What's the worst part of Jacksonville? Just curious


Earlier today I picked up my sister from the Airport and on the way home I stopped at a gas station on Moncrief (sp) rd. I have never been so scared pumping gas in my life, open market drug dealing and prostitution were going on like it was routine. Its easily the worst part of Jacksonville I've been to. Is this the worst or are there even crappier parts?

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Ponte Vedra is pretty rough I hear.

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I'll take it you've never been to any major cities before. i.e NYC, LA, Chicago, etc. If you think Moncrief is bad take a gander thru the cities listed above, especially Chicago where gangs run the streets.

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"Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, if he gets angry, he's a mile away and barefoot."

Ponte Vedra is pretty rough I hear.

:woot:

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Riding a motorcycle on Atlantic Blvd can get a little dicey.

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I'll take it you've never been to any major cities before. i.e NYC, LA, Chicago, etc. If you think Moncrief is bad take a gander thru the cities listed above, especially Chicago where gangs run the streets.

 

Like most cities, it depends where you go in Chicago.

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At midnight there's plenty of places to avoid in any city

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I used to live on Liberty Street between 1st and 2nd..... it was like the DMZ there

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You know trouble is right around the corner when your best friend tells you to hold his beer!!

Riding a motorcycle on Atlantic Blvd can get a little dicey.

Riding a motorcycle ANYWHERE in Jacksonville can get a little dicey if you're not a competent rider. 

 

As far as the question by the OP, Moncrief is child's play.  Go on down Phoenix Avenue, or near Cleveland Arms Apartments, especially after dark, and see just how sketchy things can get. 

 

There are good and bad areas all over town.  Friends of ours lives in a neighborhood adjacent to the Hidden Hills Country Club.  Someone was shot and killed in his truck a few doors down from them earlier this week, and that's a fairly decent neighborhood.  The news crews were set up in their front yard doing their reports. 

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Never argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

I was doing the montessori magnet program at Kirby Smith when I was in middle school. I remember the school going on lockdown because somebody shot up the Krystals we shared a parking lot with. My dad also remembers being propositioned more than once dropping me off at school there.


Come to think of it, when I was going to J Allen Axson we got sent home once because there was a dead body on the school grounds one morning. I think it was a taxi driver.


Not sure how it compares with the other spots yall are mentioning, just sharing some of my precious childhood memories.

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I was doing the montessori magnet program at Kirby Smith when I was in middle school. I remember the school going on lockdown because somebody shot up the Krystals we shared a parking lot with. My dad also remembers being propositioned more than once dropping me off at school there.


Come to think of it, when I was going to J Allen Axson we got sent home once because there was a dead body on the school grounds one morning. I think it was a taxi driver.


Not sure how it compares with the other spots yall are mentioning, just sharing some of my precious childhood memories.

 

 

How can I get my kids into that school and where exactly is the drop off....

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I'd definitely go with Moncrief Rd.

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Riding a motorcycle ANYWHERE in Jacksonville can get a little dicey if you're not a competent rider. 

 

As far as the question by the OP, Moncrief is child's play.  Go on down Phoenix Avenue, or near Cleveland Arms Apartments, especially after dark, and see just how sketchy things can get. 

 

There are good and bad areas all over town.  Friends of ours lives in a neighborhood adjacent to the Hidden Hills Country Club.  Someone was shot and killed in his truck a few doors down from them earlier this week, and that's a fairly decent neighborhood.  The news crews were set up in their front yard doing their reports. 

 

Moncrief is pretty bad.  http://www.dailyfinance.com/photos/most-...ide=987582.  I think they mapped out the wrong area on the slide, but area that they were around was a block away from Moncrief.  #4 in the US as most dangerous neighborhood.  It actually beats out all but one Chicago neighborhood.  Chances of being a victim in that area are 20%.  Yikes.

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Moncrief is pretty bad. <a class="bbc_url" href='http://www.dailyfinance.com/photos/most-dangerous-neighborhoods/#!slide=987582'>http://www.dailyfinance.com/photos/most-dangerous-neighborhoods/#!slide=987582</a>. I think they mapped out the wrong area on the slide, but area that they were around was a block away from Moncrief. #4 in the US as most dangerous neighborhood. It actually beats out all but one Chicago neighborhood. Chances of being a victim in that area are 20%. Yikes.

Wow. Yeah Ive been to Phoenix Ave before and it wasnt that bad. The gas station I went to at moncrief was on the corner of Moncrief and 33rd. It felt like I was in a 3rd world atmosphere.

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There are numerous spots in Jax that are off limits at night...as others have said any city with an urban core is going to have it's pockets of violence and crime.

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Wow. Yeah Ive been to Phoenix Ave before and it wasnt that bad. The gas station I went to at moncrief was on the corner of Moncrief and 33rd. It felt like I was in a 3rd world atmosphere.

I think that's the area that the news refers to as "northwest Jax"...where most of the crap goes down.

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What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is agoin' on here???

If there's a shooting in Jacksonville, there's a better than average chance it occurred in the northwest quadrant of the city.  Other areas have their issues, but that seems to be the one that's most commonly in the media for shootings.  Unfortunately, that's the nature of the beast in any large city.  You're going to have areas that simply aren't safe.  Most locals know which areas to avoid.  However, that blight is branching out into other areas, and it's giving them a bad reputation as well. 

 

I live in an area of town that has always had great neighborhoods, but there are pockets even in this area that are almost like no-man lands where you don't want to be after the sun goes down.  We've got neighborhoods with million plus dollar homes, and within a mile or two you've got several older apartment complexes that have become havens for public housing, and sadly, where there's public housing, there's an increased risk of elevated crime levels. 

 

Where I live, it's a well established, older neighborhood that has nice homes, quiet streets, and great neighbors.  Unfortunately, we've got apartment complexes surrounding us that tend to have a sketchy element to them.  We've seen an increase in burglaries in our area that are being perpetrated by kids who are being sent out by adults to "test" the area by breaking into homes.  If they're not caught, they'll call in the cavalry and the adults who sent them show up to clean the place out.  It's usually the kids who get caught, and they usually wind up with a slap on the hand.

 

A good friend of mine is one of the investigators who is trying to catch the people responsible for the burglaries.  They actually know who is doing the majority of them, but they've been unable to catch them in the act, and they're not unloading the stuff they're stealing in the traditional manner.  Most of this stuff gets trucked off to flea markets in other areas to avoid being caught. 

 

A neighbor behind me was broken into a few months back, but the crime was interrupted because he came home at lunch to pick up some meds and caught the kids inside his house.  They tore out the back door and ended up coming through my yard.  I work from home, so I was sitting in my office on a conference call when this head popped up directly in front of my office looking for a way to get away from the homeowner who was chasing them. There were 4 kids involved, and they scattered immediately, but the JSO was already in the neighborhood taking a report from another elderly neighbor down the street they had just burglarized.  So, when the kids took off running, the K-9 and air support were already in the area looking for them.  They tracked them into one of those apartment complexes, and caught one kid because, being the criminal genius he was, he broke into these houses wearing this Dora the Explorer backpack, and this obnoxiously bright striped shirt.  Made him easy to find.  None of the kids were over 16.

 

Had these kids decided to kick in my back door, they would have been greeted by a [BAD WORD REMOVED] off homeowner with a Glock at the ready.  It's a shame we have to be armed and prepared to defend our homes from human debris like this, but I guess the mindset that it's easier to just steal from others than to earn it yourself is just too strong to resist for some people. 

 

When I see the reports of these senseless shootings around town, it's sad.  We've devalued life to the point where someone can be killed over a couple of bucks, or even worse, just because.  We've got people being murdered in night clubs, drive by shootings at gas stations, and random murders in sketchy areas of town.  Many are tied to the drug trade and deals gone bad, or robberies involving drugs / cash.  These incidents give many decent areas of town bad reputations, and it's a shame. 

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Never argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

If there's a shooting in Jacksonville, there's a better than average chance it occurred in the northwest quadrant of the city.  Other areas have their issues, but that seems to be the one that's most commonly in the media for shootings.  Unfortunately, that's the nature of the beast in any large city.  You're going to have areas that simply aren't safe.  Most locals know which areas to avoid.  However, that blight is branching out into other areas, and it's giving them a bad reputation as well. 

 

I live in an area of town that has always had great neighborhoods, but there are pockets even in this area that are almost like no-man lands where you don't want to be after the sun goes down.  We've got neighborhoods with million plus dollar homes, and within a mile or two you've got several older apartment complexes that have become havens for public housing, and sadly, where there's public housing, there's an increased risk of elevated crime levels. 

 

Where I live, it's a well established, older neighborhood that has nice homes, quiet streets, and great neighbors.  Unfortunately, we've got apartment complexes surrounding us that tend to have a sketchy element to them.  We've seen an increase in burglaries in our area that are being perpetrated by kids who are being sent out by adults to "test" the area by breaking into homes.  If they're not caught, they'll call in the cavalry and the adults who sent them show up to clean the place out.  It's usually the kids who get caught, and they usually wind up with a slap on the hand.

 

A good friend of mine is one of the investigators who is trying to catch the people responsible for the burglaries.  They actually know who is doing the majority of them, but they've been unable to catch them in the act, and they're not unloading the stuff they're stealing in the traditional manner.  Most of this stuff gets trucked off to flea markets in other areas to avoid being caught. 

 

A neighbor behind me was broken into a few months back, but the crime was interrupted because he came home at lunch to pick up some meds and caught the kids inside his house.  They tore out the back door and ended up coming through my yard.  I work from home, so I was sitting in my office on a conference call when this head popped up directly in front of my office looking for a way to get away from the homeowner who was chasing them. There were 4 kids involved, and they scattered immediately, but the JSO was already in the neighborhood taking a report from another elderly neighbor down the street they had just burglarized.  So, when the kids took off running, the K-9 and air support were already in the area looking for them.  They tracked them into one of those apartment complexes, and caught one kid because, being the criminal genius he was, he broke into these houses wearing this Dora the Explorer backpack, and this obnoxiously bright striped shirt.  Made him easy to find.  None of the kids were over 16.

 

Had these kids decided to kick in my back door, they would have been greeted by a [BAD WORD REMOVED] off homeowner with a Glock at the ready.  It's a shame we have to be armed and prepared to defend our homes from human debris like this, but I guess the mindset that it's easier to just steal from others than to earn it yourself is just too strong to resist for some people. 

 

When I see the reports of these senseless shootings around town, it's sad.  We've devalued life to the point where someone can be killed over a couple of bucks, or even worse, just because.  We've got people being murdered in night clubs, drive by shootings at gas stations, and random murders in sketchy areas of town.  Many are tied to the drug trade and deals gone bad, or robberies involving drugs / cash.  These incidents give many decent areas of town bad reputations, and it's a shame.

We've been having a problem with that kind of thing over here in Riverside too. It's a problem here because we have the alleys behind our houses that hardly no one ever uses any more since the city whined about having to drive down them to pick up the garbage. I work from home too so 90% of the time I'm home during the day so I try to keep an eye out for my neighbors places.

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What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is agoin' on here???

Moncrief isn't too bad. 8th street can be really shady though, the other side of 95 away from Shands..

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HUD housing. Back in the 70s and 80s it was decided that rather than cluster HUD housing in one area of town, it would be best to distribute it around every city. The theory being that HUD residents would acquire the socioeconomic habits of the surrounding areas and climb out of poverty and crime. Instead, it had the effect of injecting cancer cells into healthy tissue. If not kept in constant check the surrounding neighborhoods begin to devalue and die.

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