The Great Reset: What Will It Mean for Jacksonville?

[stjr]

stjr, we are in agreement!  I'm drinking a beer to that and giving you air fives over the internet.   

Likewise, Captain.  Now, if we could just get those bought & sold St. Johns and Clay County commissioners to back off the beltway and understand our suggestions would be far better for their communities both economically and environmentally = far better quality of life.  It sure beats me why they want to recreate Blanding/I-295 interchange clones across their counties.  I can't imagine anyone is happy living next to the original.

[tufsu1]

Instead of contributing to our problems of the past by building the worthless $1.8 billion urban sprawl creating Outer Beltway from one interstate to another, we should spend the same money to improve our connectivity to Gainesville (and, maybe, Tallahasse, both for FSU/Florida A & M and the direct political and economic ink to our state capital).

maybe you can get some private equity company to buy into this proposal instead of the beltway

[thelakelander]

Has a company stepped up to the plate to burn their money on the Outer Beltway yet?

[Actionville]

Presumably some major internal zoning changes would be part of a Jacksonville "reset". I'm surprised no one has mentioned Miami21 on this site yet: the newly implemented form-based code for Dade-County, based on smart-growth/new-urbanist principles. first large scale form-based rezoning as far as I know. Jacksonville should take note how the experiment works out in the coming decades.

[stjr]

maybe you can get some private equity company to buy into this proposal instead of the beltway

Yeah, just like your friends at JTA did with a private company paying for bus shelters?    Outer Beltway may just turn out to be another road-building agency pipe dream.  Let's hope so.

[Captain Zissou]

stjr, I've never really thought about Tally and Jax collaborating much, but we're 2 hours apart by car and could really do some good together.  We could have a whole North FL mega-region that would be focused on bio-tech, shipping/ logistics, finance, and academia. 

[Captain Zissou]

Stephen, the way I see it, mega regions are hubs of development linked by technology as well as physical ties.  I see inventions and innovations being developed at FSU and UF, incubated and financed in Jax, then distributed out towards the greater market of the US and the world.  Like a silicon valley for bio-tech and medicine. 
Sprawl would be an absolute failure of an interpretation of this book.  I'm not saying Jax wouldn't find a way to do that, but thanks to technology we don't need to physically develop out to Gainesville or Tally in order to establish stronger ties with them.  I know you know this is true, I just wanted to try and clarify my point.

[Captain Zissou]

I have not, but I'd like to pick it up. I hope to in the next week.

[Fallen Buckeye]

I think you could make the argument that we are great region for medicine and research with our strong ties to Shands and with the Mayo Clinic. How actively are we pushing forward that image to the rest of the country? Also, we have a couple universities here in town, but what kinds of health programs do they have beyond nursing and nutrition? Not much. If we seriously want to become a biotech center having an abundance of educated healthcare professionals couldn't be a bad thing. How about having a college of pharmacy or medicine at UNF? Look at Boston with research hospitals tied to Harvard and Tufts and Boston University. The more experts in the area the better.

[jim morris]

The line of traffic on I 10 coming to Jacksonville early in the morning from Baker and Columbia Counties, and going back in the evening, suggests that the idea of light rail might have a bright future connecting rural hinterlands with the Jacksonville urban core.  The problem is, as long as oil is available, people will chose to drive their personal vehicles rather than take mass transit...until there isn't a choice.  People won't stop driving when gas is $10 a gallon...only when it it no longer available at any price.  We need to have a plan in place for when that time comes.  Check out James Kunstler's book, The Long Emergency. - JM

[ricker]

Off to Chamblin to pick up this book.
great article! who do I vote for?

[dougskiles]

I am about halfway through this book and am finding it very insightful.  After reading the comments, I am surprised that nobody jumped on this quote (in page 84 of the book and in the main article that started the thread):

So what can be done?  Instead of spending millions of dollars to lure or bail out factories, or hundreds of millions and in some cases billions to build stadiums, convention centers, and hotels, use that money to invest in local assets, spur local business formation and development, better employ local people and utilize their skills, and invest in improving quality of place.

I couldn't agree more and is why I am not in favor of any form of significant public investment in a new convention center.  We have plenty of available meeting space around town to replace the Prime Osborn once the Jacksonville Terminal is restored to its original function (assuming we can get that right).

[blandman]

Great article...and I love the UF/FSU/DT Jax talk!  DT seems the perfect place for a new medical or business school.  Or both?