Jacksonville is somewhat at a disadvantage here because it doesn't have a top-tier university or even an urban university. The city could better leverage the advantages that a university brings had UNF been located downtown. But in the absence of that, perhaps Jax can do what Charlotte is doing: luring some functions of UNC-Charlotte in the urban core as well as satellite campuses of other universities, and landing a small niche school (Johnson & Wales).

Yeah and the city should do what it can to get the AI downtown.  The school is located in the most obscure place and don't know who even knows it is in Jax.  AI and MOCA/ UNF would be a great presence in downtown together.  I do love the idea of a Johnson and Wales U like Charlotte, but we have screwed this one in the past with the Med School and Law School.  We need to bring these places back into town for sure. 

[duvaldude08]

We now own the museum.  We curate shows and hold classes for the Fine Art Department.  I am usually down at the MOCA a few days a week.  The museum has a great new director and I will be running the UNF gallery next fall.  If anyone saw the Wolfbat performance at Hemming Plaza last semester- it was just amazing. 

OHH ok thats even better news than what I thought.

[acme54321]

I was in Charlotte last weekend.  Wow, the downtown that place blows Jax away.  Schools, business, things going on, the list doesn't end with what they are doing right.  I was suprised it wasn't on this list. I did notice that few historic structures remain there though.

[simms3]

Charlotte is fun!  I was just in Milwaukee and that city is also light years ahead of Jax.  People there live as close in as possible and there is an impressive amount of new construction in the core areas, like a really impressive amount.

I'm sure we'll make strides soon though.  Art Institute downtown would do very little.  Jacksonville could benefit from having a non-profit college downtown, but these for-profits don't do much.

[jcjohnpaint]

Although I do remember when living in Pittsburgh that the AI although not a splash did have a lot of students and filming out on the street near the campus.  I do not know how much bigger their AI was or whatever.  It did have a slight affect.  I do agree that it would not change the world, but would be better suited downtown than in an obscure business part.  Probably would be more exciting for the students too. 

[KenFSU]

I was just in Milwaukee and that city is also light years ahead of Jax.

In my opinion, the most underrated city in the nation.

Love Milwaukee.

[Tacachale]

I'm sure we'll make strides soon though.  Art Institute downtown would do very little.  Jacksonville could benefit from having a non-profit college downtown, but these for-profits don't do much.

It depends on the for-profit school, but you're right, the vast majority of them don't have enough traditional students (or any real need or desire for a central location) to make an impact on a neighborhood, especially a downtown. And most of them are the kind of thing you'd want to keep OUT of downtown (not saying the AI is like this). But there would likely be a benefit to having Florida Coastal School of Law downtown - it has hundreds of students, and as a law school it has a vested interest in being where the local infrastructure in their field is centered.

UNF is making great headway with MOCA Jax; it would be nice to see us develop an even stronger presence downtown in the future. In terms of things we don't have currently, a medical school would also be great. The biggest boon would be if we could bring a real liberal arts or business college in or adjacent to downtown. There was a time a few decades ago it was feasible to start up something like that (Flagler, Eckerd, etc), but unfortunately it probably won't happen here anytime soon.

[Jdog]

Also, I see these cities represented pretty well in discussions of "most active / most fit" and "environmentally friendly" US places.  Living for 25 years in New York and Connecticut, I'll say this: I've listened to thousands of more criticisms of Florida being one strip mall than I have of it being too much for the elderly.  Cut this crap out of Jacksonville being where Florida begins.    

IMHO, I think Jax also would do well to better publicize its large urban park system and find ways to create lengthier green stretches for biking, walking, caneoing, etc by linking parks (i.e., the idea of cleaning up Hogan's and McCoy's) and providing urban green pathways (okay, the last one might be out of reach financially right now).  
 

[Tacachale]

Jacksonville is somewhat at a disadvantage here because it doesn't have a top-tier university or even an urban university. The city could better leverage the advantages that a university brings had UNF been located downtown. But in the absence of that, perhaps Jax can do what Charlotte is doing: luring some functions of UNC-Charlotte in the urban core as well as satellite campuses of other universities, and landing a small niche school (Johnson & Wales).

Yeah and the city should do what it can to get the AI downtown.  The school is located in the most obscure place and don't know who even knows it is in Jax.  AI and MOCA/ UNF would be a great presence in downtown together.  I do love the idea of a Johnson and Wales U like Charlotte, but we have screwed this one in the past with the Med School and Law School.  We need to bring these places back into town for sure. 

The problem with the branch campuses is that the good ones are less likely to start new campuses (Johnson and Wales in particular), and most of the other "chain schools" are of a much lower caliber. It would be nice to have the AI downtown, but i don't know what kind of impact it would have. I think it would be better to focus on developing UNF's presence and trying to attract new institutions, especially ones that focus on fields that aren't represented (or well represented) here.