Celebrating 904 Day: Jacksonville’s Top Headlines of 2024

As Jacksonville, Florida, proudly marks 904 Day, we’re reflecting on a year that has seen it make headlines in remarkable ways.

Let’s delve into the stories that have defined this year for the River City.

We are a rude city, Jacksonville!

Jacksonville is the 12th rudest city in America this year, according to a Preply study .

The tutoring company surveyed dozens of cities, asking people questions like how often residents witness others committing rude acts, how they perceive native residents versus transplants, and more. Preply applied scores to responses that indicated a higher frequency of rudeness and calculated the average score for each city. Finally, scores were adjusted on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 representing the rudest.

Jacksonville got a total score of 8.05 out of 10.

The city with the highest rudeness score in America IS Miami. It scored 9.88.

Jacksonville ranked No. 56 best place to live in the country by U.S. News & World Report

The River City moved down from No. 16 last year to No. 56 this year on the “Best Places to Live in the U.S. in 2024-2025.″ report.

In 2022, Jacksonville ranked No. 24 on the list. While Jacksonville’s housing costs are “lower than the national median sale price,” U.S. News and World report said, “the largest daily expense is transportation, as many people rely on their own cars to get around.”

The magazine said in addition to coastal living opportunities, Jacksonville “offers a range of culturally and aesthetically diverse neighborhoods surrounding downtown.”

Seven cities in Florida ranked higher than Jacksonville on the list: Naples came in at No. 1, Sarasota at No. 11, Pensacola at No. 31, Tampa at No. 35, Fort Myers at No. 37, and Melbourne at No. 49.

Jacksonville in top 30% of most stressed cities in U.S., according to WalletHub

Jacksonville is the 60th most stressed city in the United States, according to a recent WalletHub study .

The personal finance company compared 182 cities across 39 key metrics, including average weekly work hours, unemployment rate, divorce rates, and suicide rates.

The following are Jacksonville’s rankings:

• Work stress: 118 out of 182
• Financial stress: 38 out of 182
• Family stress: 59 out of 182
• Health and safety stress: 67 out of 182

Jacksonville was the highest-ranking city in Florida.

Jacksonville Among Cheapest Cities In US For Dining Out

Grocery stores aren’t the only places the cost of food has gone up... restaurants are having the same problem.

But a food website called, Cookie Rookie, looked at the prices of dining out and our city fared pretty well in the rankings. Jacksonville landed at #10 in a list of the cheapest cities in the country for eating out. It’s a 9-way tie for 10th place but we are still in the Top 10, so we’ll take it.

Cookie Rookie analyzed how much it costs for two people to enjoy a three course meal at a mid-range restaurant without breaking the bank. The study also took into account each cities’ favorite meals, state dishes and where the most cheap-eat restaurant are located.

Fort Worth came in at #1, with a three-course meal for two people at a mid-priced restaurant costing $60.

Jacksonville ranks third in U.S. Postal Service dog bites

The United States Postal Service has released dog bite rankings for Florida, and Jacksonville is near the top.

The rankings come as USPS kicks off its 2024 National Dog Bite Awareness Campaign.

According to a news release, there were 193 dog attacks on USPS employees in Florida in 2023.

Here are the top five cities:

• Miami - 21 attacks
• St. Petersburg - 15 attacks
• Jacksonville - 10 attacks
• Orlando - 9 attacks

Jacksonville pizzeria recognized by Yelp among best in U.S. for its Chicago-style deep dish pizza

A Jacksonville pizzeria’s Chicago-style deep dish pizza has been given the seal of approval by Yelp.

The review hub recently published its “Top 25 spots for Chicago-style pizza: For those whose love for pizza runs deep” and Carmines Pie House in Riverside made the list at No. 2 in the U.S.

Restaurants were ranked “using a number of factors, including the total volume and ratings of reviews mentioning ‘Chicago style pizza,’ ‘Chicago-style pizza,’ and ‘deep dish pizza.’”

The only U.S. spot that ranked higher on the list than Carmines was Heirloom Pizza in Monterey, Calif. To see the full list, click here .

2 seafood restaurants in Jacksonville area ranked among top 100 seafood spots in the U.S. by Yelp

Yelp has released a list of “Top 100 Seafood Spots 2024″ and one Jacksonville Beach restaurant and one Brunswick restaurant both made the Top 20.

Yelp identified businesses in the seafood category with a large concentration of reviews mentioning “seafood,” and then ranked those spots using several factors, including the total volume and ratings of reviews between January 1, 2001, and December 13, 2023.

Mr. Shuck’s Seafood in Brunswick came in at No. 8.

The most popular and most photographed dishes at Mr. Shuck’s are Garlic Shrimp, Blue Crab, and Fried Shrimp. Yelpers rave about the secret butter sauce that dresses the blue crabs and owner Donte Habersham sells it by the gallon.

Dockside Seafood Restaurant in Jacksonville Beach came in at No. 11.

Among the restaurant’s most popular dishes listed by Yelpers are the Crab Cakes Basket, Conch Fritter, and the Gator Tail.

To view Yelp’s full list of ‘Top 100 Seafood Spots for 2024′, visit the link here .