Nate Monroe: The year Jacksonville's lords of the waterfront fell from grace

[thelakelander]

COMMENTARY | This was the year Jacksonville's masters of the universe face planted.

The pandemic economy may bear some blame. It has upended the present and clouds the future, but it doesn't account for the past: The seeds of Jacksonville's star-crossed 2020 were planted years ago, even before Jaguars owner Shad Khan and former Disney executive Peter Rummell sold the city on their technicolor dreamscapes of a transformed waterfront on opposite sides of the St. Johns River.

In betting on those projects, the city was truly betting on the powerful men behind them. But both those projects and the men connected to them exit 2020 humbled, altered, and the city once again finds itself losing one of its most precious resources: Time.

There have been two major stretches of economic expansion since 2000  —  two decades during which historic but hollowed-out downtowns across the nation have experienced a renaissance, even with a major recession sandwiched between them. Jacksonville, alone among Florida's major cities, has missed out on both.

Former Jacksonville Mayor Ed Austin posed for a photograph once in front of downtown's skyline  —  a 1995 picture memorializing the sunset on his public service career. It should have captured the downtown of a different era, but, disturbingly, it didn't: The downtown skyline circa 1995 looks exactly as it does today.

How did this happen?

Full article: https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/columns/nate-monroe/2020/12/26/year-jacksonvilles-lords-waterfront-fell-from-grace-shad-khan-peter-rummell/4028451001/

[marcuscnelson]

Another bang. All of this looks right on the money.

It really is so frustrating seeing the generational failure to fulfill the promises this city made to its residents.

[thelakelander]

The failing to capitalize on the two urban development booms this century is extremely frustrating. We actually, magically found a way to take the Northbank backwards prior to the COVID situation. The saving grace is that all the simple things that we need to do are still possible. We just need to do them and lay that foundation. The unfortunate part is that's not going to really take place with the current administration in charge. Their primarily focus will remain everything east of the jail.

[heights unknown]

Minus a few tall buildings, Jax's downtown closely resembles a suburban office park.

[jaxlongtimer]

Here is another clever Nate Monroe gem on Shad Khan and Lot J in the form of a reworked Christmas poem:

https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/columns/nate-monroe/2020/12/23/twas-night-before-christmas-jacksonville-city-hall-shad-khan-lenny-curry/3908219001/

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the city

Not a politician was stirring, not even Lenny;

The stockings were hung outside offices with care,

In hopes that Shad Khan would soon be there;

Council members were nestled all snug in their beds;

While Paul Harden's sweet words danced in their heads;

... When down by the water there arose such a clatter,

They sprang from their beds to see what was the matter.

... When what to their wandering eyes did appear,

But a mega-yacht docked down at the pier;

With a little sign painted "Jaguars owner,"

They knew in a flash 'twas the political donor.

More rapid than a running back his courses they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called the councilors by name:

"Now, Aaron! Now, Gaffney! Now Boylan and Pittman!

On, Ferraro! On, White! On, Freeman and Becton!"

"To the fourth floor, to the top of City Hall,

Now cast away! Cast Away! Vote yes all!"

... He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the PACs; his 'stache bent in a smirk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the atrium he rose;

Away he flew, like a bird of prey,

He suckered them all, he knew, on funding Lot J.

And I heard him exclaim, from his maritime sleigh,

"I'll be back, ya fools, for the next giveaway!"

[bl8jaxnative]

The more a city measures itself by it's skyline, the less healthy it is to live in.

[jaxlongtimer]

Nate Monroe says Curry has "checked out" in calling out the disaster of a mayor we have with an updated and unvarnished catalogue of his incompetency and failure to govern.

Here is a sample that points to Curry barely even showing up for work anymore:

...It might be too harsh if it wasn't an open secret in City Hall that Curry is so thoroughly checked out he's seen and heard from less than a part-time office intern, and if he projected even just mild interest in literally any other topic  —  like his actual job.

It might be too harsh if Curry was known to be a competent administrator, rather than the scandal-plagued, personnel-challenged and mean-spirited politician he is. It might be too harsh if Curry was a unifier, instead of the poor-sport partisan he turned out to be.

It might be unfair if Curry hadn't spent chunks of his time in office leveraging his relationship with Jaguars owner Shad Khan for rides on the team's charter plane to away games and other perks, wasting city resources and time attending the 2018 NFL draft so he could meet his favorite TV personalities, and for gaining the privilege of hanging out for hours at training camp in the middle of the workday  —  outings that consumed huge amounts of his time....

https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/columns/nate-monroe/2020/12/29/jaguars-biggest-fan/4072701001/

[vicupstate]

Nate Monroe: Literally the ONLY source of accountability in the City of Jacksonville government for decades.

[marcuscnelson]

Wait, so are Brian Hughes and Jordan Elsbury just running Jacksonville right now?

[Florida Power And Light]

The more a city measures itself by it's skyline, the less healthy it is to live in.
[/quote

The more Jacksonville ignores its public waterfront attributes ....... the more time goes on.