Curry Budget Takes $4.6 Million from Downtown Redevelopment

[jaxjags]

Nobody

[benmarcus]

Nobody

The Mayor seemingly puts more thought into youth football rather than the city. Just trying to ride out the storm. If he gets his way with this pension vote, prepare for a gubernatorial run, folks. On the back of strongarm politics and false claims of fixing the budget.

[mtraininjax]

I personally hope Lori Boyer steps up to the plate on this one.

I believe Council, as evidenced by Gulliford's comments, will step up and find the money for downtown. You think CC meetings are contentious now? Just wait.......

This is NOT good news for downtown, no matter what, a report on CNBC last week about the state of Real Estate, in NYC and what is happening to Land Deals and redevelopment....

https://www.bisnow.com/new-york/news/state-of-market/video-of-the-day-cbres-mary-ann-tighe-gives-a-state-of-the-nyc-leasing-market-63943

What does concern her, however, is frozen land sales, a result of the disconnect in buyer-seller expectations and the drying up of financing.

There may be great deals out there, but the financing is just not there. You will continue to see more buildings being bought and sold, but don't look for many, if any new construction in commercial real estate. This bodes ill for downtown projects that require financing to get going. Not much of an appetite for such deals.

[UNFurbanist]

Can't say much but I know of a buyer from NYC who was going to purchase an entire building downtown and put in a popular restaurant because he loved the up and coming feel of Jax... I say "was" because he just pulled out citing the mayor's lack of commitment to DTJax as the deciding factor. I hate Curry and frankly most of city council at this point -_-

[UNFurbanist]

Can't say much but I know of a buyer from NYC who was going to purchase an entire building downtown and put in a popular restaurant because he loved the up and coming feel of Jax... I say "was" because he just pulled out citing the mayor's lack of commitment to DTJax as the deciding factor. I hate Curry and frankly most of city hall at this point -_-

It will take the next mayor 8 years to recover from the Curry Admin damage.

And the mayor will have to be a talented, charismatic person.

We don't seem to elect those types of people here. Not yet at least. It's such a shame that Brown wasn't a better mayor because I think if he had been even somewhat competent then Curry wouldn't even be around to mess things up even more.

[mtraininjax]

It will take the next mayor 8 years to recover from the Curry Admin damage.

Or we can embrace the new downtown of Jacksonville in Town Center and call the current downtown, the suburbs.

[jaxjags]

Can't say much but I know of a buyer from NYC who was going to purchase an entire building downtown and put in a popular restaurant because he loved the up and coming feel of Jax... I say "was" because he just pulled out citing the mayor's lack of commitment to DTJax as the deciding factor. I hate Curry and frankly most of city hall at this point -_-

It will take the next mayor 8 years to recover from the Curry Admin damage.

And the mayor will have to be a talented, charismatic person.

We don't seem to elect those types of people here. Not yet at least. It's such a shame that Brown wasn't a better mayor because I think if he had been even somewhat competent then Curry wouldn't even be around to mess things up even more.

They have to be found and run first. No one with vision and cares truly about DT wants to run.

[Tacachale]

Somehow, despite the furor over this issue here, the news of the actual resolution was overlooked:

Committee approves Curry's budget with only minor changes

By Christopher Hong Fri, Aug 26, 2016 @ 6:31 pm | updated Fri, Aug 26, 2016 @ 6:46 pm

A Jacksonville City Council panel on Friday OK'd Mayor Lenny Curry's proposed budget without making any major changes, approving his plan to hire 40 new police officers but otherwise keeping quality-of-life services near their current levels.

Curry's proposed budget doubled down on the law-and-order platform that he was elected on last year, adding 40 new police officers as well as 40 civilian officer positions that can handle minor issues, like traffic accidents, which the Sheriff's Office says will free up existing police to focus on more serious crime.

...

The group didn't make any significant enhancements that weren't included in Curry's budget, although it added $8.5 million in capital spending on top of Curry's $83.3 million plan — the largest such allocation in six years. That includes $500,000 for new library materials, $1 million for sidewalk repair and $3 million to make sidewalks accessible for people with disabilities — as required by a settlement the city reached in 2013 with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Councilwoman Anna Brosche, chairwoman of the committee, said next year's budget will help chip away at the large backlog of work needed on the city's roads, sidewalks and other infrastructure, but a daunting amount of work still remains to be done.

The committee found money to prevent it from spending $4.6 million that was to be taken from downtown's redevelopment district. Curry's proposed budget called to spend that money in the general budget, although now it can be spent on economic development for downtown.

...

[jaxjaguar]

Yay something went right!

[mtraininjax]

Yay something went right!

Mayors screw things up, and the Councils fix them.

[Tacachale]

I'd like to know why the $4.6 wasn't spent by DDA last year to begin with. Given the needs downtown, that seems like a much bigger problem than the city attempting to actually put the money to use.

[tufsu1]

I'd like to know why the $4.6 wasn't spent by DDA last year to begin with. Given the needs downtown, that seems like a much bigger problem than the city attempting to actually put the money to use.

perhaps because the DDA hasn't existed in over 10 years