How bad is your city?

Chobohoya · #1 10-17-2005, 02:16 PM

I've always thought that there were a lot of problems with my hometown. Since I've started the research for a project at work, I've actually seen how badly Jacksonville compares to other cities and the state of Florida as a whole. We have a far higher percentage of births to teens, low-birthweight births, and preterm births than the state or the national average. We rank poorly in these indicators nationally as well.

Our educational system is horrendous too: we have 50-200% more crimes per student than comparable counties, fewer kids graduate, we score lower on our FCATs, and we score lower on our SATs, even though a smaller pool of kids takes them. A larger percentage of students receive out of school suspension, and all this is happening under economic circumstances that are about the same as in the other counties.

Check out your city and your state's Department of Education ( here is FL's ) for details, tell us how much your city sucks.

pokerdirty · #2 10-17-2005, 02:17 PM

i'm not going to click on that, but i'm sure NYC is worse.

canis582 · #3 10-17-2005, 02:25 PM

Now this types of [censored] happens all the time
You gotta get yours before I gotta get mine.
Census data doesn't count illegal aliens

Chobohoya · #4 10-17-2005, 02:30 PM

[ QUOTE ]
i'm not going to click on that, but i'm sure NYC is worse.

[/ QUOTE ]

You'd be wrong on 5 of the 8 indicators available in that link.

Chobohoya · #5 10-17-2005, 02:35 PM

Not really sure what the first two links try to prove, but from the third, this caught my eye:

Reading, PA: Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent, 2000 (b) 37.3%

Jacksonville, FL: Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent, 2000 (b) 4.2%

edit: Ok I figured it out. Reading is a factory town, I didn't know they still existed really...

Business QuickFacts Reading Pennsylvania
Manufacturers shipments, 1997 ($1000) 3,654,193 11,600,008
Wholesale trade sales, 1997 ($1000) 583,486 159,354,185
Retail sales, 1997 ($1000) 502,845 109,948,462

astroglide · #6 10-17-2005, 02:35 PM

racism is out of control in st louis.

wash u med school is situated in the central west end along with barnes hospital. our best hospital, our best school, and one of the nicer areas in town with multi-million dollar homes and lots of nice dining. it's about a quarter mile from ghetto city. as a result, phd students in the med school have to get escorts during broad daylight to avoid getting robbed at gunpoint or carjacked. police stand on the corners and it doesn't seem to deter them. i know of many people who have been robbed between the hours of 8AM-NOON on these busy and populated streets.

our crime rate really isn't bad overall and it's an easy place to live, but there are lots of areas - wonderful, destination areas - where you have to be constantly guarded and cannot visit during certain hours for fear of violent crime. downtown st louis is basically abandoned. there is one street in downtown st louis that it actually used, and it's only a nights/weekends club thing. a little away from the city there is laclede's landing which has a booming bar district (again nights/weekends). everybody basically lives in suburban areas which have plentiful shopping/dining and only end up downtown for sporting events.

i've received comments many times from people who are visiting, moved from other cities, and that sort of thing that we have the worst minority class they have ever seen.

pokerdirty · #7 10-17-2005, 02:36 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i'm not going to click on that, but i'm sure NYC is worse.

[/ QUOTE ]

You'd be wrong on 5 of the 8 indicators available in that link.

[/ QUOTE ]

eh, whatever. i'm sure the numbers never lie

Los Feliz Slim · #8 10-17-2005, 02:36 PM

New slogan for the marketing department:

Visit Los Angeles, #1 in Percentage of Total Births to Mothers Receiving Late or No Prentatal Care

Chobohoya · #9 10-17-2005, 02:42 PM

I suggested this to my boss a couple hours ago:
"Jacksonville : at least we're not Atlanta!"

fnord_too · #10 10-17-2005, 02:45 PM

I live in Norfolk, VA. It borders VA Beach, and usually these things use Norfolk or Virginia Beach to label the whole area (there are several cities all together here).

If you want to find VA Beach, they are on all the lists, up high, and first in one case.

Also, IIRC, this is the worst area (from a guys perspective) for male/female ratio, and at least to be the most obese city in the country (maybe just for females, not sure).

This city sucks, but I won't be here too much longer.