Five Revitalization Myths Jacksonville Must Overcome

[Jumpinjack]

Excellent article. What happened to Brooklyn and LaVilla was a dreadful disrespectful disaster. The longer they sit vacant the harder it is to attract the money to fulfill a vision.

A sixth problem could be added: widening highways and creating higher speed corridors to move more cars faster has divided our neighborhoods from each other and from the business areas. The natural flow of pedestrian scale streets, where residence and commercial interface and  mix is gone.   

[jcjohnpaint]

Thanks Lake for adapting the article to Jacksonville.  One important aspect to consider is that the myths apply to the Revitalization of the urban area.  We also need to address the cause for the decline, which I believe to be the rampant, unchecked sprawl that has taken place over the last several decades.  Until we stop the sprawl, our revitalization efforts will be like running up the down escalator.

I would be happy if this new administration did nothing more for downtown than to stop the sprawl.  It is a very cheap fix.  Developers and builders will eventually catch on and start rebuilding the core.

Your right.  I do believe this is at the root of the problem.  If you just took one of those condo projects in the southside such as Tapestry Park and put it downtown- there would be change.

[jcjohnpaint]

You hear people always saying Duval Co is no good anymore, so I live in St. Johns.  This is the mentality that has been killing us.  Keep moving out for better while abandoning what we left.  Look at Regency Square.  In 20 yrs we will be talking about SJTC the same way.  We cannot let this city rot from the inside out. 

[tayana42]

Stop the sprawl.  Extend the Skyway Express to the stadium and into Riverside and Springfield.  Improve the educational system; and provide a better-trained workforce.  And finally, provide the things that help improve quality of life:  culture, arts, music, parks, recreation.  City'l grow.

[duvaldude08]

Stop the sprawl.  Extend the Skyway Express to the stadium and into Riverside and Springfield.  Improve the educational system; and provide a better-trained workforce.  And finally, provide the things that help improve quality of life:  culture, arts, music, parks, recreation.  City'l grow.

I agree 100%. Long story short, take care of the core of our city and everything else will fall in place.

[Timkin]

A M E N !!!!!!

[krazeeboi]

Interesting article here, especially factor #5. I noticed that Jacksonville seemed to have a good bit of streets that have been freshly streetscaped when I was there back at the end of May. That contributes to an overall feeling of cleanliness, which is a good thing, but it's true that that by itself doesn't lead to revitalization. However, there have been several urban revitalizations that have occurred with streetscaping projects being a part of the process. But there has to be an overall process to begin with.

[Kiva]

Stop the sprawl.  Extend the Skyway Express to the stadium and into Riverside and Springfield.  Improve the educational system; and provide a better-trained workforce.  And finally, provide the things that help improve quality of life:  culture, arts, music, parks, recreation.  City'l grow.

Streetcars will be cheaper than the Skyway. Everything else on your list is perfect!

[iMarvin]

Skyway > Streetcar

[ProjectMaximus]

skyway to the stadium. Streetcar to riverside and springfield.

Happy Fourth!!

[duvaldude08]

^^Sounds good to me. The sports district is on expansion that is a must.

[Steve Ducharme]

Jacksonville Beach up until the early 90's was proof positive of this.  Every grand revitalization scheme imaginable was proposed until they finally gave up when the proposed financing "security"  was unprocessed gold ore.  Essentially just rocks.  After that debacle the city gave up and told the property owners to go to it under some sensible development guidelines.  BOOM!  Jax Beach blossomed quickly once the property owners knew they were safe to invest their own dollars without the threat of imminent domain snatching it away for someone's fantasy.  Oh if only Jacksonville would learn the same lesson.    GET the gov't buildings OFF the river and get off the property owners backs.  On the flip side, STOP giving away millions to every developer who comes along.  Let the city develop organically.  Give them transportation systems (like a city is supposed to) and get out of the way.