Downtown's Hostile Business Policies Hard at Work

[simms3]

Is Bill Brinton behind this, too?  Don Redman?  Why do we let literally a few individuals with some power in this city bring the whole deck of cards down?  This reminds me of the whole Mayport issue.  One 90 year old crabby lady and about 10 sympathizers versus the entire metro and all of the other businesses and residents in Mayport, and old lady wins.  I feel like every city has some bit of red tape, but Jacksonville seems to have a red carpet for blocking progress and improvements (and small businesses).  Higher taxes are less business-unfriendly than our ridiculous policies and red tape.

[ChriswUfGator]

It's the Daily Record actually.  They were quoting a member of the JCCI committee.  Just because someone says something doesn't make it true. It may be true that they SAID it, but it doesn't make what was said true. 

Take it with a grain of salt. Or maybe a pound.   

I didn't realize the daily record was circulated in Charleston South Carolina, so what would you know about its credibility anyway? Seriously? Well like I said, why don't you investigate the Daily Record then and win a Pulitzer when you bust them for making this up. Lol. This is rich.

[vicupstate]

The credibility of the Daily Record is not the issue.  I don't doubt that it was SAID. But is it TRUE?   There was no mention of what type of restaurant, or who owned it, or where it was other than DT.  People hear someone say something, and repeat it elsewhere as gospel all the time.  Urban legends, for example.

I have read the Daily Record since about 1999, which I would guess is before you were out of diapers.  I've visited Charleston many times, but I have never seen it there. They DO have the internet in Charleston, so if someone living there wanted to read it they could.     

[JC]

A year to make a decision on outdoor seating is insane.  The modification of hostile public policy and forcing seamless coordination between departments is the one of the simple ways to immediately change the face of downtown and stimulate foot traffic on the streets.  With that said, I'll plug this article we ran a few months back.

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-nov-creating-downtown-vibrancy-by-exposing-secret-retail

How would this stimulate foot traffic?

[ChriswUfGator]

The credibility of the Daily Record is not the issue.  I don't doubt that it was SAID. But is it TRUE?   There was no mention of what type of restaurant, or who owned it, or where it was other than DT.  People hear someone say something, and repeat it elsewhere as gospel all the time.  Urban legends, for example.

I have read the Daily Record since about 1999, which I would guess is before you were out of diapers.  I've visited Charleston many times, but I have never seen it there. They DO have the internet in Charleston, so if someone living there wanted to read it they could.     

So a guy 500 miles away is lecturing me on the credibility of interview subjects that he doesn't know, in a city where he doesn't live, in an article by a newspaper he doesn't even get in South Carolina. Thanks for the lecture, maybe when you're finished you can throw your hat in the ring to be the next mayor of San Francisco too, since the Internet apparently makes you so much more knowledgeable about local issues than the people who actually live there.

Maybe you could expound on how or why someone would just make that up, considering we have several current and former downtown business owners like Stephen Dare and Jerry Moran on this site, who incidentally all say the same thing about COJ's attitude towards downtown. Why don't you go ahead and state exactly which person that you've never met in the article in the newspaper that you don't get in the city where you don't live was lying, and I can contact Jim Bailey who owns the Daily Record for you and since he posts on this site as well, we can get a clarification for you since I'm sure this issue must be huge up in Charleston.

[ChriswUfGator]

A year to make a decision on outdoor seating is insane.  The modification of hostile public policy and forcing seamless coordination between departments is the one of the simple ways to immediately change the face of downtown and stimulate foot traffic on the streets.  With that said, I'll plug this article we ran a few months back.

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-nov-creating-downtown-vibrancy-by-exposing-secret-retail

How would this stimulate foot traffic?

How would it not? Restaurants bring people, you have to walk downtown at a minimum from on-street parking or a parking lot to your destination. The more people you have walking around, the better vibrancy is. That's the problem in a nutshell with what we did when we allowed every big building to build a dedicated parking garage, those people no longer walked and interacted with the street.

[kells904]

So which restaurant? 

The few details included in her example seem specific enough to me that it refers to an actual business she's familiar with on some level.  My guess is she left details out on the specific restaurant on purpose, because specifics aren't necessary in this instance.