"What We Think of America."

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by MOBIUS
It comes to something when you have a almost 1,000 page guidebook of the US and there isn't even a sentence devoted to Jacksonville...

Then let me tell you a few things about Jax.

It was the site of the first European settlement in Florida, Ft. Caroline (the remnents of which still have yet to be found), in 1563. It was settled by French Hugenots who were massacred a year later by Spanish forces settling at San Agustín (today St. Augustine). St. Augustine (just 30 miles away) is the oldest permenent European settlement north of Mexico.

There was a major outbreak of yellow fever here in the 19th Century.

Jax was the original home of American filmmaking, but the great fire of 1901 destoryed most of the city. The Film studios then moved to Hollywood, CA.

The city is named for Andrew Jackson, who invaded the territory during the war of 1812.

Jacksonville is the largest city in the world in terms of sheer physical size. All of Duval county is Jacksonville (with one exception in the western end of the county).

Jacksonville is the home of the USS Kennedy and her battle group), and is very much a navy town. There are seven different military installations here.

Jacksonville is a major shrimp producer.

Jacksonville is hosting the 2004 Superbowl.

Jacksonville is a stop in the Hooters Roadtrip video game.

Jacksonville is one of the safest places on the East Coast as far as hurricanes go. The last major storm to hit Jax was in 1964. Because of the geography, stomrs go South of us, or turn to the north. We we grazed by a hurricane four years ago, bu the eye was many hundred of miles out to sea, so it was very mild here. (We did have a tropical storm come through last September, but it came through the other side of the state and was very diminished in strength by the time it got here).

The politics of Jax are heavily influenced by the First Baptist Church which has 25,000 members and takes up several whole blocks of the downtown area. Several of the churches emmbers are on the city council, and one is a state legislator.

Jax has a green law. All construction must either leave existing trees in place or plant new ones elsewhere in Jax. Although the law was passed in he '80s, it wasn't enforced until a citizen referendum mandated that the city enforce the law. Citizens here take their enviroment seriously (although they certainly litter the place up, but I suspect that's a general East Coast thing).

Jax has the 8th deadliest police force in the country.

Jax has the 8th worst drivers in the county (five of the bottom ten are in Florida).

Jax has horrid public transportation. We do, however, have a monorail. It's rather useless, however, as it only serves downtown. Still, it's better than Seattle's monorail, which only goes six blocks.

Although there are definately some very nice aspects to living here, we're not staying, unless I get another job here. We thought about moving to St. Augustine, but now we're pretty sure we're moving to Miami-Ft. Lauderdale. We need to be in a big city, and while Jax may be the biggest city in the world, it's a paltry little hicksburg of 800,000.

[rah]

Yes, Jacksonville is a nice place but it caused me all sorts of grief many years ago. I was president of a software user group and was tasked with setting up our winter conference. The information sent to me from Jacksonville was quite impressive so I booked the conference for late February.

Now the problem. Most of our invitees. like myself, are avid golfers and there are some fantastic golf courses in the area. I figured, heck it's Florida, how cold can it be there in February. The five days we were there, it was rainy windy and never got warmer than 55 degrees. We never got a chance to pull out the sticks. I was almost lynched.

Even with choosing Las Vegas the following year (yes it can be chilly there too, but you don't have to worry about the rain) I was not able to win reelection as President.

So Jacksonville cost me the election.

RAH
It was Florida, D*mn it.

[chequita guevara]

You just got unlucky. Normally it doesn't rain much in the winter here.

[Roland]

rah: How many recounts?

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Jacksonville is a stop in the Hooters Roadtrip video game.

That's not something that I would brag about. From the reviews, it looks like it wins the prize for being the worst racing game ever.

[rah]

Yes, I felt like Mr. Carlson (from WKRP) when he stated, "as god is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly"

"heck, it's always warm and sunny in Florida"



RAH

Roland, no amount of recounts would have saved me, and I was in charge of the election judges, so you have an idea how bad it was. But on the bright side, I automatically became part of the board of directors so I had almost as much influence and almost zip responsibilities.

[Arrian]

Ok, so the attempt to stay on topic has clearly failed. Ok by me, I can go off on tangents like the best of 'em.

I have a history degree, and with the exception of the US Civil War - which I find fascinating - US history bores me to tears. In fact, outside of the World Wars, just about anything after 1415 does.

Serb,

Good to see you around ago too. Yeah, I know what to expect from threads with the word "America" in them, but this one has actually been fairly troll-free, which is why the WWII spat annoyed me.

Che - I assume that half the essays not available to read on line because they want you to buy the book, right?

-Arrian

[chequita guevara]

It's a journal, but yes, you're correct.