How I would fix Downtown right now:

[thelakelander]

Mtrain, some cities with similar demographics that have rebuilt their downtowns include Nashville, Norfolk, Indianapolis, and Louisville.  This downtown vibrancy thing isn't rocket science. We just make it a lot harder and more expensive than it has to be.

[JaxNative68]

Gosh, we are currently spending $400 million on a new courthouse
that we really did not need. Do you think we could have fixed the entire downtown for $400 million???

it is pretty tough to argue that we didn't need a new courthouse...have you been in the existinmg building?  how about the overbooked courtrooms?

Do you think we needed to spend 400 million for one?  and the project is not even finished. It probably will run more before it is complete.   

I personally would rather have built something maybe vertical ,instead of taking up the land area this concrete monstrosity takes up. Or added to the existing Courthouse.. much like Clay County did with theirs.   But I doubt many would buy into that idea, particularly for wanting it to be razed to make way for a convention center we also cannot afford at this point .

could have renovated the existing courthouse and built a small annex to accommodate overcrowding for half the money spent on the new one, but then again look at all that Gate precast on the new courthouse - what is that I smell - the money pouring into the Peyton family pockets!

[tufsu1]

one of the big keys we've realized recently is that downtown needs to be activated with regularly scheduled events/festivals.

btw, the latest DVI newsletter said this:

Downtown Vision Inc. reports attendance was at near-record levels for its most recent events. The May 4 First Wednesday Art Walk equaled last year’s single-night record of 8,000 visitors Downtown and the “Movies in the Park” family film series brought 3,000 children and parents to Treaty Oak Park and the riverfront lawn at the Wyndham Hotel on the Southbank.

And this doesn't include the additional thousands who went to FunkFest and Rockville at Met Park this weekend....fact is, it works...all we need is more of these events and cluster as many as possible in the northbank core

oh yeah....what's that about nobody going downtown?

[Bativac]

one of the big keys we've realized recently is that downtown needs to be activated with regularly scheduled events/festivals.

btw, the latest DVI newsletter said this:

Downtown Vision Inc. reports attendance was at near-record levels for its most recent events. The May 4 First Wednesday Art Walk equaled last year’s single-night record of 8,000 visitors Downtown and the “Movies in the Park” family film series brought 3,000 children and parents to Treaty Oak Park and the riverfront lawn at the Wyndham Hotel on the Southbank.

And this doesn't include the additional thousands who went to FunkFest and Rockville at Met Park this weekend....fact is, it works...all we need is more of these events and cluster as many as possible in the northbank core

oh yeah....what's that about nobody going downtown?

Yeah, people go downtown, but what do they do there? They drive to the [free] event, they hang out, and they leave.

ArtWalk is very successful. The movies in Treaty Oak Park are successful too. I definitely think they need more festival type events. But just getting people to go downtown for festivals isn't going to solve any of the other problems.

More ArtWalk type events would be great. Landlords willing to budge a little on rents for their empty spaces would be even better. The city easing up on parking tickets and sign laws would be fantastic. It's like trying to make a jigsaw puzzle with one piece.

[sandralark]

one of the big keys we've realized recently is that downtown needs to be activated with regularly scheduled events/festivals.

btw, the latest DVI newsletter said this:

Downtown Vision Inc. reports attendance was at near-record levels for its most recent events. The May 4 First Wednesday Art Walk equaled last year’s single-night record of 8,000 visitors Downtown and the “Movies in the Park” family film series brought 3,000 children and parents to Treaty Oak Park and the riverfront lawn at the Wyndham Hotel on the Southbank.

And this doesn't include the additional thousands who went to FunkFest and Rockville at Met Park this weekend....fact is, it works...all we need is more of these events and cluster as many as possible in the northbank core

oh yeah....what's that about nobody going downtown?

Yeah, people go downtown, but what do they do there? They drive to the [free] event, they hang out, and they leave.

ArtWalk is very successful. The movies in Treaty Oak Park are successful too. I definitely think they need more festival type events. But just getting people to go downtown for festivals isn't going to solve any of the other problems.

More ArtWalk type events would be great. Landlords willing to budge a little on rents for their empty spaces would be even better. The city easing up on parking tickets and sign laws would be fantastic. It's like trying to make a jigsaw puzzle with one piece.

Agreed here. Everyone shows up for a few hours and then leaves, not much is reinvested into the businesses regularly enough. One Wednesday a month of crazy amounts of patrons isn't going to cut it. I'm a big fan of special events and festivals, but downtown needs to be a daily destination, too, with better access to groceries, shops, etc... not just bars!

[tufsu1]

you'll get no argument from me...but you have to start somewhere....most of the succesfull downtown turn-arounds have been started with special events and/or convention/tourism industry.....followed by restaurants and nightlife, residential, and finally retail.

[JeffreyS]

I would push for Florida State College to put all of it's growing 4 years degree programs downtown with some student housing. 

[kells904]

^^Fantastic idea, JeffreyS.

[Demosthenes]

Residential should be our #1 focus! Seriously, in a city of 800,000+ and an region with 1.3 million +, i have no doubt that if there were 10K places to live downtown (affordable places) that you could fill them, even with transit, parking, and retail being issues.

With those 10K people, you now have a voice, and a catalyst for progress. You have a group of people are are vested in the improvement of downtown.

Give downtown a voice, and a lot of these issues will start to work themselves out.

While I dislike everything about Hogan, he is kind of correct in that downtown shouldnt be a hole that the city throws money down. The changes that are needed are in policy.

[comncense]

That would be great but I think most of FSCJ's class offerings are at South campus and with state budget cuts, there will be no renovations or building at FSCJ anytime soon.

[MusicMan]

Could we have utilized the Laura Street Trio plus the old Barnett Bank Building for a location of the new courthouse and facilities? They are for sale, cheap, and still vacant. I am guessing there is 200,000-300,000 square feet available in those combined structures, and the old Marble Bank would have made an awesome courtroom space. It seems a visionary leader would have , AT THE LEAST,  put that on the table as an option. No question those structures could have been purchased and renovated for $150,000 million (or less), leaving a large overage for further downtown re-development.

[Timkin]

Another wonderful Idea MM ..  but no vision to move these buildings forward for anything.. Cameron Kuhn was the last one to actually do something with them and then his vision and works went belly up. If we had used the existing buildings we have , such as in the instance of the St James Building ..the ONE building they did save (actually I am sure there are a couple of others ) over the long haul, MILLIONS could have been saved by utilizing these great landmarks.

[Ocklawaha]

Could we have utilized the Laura Street Trio plus the old Barnett Bank Building for a location of the new courthouse and facilities? They are for sale, cheap, and still vacant. I am guessing there is 200,000-300,000 square feet available in those combined structures, and the old Marble Bank would have made an awesome courtroom space. It seems a visionary leader would have , AT THE LEAST,  put that on the table as an option. No question those structures could have been purchased and renovated for $150,000 million (or less), leaving a large overage for further downtown re-development.

Yes, yes, but The Explosion in a Pillar Factory, aka: PEYTON PLACE, would have never been built and Johnny wouldn't have his legacy project, and THAT'S something worth oh, $500 million?

OCKLAWAHA

[Timkin]

You must be referring to that hideous excuse of an over budget courthouse.   What a waste.