Jacksonville is Losing its Identity

[OspreyGrad]

Here are the RiversEdge Development and the Ashco Twin Towers on the Southbank. I'll try to finish the renderings of the Stadium of the Future, Shipyards Four Seasons Hotel and the proposed MOSH museum together sometime later this week.

[jaxlongtimer]

Where did you get the Rivers Edge renderings?  Are those your placeholders or did they provide those?  Would be interested to know before commenting on the designs if they are real  .

[marcuscnelson]

^ Those are the actual Preston Hollow renderings.

[Tacachale]

When I first moved to Jacksonville, the things that I most strongly associated with the city as unique differentiators were the Jacksonville Landing, the Skyway, the 11 AM to 11 PM river taxis, the massive Regency Square Mall, Adventure Landing, the Southbank MOSH and River City area, and concerts at Met Park and Freedbird Live. These were all things that you couldn't really find in other cities that gave Jax a bit of its own feel.

In rapid fire succession, these things have all been erased from existence, and without them, I feel like we're rapidly turning into a rather nondescript mid-sized city. We've never been good at preserving our past, but it's kind of wild to see all these things just quietly disappearing. It feels like it's getting harder and harder to describe what makes Jacksonville unique, which to me, is a really significant, self-inflicted problem. 

Been thinking about this, and I couldn't disagree more. I'm the first to say how disastrous demolishing the Landing was (I state it on the record at noticed meetings whenever it comes up) and how much losing things like water access, Adventure Landing, etc. sucks, especially for kids and young people. But at the same time, this city is more invested in itself and its unique identity today than it has been at any time in the last 200+ years. When I was growing up in the 80s and 90s, no one besides Jake Godbold and the late, great Bill Foley were even trying to describe Jacksonville as a city with its own spirit of place. I believe that The Jaxson and the kinds of books Ennis and I write only work because an interested audience is there.

People today are more invested in Jacksonville and the things that are local and unique to it -- food, art, stories, places, you name it. I was telling the Jaxson team, last year I was at a writing conference in Vermont, and me and the one other person from Jacksonville got everyone shouting "DUUUVAL!" It got to the point people would shout it whenever they saw us.

Some things change, and not always for the better. Some of those changes are wider trends. Local retail is getting Starbucked and Bezosed and LLMed all over the country, for example. But unfortunately a lot of it is the result of short-sighted local decisions. But overall I think we're in a better spot than we've ever been in. I personally haven't felt this optimistic about our future in over 20 years.

[OspreyGrad]

@jaxlongtimer, the Rivers Edge renderings are Preston Hollow Capital's just as @marcuscnelson mentioned. It would be nice to see some of these projects become reality someday.

[jaxlongtimer]

@jaxlongtimer, the Rivers Edge renderings are Preston Hollow Capital's just as @marcuscnelson mentioned. It would be nice to see some of these projects become reality someday.

^ Those are the actual Preston Hollow renderings.

Thanks!  Not impressed.  It looks cold and ugly in the renderings and, again, a mish-mash of styles.  Nothing distinctive.  Typical cheap Jax designs.  Maybe it looks better in other renderings, but these turn me off.

I wish we had higher design and architecture standards in Jax for our most prominent properties.  This should be tied to the non-existent Downtown plan.

Just as we are "giving away" our prized waterfront, we are "giving away" our Downtown environmental soul.

[OspreyGrad]

@jaxlongtimer Agreed! It reminds me of a bad looking plaid suit jacket from the 1970's. It might be vintage, but it still looks bad.

I just finished an aerial view of the MOSH museum with the Stadium of the Future and the Shipyards Four Seasons hotel.

[Ken_FSU]

When I first moved to Jacksonville, the things that I most strongly associated with the city as unique differentiators were the Jacksonville Landing, the Skyway, the 11 AM to 11 PM river taxis, the massive Regency Square Mall, Adventure Landing, the Southbank MOSH and River City area, and concerts at Met Park and Freedbird Live. These were all things that you couldn't really find in other cities that gave Jax a bit of its own feel.

In rapid fire succession, these things have all been erased from existence, and without them, I feel like we're rapidly turning into a rather nondescript mid-sized city. We've never been good at preserving our past, but it's kind of wild to see all these things just quietly disappearing. It feels like it's getting harder and harder to describe what makes Jacksonville unique, which to me, is a really significant, self-inflicted problem. 

Been thinking about this, and I couldn't disagree more. I'm the first to say how disastrous demolishing the Landing was (I state it on the record at noticed meetings whenever it comes up) and how much losing things like water access, Adventure Landing, etc. sucks, especially for kids and young people. But at the same time, this city is more invested in itself and its unique identity today than it has been at any time in the last 200+ years. When I was growing up in the 80s and 90s, no one besides Jake Godbold and the late, great Bill Foley were even trying to describe Jacksonville as a city with its own spirit of place. I believe that The Jaxson and the kinds of books Ennis and I write only work because an interested audience is there.

People today are more invested in Jacksonville and the things that are local and unique to it -- food, art, stories, places, you name it. I was telling the Jaxson team, last year I was at a writing conference in Vermont, and me and the one other person from Jacksonville got everyone shouting "DUUUVAL!" It got to the point people would shout it whenever they saw us.

Some things change, and not always for the better. Some of those changes are wider trends. Local retail is getting Starbucked and Bezosed and LLMed all over the country, for example. But unfortunately a lot of it is the result of short-sighted local decisions. But overall I think we're in a better spot than we've ever been in. I personally haven't felt this optimistic about our future in over 20 years.

Yeah, it's a fair point. Landmarks, family attractions and external postcard identity aren't necessarily the same thing as our own internal identity.

I do question how much shared identity a consolidated 800-square mile city, with 40% of our population being new since 2006, could realistically ever have, but I fully agree that we've undergone huge positive change.

Biggest change for me, by a MILE, is the complete and total death of Jacksonville's stifling inferiority complex. Unless you lived here during that era, it's hard to put into words how deeply engrained it was. Even the Super Bowl was a drag with all the negativity. We still view ourselves as underachieving, but not as lesser than. Ironically - and I know many here will likely disagree - I think the explosion of the Town Center area played a huge part in that change in mentality. For decades, Jacksonville's measuring stick for "making it" was weirdly tied to getting a Macy's, or getting a Cheesecake Factory, or getting a Nordstrom or Neiman Marcus. I think seeing high end retailers like Tiffany, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Apple, and IKEA fighting for retail space in Jax has helped validate locals in a certain way. 

Ironically, the explosion of chains also led to this amazing period of explosive growth for local craft breweries, coffee shops, restaurants, retail, etc. Throw in an influx of young transplants and a younger local generation growing up, changing mindsets that allow for things like the HRO and Deegan's win, and it's a different, better city than it was 20 years ago.

I'm very bullish on Jacksonville's future, but I think I was more bullish during that wild Blake Bortles/One Spark era where places like Intuition, Bellwether, Black Sheep, Olio, Superfood and Brew, etc. were popping up like wildflowers, downtown had a healthy office population, James Weldon Johnson Park was exploding and driving adjacent investment like Sweet Pete's, etc.

To me, the ONLY thing standing in the way of Jacksonville's next big step forward is a unified master plan for our urban core. It's the difference between a roadmap and a prayer, and the difference between a 10-15 year success story and 50 more years of disjointed start and stop. 

[jaxlongtimer]

When I first moved to Jacksonville, the things that I most strongly associated with the city as unique differentiators were the Jacksonville Landing, the Skyway, the 11 AM to 11 PM river taxis, the massive Regency Square Mall, Adventure Landing, the Southbank MOSH and River City area, and concerts at Met Park and Freedbird Live. These were all things that you couldn't really find in other cities that gave Jax a bit of its own feel.

In rapid fire succession, these things have all been erased from existence, and without them, I feel like we're rapidly turning into a rather nondescript mid-sized city. We've never been good at preserving our past, but it's kind of wild to see all these things just quietly disappearing. It feels like it's getting harder and harder to describe what makes Jacksonville unique, which to me, is a really significant, self-inflicted problem. 

Been thinking about this, and I couldn't disagree more. I'm the first to say how disastrous demolishing the Landing was (I state it on the record at noticed meetings whenever it comes up) and how much losing things like water access, Adventure Landing, etc. sucks, especially for kids and young people. But at the same time, this city is more invested in itself and its unique identity today than it has been at any time in the last 200+ years. When I was growing up in the 80s and 90s, no one besides Jake Godbold and the late, great Bill Foley were even trying to describe Jacksonville as a city with its own spirit of place. I believe that The Jaxson and the kinds of books Ennis and I write only work because an interested audience is there.

People today are more invested in Jacksonville and the things that are local and unique to it -- food, art, stories, places, you name it. I was telling the Jaxson team, last year I was at a writing conference in Vermont, and me and the one other person from Jacksonville got everyone shouting "DUUUVAL!" It got to the point people would shout it whenever they saw us.

Some things change, and not always for the better. Some of those changes are wider trends. Local retail is getting Starbucked and Bezosed and LLMed all over the country, for example. But unfortunately a lot of it is the result of short-sighted local decisions. But overall I think we're in a better spot than we've ever been in. I personally haven't felt this optimistic about our future in over 20 years.

Tacachale, question:  Does the Mayor ever read the Jaxson postings?  If so, is she ever influenced by comments on here?  Do you know if any City Council or Department heads monitor the Jaxson?

If they do, I can't understand why they don't incorporate the many constructive and common sense "suggestions" made here.

Understand, I support Mayor Deegan but just think there is more low hanging fruit the Administration could go after, especially regarding City master planning, restructuring JTA/incorporating mass transit in City initiatives, pushing harder against incentives on riverfront property, etc.