Jacksonville is Losing its Identity

[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.

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.

The mayor and many other staff do read the Jaxson. I doubt they are following individual threads, but most of what gets talked about here, is already on the radar of folks in the office.