SPAR's Letter to Barack Obama

[zoo]

Louise DeSpain sent this electronic correspondence to the Obama Transition Team in early January. She asked that I post it here, in its entirety:

Dear President-Elect Obama,

What an exciting time we are in, and what an optimism you and your promises of urban renewal bring to the Springfield National Historic District in Jacksonville, Florida, and areas like ours nationwide.

My name is Louise DeSpain, and I am the Executive Director of the Springfield Preservation and Revitalization (SPAR) Council (www.sparcouncil.org). As indicated, Springfield is a National Historic District, and is located on the northern edge of the City of Jacksonville’s downtown Central Business District.

Like many urban neighborhoods, Springfield began declining in the 1950’s, endured racial conflict in the 1960s, and continued into physical, economic and educational deterioration, with increases in crime, drug usage/addiction, and teen birth/infant mortality rates well into the 1990s.

I believe you have familiarity with our neighborhood, as your Jacksonville campaign headquarters were located in one of our Klutho-designed historic structures at 1830 N. Main Street. Our community may not have been pretty when you visited, but SPAR’s hope is that soon, it will be pretty, safe and enriching for all its residents.

Through resident commitment, municipal, state and federal programs, and with recent support from our District 7 Councilmember, Dr. Johnny Gaffney, Springfield has made much progress doing all of the “right” things:

-   In 1987, a one-mile square area founded in 1869 and containing a significant number of homes and commercial buildings constructed from the 1890s-1920s, was designated the Springfield National Historic District (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield,_Jacksonville,_Florida);

-   In 1994, the Springfield area and many of its surrounding neighborhoods were designated a Federal Empowerment Zone;

-   In 1995, the State of Florida passed similar legislation designating the area a Florida Enterprise Zone. SPAR now fundraises in three key areas, Residential Safety & Maintenance, Commercial Corridor Revitalization, and Hogan’s Creek Parks Revitalization, through the Enterprise Zone’s Community Contribution Tax Credit program (§220.183 F.S.);

-   In 2001, the Springfield Historic District Zoning Overlay was enacted, protecting the community from new infiltration of inappropriate land uses;

-   Since 2003, the City of Jacksonville has invested more than $20M on streetscape improvement, including new underground utility, sewer and stormwater infrastructure, on our two main commercial corridors, Main Street and 8th Street;

-   Between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s, SHARP grants and façade grants were available to support existing, and attract new, residents and businesses in the area;

-   Springfield has been working closely with its primary “economic engines,” UF/Shands Jacksonville, Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ) and Bethel Baptist.

o   UF/Shands is the Northeast Florida region’s indigent-care facility and Level 1 Trauma Center. The University of Florida has its Medical, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Dentistry schools at this location, and has constructed a $150M proton-therapy cancer treatment center on the Historic District’s border. In conjunction with the County and State Boards of Health, the new federal Veterans Administration facility, and our own Darnell Cookman Middle School of the Medical Arts, Springfield is becoming a regional health and wellness cluster;

o   FCCJ is the region’s community college focused on transitional jobs and career pathways, and has recently been designated a State College that will offer four-year workforce training and bachelor’s degrees;

-   The community has attracted a couple of private developers who are affecting positive change â€" SRG Homes & Neighborhoods (srghomes.com) builds historically-appropriate, single- and multi-family infill homes, and utilizes Empowerment and FLEnterprise Zone credits. And Cesery Cos. is building the first new building on Main Street â€" a 47,000 square foot mixed-use project â€" in 40 years, that is expected to add 12 full-time jobs to the area;

-   SPAR has been in close partnership with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) for the past three years. Springfield hosts a monthly Sheriff’s Advisory Committee (SHADCO) meeting, and SPAR, working with private partners, has funded in excess of $500,000 of community policing over that time period;

-   Since 2006, SPAR has worked closely with the City of Jacksonville’s Code Compliance division to enforce municipal code violations in the community that continue to cause blight and deterioration. SPAR has a very successful Block Captains program and ,with the support of private partners, funded in excess of $500,000 of litter and trash removal;

-   SPAR has expressed its interest in partnering with the City of Jacksonville’s Housing and Neighborhoods department to implement the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, and specifically HERA 2008 §2301(c)(3)(D) and 24 CFR 570.201(d), within the portion of the 32206 ZIP targeted area that is overlapped by the Historic District;

-   The Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) submitted an operational grant application to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to provide a more reliable and frequent trolley service from the residential areas of the community to/from its nearby economic and employment centers;

-   SPAR has recently partnered with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) to receive board training and a grant to employ a Commercial Corridor coordinator and Americorps assistant. LISC and the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) named Springfield one of the top five emerging urban markets nationwide along with Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, and communities in Philadelphia, Detroit and Minneapolis;

-   Springfield has a 27-acre string of parks that adjoin the Historic District and Jacksonville’s central business district. The park system contains Hogan’s Creek, which flows into the St. Johns River, one of 14 American Heritage Rivers, and contains remnants of a stormwater management systems engineered in 1928. In 2006, Springfield hosted the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra for an outdoor concert and holds 4th of July “throwback” baseball games and other events on an annual basis;

-   The City of Jacksonville has included a one-block area of this park system in its list of ash clean-up sites, as a result of an EPA lawsuit;

-   SPAR has grown the organizational capacity of the neighborhood, which now has a merchants and business association (SAMBA), an animal rescue group (SACARC), a Mommies Group, a Garden Club, the first Girl Scouts of America troop in 50 years, and more;

-   Springfield is the home of four excellent youth programs/centers including The Bridge (modeling its programs on the Harlem Children’s Zone), The Sanctuary (the subject of NPR spoken-word-artist Al Letson’s “Summer at Sanctuary” â€" stateofthereunion.com), The Boys’ and Girls’ Club, and the Robert F. Kennedy Community Center (municipal);

-   Springfield, and more specifically the Klutho Building at 1830 N. Main St., is the home of Operation New Hope, which created the nationally-recognized Ready4Work program for ex-offenders; and,

-   Is adjacent to, and has close relationships with, nearby successful urban Jacksonville CDCs, including Ron Pauline’s MetroNorth CDC (metronorthcdc.org) and Paul Tutwiler’s Northwest Jacksonville CDC (northwestjaxcdc.org).

As you can see, SPAR, in partnership with the public and private organizations at the local, state and national levels, has taken a very comprehensive approach to revitalization, because we know we must provide an environment where pride and economic success can be achieved by all of our residents. Despite our progress, we also face many hurdles ahead:

-   Underfunded Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) needs in Springfield; our neighborhood’s “gateway” is blighted by a 1960s hotel that makes our community look more like Beirut than an urban National Historic District. This hotel at 901 N. Main St. is privately-owned, and is a Superfund site (FLSFN0407139) for which “an eligible response site (ERS) exclusion decision has been made;”

-   Environmental contamination throughout the 27-acre park system that has been known about, but considered too large/costly a problem to fix, since 1993; Hogan’s Creek contamination flowing into the St. Johns River; un-maintained park infrastructure - deteriorated or destroyed stormwater system results in regular flooding and sewer overflows in the community;

-   FDOT rejected Springfield’s trolley grant. The JTA has been exploring streetcar, a transit option that is proven to result in economic development, but anticipates transportation funding will be directed toward suburban road development;

-   In today’s banking climate, the re-development of Springfield’s commercial corridors is more severely handicapped â€" by lack of available credit and developer incentives â€" than it would have otherwise been by what much of the retailing industry considers “undesirable demographics;”

-   Lack of municipal funding for CPTED-based crime prevention measures, trash and litter control, public space maintenance and youth programming in the urban core neighborhoods â€" Jacksonville has been unable to identify adequate funding for programs mandated by ordinance (Zero Tolerance on Litter), nor can our private partners sustain their investment in municipal services in today’s economy;

-   The high concentration of social service organizations in and near our District does not adequately serve a city of Jacksonville’s size, resulting in an overflow of under-served homeless and mentally-challenged persons into the community; and

-   Springfield’s greatest hurdle is the speed at which government, at any level, operates.

Again, Mr. Obama, we are buoyed by your attention to the plight of the urban community and its residents and proponents. I am aware you recently held a “summit” in the capital with 2,000 community organizers â€" I look forward to hearing how their input, as well as that from Adolfo Carrion of the Office of Urban Policy and Melody Barnes of the Domestic Policy Council, will benefit communities nationwide like the Springfield Historic District.

Springfield’s location makes it an optimal solution to Jacksonville’s economic and environmental sprawl, and the community supports the Obama-Biden Plan, and its focus on cities. We welcome you back to Springfield anytime you are in Northeast Florida.

Best regards,

Louise DeSpain, Executive Director                           
Springfield Preservation and Revitalization (SPAR) Council

Cc:   Rep. Corrine Brown (U.S. House of Representatives, 3rd District of Florida); Sen. Tony Hill (Florida Senate); Mayor John Peyton, City of Jacksonville; Dr. Johnny Gaffney, Jacksonville City Councilmember, District 7; Joni Foster, Program Director, LISC Jacksonville; Alberta Hipps, Hipps Group Inc.; Claude Moulton, President, SPAR Board; Jack Meeks, Treasurer, SPAR Board

[jtwestside]

This is what was on  http://www.change.gov/agenda/urbanpolicy before the entire agenda was removed in November and replaced with a single paragraph. The hope that I have is that there is follow through.

The Problem
Failing Commitment to America's Economic Centers: Today, government programs aimed at strengthening metropolitan areas are spread across the federal government with insufficient coordination or strategy. Worse, many federal programs inadvertently undermine cities and regions by encouraging inefficient and costly patterns of development and local competition.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden's Plan

Strengthen Federal Commitment to our Cities
Create a White House Office on Urban Policy: Obama and Biden will create a White House Office of Urban Policy to develop a strategy for metropolitan America and to ensure that all federal dollars targeted to urban areas are effectively spent on the highest-impact programs. The Director of Urban Policy will report directly to the president and coordinate all federal urban programs.
Fully Fund the Community Development Block Grant: In the long run, regions are only as strong as their people and neighborhoods. The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program is an important program that provides housing and creating jobs primarily for low- and moderate-income people and places. Barack Obama has fought against Bush Administration cuts to the CDBG program and, as president, he will restore funding for the CDBG program.
Do No Harm: Barack Obama and Joe Biden do not support imposing unfunded mandates on states and localities. They strongly support providing necessary funding for programs such as No Child Left Behind.

Stimulate Economic Prosperity in our Metropolitan Regions
Support Regional Innovation Clusters: Thriving innovation clusters across the country like the North Carolina Research Triangle Park and Nashville's thriving entertainment cluster prove that local stakeholders can successfully come together and help reshape their local economies.  Barack Obama and Joe Biden will create a federal program to support "innovation clusters" - regional centers of innovation and next-generation industries.  This innovation clusters program will provide $200 million in planning and matching grants for regional business, government and university leaders to collaborate on leveraging a region’s existing assets - from transportation infrastructure to universities - to enhance long-term regional growth. 
Support Job Creation: The federal government has a role to play to ensure that every American is able to work at his or her highest capacity. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will double federal funding for basic research, expand the deployment of broadband technology and make the research and development tax credit permanent so that businesses can invest in innovation and create high-paying, secure jobs.
Enhance Workforce Training: Obama and Biden will make long-term investments in education, language training, and workforce development so that Americans can leverage our strengths â€" our ingenuity and entrepreneurialism â€" to create new high-wage jobs and prosper in a global economy. A critical part of this process is ensuring that we reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and ensure that it strengthens federal investments needed for success in the 21st Century.
Increase Access to Capital for Underserved Businesses:  Barack Obama and Joe Biden will strengthen Small Business Administration programs that provide capital to women and minority-owned businesses, support outreach programs that help business owners apply for loans, and work to encourage the growth and capacity of these firms. They will also strengthen Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), which are engaged in innovative methods to provide capital to urban businesses.
Create a National Network of Public-Private Business Incubators: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will support entrepreneurship and spur job growth by creating a national network of public-private business incubators, which facilitate the critical work of entrepreneurs in creating start-up companies. They will invest $250 million per year to increase the number and size of incubators in urban communities throughout the country.
Convert our Manufacturing Centers into Clean Technology Leaders: America boasts the highest-skilled manufacturing workforce in the world and advanced manufacturing facilities that have powered economic growth in America for decades. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that America is at a competitive advantage when it comes to building the high-demand technologies of the future, and they will help nurture America's success in clean technology manufacturing by establishing a federal investment program to help manufacturing centers modernize.
Strengthen Core Infrastructure: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will make strengthening our transportation systems, including our roads and bridges, a top priority. As part of this effort, Obama and Biden will create a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to expand and enhance, not supplant, existing federal transportation investments. These projects will create up to two million new direct and indirect jobs per year and stimulate approximately $35 billion per year in new economic activity.
Improve Access to Jobs: America's families and businesses depend upon workers having reasonable access to their places of employment. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will double the federal Jobs Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) program to ensure that additional federal public transportation dollars flow to the highest-need communities and that urban planning initiatives take this aspect of transportation policy into account. The Obama-Biden urban agenda will also help facilitate the creation of new jobs in underserved economic areas, so more low-income urban residents can find employment within their home communities.
Invest in a Skilled Clean Technologies Workforce:  Obama and Biden will increase funding for federal workforce training programs and direct these programs to incorporate green technologies training, such as advanced manufacturing and weatherization training, into their efforts to help Americans find and retain stable jobs. Obama and Biden will also create an energy-focused youth jobs program to invest in disconnected and disadvantaged youth. 

HOUSING
Lower People's Interest Payments by Creating a New Mortgage Interest Tax Credit: Many middle class Americans do not receive the existing mortgage interest tax deduction because they do not itemize their taxes.  Obama and Biden will ensure that middle-class Americans get the financial assistance they need to purchase or keep their own home by creating a 10 percent universal mortgage credit that gives tax relief to 10 million Americans who have a home mortgage. 
Increase the Supply of Affordable Housing throughout Metropolitan Regions: Communities prosper when all families have access to affordable housing. Barack Obama and Joe Biden supported efforts to create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund to create thousands of new units of affordable housing every year. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will also restore cuts to public housing operating subsidies, and ensure that all Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs are restored to their original purpose.

POVERTY
Establish 'Promise Neighborhoods' for Areas of Concentrated Poverty: Successful strategies to address concentrated, intergenerational poverty are comprehensive in nature and address the full range of obstacles that stand in the way of poor children. One highly-acclaimed model is the Harlem Children's Zone in New York City, which provides a full network of services to an entire neighborhood from birth to college. Obama and Biden will create 20 Promise Neighborhoods in cities that have high levels of poverty and crime and low levels of student academic achievement.
Increase the Minimum Wage: As president, Obama will raise the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2011 and index it to inflation so full-time workers can earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic needs such as food, transportation, and housing â€" things so many people take for granted.
Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit: In the Illinois State Senate, Obama led the successful effort to create the $100 million Illinois Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).  As president, Obama will reward work by increasing the number of working parents eligible for EITC benefits, increasing the benefit available to noncustodial parents who support their children through child support payments, increasing the benefit for families with three or more children, and reducing the EITC marriage penalty which hurts low-income families. 
Help Low-Income Workers Enter the Job Market: As president, Obama will invest $1 billion over five years in transitional jobs and career pathways programs that implement proven methods of helping low-income Americans succeed in the workforce. This investment will be coupled with other measures to encourage the private sector and state and local governments to increase their support of these effective employment programs.

STRENGTHEN LIVABILITY OF CITIES
Build More Livable and Sustainable Communities: Our communities will better serve all of their residents if we are able to leave our cars, to walk, bicycle and access other transportation alternatives. As president, Barack Obama will re-evaluate the transportation funding process to ensure that smart growth considerations are taken into account.
Control Superfund Sites and Data: As president, Obama will restore the strength of the Superfund program by requiring polluters to pay for the cleanup of contaminated sites they created.
Use Innovative Measures to Dramatically Improve Efficiency of Buildings:  Buildings account for nearly 40 percent of carbon emissions in the United States today and carbon emissions from buildings are expected to grow faster than emissions from other major parts of our economy.  It is expected that 15 million new buildings will be constructed between today and 2015.  Barack Obama and Joe Biden will work with cities so that we make our new and existing buildings more efficient consumers of electricity. 
Foster Healthy Communities: How a community is designed â€" including the layout of its roads, buildings and parks â€" has a huge impact on the health of its residents. For instance, nearly one-third of Americans live in neighborhoods without sidewalks and less than half of our country's children have a playground within walking distance of their homes. Barack Obama introduced the Healthy Places Act to help local governments assess the health impact of new policies and projects, like highways or shopping centers.

URBAN EDUCATION
Support Teachers in Urban Schools: Barack Obama and Joe Biden value teachers and the central role that they play in education. To ensure competent, effective teachers in schools that are organized for success, the Obama-Biden K-12 plan will expand service scholarships to underwrite high-quality preparation for teachers who commit to working in underserved districts and support ongoing improvements in teacher education.
Expand Early Childhood Education: Obama and Biden have a comprehensive "Zero to Five" plan to provide critical supports to young children and their parents by investing $10 billion per year to create: Early Learning Challenge Grants to stimulate and help fund state "zero to five" efforts; quadruple the number of eligible children for Early Head Start and increase Head Start funding and improve quality for both; work to ensure all children have access to pre-school; and create a Presidential Early Learning Council to increase collaboration and program coordination across federal, state, and local levels.
Reduce the High School Dropout Rate: The warning signs for high school drop-outs often occur well before high school.  Obama will sign into law his "Success in the Middle Act" to improve the education of middle school students in low-performing schools. Obama and Biden will also establish a competitive grant process for entities pursuing evidence-based models that have been proven to reduce dropouts.

CRIME AND LAW ENFORCEMENT
Support Local Law Enforcement: Barack Obama and Joe Biden are committed to fully funding the COPS program to put 50,000 police officers on the street and help address police brutality and accountability issues in local communities. Obama and Biden also support efforts to encourage young people to enter the law enforcement profession, so that our local police departments are not understaffed because of a dearth of qualified applicants.
Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender Supports: America is facing an incarceration and post-incarceration crisis in urban communities. Obama and Biden will create a prison-to-work incentive program, modeled on the successful Welfare-to-Work Partnership and work to reform correctional systems to break down barriers for ex-offenders to find employment.
End the Dangerous Cycle of Youth Violence: As president, Barack Obama will support innovative local programs, such as the CeaseFire program in Chicago, that have been proven to work. Such programs implement a comprehensive public health approach that implements a community-based strategy to prevent youth violence. He will also double funding for federal afterschool programs and invest in 20 Promise Neighborhoods across the country to ensure that urban youth have meaningful opportunities to succeed.
Address Gun Violence in Cities: As president, Barack Obama would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals who shouldn't have them. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent, as such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets.
End Racial Profiling: Barack Obama cosponsored federal legislation to ban racial profiling and require federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to take steps to eliminate the practice. He introduced and passed a law in the Illinois State Senate requiring the Illinois Department of Transportation to record the race, age, and gender of all drivers stopped for traffic violations so that bias could be detected and addressed.

STRENGTHEN HOMELAND SECURITY
Allocate Funds Based on Risk: Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that the president and Congress should direct our precious homeland security dollars according to risk, not as a form of general revenue sharing.  To address this pressing issue, Obama introduced an amendment, supported by the Families of 9/11 and former 9/11 Commissioners Lee Hamilton and Tim Roemer, to increase risk-based funding in the 9/11 bill. 
Prepare Effective Emergency Response Plans: As our nation witnessed in the Hurricane Katrina crisis and its aftermath, too many localities do not have integrated emergency response plans to handle disasters. As president, Obama will further improve coordination between all levels of government, create better evacuation plan guidelines, ensure prompt federal assistance to emergency zones, and increase medical surge capacity.
Improve Interoperable Communications Systems:  Barack Obama and Joe Biden support efforts to provide greater technical assistance to local and state first responders and dramatically increase funding for reliable, interoperable communications systems.
Safeguard Mass Public Transportation:  Every weekday, Americans take 34 million trips on public transportation systems to get to work, school and beyond. Obama and Biden will fight for greater information-sharing between national intelligence agents and local officials and provide local law enforcement agencies with the everyday tools they need to protect their transportation systems. 

SUPPORT FAMILIES
Provide a Tax Cut for Working Families: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will restore fairness to the tax code and provide 150 million workers the tax relief they deserve. They will create a new "Making Work Pay" tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family.
Strengthening Fatherhood and Families:  As president, Obama will sign his Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families Act into law to remove some of the government penalties on married families, crack down on men avoiding child support payments, ensure that support payments go to families instead of state bureaucracies, fund support services for fathers and their families, and support domestic violence prevention efforts.   
Support Parents with Young Children: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will expand the highly successful Nurse-Family Partnership to all low-income, first-time mothers. The Nurse-Family Partnership provides home visits by trained registered nurses to low-income expectant mothers and their families. Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis concluded that these programs produced an average of five dollars in savings for every dollar invested and produced more than $28,000 in net savings for every high-risk family enrolled in the program.
Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will double funding for the main federal support for afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, to serve one million more children.
Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit: The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit provides too little relief to families that struggle to afford child care expenses.  Barack Obama and Joe Biden will reform the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit by making it refundable and allowing low-income families to receive up to a 50 percent credit for their child care expenses. 
Cap Outlandish Interest Rates on Payday Loans and Improve Disclosure: In the wake of reports that some service members were paying 800 percent interest on payday loans, the U.S. Congress took bipartisan action to limit interest rates charged to service members to 36 percent.  Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that we must extend this protection to all Americans, because predatory lending continues to be a major problem for low and middle income families alike. 
Encourage Responsible Lending Institutions to Make Small Consumer Loans: Some mainstream, responsible lending institutions are beginning to enter the short-term lending market to provide many Americans with fair alternatives to predatory lending institutions.  Barack Obama and Joe Biden will work with his Secretary of Treasury and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to encourage banks, credit unions and Community Development Financial Institutions to provide affordable short-term and small dollar loans â€" and to drive the sharks out of business.

[zoo]

It's still there, just considered the Office of Urban Policy part of the Agenda (not the entire thing)...

Check it out here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/urban_policy/

On another sign-of-the-times note, those Obama/White House communication folk are doing an amazing job of keeping the web site up to date!

[RiversideGator]

Translation:  Please give us free stuff.

[jtwestside]

Cool! I did not see they had put that up. I saw the new whitehouse.gov was up today but I hadn't had time to check out much past the first page.  

I really do think we are in pivotal time for Jacksonville's urban areas. The unfortunate economic conditions and the new administration which seems very friendly to urban development. Now we just need to get local leadership who can see the value to Jacksonville of investing in the downtown core instead of future facilitating our never-ending issues with sprawl. (more sprawl = more roads = more sprawl = more roads … etc etc etc …) Let's invest in what we already have.

[jtwestside]

Translation:  Please give us free stuff.

My personal view is that investments should be made in existing infrastructure such as the revitalization of the downtown neighborhoods and parks and Hogan’s Creek to encourage movement twards the city center. Do this in lew of further expanding our infrastructure out of the city center which ultimately stretches all of the city services (Police, fire, rescue, JEA)

[tufsu1]

Translation:  Please give us free stuff.

or maybe it means finally giving cities the attention they deserve....after all, 75% of tha nation's GDP is generated in metro areas!

[RiversideGator]

I have no doubt that cities account for most of the nation's GDP as most Americans live in cities.  But, what makes you think cities are not getting their "fair share" right now?  Do you have data to back this up?

[TREE4309]

Feel free to ignore this post all together, but...

TOO LONG...NO READ.