For a guy just graduating you should check out the neighborhood in JAX called Riverside. Reminds me of a southern Ann Arbor. Lots of restaurants and bars, historic homes, walkable, and a cool vibe. San Marco, the Beaches, and Town Center are also nice areas for what you're most likely looking for, especially Town Center if you're thinking of grad school as it's near UNF.


JAX really is a place where you can make it whatever you want since the neighborhoods are so diverse. Don't care about urban sprawl, check out Southside and Mandarin or Orange Park. Golf and quiet are important, look at St. John's Co or Fleming Island. Hip restaurants and nightlife opt for Riverside and Beaches. Want to get shot, north side and increasingly more the Westside are right up your alley. Where I live on the Westside you can drive 5 minutes in one direction and be in one of the top 10 neighborhoods in the country (Riverside), another direction be in the hood and see drug deals or prostitutes out in the open (103rd), or close to horse farms (Normandy). It was very odd to me coming from Detroit where the change in neighborhoods was gradual and really depended on proximity to Detroit city.

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