Mayor Peyton's Last 18 Months. The Bucket List. Part 1

[Metro Jacksonville]

Mayor Peyton's Last 18 Months. The Bucket List. Part 1



Metro Jacksonville sat down with John Peyton, Mayor of Jacksonville, Florida to let him talk about the Bucket List of his term limited Administration, and found a man with a clear cut set of goals and items he would like to see implemented. Today we present four clips that represent the Legacy issues of his Administration: A Proposed Downtown Creative District. Why Downtown is so important to revitalize, Proposed Improvement Projects, and The Convention Center. The second part of this interview will be the social issues that the Mayor feels must be solved: Jobs, The Homeless, and Public Safety, plus a personal viewpoint of his experience as Mayor.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-feb-mayor-peytons-last-18-months-the-bucket-list-part-1

[BridgeTroll]

Great job Stephen!  Great job MetroJax...!!!

[BridgeTroll]

That is interesting... hope it pans out.  I really love the fact that we now have the Mayors views on subjects Metrojax promotes, on video...  This is a good thing!

[buckethead]

Nice!

It seems that Mayor Peyton has someone reading this site.

He did slip when talking about artists/downtown revitilization though. Paraphrased: "we are working with experts in rennovation to continue offering affordable downtown space".

Translation: Vestcor

He had the audacity to consider using our historic downtown terminal as a train station!

I disagree with his assessment of the soutbank riverwalk. I find the weathered decking to be appealing and at least what is visible is quite structurally sound. Minor repairs could allow for another ten years of service, but would not force the city to purchase a bulk of "more durable materials" ie concrete.

Didn't the Godbold/Austin era boys have lumber connections ? (now that I think of it.)

[JeffreyS]

Great Job Mayor Peyton. Great job Stephen. This is such a good platform for a politician to share their ideas.  I think this served MetroJacksonville.com well, Mayor Peyton well and the people of Jacksonville well. I would advise the Mayoral candidates to take advantage of this forum in their campaigns as we the posters plan on deciding who the next Mayor will be.

I do not agree with everything Mayor Peyton said specifically(Met Park) but the overall downtown vision seemed solid and I will try to support it going forward.

[JaxNative68]

Why didn't Boy Wonder try to put some of these ideals into action when he was first elected?  It seems that a lot of the things he is talking about will take more than 18 months to carry through.  Or is this the best time to talk about it, he can then claim he had great concerns for Jacksonville downtown without actually having to see it through.  He acts as if it is some great new thinking on how to revitalize downtown, but actually all of these ideas are ones that have been talked about by the community and completely ignored by his administration until now.

Downtown Projects:
One statement that did stand out to me was the $10+ million to be spent on concrete for replacing the Riverwalk.  Sounds like a family little pocket lining to me.

Met Park is too isolated from the city.  They need to focus on its connectivity to the downtown entertainment district.  Right now it is a wasteland between Met Park and the night life of Bay Street.  I still think the convention center with a hotel should be placed at the Shipyards location to help fill this gap.  It could be utilized by Met Park, the sports complex and be the terminus to skyway from the new location of the transit center by the old train station.

Friendship Fountain should be restored!  I completely agree with Peyton on this one.  It once was an icon of our city and it should be embraced.  But the mayor should use the term 'busting up the concrete”.  You’re the Mayor . . . proper English please.

[luvjax]

JeffreyS, "I would advise the Mayoral candidates to take advantage of this forum in their campaigns as we the posters plan on deciding who the next Mayor will be."  I couldn't agree with you more.  I've been standing on my head saying the same thing to the "handlers" of a particular candidate.  What is the average age group that posts on here?

 

[tufsu1]

Why didn't Boy Wonder try to put some of these ideals into action when he was first elected?  It seems that a lot of the things he is talking about will take more than 18 months to carry through.  Or is this the best time to talk about it, he can then claim he had great concerns for Jacksonville downtown without actually having to see it through.  

Two potential reasons

1. He has been educated over the last few years....if so, some of the credit goes to this site
2. Downtown investment isn't that popular countywide...since he's now term-limited, he can do it

Also keep in mind that by suggesting these ideas now, they become discussion issues in the mayoral race...which means that they potentially can live on.

[BridgeTroll]

Why didn't Boy Wonder try to put some of these ideals into action when he was first elected?

He said why in the first interview.  There is not a constituency for it downtown.  There are not many votes downtown... the votes are in the burbs...  Of course now he does not have to worry about votes... hence the change in priority...

[Ocklawaha]

Friendship Fountain should be restored!  I completely agree with Peyton on this one.  It once was an icon of our city and it should be embraced.  But the mayor should use the term 'busting up the concrete”.  You’re the Mayor . . . proper English please.

Um, Jax Native? Are you REALLY a Jax Native? REALLY? As far as I'm concerned any use of a Southern colloquialism IS proper English.

I ain't got no qualm's about standing solid with our mayor on this one!


OCKLAWAHA

[Miss Fixit]

Where I'm from (south Georgia) that would be "we're fixin' to bust up some concrete" or "I reckon we oughta start bustin' up some concrete".

The mayor's intentions are good but why why why does he continue to ignore Hogan's Creek?  Talk about missed opportunities....what a great legacy the restoration/improvement of Jacksonville's central park would have been..

southbank riverwalk?  not so much

Metro Park?  event destination only

[tufsu1]

The mayor's intentions are good but why why why does he continue to ignore Hogan's Creek?  Talk about missed opportunities....what a great legacy the restoration/improvement of Jacksonville's central park would have been..

southbank riverwalk?  not so much

Metro Park?  event destination only

maybe because the Riverwalk and Metro Park are used by people from all over the City...most folks outside of Springfield probably don't even know what/where Hogan's Creek is.

[Miss Fixit]

The mayor's intentions are good but why why why does he continue to ignore Hogan's Creek?  Talk about missed opportunities....what a great legacy the restoration/improvement of Jacksonville's central park would have been..

southbank riverwalk?  not so much

Metro Park?  event destination only

maybe because the Riverwalk and Metro Park are used by people from all over the City...most folks outside of Springfield probably don't even know what/where Hogan's Creek is.

I agree that Metro Park is used by people from all over the City when there are big events.  Don't know that I've ever witnessed many folks on the southbank riverwalk except during big events, either.

The Hogans Creek Park system SHOULD be used by folks from all over the city because of its proximity to downtown but then of course that's the problem we're trying to solve, isn't it? No one goes downtown because of the perception that there's nothing there.

By the way, I live near the Mayor in San Marco  

[thelakelander]

Considering during downtown's heyday, Hogans Creek was the "central park" of the urban core, it sounds like a history lesson is in order.  Maybe we'll have better luck restoring what worked (that we tore a part) instead of trying to recreate the wheel and hoping for positive results?

[JaxNative68]

Friendship Fountain should be restored!  I completely agree with Peyton on this one.  It once was an icon of our city and it should be embraced.  But the mayor should use the term 'busting up the concrete”.  You’re the Mayor . . . proper English please.

BORN AND RAISED BABY!

Um, Jax Native? Are you REALLY a Jax Native? REALLY? As far as I'm concerned any use of a Southern colloquialism IS proper English.

I ain't got no qualm's about standing solid with our mayor on this one!


OCKLAWAHA