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Charlotte VS Jacksonville VS Nashville


ncguy06

Which city has the best chance to become the next "big city" of the south, these seem to be the top 3 choices, now what do you think and why??  

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  1. 1. Which city has the best chance to become the next "big city" of the south, these seem to be the top 3 choices, now what do you think and why??

    • Charlotte
      148
    • Jacksonville
      62
    • Nashville
      65


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I hope this doesn't make anyone angry:) but I've lived in Charlotte and in Jax. Comparing the two is a joke. It's like this: Cosmopolitan splendour vs. Honky Tonk. Low key religiosity vs. religious zealotry. A proud civic attitude vs. an immense city-wide inferiority complex.

When I see one of those 50 story buildings actually break ground in Jax, I will be glad to EAT MY HAT. I know Jax---all those proposals will collapse before a shovel full of dirt is ever lifted. I lived there 16 years. I know.

I lived in Charlotte 24 years, and it is a city PROUD OF ITSELF. Always has been. Never trifling or low classed, but things are almost always done with finesse and good style:)

Go Charlotte!---from Jacksonville, Florida you have absolutely no competition!

Born and raised in Jax.

The city has changed immensely in the past 10 years. Maybe you can open your eyes a little and not be so biased towards Charlotte. When was the last time you lived in Jax?

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metro, the charlotte statistics do not impress me at all because Mecklenburg county is not much denser than duval county and has less land. The inner city of Jax is quite dense you will find if you visit. What is developed in Jax is probably not even half the land that Duval County encompasses. Coming in from the west on 10, for twenty minutes inside Duval there are just pine forests, and then an interchange and civilization for about 5-10 minutes. Same with the northside. The only well developed part of Jax is within the beltway, the beaches, and much of the southside, and everything else has dirt roads and pine forests. Jacksonville maintains an almost equal density as Mecklenburg over a larger area, so you tell me which looks better on paper.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yea, and Charlotte only recenty has started residdential construction and proposals, as has Jax...both lead Nashville on that. Charlotte better not turn it's back too boldly because Jax is a different city and has taken a different turn that people five years ago may not have expected at all. Jax has some distinct advantages that Charlotte cannot boast: WATERFRONT-beach and river, and being in FLORIDA-vacation, tourism, climate, homestead act, etc.

Plus your team just lost badly, i don't read much into things, but prophecy of things to come...bwahahaha. JUST KIDDING!

You're wrong my friend. You need to check out the Nashville forum on here and then retract your statement (or at least get educated).

*take foot, insert it into mouth*

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Sprawl? (people/sq mile)

Charlotte = 242 sq/miles = 2234 people/sq mile

Jacksonville = 758 sq/miles = 758 people/sq mile

Mecklenburg County = 526 sq/miles = 1321.5 people/sq mile

Duvall County = 774 sq/mile = 1006 people/sq mile.

This doesn't really say much. Raleigh is more dense than Charlotte if you go by those figures. It's clear which one has the better density downtown if you visit either though. A better way to measure this is to just compare the number of residents downtown, out to a certain radius.

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I've lived in both Jacksonville and Charlotte within the last five years. I'm sure both will keep growing, but for different reasons and in different ways. And I frankly think the comparison is silly.

Corporate types talk about Jax as a good place for a call center. Some of the largest buildings downtown carry the names of Charlotte-based companies. There is a real shortage of educated workers, and a real shortage of headquarters to provide corporate leadership. It is also geographically isolated.

Charlotte is a headquarters town with all of the infrastructure that implies: law firms, accounting firms, venture capital firms, and a talent base. It is central to an economically vibrant region. And it has an asset that can't be understated: Somehow, in one city, the two largest banks in the southeast.

Jacksonville has some wonderful advantages. It is a river-laced city ten miles from the ocean. It was a large city before Charlotte and it has more beautiful neighborhoods and buildings as a result. And the climate is definitely better.

It will keep growing because people want to live there, and the jobs will follow.

Charlotte will keep growing because the jobs are there, and the people will follow.

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Sorry for not posting hard stats, I was doing that but my browser crashed & I honestly don't want to revise what I had already done. But based on 2000 Census block data, both Charlotte, Nashville & Jacksonville were extremely similar in both 2 & 5 mile population radiuses based on city center. The only difference was that Jacksonville had a higher 1 mile radius population than Charlotte or Nashville.

Why I view the population for city center is significant is because 'measuring' sprawl is truly difficult because it's patterns are so inconsistant. I would rather impress on the point that sprawl happens to all cities, except for those with geographic uniqueness or a big anti-sprawl policy. Otherwise, the healthiness of the city center is what we are all mostly interested in anyways - & all three cities are very similar in that point.

What that doesn't tell you though is what has happened since 2000, condo towers will raise the population but not as much as you would think. A 100+ unit tower is big, but realistically it will likely only house less than 200 people. The big population gainer is still inner-ring infill housing, townhomes & even single family housing makes a big difference.

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  • 2 months later...

Born and raised in Jax.

The city has changed immensely in the past 10 years. Maybe you can open your eyes a little and not be so biased towards Charlotte. When was the last time you lived in Jax?

I was born and raised in Jax (I was born in Orange Park, Mr Clay County.) I still live there in heart. I moved to Charlotte ten years ago (brief hiatus in AU two years ago, hence the name, but now i'm back in CLT again.) However, I visit old friends in and around Jax every year and I see a lot of growth; I see a lot of growth here too. It's hard for me to compare because, while I see growth little by little here in CLT every day, I see giant steps in growth around Jax over much longer periods of time. It all has to do with intervals.

As for uptown growth, both proposed and under construction, CLT easily takes the cake over Nash and Jax.

For those of you arguing about pop density and the like, it's irrelevant. Jax does have a lot of marsh land. Yes, CLT does have some, but not nearly on the scale of any land south of Savannah.

To continue the sprawl debate:

top 100 cities ranked by square miles of sprawl:

31. Jacksonville, FL 156.4

38. Nashville, TN 140.0

39. Charlotte, NC 136.0

guess who was number 1? Our good friend ATL with 701.7

so, I don't think any of can compare the three cities on that stat because, compared with the nation, all three were doing very well with containing sprawl. So, starting from that point, the three cities were almost identical in 1990. It's a matter of who has taken off the most since then. I vote Charlotte.

I wish I could provide more up to date data than this. Anybody have the 2000 census numbers for sprawl?

source: Sprawl City a site dedicated to the research of sprawl

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