New Partnership Formed to Bring More Capital to Downtown Development

[brainstormer]

I agree with you about the incompetent budget part. 

That is where I put the blame on city council, though. Downtown development is not one of their priorities. They could have taken the money from somewhere else to fund DIA at a higher level. I feel the mayor and council are both really good at "putting on shows" and most of the time there is little follow through. They love to make headlines for dumb things, but aren't always based in reality.

[tufsu1]

Any indication about when this new entity will become active?

Mike Field and I spoke with Steve Crosby the other night.  He's been at the job for two months and has just started raising money and contacting folks for the investment fund

[downtownbrown]

I'm not so sure you can point all of the blame on Mayor Brown. Our 19th century city council isn't exactly willing to invest in downtown. Didn't the mayor propose much higher funding for DIA than what was actually given to them? I think if Aundra Wallace had more money to work with we would see more action downtown. Right now multiple projects are competing for a small pot of money.

If you blame CC instead of Brown you must support increasing the city's already unmanageable debt load.  I would love to see all of the mayor's wish list come to fruition, but wouldn't like to see the debt explode.  So what's the answer? More revenue.  And who absolutely refuses to increase taxes? The mayor.

[Tacachale]

^yeah...

[CityLife]

It will be interesting to see how this fund is used in the mayoral race by Curry. Particularly if the DIA can't make any big deals happen prior to the election.

[jaxjags]

Exactly, yet Jax is one of the least taxed city of it's size in the country. I have always thought the real problem is the inability of anyone in the city government willing to increase the tax rate for these kinds of investments in the future of DT. True at the state level also, which has impacted our ability to truly recruit the really large manufacturing plants such as Boing or the auto assembly plants. They require large incentives, but bring employment with good paying jobs.

[edjax]

^^I personally think the whole willingness to increase taxes for us downtown is a result of consolidation.  You are basically asking people countywide to pay higher taxes for downtown when realistically many in the out reaches of our large county don't relate to downtown at all. To me it would be kind of like expecting people in Apopka located in Orange County to raise their taxes to benefit something for downtown Orlando.  My guess is that would be a hard sale to have it happen. But our city council is made up of many representatives of these far reaching spots in Duval and many of those they actually represent could care less about downtown.  Therefore the overall council has a hard time coming up with necessary votes to really invest in downtown. While I don't agree with that thought personally I do think it plays a part in the downtown issue.  Which is why I always cringe when people say the hell with the people in Mandarin and their suburban lifestyles.  Guess what, if you want to put alot of money into downtown Jax you are going to have to have the support of constituents in Mandarin and the Suthside, etc to make it happen.

Can it work? Yea and there is proof in cities such as Indy and Nashville, but for whatever reason it doesn't seem to here. Perhaps due to the shear size of our county in comparison to those cities?

[vicupstate]

^^I personally think the whole willingness to increase taxes for us downtown is a result of consolidation.  You are basically asking people countywide to pay higher taxes for downtown when realistically many in the out reaches of our large county don't relate to downtown at all. To me it would be kind of like expecting people in Apopka located in Orange County to raise their taxes to benefit something for downtown Orlando.  My guess is that would be a hard sale to have it happen. But our city council is made up of many representatives of these far reaching spots in Duval and many of those they actually represent could care less about downtown.  Therefore the overall council has a hard time coming up with necessary votes to really invest in downtown. While I don't agree with that thought personally I do think it plays a part in the downtown issue.  Which is why I always cringe when people say the hell with the people in Mandarin and their suburban lifestyles.  Guess what, if you want to put alot of money into downtown Jax you are going to have to have the support of constituents in Mandarin and the Suthside, etc to make it happen.

Can it work? Yea and there is proof in cities such as Indy and Nashville, but for whatever reason it doesn't seem to here. Perhaps due to the shear size of our county in comparison to those cities?

No, it is due to the leadership, or lack thereof.  The Urban core of Jax USE to carry a very disproportionate share of the total property tax burden for Duval County. The taxes generated far exceeded the cost of services to DT proper.  This provided a huge benefit to the county as a whole. 

That is still the case in nearly all major cities but it is no longer the case in JAX. That is because as the values have fallen so much and not recovered.  Understanding this benefit of a healthy core seems to be lost on JAX's leaders.  It is not elsewhere.

Plus, while Duval is 840 Sq. miles, a good chunk of that is rural. The truly dense parts are not that much larger than Nashville-Davidson's 550 Sq. miles.         

[downtownbrown]

It doesn't help that the head of the CC is a First Baptist member who would just as soon see the sidewalks cleared and the bars closed.  Oh, and the "porn" removed from the museums.

[tufsu1]

^ he isn't the head of anything...he is the City Council President for one year...and his year is almost half over

[downtownbrown]

^so he's not in charge.  He's just the president.  Sounds familiar.

[vicupstate]

^so he's not in charge.  He's just the president.  Sounds familiar.

No, he is not in charge. The CC President is a figurehead, auto-signer for the most part.
The Mayor has infinitely more power, he just refuses to exercise it. 

[edjax]

^^I personally think the whole willingness to increase taxes for us downtown is a result of consolidation.  You are basically asking people countywide to pay higher taxes for downtown when realistically many in the out reaches of our large county don't relate to downtown at all. To me it would be kind of like expecting people in Apopka located in Orange County to raise their taxes to benefit something for downtown Orlando.  My guess is that would be a hard sale to have it happen. But our city council is made up of many representatives of these far reaching spots in Duval and many of those they actually represent could care less about downtown.  Therefore the overall council has a hard time coming up with necessary votes to really invest in downtown. While I don't agree with that thought personally I do think it plays a part in the downtown issue.  Which is why I always cringe when people say the hell with the people in Mandarin and their suburban lifestyles.  Guess what, if you want to put alot of money into downtown Jax you are going to have to have the support of constituents in Mandarin and the Suthside, etc to make it happen.

Can it work? Yea and there is proof in cities such as Indy and Nashville, but for whatever reason it doesn't seem to here. Perhaps due to the shear size of our county in comparison to those cities?

No, it is due to the leadership, or lack thereof.  The Urban core of Jax USE to carry a very disproportionate share of the total property tax burden for Duval County. The taxes generated far exceeded the cost of services to DT proper.  This provided a huge benefit to the county as a whole. 

That is still the case in nearly all major cities but it is no longer the case in JAX. That is because as the values have fallen so much and not recovered.  Understanding this benefit of a healthy core seems to be lost on JAX's leaders.  It is not elsewhere.

Plus, while Duval is 840 Sq. miles, a good chunk of that is rural. The truly dense parts are not that much larger than Nashville-Davidson's 550 Sq. miles.       

Well part of the leadership issue is that because many of the leaders represent parts of town whose constituents also do not see the value of a strong downtown. And lets face it failure after failure on accomplishing anything downtown decade after decade does not do much to change the minds of those that feel that way.

[IrvAdams]

Exactly, yet Jax is one of the least taxed city of it's size in the country. I have always thought the real problem is the inability of anyone in the city government willing to increase the tax rate for these kinds of investments in the future of DT. True at the state level also, which has impacted our ability to truly recruit the really large manufacturing plants such as Boing or the auto assembly plants. They require large incentives, but bring employment with good paying jobs.

Yes. People have to get over the mantra that a higher tax rate is always a bad thing. There are checks and balances on the spending of local money. We are taxed so low that we can't get off the ground.

[Tacachale]

There have been plenty of successes downtown. We just haven't kept the momentum going from one to the next or continuing to build. The last four years, especially, have been full of wasted opportunities.