QuoteJacksonville needs to tell the world about its natural environment, its connection to the water. And it needs to tell the world how open it is to new ideas, opinions and possibilities.
But the most important thing is that Jacksonville needs to coordinate that message to the world.
For more than a year, a group of local organizations and business and civic leaders have discussed how best to define Jacksonville, and sell it to the rest of the world.
The group, called TruJax — a partnership of Jacksonville Community Council, Visit Jacksonville, the City of Jacksonville Office of Economic Development and JAX Chamber – presented its report at an informal luncheon Wednesday.
It started with this telling line: "We have no sense of ourself. The world has a vague sense of us."
Full article: http://jacksonville.com/business/2015-12-02/story/selling-jacksonville-groups-look-best-way-market-city-finding-its-essense
This actually has the potential to get the major entities in Jax to speak/promote with one voice.
Quote from: tufsu1 on December 02, 2015, 10:32:06 PM
This actually has the potential to get the major entities in Jax to speak/promote with one voice.
While these groups spend $ to self promote, they are definitely not major entities by their actions for the community. That's exactly why they say they "have no sense of themselves.". And they project this on our city.
What they don't get is that there isn't 1 Jacksonville. The rivers make geographic barriers that have lead to cultural divides and varied communities. Like the Berlin Wall or Kansas City. Outside of imaginary boundaries on a map, there isn't a unified Jacksonville culture. And that's OK.
The only thing I can remember all corners of Jacksonville having an opinion on was Tim Tebow.
It will be a self fulfilling prophecy if these groups keep claiming we have an identity crisis. Identity crisis everywhere - it's 2015. Look at variants on LGBT's wikipedia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT
It'll be good to get these groups together and delivering the same message. There are plenty of things that Jacksonville already has that we could promote better. "First Coast" is a good example of a branding initiative that took off and is now widely recognizable.
Why in fact, must we "Market" ourselves?
Could the very most effective promotions end up destroying or compromising key attributes (aka 'Selling Points')
And how is "Jacksonville" defined? Would marketing benefits accrue primarily to surrounding counties? And why is 'Jacksonville' so willing to embrace surrounding counties?
Hey,wait! Wasn't an NFL Franchise supposed to put us on the map?
If such marketing endeavors do prove effective, we could simply redirect the public monies for Stadium improvements to this broadened effort.
I suggest too that in addition to marketing,efforts be made at study of reasons that residents leave, or opt out not to move here.
Exit polls can be telling.
Quote from: Know Growth on December 03, 2015, 06:16:37 PM
Why in fact, must we "Market" ourselves?
Could the very most effective promotions end up destroying or compromising key attributes (aka 'Selling Points')
And how is "Jacksonville" defined? Would marketing benefits accrue primarily to surrounding counties? And why is 'Jacksonville' so willing to embrace surrounding counties?
Hey,wait! Wasn't an NFL Franchise supposed to put us on the map?
If such marketing endeavors do prove effective, we could simply redirect the public monies for Stadium improvements to this broadened effort.
I suggest too that in addition to marketing,efforts be made at study of reasons that residents leave, or opt out not to move here.
Exit polls can be telling.
+1
One of the easiest, most effective and LONG lasting ways to market Jacksonville has been ignored by most of our competitors. It's call a PRODUCT PLACEMENT AGREEMENT in major motion pictures and even cartoon movies. It's cheap enough that small businesses can take advantage of it. Just imagine the fun lines about JAX that one could insert in movies; 'she hasn't had this much fun since she left Jacksonville;' 'we've secured the best we could find, we found him in JAX;' 'Yeah Orlando and Miami are popular, but this guy is all business, I'm betting he turns up in Jacksonville.'
QuoteEvery time winemaker Kathy Joseph watches Oscar-nominated film The Kids Are All Right, she gets a jolt of excitement. That's because less than five minutes into the film, actress Annette Bening picks up an empty bottle of wine and asks her wife, played by Julianne Moore, "Do we have any more of the Fiddlehead?"
It's a special reference for Joseph, the owner of Fiddlehead Cellars, a 100-acre vineyard and winery nestled in California's Santa Rita Hills, in Santa Barbara County. Fiddlehead, in business for more than 20 years, carries four full-time employees (up to 50 during harvest season) and specializes in producing sauvignon blanc and a pinot noir called "Fiddlehead 728."
"I love Annette Bening, but, yes, that's my wine she's drinking in the movie," she says. "That's a thrill."
As it turns out, it isn't the first time the brand has found itself on the silver screen. It made its movie debut in the 2004 Academy Award winner Sideways. The film's director, Alexander Payne, had visited her vineyard and decided to write her sauvignon blanc into the script, Joseph says.
IMAGINE!
As an outsider looking in, I can vouch for the need to do something such as this, IF you are desiring to make yourself more well-known and marketable. When we tell friends that we have decided on Jacksonville as our next home, they almost always reply, "Where exactly is that?" Some (seriously) don't even know it's in Florida!
Our first trip there in 2009 was really one of, "Well, we've seen the rest of Florida, let's try this." We had NO IDEA of just how much this place had to offer, starting with miles and miles of publicly accessible beaches. I don't believe you realize how that is NOT the case in so many places, where the beach is "owned" by the hotel, or the people in that mansion, or whatever. It is simply awesome that you can park your car and go just about anywhere on it. Throw in a beautiful downtown/riverfront area (deader than doornails, but beautiful), incredible recreational opportunities, fabulous weather, an airport with lots of direct flights or easy connections, manageable traffic, etc., and you've got a great mix.
The best part is, there are not the billions of tourists that you find in nearly every other FL destination. Kind of a catch-22, isn't it? You want people to know you, to visit and spend their $$$, but with that comes a whole different set of "issues". Personally, if I were trying to market it, that's exactly the angle I'd take. When people think of Florida, they think of Orlando and mobs of children, Miami and it's swinging nightlife (and crime), and lots of places where there are tons of senior citizens. Jacksonville has none of that!
Quote from: TimmyB on December 04, 2015, 10:46:14 PM
As an outsider looking in, I can vouch for the need to do something such as this, IF you are desiring to make yourself more well-known and marketable. When we tell friends that we have decided on Jacksonville as our next home, they almost always reply, "Where exactly is that?" Some (seriously) don't even know it's in Florida!
Our first trip there in 2009 was really one of, "Well, we've seen the rest of Florida, let's try this." We had NO IDEA of just how much this place had to offer, starting with miles and miles of publicly accessible beaches. I don't believe you realize how that is NOT the case in so many places, where the beach is "owned" by the hotel, or the people in that mansion, or whatever. It is simply awesome that you can park your car and go just about anywhere on it. Throw in a beautiful downtown/riverfront area (deader than doornails, but beautiful), incredible recreational opportunities, fabulous weather, an airport with lots of direct flights or easy connections, manageable traffic, etc., and you've got a great mix.
The best part is, there are not the billions of tourists that you find in nearly every other FL destination. Kind of a catch-22, isn't it? You want people to know you, to visit and spend their $$$, but with that comes a whole different set of "issues". Personally, if I were trying to market it, that's exactly the angle I'd take. When people think of Florida, they think of Orlando and mobs of children, Miami and it's swinging nightlife (and crime), and lots of places where there are tons of senior citizens. Jacksonville has none of that!
+1,000
This is EXACTLY, PRECISELY, IDENTICALLY my view on Jacksonville when I was first exposed to it in the '90's. It is indeed an area with almost no identity to most people including those just a couple of hours away. It is very much a pleasant surprise, but also with a TON of unrealized potential as well.
Instead of being the San Diego of the east coast, which it has the potential to be, it is a non-entity to most people. The local leadership, if you can call it that, seems content to simply be the largest city in South Georgia.
The city needs to cultivate it's own unique identity and then undertake a major branding strategy based on that.
Instead of being the San Diego of the east coast, which it has the potential to be,
[/quote]
That would have occurred by now.............
Oh but just imagine Jacksonville in 1912... San Diego might have begged it's leaders to be the Jacksonville of the Pacific Coast.
I credit this FAIL to 5 things in a row... and believe it or not we were in a race to outpace Los Angeles in the 1880's.
'Aedes aegypti' the tiny mosquito that brought us Yellow Fever, 1888, killing 4,000 residents including our mayor
The Great Jacksonville Fire, 1901, 146 blocks destroyed, 10,000 left homeless
Influenza, 'The Spanish Lady' visited us in 1918, 50 million dead world-wide, military enforced quarantine of Jacksonville
1917, conservative Democrat John W. Martin was elected mayor on a platform to destroy the 'decadent' movie industry in Jacksonville
Destruction of the States largest fixed rail mass transit system starting in 1932 and completed in 1936
Now toss in the repeated lack of vision, planning stupidity, or no planning at all, race relations along with complete and total disregard for our own history and perhaps JTA and you've got one hell of a formula for repeated FAIL.
Quote from: Ocklawaha on December 06, 2015, 07:12:17 PM
Oh but just imagine Jacksonville in 1912... San Diego might have begged it's leaders to be the Jacksonville of the Pacific Coast.
I credit this FAIL to 5 things in a row... and believe it or not we were in a race to outpace Los Angeles in the 1880's.
'Aedes aegypti' the tiny mosquito that brought us Yellow Fever, 1888, killing 4,000 residents including our mayor
The Great Jacksonville Fire, 1901, 146 blocks destroyed, 10,000 left homeless
Influenza, 'The Spanish Lady' visited us in 1918, 50 million dead world-wide, military enforced quarantine of Jacksonville
1917, conservative Democrat John W. Martin was elected mayor on a platform to destroy the 'decadent' movie industry in Jacksonville
Destruction of the States largest fixed rail mass transit system starting in 1932 and completed in 1936
Now toss in the repeated lack of vision, planning stupidity, or no planning at all, race relations along with complete and total disregard for our own history and perhaps JTA and you've got one hell of a formula for repeated FAIL.
I have no idea if you are correct or not, but I just learned five interesting things about Jacksonville that I did not know when I woke up this morning!
I do know how I see pictures of cities from back in the day, and see that they all had streetcars or fixed rail or something to move them along, and they are all gone, once the auto became big. I understand it, but it saddens me, nonetheless.
Quote from: TimmyB on December 04, 2015, 10:46:14 PM
As an outsider looking in, I can vouch for the need to do something such as this, IF you are desiring to make yourself more well-known and marketable. When we tell friends that we have decided on Jacksonville as our next home, they almost always reply, "Where exactly is that?" Some (seriously) don't even know it's in Florida!
Our first trip there in 2009 was really one of, "Well, we've seen the rest of Florida, let's try this." We had NO IDEA of just how much this place had to offer, starting with miles and miles of publicly accessible beaches. I don't believe you realize how that is NOT the case in so many places, where the beach is "owned" by the hotel, or the people in that mansion, or whatever. It is simply awesome that you can park your car and go just about anywhere on it. Throw in a beautiful downtown/riverfront area (deader than doornails, but beautiful), incredible recreational opportunities, fabulous weather, an airport with lots of direct flights or easy connections, manageable traffic, etc., and you've got a great mix.
The best part is, there are not the billions of tourists that you find in nearly every other FL destination. Kind of a catch-22, isn't it? You want people to know you, to visit and spend their $$$, but with that comes a whole different set of "issues". Personally, if I were trying to market it, that's exactly the angle I'd take. When people think of Florida, they think of Orlando and mobs of children, Miami and it's swinging nightlife (and crime), and lots of places where there are tons of senior citizens. Jacksonville has none of that!
Just got back from Cape Canaveral and before that Disney. I really hope Jax does not follow in the footsteps of central Florida. Central Florida is where you go to wait in lines with mobs of other people.
Why doesn't Jacksonville market to itself? There are loads and loads of young educated people here living in suburban apartments. That was one thing that struck me when I first moved here. "Why would so many of these single 20 to 30 year olds want to live in suburban style environments." Everywhere else I lived they were flocking to the cores, myself included. That's when I realized there weren't many other options other than suburban environments here. The apartment stocks in core neighborhoods like San Marco, Springfield, Downtown and Riverside are lower than they should be. And they are very cool neighborhoods. Why not sell the core to its own people? I don't see much of that going on. There needs to be a campaign to get young people living in the core, not Southside, Bartram Park or Baymeadows. I see billboards and adverts for places like Nocatee and SJTC, why not the core? I never saw anything for Riverside 220 outside of this site.
^You just have to know where to go in Central Florida. I grew up down there. There are a ton of unique places and settings where tourist never step foot.
Quote from: CCMjax on December 07, 2015, 10:27:07 AM
Quote from: TimmyB on December 04, 2015, 10:46:14 PM
As an outsider looking in, I can vouch for the need to do something such as this, IF you are desiring to make yourself more well-known and marketable. When we tell friends that we have decided on Jacksonville as our next home, they almost always reply, "Where exactly is that?" Some (seriously) don't even know it's in Florida!
Our first trip there in 2009 was really one of, "Well, we've seen the rest of Florida, let's try this." We had NO IDEA of just how much this place had to offer, starting with miles and miles of publicly accessible beaches. I don't believe you realize how that is NOT the case in so many places, where the beach is "owned" by the hotel, or the people in that mansion, or whatever. It is simply awesome that you can park your car and go just about anywhere on it. Throw in a beautiful downtown/riverfront area (deader than doornails, but beautiful), incredible recreational opportunities, fabulous weather, an airport with lots of direct flights or easy connections, manageable traffic, etc., and you've got a great mix.
The best part is, there are not the billions of tourists that you find in nearly every other FL destination. Kind of a catch-22, isn't it? You want people to know you, to visit and spend their $$$, but with that comes a whole different set of "issues". Personally, if I were trying to market it, that's exactly the angle I'd take. When people think of Florida, they think of Orlando and mobs of children, Miami and it's swinging nightlife (and crime), and lots of places where there are tons of senior citizens. Jacksonville has none of that!
Just got back from Cape Canaveral and before that Disney. I really hope Jax does not follow in the footsteps of central Florida. Central Florida is where you go to wait in lines with mobs of other people.
Why doesn't Jacksonville market to itself? There are loads and loads of young educated people here living in suburban apartments. That was one thing that struck me when I first moved here. "Why would so many of these single 20 to 30 year olds want to live in suburban style environments." Everywhere else I lived they were flocking to the cores, myself included. That's when I realized there weren't many other options other than suburban environments here. The apartment stocks in core neighborhoods like San Marco, Springfield, Downtown and Riverside are lower than they should be. And they are very cool neighborhoods. Why not sell the core to its own people? I don't see much of that going on. There needs to be a campaign to get young people living in the core, not Southside, Bartram Park or Baymeadows. I see billboards and adverts for places like Nocatee and SJTC, why not the core? I never saw anything for Riverside 220 outside of this site.
Have you seen Downtown Detroit, lately? They have taken all these old hotels and the like, and turned them into urban lofts, and they've got crazy-good interest rates and tax incentives. These 20-somethings are moving in like you can't believe. It doesn't hurt that Mike Ilitch is voting with his dollars, building homes for the Tigers and Red Wings down there, letting people know that there still is a heartbeat.
If a city as bad as Detroit can turn it around, ...
^In addition to those restoration projects and the new rail line under construction, Detroit also has programs and incentives that essentially pay employees at some of the larger companies to live in downtown.
QuoteIf time and money are critical to your quality of life, then Live Downtown is for you. The average one-way commute in Southeast Michigan is 25.6 minutes. When you add it all up, that's more than 2 weeks on the road annually-the national average for vacation time! That alone is enough for you to at least think about living near your place of work. If you're still on the fence, how about some big help with your pocket book?
Here are the perks if you work at Compuware, DTE Energy, Marketing Associates, Quicken Loans or Strategic Staffing Solutions:
- New homeowners receive up to $20,000 forgivable loan toward the purchase of their primary residence.
- New renters receive a $2,500 allowance of funding toward the cost of their apartment in the first year followed by additional funding of $1,000 for the second year.
- Existing renters receive a $1,000 allowance of funding for renewing a lease.
- Existing homeowners receive matching funds of up to $5,000 for exterior improvements for projects of $10,000 or more.
For full eligibility and program benefits, please review the program guidelines.
The Downtown Detroit Partnership (DDP) is the overall program coordinator and is leveraging Midtown Detroit, Inc's (MDI) existing resources and skills to launch and administer the successful Live Midtown program. Both DDP and MDI are non-profit organizations.
http://www.detroitlivedowntown.org/incentives/
Think about that, when considering if a project like the Trio should be given incentives.
And, get this: the Motor City is becoming one of the hot spots of America's biking scene! They have become incredibly bike-friendly, from everything that I've read. Who'd a thunk it?
Quote from: Ocklawaha on December 06, 2015, 07:12:17 PM
Oh but just imagine Jacksonville in 1912... San Diego might have begged it's leaders to be the Jacksonville of the Pacific Coast.
I credit this FAIL to 5 things in a row... and believe it or not we were in a race to outpace Los Angeles in the 1880's.
'Aedes aegypti' the tiny mosquito that brought us Yellow Fever, 1888, killing 4,000 residents including our mayor
The Great Jacksonville Fire, 1901, 146 blocks destroyed, 10,000 left homeless
Influenza, 'The Spanish Lady' visited us in 1918, 50 million dead world-wide, military enforced quarantine of Jacksonville
1917, conservative Democrat John W. Martin was elected mayor on a platform to destroy the 'decadent' movie industry in Jacksonville
Destruction of the States largest fixed rail mass transit system starting in 1932 and completed in 1936
Now toss in the repeated lack of vision, planning stupidity, or no planning at all, race relations along with complete and total disregard for our own history and perhaps JTA and you've got one hell of a formula for repeated FAIL.
I didn't know about the Yellow Fever epidemic, but that was too long ago to make a significant difference. The Great Fire brought with it a great renaissance too. Great fires didn't kill Chicago or San Fran. Influenza hit everywhere in 1918 and essentially swept through the entire population. Can't say JAX was hit worse than elsewhere. Losing streetcars likewise happened everywhere else too, so you can't attribute it to that.
The loss of the movie industry is a legitimate point as was passing on landing the University of Florida.
Quote from: thelakelander on December 07, 2015, 11:55:24 AM
^In addition to those restoration projects and the new rail line under construction, Detroit also has programs and incentives that essentially pay employees at some of the larger companies to live in downtown.
QuoteIf time and money are critical to your quality of life, then Live Downtown is for you. The average one-way commute in Southeast Michigan is 25.6 minutes. When you add it all up, that's more than 2 weeks on the road annually-the national average for vacation time! That alone is enough for you to at least think about living near your place of work. If you're still on the fence, how about some big help with your pocket book?
Here are the perks if you work at Compuware, DTE Energy, Marketing Associates, Quicken Loans or Strategic Staffing Solutions:
- New homeowners receive up to $20,000 forgivable loan toward the purchase of their primary residence.
- New renters receive a $2,500 allowance of funding toward the cost of their apartment in the first year followed by additional funding of $1,000 for the second year.
- Existing renters receive a $1,000 allowance of funding for renewing a lease.
- Existing homeowners receive matching funds of up to $5,000 for exterior improvements for projects of $10,000 or more.
For full eligibility and program benefits, please review the program guidelines.
The Downtown Detroit Partnership (DDP) is the overall program coordinator and is leveraging Midtown Detroit, Inc's (MDI) existing resources and skills to launch and administer the successful Live Midtown program. Both DDP and MDI are non-profit organizations.
http://www.detroitlivedowntown.org/incentives/
Think about that, when considering if a project like the Trio should be given incentives.
Uh yeah . . . Detroit's marketing campaign to its own residents is essentially the exact same thing I'm talking about here in Jax. Detroit does however have the benefit of 3 huge companies, Quicken Loans, Little Ceasars Pizza, and Rock Ventures amongst several others located downtown with CEO's from these companies investing huge amounts of their own money in revitalizing downtown and Midtown. He can be polarizing, but Ilitch for example has done great things for that city beyond being owner of the Red Wings, Tigers and Little Ceasars. He is passionate about his city, having grown up in Detroit. So it helps to have extremely wealthy passionate people helping the cause. Money talks and makes things move. But with that said, I still think Jacksonville needs to adopt a similar game plan of marketing to its own people, particularly millennials, to live in the core.
Quote from: vicupstate on December 07, 2015, 01:05:14 PM
Quote from: Ocklawaha on December 06, 2015, 07:12:17 PM
Oh but just imagine Jacksonville in 1912... San Diego might have begged it's leaders to be the Jacksonville of the Pacific Coast.
I credit this FAIL to 5 things in a row... and believe it or not we were in a race to outpace Los Angeles in the 1880's.
'Aedes aegypti' the tiny mosquito that brought us Yellow Fever, 1888, killing 4,000 residents including our mayor
The Great Jacksonville Fire, 1901, 146 blocks destroyed, 10,000 left homeless
Influenza, 'The Spanish Lady' visited us in 1918, 50 million dead world-wide, military enforced quarantine of Jacksonville
1917, conservative Democrat John W. Martin was elected mayor on a platform to destroy the 'decadent' movie industry in Jacksonville
Destruction of the States largest fixed rail mass transit system starting in 1932 and completed in 1936
Now toss in the repeated lack of vision, planning stupidity, or no planning at all, race relations along with complete and total disregard for our own history and perhaps JTA and you've got one hell of a formula for repeated FAIL.
I didn't know about the Yellow Fever epidemic, but that was too long ago to make a significant difference. The Great Fire brought with it a great renaissance too. Great fires didn't kill Chicago or San Fran. Influenza hit everywhere in 1918 and essentially swept through the entire population. Can't say JAX was hit worse than elsewhere. Losing streetcars likewise happened everywhere else too, so you can't attribute it to that.
The loss of the movie industry is a legitimate point as was passing on landing the University of Florida.
My point being, yes much of this happened elsewhere as well (though not in such a compact 50 year timeframe) but when the stupidity epidemic followed on the heals of our fixed transit systems demise, Jacksonville went into a brain funk from which it's never recovered. The sagging population numbers from 1936 - until consolidation artificially boosted us up the success ladder tell a story not shared by our competition. I would think a more honest appraisal of our situation could be made with a census of the actual built-up area rather then Lakelanders traditional city limits or the crazy whole county count. These 5 setbacks, and you could toss in UF as number 6, coupled with an unending lack of practical vision seem to have stolen our Mojo (as Khan has said so well).
PRACTICAL VISION! We could do a story on this, hitting so far above the target we went for the overly complex and $$$ automated flying horizontal elevators with rosy predictions to hitting so low that an improved bus service is being hailed as transformational, leading, sea change... Prepare for the letdown.
Quote from: Ocklawaha on December 07, 2015, 03:50:16 PM
Quote from: vicupstate on December 07, 2015, 01:05:14 PM
Quote from: Ocklawaha on December 06, 2015, 07:12:17 PM
Oh but just imagine Jacksonville in 1912... San Diego might have begged it's leaders to be the Jacksonville of the Pacific Coast.
I credit this FAIL to 5 things in a row... and believe it or not we were in a race to outpace Los Angeles in the 1880's.
'Aedes aegypti' the tiny mosquito that brought us Yellow Fever, 1888, killing 4,000 residents including our mayor
The Great Jacksonville Fire, 1901, 146 blocks destroyed, 10,000 left homeless
Influenza, 'The Spanish Lady' visited us in 1918, 50 million dead world-wide, military enforced quarantine of Jacksonville
1917, conservative Democrat John W. Martin was elected mayor on a platform to destroy the 'decadent' movie industry in Jacksonville
Destruction of the States largest fixed rail mass transit system starting in 1932 and completed in 1936
Now toss in the repeated lack of vision, planning stupidity, or no planning at all, race relations along with complete and total disregard for our own history and perhaps JTA and you've got one hell of a formula for repeated FAIL.
I didn't know about the Yellow Fever epidemic, but that was too long ago to make a significant difference. The Great Fire brought with it a great renaissance too. Great fires didn't kill Chicago or San Fran. Influenza hit everywhere in 1918 and essentially swept through the entire population. Can't say JAX was hit worse than elsewhere. Losing streetcars likewise happened everywhere else too, so you can't attribute it to that.
The loss of the movie industry is a legitimate point as was passing on landing the University of Florida.
My point being, yes much of this happened elsewhere as well (though not in such a compact 50 year timeframe) but when the stupidity epidemic followed on the heals of our fixed transit systems demise, Jacksonville went into a brain funk from which it's never recovered. The sagging population numbers from 1936 - until consolidation artificially boosted us up the success ladder tell a story not shared by our competition. I would think a more honest appraisal of our situation could be made with a census of the actual built-up area rather then Lakelanders traditional city limits or the crazy whole county count. These 5 setbacks, and you could toss in UF as number 6, coupled with an unending lack of practical vision seem to have stolen our Mojo (as Khan has said so well).
PRACTICAL VISION! We could do a story on this, hitting so far above the target we went for the overly complex and $$$ automated flying horizontal elevators with rosy predictions to hitting so low that an improved bus service is being hailed as transformational, leading, sea change... Prepare for the letdown.
The more I read the more I become convinced that the idea that there was a past "golden period" is a myth. It's true that there was once a point when Jacksonville was a tourist destination and arguably the most important city in Florida, and probably a pretty interesting place to visit. At the same time, Florida was one of the smallest, most backwoods states in the county. What really happened is that other parts of Florida leapfrogged Jacksonville as tourist destinations and real estate boomtowns. Jacksonville, meanwhile, diversified its economy and has continued to grow strongly. In fact, we're more nationally prominent than we were when we were a winter vacation spot for rich people from up north.
For one example, look at education. Jacksonville had no four-year college until well after the streetcars closed in 1936, and now we have three, plus Flagler College in St. Augustine and two robust community college systems in the metro area. We didn't even have a black *high school* until the 1890s, for crying out loud. This was not a golden period.
The real story of Jacksonville is that it went from being a small tourist town to being a somewhat larger, more diversified city, and we keep growing. We haven't managed to shake off previous generations' small-town thinking, find our identity, or recover from years of urban decline the way most other cities have. Those are our real problems, and the causes are lack of vision and leadership and a crippling inferiority complex, not a couple of historical catastrophes that happened 100 years ago.
Also, I've heard it before, but Jacksonville was never in serious consideration for the University of Florida campus. We do, however, have the branch campus of the College of Medicine, College of Nursing, and College of Pharmacy, which is something else we didn't have a century ago.