Arbus article: "Jacksonville a 'No City'

[jason_contentdg]

Has anyone had a chance to read the above mentioned article by Madeleine Peck, which highlights Conversations with Charles Landry of "The Art of City Making" fame?

You can read the article here: http://bluetoad.com/publication/?m=7803&l=1&p=15 or in the current Arbus (May/June).

Interesting to hear Mr. Landry touch on some of the same issues that have been talked about here, and then to have city representatives reply that he really has no idea what he's talking about, for example the discussion about how the downtown library has no interaction with the street, a Stern trademark.

[JaxNative68]

I read the article this weekend.  I came away from it scratching my head in regard to the city's responses.  Basically their response to the criticism was, your wrong and we are going to burry our heads in the sand.  And they had no response to the positive comments, probably because it would take effort and someone with a vision of the future at the helm.  With that kind of attitude by the city leaders, Jacksonville will never become a 'Yes City'.  Simply depressing.

Another interesting comment was that he felt the city has a history of running off anyone with creativity and visionary thinking, and that we are entirely too conservative.

I agree his comments mirrored many comments on MJ's site.