re: Best southern city

For crime and geography alone:

Birmingham
Atlanta
NO
Memphis

But they’d all be far down the list if I had other options

It's overlooked, but if you're not looking for a "party city" then why does no one mention Jacksonville, Florida?

It's a big city with plenty of amenities, but you don't need to go to the whole city often, the east and west side of the city are essentially separate cities, so it doesn't feel that big.

Traffic is very manageable, roads are in great condition, crime isn't horrible, and there's plenty of nature. Heck, the beach was just 15 minutes away from where I lived and I wasn't even that close to Jax Beach.

There seemed to be an abundance of jobs across different sectors, schools seemed like they were good enough, and UF is a great state school in terms of national reputation. Plus it's only 1.5ish hours from Gainesville, if you're the fan of an SEC school and want to watch your team.

And, yes, it's hot in Jax, but it's not Miami hot, more equivalent to what you would see in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, or Houston. But, if you want to go to Miami, it's only a 4-hour drive away.

I'm just shocked how, in similar conversations in the past, Jax never seems to come up.

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And, yes, it's hot in Jax, but it's not Miami hot, more equivalent to what you would see in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, or Houston

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Jacksonville has the best overall weather situation in FL. We don't get the heat of Miami or worse ..Orlando. We don't get below freezing or the storms of the west side

What's intriguing to me is that there was a post several months back that ranked best US party cities...Jax was 37 and Nashville was 36. But as you point out, the are so many different segments to the city that offer different things and none are really hard to get to ( btw I drive 13 miles to work and it takes me on avg 22 min)

Nashville hands down

Charleston. Tampa is another.

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Jax was 37 and Nashville was 36

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If you're young and really into drinking/country music, then I can see why Nashville would be better than Jax. Weather is definitely better in Nashville too. I don't think Jax should be just one spot above Nashville in terms of party cities, there's definitely more of a "party culture" in Nash and the cities feels younger too.

In terms of day-to-day living, I think Jax definitely has Nashville beat. Jax has, as you mentioned, much better traffic situation, the infrastructure is miles better (in terms of limiting traffic, lack of potholes, etc.) and it's slightly more affordable.

I think Nashville has a major overpopulation crisis in the making. The city is not built to handle the number of people moving there and I think it's really decreasing the quality of life in the city.

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Anyone in Key West would be quick to tell you that they are a part of the South, they're in the Caribbean.

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They’ll also tell you it’s not all that great of a place to live full time or grow up. Not much to do and hot as hell. Not to mention hurricanes. Great place to visit though.

Beaumont

Is St. Pete big enough to qualify?

Mobile, AL is also much better than most of those under discussion.

Atlanta

Birmingham

New Orleans









Memphis