Jim Bailey: Why I Want to be Mayor of Jacksonville

[jimbailey]

We have wasted decades messing up downtown.  One of the hallmarks of my campaign is the simple idea that Jacksonville will do better when we "slow down the screwing up."

It's not about home-runs, it's about singles and doubles.  

First of all we need the right people in the room.  For far too long we have depended on super-consultants, brokers, and out-of-town developers who were long on "big ideas" and short on money - money they wanted from us - the taxpayers.  It's a bad formula for us to depend on "their ideas" and fund it with "our money."  It should be the other way around.  .

We have the talent and expertise in Jacksonville to make a great downtown.  We may not have all the capital, but we can certainly find capital investment from without - that kind of capital formation and attraction is what you hire a Mayor for.  

We got the great downtown potential, we've got the smart operators who can put together a coherent and workable plan, and we need a Mayor who can sell it - who can MAKE IT HAPPEN!  

[jason_contentdg]

Yes, businesses are leaving these strip centers, malls, and centers that you're speaking of, but usually because that business has went under.  Downtown has both, but you have large corporations and businesses leaving downtown to go to different areas.  I'd like to know specifically how you keep that exodus from continuing.

[jimbailey]

Ocklawaha - I think you're largely right in concept.  I love streetcars - they create energy and they move people.  More importantly, from a city planning standpoint, they are a clear but movable structure to a downtown presence and character.  

My only point for now is that we have to work with them to get it done.  The railroad owns the property and they have a legal and fiduciary to their shareholders to make a profit.  I'm not going to get their cooperation by begrudging them the profit they have been hired to make.  

[jason_contentdg]

It's not about home-runs, it's about singles and doubles. 

First of all we need the right people in the room.  For far too long we have depended on super-consultants, brokers, and out-of-town developers who were long on "big ideas" and short on money - money they wanted from us - the taxpayers.  It's a bad formula for us to depend on "their ideas" and fund it with "our money."  It should be the other way around.  .

We have the talent and expertise in Jacksonville to make a great downtown.   

I couldn't agree more with the above...

[thelakelander]

Welcome Jim. What are the five most important issues you tend to address if elected?

[Ocklawaha]

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-may-understanding-transit-in-jacksonville

Jim, seems like we are mixing streetcars and commuter rail, two distinct modes.

OCKLAWAHA

[jimbailey]

>> I'd like to know specifically how you keep that exodus from continuing <<

My point is that large and small businesses - who are downtown or in our town centers and neighborhoods - are feeling the same pressures.  

The first thing we have to do is get government out of their way - reduce the burdensome and duplicative regulation and lower their governmental cost of doing business.  I've been in downtown for 35 years and I would LOVE a little neglect from city government.  Too many entrepreneurs and businessfolk are just tired of pushing the rope uphill.  

It makes some people crazy, because they want some new "program" - which sounds to a lot of busineses like just more paperwork to fill out.  

But government does have an active role. It's the biggest landowner downtown, it controls streets, sidewalks, alleyways, building permits, and all of urban infrastructure.  It is the "landlord" of the city's downtown - even of those of who own their own buildings - in any city the government is the urban landlord.

I know that if we are successful in the singles and doubles - in bringing more cafes and restaurants and service retail and downtown pedestrian traffic to downtown, if we create more buzz, if we make downtown a more attractive place to be, we can make it the kind of place that large corporations want to inhabit and small businesses want to be.  

[Noone]

>> What is the number one policy change that needs to occur to reverse the business exodus from Downtown? <<

It's not "downtown" that's experiencing the exodus.  Downtown is the cultural and economic mirror of our neighborhoods.  Jacksonville is a city of neighborhoods and the exodus is occurring in every strip mall, shopping center, and commercial office building.  

Jim,
The strip malls, shopping centers on a whole don't have parking meters. What would you like to see take place on this issue? What are the business owners Downtown saying to you on this?

[thelakelander]

Streetcars run on public ROW and stimulate the type market rate development that downtown and the urban core has struggled to attract. The only entity to negotiate with in the case of streetcars is COJ.

[jimbailey]

Noone - great point!  Here's what I think:

People in Jacksonville understand that downtown is a nieghborhood.  13 million people a year go there - so it's not like a revolutionary concept.

Parking meters are just the most visible part of the issue, though,  People will come downtown (a) when there's something to come for and (b) when coming isn't a hassle.  Let's go to (b) for a moment.  

To reduce the hassle factor we have to integrate and systematize downtown parking.  (What?  What's he talking about now?)  

When your spouse or kid goes downtown, they want to park (a) where they can see where they're going, (b) where it's safe, well-lighted and convenient, and (c) where they know what the deal is.  In some places today it's a flat $10 dollars for a whole day.  In other places, it's free for the first two minutes (it seems) and then a dollar an hour and then five dollars.  It's bewildering to someone who is in the car, on strange territory, in a hurry, and listening to the car behind them honking at them.  

Does that happen in San Marco, Avondale, St. John's Town Center?  No.  I think it's incredible that we have so many citizens who put up with an anti-visitor downtown.  They've reluctantly overcoming their perceptions of an urban system that simply DOES NOT WELCOME THEM.  

We have to turn this approach on its head.  Parking lots, garages, metered spaces, all need to be clear, welcoming, and low-hassle.  That's takes leadership to MAKE IT HAPPEN.  

[jimbailey]

>> Streetcars run on public ROW and stimulate the type market rate development that downtown and the urban core has struggled to attract. The only entity to negotiate with in the case of streetcars is COJ. <<

Lakelander - got it.  What's your point? 

[Wacca Pilatka]

Mr. Bailey, thanks for being here.  I think the point Lakelander and Ock are trying to make is that negotiation with the railroads should not be necessary for streetcar development?

[thelakelander]

>> Streetcars run on public ROW and stimulate the type market rate development that downtown and the urban core has struggled to attract. The only entity to negotiate with in the case of streetcars is COJ. <<

Lakelander - got it.  What's your point?  

I responding to the conversation between you and Ocklawaha about streetcars.  You mentioned that the city would have to work with freight rail lines on this particular topic.  In the case of streetcars, the city does not because proposed streetcar lines in the COJ 2030 Mobility Plan and TPO's 2035 LRTP run in the middle of city owned streets, such as Water and Newnan Streets. Since this is the case, COJ and JTA have the ultimate power of whether deciding to move forward on this particular mobility related economic development issue.  However, you are right that if we desire to move forward with "commuter rail," we would have to work with the property owners of those lines.  Luckily, talk is underway.

[jimbailey]

Wacca Pilatka - thanks very much for your clarification and welcome.  

I understand the distinction between streetcars and light rail, and that the city doesn't have to negotiate with itself for streetcar right-of-way.  

I have consistently said that I like what streetcars bring to a downtown.  But streetcars aren't a silver bullet any more than light rail, sidewalk cafes, or more streetlights.  The systems have to work together.  

We need to get about the business of mass transit - no doubt about it.  And streetcars - as I've already said - give a quick, well-defined, but movable structure to downtown.  By the way, they were in my original Bay Street Town Center plan, where Ivy, Marks, TSI, Dive Bar are located now.  

The planning has to work together, light rail, streetcars, and all of the other systems.  Entrepreneurs and pioneers.  

[thelakelander]

cant disagree with that.