Top 10 Things to Make DOWN-town a BOOM-town

[Keith-N-Jax]

A large gay community in a bible belt, with the largest landmark downtown being FBC,,, oil/water anybody.

[JeffreyS]

The Tyra Banks show live from Hemming plaza.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Girls Gone wild to follow.

[TheProfessor]

The rainbow flags increase the property values

[hillary supporter]

The reason I prefer Jacksonville to some other cities is because the people I'm in contact with have usually been very warm and welcoming. I always felt like they were small town people in a big place. Obviously there are exceptions, but how do we encourage and nurture a stock of good citizens and a warm, friendly culture?

Its essential that fallen buckeye's point be accepted. Along with the statistics of a population less than one million
in the country's largest municipality puts the term urban life low on the list. Particularly downtown. Jacksonville's urban life is based mainly in riverside and springfield, both of which are very competent. But the thread is about downtown.
Stjr idea of something unique downtown that draws one worldwide is a strong idea.
Commerical, retail growth in Jacksonville will continue along the 95 south corridor to st augustine for the forseeable future, theres just so much land without the drawbacks of downtown development.

[Reaper man]

8. Eliminate all one-way streets. Period.

This, a 1000 times this.

[AaroniusLives]

You say to "build to the market place, not the rich folks," but then talk about gentrification of downtown. To me the goal is not to transform the downtown area necessarily into something upscale and ritzy as implied by gentrification, but it's to revitalize downtown to a point where people of all walks of life can live there and enjoy it. I know that sounds a little pie in the sky or maybe like it's a trivial difference, but I say that's a better goal. Poor people need a place to live just the same as rich people. I know that the culture of the rich is big on exclusivity, but I think that's wrong. To me the question is how do we make downtown a great place to live for all people.

Gentrification, at least as a word, does not always imply "kick out the poor people." However, as gentrification is practiced in this country, it does involve a displacement of the lower classes. Agreed that it's a problem to be worked upon.

In terms of Floridian development especially, the municipalities tend to build new construction in downtown, only for a specific class of people. At least with a neighborhood gentrification, there's a period of displacement, and architectural renewal prior to the new high-rise inevitability.

In addition, I'm a realist. In an ideal city neighborhood, you can expect and encourage a spectrum of incomes to co-exist...but you can't blame the city officials for trying to encourage that spectrum to be on the upper end. Or people, for that matter. To put this into a real-life (mine) situation, it's much more safe and clean to be at the middle of the Georgetown spectrum of incomes, than to be at the upper end of the Columbia Heights spectrum of incomes. Moreover, property values are higher. Selfish? Of course. Have you met humanity? :p

A large gay community in a bible belt, with the largest landmark downtown being FBC,,, oil/water anybody.

Atlanta is chock-full of gays and religious nuts who believe in the magical wizard who lives in the sky. Gays tranformed quite a few of the inner core areas of Metro Atlanta. Jesus may be condemning the gays, but they do increase neighborhood vibrancy and are just the proven first wave of gentrification. For Jeebus' sake, the governor of Georgia prayed to the space god for water a couple of years ago...at a government building a few blocks from gay town. The co-existence of the religious and the persecuted mos def occurs, even in the "Bible Belt."

In 2002 I sent a copy of Richard Florida's Rise of the Creative Class to every member of the Jacksonville City Council and suggested that a great way to fuel economic development is to attract a larger gay population.  Guess how many I heard back from?  NOT A ONE.

Of course not. In the South, that's political suicide. And lest we think that Miami is "liberal," they didn't encourage the gays to flock to South Beach in the 1980s. They just did. (Broward County, on the other hand, is extremely liberal, and actively encouraged gay gentrification in Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors, Pompano Beach, Hollywood and Oakland Park.)

[Ocklawaha]

1.

How about an aquarium unlike anything in the USA?


2.
Why not host the Worlds Fair, and leave us with a family place not seen in Jax since Dixieland Trolley Park was hammered by hail.


3.
Lets move the Great Fire Monument to a place befitting its role in our history, let's lift it up for all the world to see. The Cross in St. Augustine is 208 feet high, why don't we reach for 300.

4.

Rebuild the Fountain so that it trumps the one's in Dubi and Singapore.

5.

Why not some creative group rediscovering underground Jacksonville? The Tunnels are waiting.

6.

Step One, bring back the streetcars

Step Two, With a little elbow grease, a WORKING STREETCAR MUSEUM would turn a big nothing, into something!

7.

Work with NAS JAX Warrior Park aircraft collection, a large collection of aircraft on loan from the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, and put our aircraft collection in a place where EVERYONE can learn and enjoy it. Sssssspt... There are a lot more where these came from.

8.

Southern Fried Rock Museum in the Old Snyder Church complete with concert stage and "Alices Restaurant." Another venue could be "RAY'S" a jazz and blues club downtown... and y'all know where!

9.

http://www.youtube.com/v/v0dpuKULBQo&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x402061&color2=0x9461ca&border=1"></param><param%20name=
Florida's Civil War Adventure..."It's More then you Know..." A museum with a twist of Disney and Animatronics. This is a CURRENT tour route being operated from JIA, they land and leave, why?

Day 1: Georgia travel on your mind
South Carolina and Georgia travel experience departs from Florida’s Jacksonville International Airport at 3:00 PM. For guests spending the previous night on Jekyll Island, a transfer is included from Jacksonville International Airport to the Jekyll Island Club Hotel in the heart of the island's National Historic Landmark District. Enjoy the welcome reception and dinner at your elegant Victorian hotel, which was originally founded in the late 19th century as a hunting retreat for some of America's richest and most powerful families including the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts; a stay on historic Jekyll Island is a Georgia travel highlight.

10.

Rebuild the Shand's Bridge and get after reestablishing good old fashioned Steamship Cruises between JAX, Green Cove Springs, Palatka and Sanford. Wrap it all up with a bunch of tour companies, Amtrak and the airlines.
Plane or Train to Night in Jax, board river ship, cruise, Night in Palatka, cruise, Sanford, met by theme park and tour buses.

OCKLAWAHA

[AaroniusLives]

Ocklawaha,
     I like a great many of your suggestions, but I find them to be "stage two" or "stage three" ideas. The problem with downtown Jacksonville (and indeed, many downtowns across both the state and the nation,) are structural. There's a policy issue that's keeping downtown Jacksonville from being anything but a forgotten husk; it's a mouth missing teeth. Essentially, downtown Jacksonville is missing the essentials of life across the board. Large, monumental ornaments, stadiums and "festival marketplaces" only serve to demonstrate the black hole surrounding them.

Jacksonville Landing is a prime example of the failure surrounding this type of thinking. Outside of special events and lunch hour for downtown employees, this marketplace is empty, no? Indeed, wikipedia reprints a quote from the Florida Times-Union that states:

"[t]he Landing has had a history of high turnover among its tenants and meager foot traffic during times when there are no special events."

Mind you, Jacksonville Landing isn't a singular example of this form of mistake. Miami's Bayside Marketplace and Tampa's Harbor Island Shops both didn't work. Tampa's still doesn't. Miami's is finally working, but only after establishing life in the city. The reason that Boston's Faneuil Hall worked involves the teeming masses of people surrounding Boston Common. There are no missing teeth.

Moreover, a "success" story can be relative. Baltimore's Inner Harbor of museums, "festival marketplaces," historical recreations of maritime boats and more does attract tourists to the downtown area (or, to be more precise, the road encircling the harbor.) But, as an impetus to activate the life in downtown Baltimore, the Inner Harbor project is an abject failure. For the past 29 years, Baltimore's Inner Harbor has attracted tourists and their dollars. Baltimore's Inner Harbor has drawn in people from their surrounding suburbs to play the role of "day tourists." Baltimore's Inner Harbor hasn't transformed downtown Baltimore into a vibrant, safe, alive alternative to playing house in the suburbs. After nearly 30 years, it's only those who can't afford to move (the poor,) those who are riding the snake (crack addicts,) and those who are "urban pioneers," and will deal with the grime and the crime (and the lack of things like non-tourist shops, supermarkets, etc) who live in downtown B'more.

That's a huge pity, as Baltimore has a lot of beautiful row homes, arcaded streets brimming with turn-of-the-century decor, and a rich tapestry of history to be discovered on their streets. So, the Inner Harbor may have increased the tax revenue collected in downtown, but it hasn't increased the life of downtown. It's not an alternative to the 'burbs. It's a place for the 'burbs to visit. While that's certainly an important component to a successful downtown (tourism, both local and other,) it's arguably the least important component.

Consider this: let's say you live in downtown Jacksonville, a downtown filled with the amenities you described. There's a unique aquarium. You can go hob-nob at the Underground caverns, complete with museum and gift shop. You can marvel at the fountain that out-did Dubai. That's pretty cool for like a week, right?

But then you need groceries. A dry cleaner. A favorite restaurant, cafe, or bar, that doesn't feature the "Naval Stinger" drink, complete with fake ice wings. You're surrounded by monuments, by ornaments...and what you really need are essentials. If downtown Jacksonville had none of the ornaments, if it were just parks, housing, shops and restaurants, it would be infinitely more successful. Start with life, and then enhance that life with the rest.

This is a long post (I write for a living and I'm a massive New Urbanist,) but I'd like to anecdotally reference my own life as an illustrative example. When I first moved to the District (Washington DC,) from Atlanta, my first four months were spent in a tourist haze. I went to every museum I could. I saw the monuments a zillion times. I visited the White House, the Capital...even the long-forgotten Titanic memorial in SW DC (taking my life in my own hands in many ways, I might add.) It. Was. Awesome.

After that, I discovered the greater side of living in DC. I found my favorite park bench at the Georgetown Waterfront to read a book at. I discovered my dry cleaner. I learned that Chadwicks is a great, cheap place to grab a beer in overpriced Georgetown, and that the Four Seasons is for when you want to overpay it. I learned how to use the Blue Bus to go to the Blue Line to go to the Target, Macy's, or Apple Store. I found life.

So now, when I go and take a bike ride down the Mount Vernon trail (on the way to do a little shopping at Target, of course,) I take a glance at the beauty of the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials along the way. I raise my eyes to the sky at Haines Point, as planes land at the airport. And I see the omnipresent Washington Monument at nearly every stage of my journey. But...if all of that wasn't there, I'd still have a bike path that connects to shopping and dining...that many people use to commute, shop and work out...often at the same time. I'd still have life.

Get the first stage right and the rest will follow.

[vicupstate]

^^  Lots of valid points Aaron.  Great post. 

Instead of spending $19mm on Metro Park or even the Riverwalk, I would prefer a loan pool to rehab the 10-12 most significant, most endangered historic buildings.  That would include the Laura Trio, Barnett, Baptist Convention building, Ambassador hotel, etc.  The economy would make it a lot tougher right now, but if even 1-2 buildings were turned into MARKET RATE housing, that would be a big plus.  Save a few historic buildings while you still can, and  bring in new residents at teh same time.   

[Ocklawaha]

I agree with the need for sustainable life places in downtown. It's hard to be a big city without having a single Dollar Store, Market, or Retail and all of those things are needed to support the residents in all of those historic buildings. Sadly, we don't even have the gimmick to attract the stores or restored apartments. Years of downtown HATE is really telling. Streetcars and Ships cause huge influx of development. A single streetcar line connecting downtown with Riverside serves the purpose of giving anyone downtown a shopping mecca. Certainly we don't try all of this at once, but something like the Worlds Fair would introduce more folks then the Jags to our City, and leave us with fantastic infrastructure improvements. The Civil War adventure is urgent, we were the "War in Florida," moreover, we are up against the 150Th year celebration. The time to act is NOW.


OCKLAWAHA

[AaroniusLives]

...something like the Worlds Fair would introduce more folks then the Jags to our City, and leave us with fantastic infrastructure improvements. The Civil War adventure is urgent, we were the "War in Florida," moreover, we are up against the 150Th year celebration.

I worry that this is merely the icing upon a non-existent cake. A world's fair ends, after all (and ask Montreal, whose WF banrupt the city for years.) To anecdotally look at my own life again, I grew up in suburban Miami-Dade County. I went to a magnet school in downtown Miami (New World School of the Arts.) Miami spent hundreds of millions or more trying to restart their downtown. They built a "festival marketplace." They built the Miami Arena. They helped finance a few large office buildings. They built a largely useless variant of the Skyway (the Miami Metromover, for when walking two blocks is too much for you.) They created an outdoor, outlet mall. They built the American Airlines Arena. They created a massive, state-of-the-art cruise ship port.

All that effort succeeding in attracting tourists to occassionally go downtown, or office workers who wanted the prestige of a downtown location. Up until recently, only the Brickell district of downtown got residential development, and it's all of the private building, gated-community "suburb in the sky" variant. Up until the last few years, if you lived in Brickell...you shopped in the suburbs!

It's only within the last decade that downtown Miami began to come to life in any meaningful way. They already had the icing...they're FINALLY getting the cake.

That was really the point of the DC anecdote as well. The museums, memorials and monuments are a nice addition. The walkable/transit-oriented/bicycle-friendly communities are the main event.

To put this another way...the way to make a great down-town is to start with the town aspect. At present, there isn't that sense of community, of connection, of neighbors and merchants and civic life. Dropping land bombs of tourist traps, postcard-friendly icons and statues, and temporal improvements doesn't add back the town to downtown. If anything, it detracts and distorts what downtown is supposed to be.

[Fallen Buckeye]

That was really the point of the DC anecdote as well. The museums, memorials and monuments are a nice addition. The walkable/transit-oriented/bicycle-friendly communities are the main event.

To put this another way...the way to make a great down-town is to start with the town aspect. At present, there isn't that sense of community, of connection, of neighbors and merchants and civic life. Dropping land bombs of tourist traps, postcard-friendly icons and statues, and temporal improvements doesn't add back the town to downtown. If anything, it detracts and distorts what downtown is supposed to be.

I'm an idealist I know. I think we do agree on a lot of stuff though. DC might be a good example of a goal to set for a vibrant downtown in some ways (Population density and park space come to mind), but it doesn't seem like such a good model for how to get there. They have so many government entities and so on to anchor their inner-city area that we don't have. Until they move the U.S. capital people are definitely going to be there. I just wonder which cities of a similar profile to Jacksonville have had success in bringing their downtowns back from the dead and I wonder specifically what they are doing.

Going along the lines of what AaroniousLives was saying earlier, it also makes sense to think about what is obstructing people from living in the downtown area as opposed to a suburban area, so that we can remove these barriers. For me, off the top of my head, I would say:
-access to basic amenities such as grocery stores and general and hardware stores
-space
-access to good schools

Some of the people I know would probably say the perception of high crime and proliferation of homeless people are issues, too. So my list of things to make downtown a boomtown in no particular order would include:

1. Preserving existing stock of buildings to provide affordable spaces for delis, butchers, markets, and other "essential" shops. I wonder if we could offer some sort of loan or grant program for these types of businesses who chose to set up shop downtown to make it even easier to bring these places downtown.

2. Creation of a neighborhood association dedicated to promoting downtown revitalization similar to RAP, MHPA, or what's in Springfield. This may already be in place. I don't know, but I think it would help create an identity and foster the idea of a downtown community.

3. Improved signage and lighting to make downtown more user friendly for those new to the area.

4. Continue creating new green spaces throughout downtown and maintain existing parks.

5. Minimize metered parking.

6. Link downtown with adjoining areas by street car, Skyway, or whatever, especially the sports complex and Riverside.

7. Maybe not immediately, but as population increases build schools downtown

8. Having a recurring weekly or monthly special event downtown a la RAM or First Fridays could expose people to downtown in a positive light as long as it's well orchestrated and hopefully begin countering the perception that downtown is unsafe. I heard that there's a farmers market happening every week in Hemming Plaza. This would be a good example which also helps offset the fact that there is not much in the way of grocery shopping available downtown. It might be cool to have a place where local fishermen could sell their catch too.

9. They were talking about letting local artist use these empty spaces for galleries and studios. I say organize a monthly gallery hop or something. Create some synergy within the community. Or how about actually encouraging the artists to live in the downtown area. In my hometown, they have an artist colony downtown where they bring in artists from all over to live in these old buildings that no one was going to use anyways for fairly low rents. They open their studios to the public and have regular events like I described. Works really well.

[stjr]

Aaron and Falllen Buckeye, I think we are establishing some commonality of thought if you compare your posts to each other and mine initiating this thread.

Most of our comments relate to making Downtown a self-sustaining livable community, with its own residents, schools, parks, transit system, services, and every-day stores.  Once created, any embellishments overlayed on it would add the final polish to a attracting more residents and visitors that would further sustain more expansion and growth.  At some point, it takes a life of its own and the City can (needs to?) stand back and let it run.

Building ugly parking garages, removing any sense of character, place, or scale by destroying historic buildings and replacing them with empty lots or boxy glass structures, running off household retail, failing to provide intra-urban transit that is reliable and frequent, lacking infrastructure to support family life (schools, playing fields, parks), and not creating a sense of community with pedestrian friendly streets are prescriptions for failure regardless of the "big idea" projects cooked up by the CoJ or JEDC. 

The  Courthouse, a new skyscraper or hotel, the Riverwalk, a SuperBowl or other big time football event, a pocket park, a BRT or the $ky-high-way, a new "entrance" into Downtown aren't going to make anyone move to the urban core.

Now tell someone they can affordably live Downtown, walk safely to the grocery/drug  store, the park to run/bike/play, and the school and your are on your way.  How about a charter school only for Downtown residents?  Built on the Florida State College Campus or sharing the La Villa Arts Campus?  Make the Shipyards playing fields and a jogging/bike path.  Connect the two with a streetcar line cutting through the heart of Downtown and passing  by a grocery/drug store.  Don't think people will be ready to move in?

[Ocklawaha]

With all due respects y'all, I think you have lost sight of this articles intended theme. This is not about "saving downtown," this article is about big ideas and making downtown boom. So maybe the whole article is intended as a phase two, but I think unless we get another couple of CSX size mega Corporate relocation's, you can kiss downtown retail goodbye. Until we give the average citizen a reason for a downtown experience, and that said citizen won't fear for his life, or be hassled by the homeless.

Of course I realize the Worlds Fair is a short time venue, but do YOU realize the beneficial infrastructure that could be developed as a result? Yes, several Cities went bankrupt with the fair, but guess what, several more made money or got a huge makeover. Thinking big? Imagine taking everything from the Matthews to Metropolitan Park and seeing it turned into a World Expo center. (I'm not saying this is where it has to go, Brooklyn, LaVilla, JEA site, there are lots of BIG development sites in or near downtown, hell even the Confederate-Klutho Park complex...) New Orleans made a killing on the fair, managed it so well the City is a model for anyone willing to take it on. They were left with the fabulous waterfront, WWII D-Day museum, and a number of other improvements. Ditto Knoxville or Spokane, meanwhile the railroad industry is still abuzz over the Chicago Expo of 1936! Talk about making your mark!

Some of my ideas we already have, or at least the roots of them. "Rays" the "Alice's Restaurant - Southern Rock Hall of Fame", The Fountain, Streetcar routes, etc... In fact I'll throw y'all two more:

BIRTHPLACE OF THE NEGRO LEAGUES MUSEUM:
Jacksonville's Negro League baseball team was known as the Jacksonville Redcaps before relocating to Cleveland in 1939.  A large segment of Jacksonville's early African-American population worked with the railroads.  Many black men worked as "RedCaps" or "Porters" (men who helped passengers with their baggage and supplies).  Randolph organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

http://www.youtube.com/v/ydELVJXgEww&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x402061&color2=0x9461ca&border=1"></param><param%20name=
National Pullman Hall Of Fame

Quote
Randolph had some experience in labor organization, having organized a union of elevator operators in New York City in 1917. He was a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. In 1925, Randolph organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. This was the first serious effort to form a labor institution for the employees of the Pullman Company, which was a major employer of African-Americans. With amendments to the Railway Labor Act in 1934, porters were granted rights under federal law, and membership in the Brotherhood jumped to more than 7,000. After years of bitter struggle, the Pullman Company finally began to negotiate with the Brotherhood in 1935, and agreed to a contract with them in 1937, winning $2,000,000 in pay increases for employees, a shorter workweek, and overtime pay.

AP Randolph, from JACKSONVILLE, and so were the related RED CAPS, and the NEGRO LEAGUES.
OCKLAWAHA