Where do you live? City/State/country?I live in
Jacksonville, Florida (USA), in the northeast corner of the state. The state of Georgia is immediately north and the Atlantic Ocean is immediately east.
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This is the heart of our downtown. (Pic by me! I'm kind of proud of it because I took it at 7 am on a Sunday at a dead stop on the ramp to the bridge. I never could have taken it at any other time due to traffic.)
Prominent language spoken? Other languages/dialects? English with a large minority speaking Spanish.
Is this rural or urban? Rough size? Jacksonville is a city, but we don't have a city center like New York or London. (Our downtown absolutely dies after 5pm). We are more like the textbook definition of suburban sprawl. The metropolian Jacksonville area has about a million residents. And here's an interesting fact: we are the largest city, area-wise, in the continental United States - about 870 square miles.
What do you like most/least about where you live? Most: The weather (see "Climate"). I also like Florida's landscape - it's really beautiful here, a lot more than just beaches. We don't have a huge influx of tourists like the southern parts of the state. And I like that this part of the state is still very much "the South"; if you go 90 minutes or two hours south of here, you start getting into snowbird/tourists areas, and it is very different.
Least: We're too big to be a town and not important or with-it enough to be a city. So we have all the downfalls of a city like horrible traffic and long distances but few of the benefits like good shopping, culture and easy access to things like natural foods. There's not much of a community feeling. And I don't like that Jax is a Republican, big business type of town. Developers are ruining our landscape putting up more and more cardboard houses, and the city council just keeps issuing those permits.
Most historically significant points about your town/country?St. Augustine, a half hour to the south (and considered part of the metro Jax area) is the "oldest continuously occupied European-established city, and the oldest port, in the continental United States." (copied that from Wikipedia!) The coast is scattered with old Spanish and French forts - history buffs can have a field day here!
Jacksonville was the Hollywood of the 1910s and 20s, before the movie industry moved out to California. In 1916 there were 30 movie studios here.
Climate? (I think my answer is more "weather" than "climate" but I'm not sure, I can never remember the difference!)
We have two seaons - "Summer" (late May through mid-to-late September) and "Not Summer":
Summer can be beastly: humid, temps in the high 90s, and it rains (and I mean
serious rain) every day at three in the afternoon like clockwork. We also have a bit of a hurricane problem. We haven't had a direct hit since Dora in 1964, but if a storm hits down south and travels up the state, we can still have a nasty experience. That happened twice in 2004, a truly awful year for us.
Not Summer is wonderful. Today is a textbook example - sunny, clear, light breeze, mid-70s. (Makes me wonder why I'm inside on the computer instead of outside!) We have a few cold weeks in December and January, but it rarely goes below freezing even at night. I own a light leather jacket, but I don't own gloves, mittens, scarves, golashes, earmuffs, any of that. It did snow Christmas of 1989, and long-time Jax residents still talk about it. It's a "where were you when Kennedy was shot" type of touchstone.
Type of government? Name of current leader? Our city and county are consolidated (which is why we are so big) so we only have one government. It is run by the mayor (John Peyton) and the city council.
What are the major industries? For several decades we were a Navy town. We still have two bases, Jax NAS and Mayport, and they are still a major presence, but the city has grown so much that the overall effect has diminished. For a long time we were known as a banking and insurance center, but I can't think of industry in particular that dominates these days.
Major religion? Christian. We do have a small Jewish population, but you don't meet Muslims or Hindus.
Diversity of education? Do most people graduate high school? College? About one in four students graduate from high school. The public schools are struggling, especially in certain neighborhoods, and more middle class families are sending their kids to private schools unless they can get them into the magnet schools - like Stanton or Paxon, which are both in the top twenty public high schools in the United States.
I'm not sure how many go on to college, but many that do stay in town and go to Florida Community College at Jax and then on to University of North Florida. But a fair number go to Florida State in Tallahassee (3 hours west) or University of Florida in Gainesville (90 minutes south).
Most popular sport? Football. We have an NFL team, the Jaguars, but really it's college football that everybody follows. You are either a Gator (U of FL) or a Seminole (FL State), period.
Most popular trend at the moment? Not sure there is one!
Most popular food? Junk.
I don't know, pizza? We don't do fine dining here. Most of my friends look at me cross-eyed because I eat sushi.
What do you feel is the most interesting/exciting thing about where you live?There's really nothing exciting about living here, unless you count the hurricanes.
The most interesting thing, in my opinion, is the landscape, the sheer, breathtaking beauty of the beaches at sunrise and the old roads lined with huge live oaks. But lots of people don't think there is anything interesting at all, which is why we don't get tourists!
Are there any urban legends associated with your town/state/country? (My son's enquiring mind wants to know!)Sorry, none that I can think of!
