Trouble in Downtown?

[simms3]

Great great great article!  Excellent points!  Simple solutions.  I am about to post a new thread about my observations from Charlotte.  It might tie in...

[tufsu1]

Maybe downtown was not ready for a barber shop since it has little population.  This letter is a bit slanderous.

There is plenty of population for a barber shop.  All of downtown and all of springfield.

true....which is why there are still at least 4 barbershops/salons downtown...and if it is true that Tonsor is still open, that would make 5!

[thelakelander]

10,000 units is the rule of thumb benchmark that is needed to support the full complement of basic services required to sustain a residential area, grocery store, drug store, etc.  When Charlotte reached this milestone, there was a marked influx of such businesses.  

There are exceptions though.  Winn Dixie is in DT Jax, albeit it gets panned by many.  Also, Greenville SC has fewer than 10,000 DT residential units yet sustains a DT Publix.      

This is because their markets extend beyond the imaginary borders of their respective city's downtowns.  The magical number for grocery stores that size is typically around 20,000.  In DT Jax's Winn-Dixie's case, they're serving the Eastside, Springfield and Durkeeville in addition to DT.  I think this is something the JEDC, DVI and our city leaders need to take advantage of instead of isolating downtown.  If they took the holistic approach, they might see that State & Union is the corridor that they should place a higher focus on in regards to commercial development.

[dganson]

I won't get a haircut downtown because of the ridiculous parking policies.  Im not going to spend 21 on a haircut and another 10 for a parking space.
Stephen, do you believe that if you tell the same lie over and over again it will become true. There vis no $10.00 parking downtown except for special events. I am so tired of this lie you repeat over and over again. And I get my hair cut for $11.00. Maybe this guy is too expensive. And lastly The Carling is a terrible location. No one will survive there for a long long time.

And what is your answer. You have blamed parking as the only culprit downtown for years. I have read hundreds of atricles of other cities that wrestle with this problem. And for every example of a city making parking free there is another one with free parking that was the culprit. There is absolutely no proof that your point is even remotely valid. There are hundreds of contradictory articles on this subject.  And if all of the meters were removed in downtown Jacksonville these spaces would fill up immediately and the public would still have to park in garages. And to make these free should the city take this private property from its rightful owners and make these garages free too. And the city is terrible at running their own garages. Their employees steal thousands yearly. The city does not audit these garages and are getting ripped off every day by overpaid and over benefitted employees.

And if companies are leaving downtown isn,t it the landowners who are at fault for not providing parking for their potential tenants. If they paid too much for the property then it is their fault. If they can not compete with the burbs at competitive rates this is not a government issue.
How about somre honesty Stephen.

[RiversideLoki]

Dganson, it's easy for you to attack the messengers that report/editorialize on what's actually happening downtown. But it doesn't negate the fact that it's actually happening. There's plenty of anecdotal evidence that points to parking being one of the major issues. When you have the companies that are moving out blatantly saying "parking is an issue", you saying that parking is not an issue is like saying that the sky is green and grass is blue.

You seem to have a record of calling the lot of us "whiners" for pointing this out. What's your vested interest in parking downtown?

[simms3]

I also doubt parking is an issue for the companies downtown.  It's an issue for the Landing and for small businesses and that's it.  We have enough parking spaces, we just need to replace the meters with a higher tech more user friendly system ($1/hr with 2 hr max, pay by card, cash, or coins).  We also need to work on public parking signage and ease of entry/exit.  I for one have never had problems parking downtown, but there could be improvements.

Also in other cities garages are more aesthetically pleasing, are easier to find and enter, and offer a "free or cheap" visitor/patron section below the residents' or office users' parking levels.  That way most garages can be conveniently used by all.

[thelakelander]

It was an issue for MODIS.  They actually stated it as a major expense they were reducing in their recent decision to move to the burbs.  It was also mentioned in today's article about Tree of Life's decision to bail to the Southside as well.  However, this parking thing is much more complicated than making a decision on whether to have meters or not.  Office needs are also different from residential and retail parking needs.  When you employ over 100 people, you're not worried about on-street parking meters.  You're expense is in reserving that many dedicated spaces in a garage.

[Ethylene]

Or they could just manage parking as the COJ does for all its employees...POORLY! All the muckity mucks are given primo parking whenever and wherever. Those with city vehicles have prepaid parking assignments but think it's OK to stop at a meter and flash a pass if they so desire. But all the rest of us are at the mercy of the Parking Cartels where we are reduced to groveling, begging and sometimes borrowing parking that is both convenient and safe. All despite the fact that there is a City Ordinance mandating what city employees are required to pay for city owned parking. Somehow, when the city hires a management company to run city owned garages it becomes a whole new ballgame!

[thelakelander]

Or they can do what they are currently doing....move to another location where they can cut costs and not have to deal with the headache of being in downtown Jacksonville.

[simms3]

As someone else mentioned on Jacksonville.com, another problem is that this city does not have enough young professionals who will happily pay for downtown parking or even live downtown and walk to work.  We don't have any top universities that form the basis for the young professional class (though Charlotte doesn't either), and we have a higher proportion of blue collar companies.  The white collar companies we do have require years and years of experience and business connections as barriers to entry, and so they aren't even looking for college recruits.  The rest of the companies are either call center types or are distribution/warehousing/shipping and are blue collar oriented (but still pay well, just a different crowd that works there).  Charlotte is an example of a purely white collar city (I did not see *any* industry there whatsoever and everyone walks around with a suit, even in the suburbs).  We on the other hand are a blue collar town with rich people in it.  Charlotte's crowd is way more conducive to downtown employment and downtown/urban living.  Our crowd is way more conducive to suburban living and suburban employment so that it is easier to leave work and play golf or the blue collar crowd which isn't exactly a "progressive/urbanist" crowd.

And besides, I just emailed someone that works right there and knows a thing or two just to see his opinion on the matter.  He does not believe that parking is an issue downtown.  There is high availability and our rates are cheap by city standards (and the city subsidizes so much already to the operators so that they don't lose money because there is actually an overabundance of garages in the area and not enough workers to fill the spaces).  He thinks it is just another excuse, and why not use parking as an excuse?  Sleiman has been screaming about parking for years now and so it has become a common theme (in his case rightfully so since the city never honored its contract).

Lake, you mentioned the right word: it's a headache to be downtown right now.  It should be a way to leverage those added expenses against increased exposure and increased profitability.  Instead, the expenses are not worth the measly benefit, even though the expenses are so low (trust me, we have low lease rates and low parking rates, there are suburbs more expensive than our downtown in other cities, and before the recession there were many office buildings on the Southside with much higher lease rates than downtown buildings).

[SaraD]

Where I take issue with many portions of this post. I will focus on one target area; the misrepresentation of the homeless men, women and children who live in our community:

Quote: "Finally, the "HOMELESS".  What a misnomer for the majority of them who are actually criminals, drug-addicts, alcoholics, and just plain bums."   
   The majority of homeless men, women and children are NOT criminals, drug addicts and ‘bums’. That is not to say that substance abuse is not an issue for some people who are homeless but it is not fair to say ‘majority’. Most of the 4,000+  homeless people living in Jacksonville are hidden from view and many of them are families with children who are suffering from crisis poverty.  According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, children and families account for one of the fastest growing segments of the homeless population. Nationwide, approximately 924,000 children are homeless. In this economy it is not surprising that more and more people are finding themselves facing homelessness. Many of the homeless living in Jacksonville are men and women just like the individuals reading this blog, but who have lost their jobs and have no where to turn for help except for the emergency shelters.

Quote: "But we can’t even get the homeless shelters to create a data base so our home less will have proper ID."
   The local homeless shelters do have a system in place that tracks the people that are served and many of the shelters do track the recidivism rate. As far as IDs go, people who are homeless also have to bring multiple forms of identification including an original birth certificate to get a state issued ID. All of the local shelters assist their clients with obtaining proper identification but as I am sure you know it can be a tedious process.

Quote "My answer is because the shelters get their money based upon  how many people they can count in their headcount, and if they were to keep count the right way with I.D.’s we would see that they are all helping the same people over and over again." 
   Shelters do not receive money based upon the number of people in their headcount. They receive money based on outcomes. Every shelter in this city is full every night and hundreds of homeless men, women and children are turned away because there is no more room. There is no shortage of people needing help.

Quote: "…creating the Jacksonville Paradise of Homeless"

Have you ever visited a homeless shelter?

Quote: "only to panhandle about the urban center from the well-intentioned but naïve visitors to the city"
Studies have shown that only about 2% of the homeless population panhandle. The other 98% are hidden from view.

I think that it should also be noted that many times people assume that someone is homeless because they are sitting in Hemming Plaza during the day. Recent homeless censuses have shown that not to be the case. Many of the men and women who spend their days in Hemming Plaza have homes. But they are low income and chose to utilize the free PUBLIC resources available to them such as Hemming Plaza and the Main Library. 

Most importantly one should remember the ‘the homeless’ are individuals. They are people who are someone’s son or daughter, sister or brother, mother or father. I am truly sorry that this gentleman lost his business and I know that can be devastating. I only hope that he is treated with the same sympathy, respect and kindness that I ask we give to every member of our community.

[Taylor Strasser]

Dear Joe,

As an employee of a local shelter agency, I'm struck by your characterization of shelters as "paradise." I'd like to invite you to come down for a tour sometime. I can also show you our databases we use to track client data - I can't show you private client data, of course. We actually use 2 different databases. One, is custom-made proprietary software, which meets our agency's specific needs. The other, is a United Way-administered database, which tracks data across a 5-county area. The purpose of this is to limit "double dipping" and to help us best meet the needs of our clients.

Additionally, I'd like to point out that the "panhandling" homeless encountered downtown represent a scant minority of the more than 4,000 homeless men, women and children residing in the First Coast. The majority of these 4,000 individuals and families remain mostly invisible to the public.

Locally there are only around 1,000 shelter beds. That leaves roughly 3,000 with no place to go.

Also, please note that the idea that our homeless have bused in from some other locale is one of the biggest misconceptions regarding the issue. In FY 09-10, 70% of individuals served by my agency were from Duval County. These aren't outsiders or interlopers. These are our neighbors.

It's extremely unfortunate that many businesses have failed downtown. I know that I would be devastated if I was in your shoes. But, scapegoating the poor doesn't go too far with me.

Like I said, shoot me an e-mail and I can give you a tour some time.

Sincerely,
Taylor Strasser

[KuroiKetsunoHana]

taylor, i think i love you.

[dganson]

RiversideLoki  I have no vested interest in parking in any way. I am just a retailer trying to make a living. I never called you whinners...I called Stephen a liar by saying a haircut cost $21.00 plus $10.00 to park. This type of lie just exacerbates the perception of a nonexistent problem. No metro area our size has free parking as land costs too much to do this. But our rates are market competitive. And no one avoids downtown if there is a reason to be here..see next weekend..or this weekend for that matter. Parking does not keep theatre goers away. If there is something to do people will come. See July 4th, Fl/Ga, Christmas tree Lighting and boat parade, Jazz festival..I could go on and on. Sometimes small business fails because they have the wrong model or wrong location or just don't know how to manage a small business. My only point, I repeat MY ONLY POINT is that Stephen continually pushes parking as the single impediment to downtown success and lies about facts to validate his argument. Period

[rainfrog]

SaraD & Taylor Strasser,

Kudos for standing up in defense of such an easy target.

You both mentioned that the vast majority of homeless people do not panhandle, and Sara, you also that the people using Hemming Plaza or the library are mistaken to be homeless yet are not. To add to that, I've also heard that the majority of panhandlers are not homeless, and I was wondering if either of you have ever seen that in a study or know of this as likely true?