The Decline and Fall of the Jacksonville Downtown
(http://www.metrojacksonville.com/images/downtown_destruction/newgg8.jpg)
A throwback article from ten years ago: It interesting that it took a decade to get to the bottom of the questions raised that I was working on at the time. August 6, 2006: A few hours earlier today I had the pleasure of sitting in the basement of the Park Place building on Hemming Park with Ennis Davis (the inimitable Lakelander of MetroJacksonville.com fame) comparing older photos of Downtown Jacksonville with largely depressing contemporary aerial shots.
Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2016-aug-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-jacksonville-downtown
I don't seem to be able to find all those reasons that MJ uncovered, the graft, incompetence, etc. But I wonder if consideration for the decline might include:
1. The move of retail to the suburbs, especially the large, fancy, shopping malls with plenty of parking.
2. The sales of Gulf Life Ins. Co., Independent Life Ins. Co., Peninsular Life Ins. Co., and the disappearance of their mostly downtown workers from the scene. And American Heritage's move as well. Add Stockton, Whatley & Davin and Life of the South - sizeable employers, sequentially in the same building.
3. Keeping a rather large and unattractive industrial complex immediately adjacent to riverfront land prime for development. Right, Maxwell House. The jobs are great, but its complex just doesn't seem to me to be anything but a negative fit for a nearby fancy Shipyards development.
4. The failure of The Landing to be successful notwithstanding its development by a company which succeeded in so many other places. Was parking the culprit? I think not.
5. Spending atrocious sums of money on the stadium and the football team rather than using it for incentives for businesses that might get something moving in the real downtown - the historical core. Footnote: Brooklyn isn't "downtown;" nor is the stadium, the Shipyards area or the [not much of a] convention center. We have to be the only place I know of suffering from urban sprawl.
As bad as JAX was in leveling so much of DT, it honestly doesn't hold a candle to level of which Charlotte did the same thing. The difference is Charlotte has managed to rebuild such that it has nearly filled up the land area that was vacated of buildings just a few decades back. JAX is still has all the huge swaths of vacant land with no immediate prospects of that changing anytime soon.
The READ THEM HERE link goes to the JEA building article.
Stephen,
what I am missing is a "who profited from all of this" part. Not wanting to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but it would be interesting to see if anyone profited from downtown's decline and how.
Maybe no one did.