Bashing Jacksonville gets a little old

[RockStar]

Well, I'll say this much, we've given the author of the article about 40 more hits than he would of gotten. I mean, besides his mom and his friends on facebook, who's giving this guy the time of day...he writes for yahoo sports for pete's sake, not exactly Sports Illustrated.

[Wacca Pilatka]

Well, I'll say this much, we've given the author of the article about 40 more hits than he would of gotten. I mean, besides his mom and his friends on facebook, who's giving this guy the time of day...he writes for yahoo sports for pete's sake, not exactly Sports Illustrated.

I'm not sure anyone actually opened his article; I know I didn't.  Although I did enjoy the portrait of the author that Stephen located.

[finehoe]

families (an entity arguably constantly under attack in this country nowadays). 

Are sportswriters attacking families now?  I missed that one.

[stjr]

LOL, we have an identity:  That city 30 miles north of St. Augustine!

As already mentioned, Jax lacks a national identity because we don't actually market one.  Going one step further, we don't market one for the same reason we can't successfully develop an area like downtown:  No consistent vision, plan, or execution.  This city has had more slogans in my lifetime than I can remember:

Florida Crown
Gateway to Florida
Bold New City of the South
Florida's First Coast
Where Florida Begins...
America's Logistics Center (wins prize for most anti-identity effectiveness)

All just end up being vacuous slogans.  Where is the beef?

If we are calling ourselves Florida's First Coast for example, where is the marketing program to draw in visitors and tourists to see the related historical sites and understand the history here that backs that up?  Do we have a First Coast historic sites/history brochure ( or web site) handed out to visitors at the airport or welcome centers on the interstates?  How many of our very own residents even know the story underlying this moniker?  Until we correct this, the First Coast is reduced, at best, to one point: St. Augustine, America's oldest city.  End of story.

Having an identity also stems from CULTURAL development, not economic development.  But, all Jax promotes is economic development.  Where is the EQUAL promotion of our museums, orchestra, performing arts groups, theaters, history, cuisine, night life, ethnic diversity, educational magnets, etc.?  Our CULTURE IS OUR IDENTITY.  It stays with us long after industries die, are transformed, or relocate.  It is that permanent thread in our community that makes us unique.

Unfortunately, we have gone in the opposite direction.  By literally demolishing much of our cultural heritage, we have been gradually extinguishing much of the DNA of our identity.

Bottom line, we may have an identity, but no one seems to be able to succinctly capture and promote it.

As to being teased, every City is the butt of jokes.  Most jokes start with the residents who live there and know the city best.  I know many here who proudly, if not tongue-in-cheek,  promote Jax as a back woods, redneck, old South city.  Rather than get in a tizzy over these barbs, we should act like adults, ignore them, and focus on the message (whenever we get around to developing one) that we truly want to get out.  The sign of a truly great City is one that can take its medicine.  If we don't like it, let's do something to substantively address the root issues.  In the mean time, maybe any publicity is good publicity.  At least people have us on their minds.  

[finehoe]

There is a difference between being known as a bar/tourist/nightclub town and one that has great nightlife for its own citizens. 

There is also a difference between being known as a party town and being known for having a particular identity.  There are countless cities across North America that aren't known for their nightlife, yet if you say their name, people conjur up an image in their mind about that city.  What comes to mind when your average person on the street hears "Jacksonville"?  Not much I'm afraid and that's the whole point.  Protesting that we have some beautiful neighborhoods or that we have so much potential does not change that dynamic.  Jacksonville needs to establish an unique identity and promote the hell out of it, so when someone hears the city's name, they immediately think of <fill in the blank>.

[Wacca Pilatka]

The remarkable thing about this thread is that we're having a substantive, meaningful discussion about a legitimate topic--the city's identity and marketing of itself--as a result of a substanceless fluff column that probably took five minutes to write.  I love this site.

[Wacca Pilatka]

Are sportswriters attacking families now?  I missed that one.

No, but they do have a tendency to wax rhapsodic about party towns while turning up their noses as more family-oriented ones, at least when it comes to where they would most like to spend their travel expense accounts.  I guess you could say it is part of the reason Jacksonville gets picked on.  Sportswriters who got Jacksonville as a Super Bowl destination when they were hoping for San Diego or Miami started complaining during Super Bowl week and some of them never turned it off.  If a similarly comparatively sedate NFL city like Indianapolis had hosted that particular Super Bowl, maybe it would get teased comparatively more often instead. 

The bias is pretty obvious when you compare the 2005 Jacksonville and 2007 Miami Super Bowls...sportswriters complained about the weather all through the week of the Jacksonville game (when it was in the 50s and on-and-off rainy, though this did not afflict gameday itself), but didn't make a peep over the fact that the Miami game was played in a downpour.

[finehoe]

Well, people go to sports events to have a good time, and if you're traveling to some place to have a good time, you prefer a party town.  I don't see anything weird or bizarre about that.

[Wacca Pilatka]

Well, people go to sports events to have a good time, and if you're traveling to some place to have a good time, you prefer a party town.  I don't see anything weird or bizarre about that.

Didn't mean to say it was weird or bizarre, especially not when you put it that way.  It is likely a major contributing factor to the gratuitous cheap shots that have been taken at Jacksonville since.

Incidentally, maybe it's just me, but I would think an all-expenses-paid trip to cover the Super Bowl would be pretty exciting for someone who chose to cover sports for a living.  But a lot of sportswriters have a make-myself-the-story ethos that leads them to whine about their circumstances to a degree that is, well, weird and bizarre. 

And in my opinion, the fact that not getting to party to their heart's content in Jacksonville in 2005 tarnishes their subsequent reporting is just bad journalism.  Holding a grudge toward a city is petty to begin with, and practically doing a preliminary end-zone dance on the prospect of that city's losing its sports team--without any regard for how that might devastate that city's image and citizenry--is most politely described as callous and unprofessional.

[stjr]

It's real simple:  Controversy sells.

Witness this thread.  Have we ever discussed this guy's comments otherwise?  He just made a name for himself.  And eyeballs pay the bills.  How to get those eyeballs....?  Well, that's not too important nowadays.  Just get them.

Meanwhile, his point is still appropriate.  We, as a city, have mismanaged our image making.

[Wacca Pilatka]

Meanwhile, his point is still appropriate.  We, as a city, have mismanaged our image making.

You're absolutely right that the city has mismanaged its image making. 

But there is no way the writer had that intelligent of a point.  He was just trying to do the cool thing and bash Jacksonville.

And I promise you, even if this city marketed itself as well as it ought, there would still be a gaggle of sportswriters who would trash it because of some combination of the 1993 embarrassment to the sportswriting community, tarps, and the unfamiliarity of an easy target.

I doubt the author made much of a name for himself.  I doubt anyone here is scrambling to read his next piece to see what happens.  Probably everyone just read the excerpt Lake quoted rather than racing over to Yahoo Sports.  Mike Florio, on the other hand, is a master of playing the flute of inaccurate Jacksonville-bashing and getting a parade of people to dance in response.

[cityimrov]

How about just ignoring them and focus on making the city better?  The better REAL things you add to Jacksonville (for starters, update the Riverwalk!, expand Riverside!) the more power marketing you have.  The fundamentals have a tendency to speak for themselves for the people that matter.  It's hard to write a news story about how terrible the city is when it's flourishing and growing!

I don't see anything about this article's opening that is a lie or untrue.  History and culture, yes Jacksonville doesn't have much compared to other cities.  It's hard to compete against history when you living next door to St Augustine!  All cities around the world have some history behind them.  The question is, how unique is this history to the world that it should care about it?

Jacksonville is pretty much an average American city with a beach nearby.  There's nothing here that makes us "outstanding".  There is a reason why major companies use Jacksonville as a test bench for new products and marketing ideas.  Jacksonville represents the average American and the average American's lifestyle.  Think about this, how many other cities around the country has 4G installed (Clearwire)?  The data learned from this city is used to market to other places around the county!  

There's nothing wrong with being a good old fashion average city but that doesn't mean Jacksonville should stop growing!

[CS Foltz]

Speaking for myself........I could care less what some yoyo in Timbucktoo has to say about Jacksonville! I mean sticks and stones yada yada! Live here then I make an exception for a different opinion but until that happens.....so flippin what?

[duvaldude08]

^^^2nd.  Who is going to bash a city like Miami, Orlando, Las Vegas, or NOLA where people's memories of the place include theme parks, trendy fashionable beaches, and/or getting drunk at the Hustler bar and then getting laid.  It's sooo easy to target a city that has none of these things, and where people go to raise families (an entity arguably constantly under attack in this country nowadays).  The other things come into play, too.

I agree. I think Jacksonville is an excellent city to raise a family. The fact that its not a tourist town or major party city, give the perfect atmosphere to raise you children. It doesnt have some of the bad influences other major cities have (gangs, etc)

[Coolyfett]

Submitted by Jeff Elliott on August 19, 2010 - 11:23pm

And you wonder why Jacksonville continues to fight a negative perception throughout the NFL?

Jason Cole is an award-winning writer who covered the Miami Dolphins for 15 years at The Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He now lives in Gainesville and works for Yahoo.com. He’s currently about halfway through his excursion around the country visiting each of the NFL sites.

Here, in part, is how he opened his report on the Jaguars.

“Jacksonville might be the worst town in the NFL. The beaches are cool, featuring plenty of funky places to hang out for a beer. But Jacksonville completely lacks identity. There is nothing that defines it. It’s really just a series of housing developments connected by a beltway with I-95 splitting it pretty much down the middle.

“Fortunately, the distinct odor from the paper mills that defined Jacksonville (and Savannah, Ga., to the north) has been cleaned up. But if you’re looking for history and culture, Jacksonville doesn’t have much, aside from a couple of spots where the French, Spanish and English battled over property.”

This is a national report that circulated on Monday.

Now I’ve met Jason before. He’s been through Jacksonville and written stories from here.

Yet there it was this week, Jacksonville, a city that “completely lacks identity.” Right. Because, of course, we don’t have any golf courses, or beach resorts, or museums, or Naval history, or famous running races, or a sports complex, or paradise weather 11 months a year.

No, all those things are probably only found in Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh or a few choice others. Come on, Jason, you’re better than that.

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/401949/jeff-elliott/2010-08-19/bashing-jacksonville-gets-little-old

Whatever


I said it before ill say it again. The Media hates Jax. Their just jealous they cant control Jax like they want to.