Elements of Urbanism: Downtown West Palm Beach

[vicupstate]

Mtrain,

In your view, what city SHOULD be considered a peer for Jacksonville to compare itself to? 

Which ever cities you pick, there will always be aspects that differ  from Jax, despite whatever multitude of similiarities do exist.  No two cities are identical. 

Like Lake said, there's always something you can learn from evaluating others. 

[tufsu1]

lake...did you just use the word "deuces"  

[urbaknight]

Mtrain,

In your view, what city SHOULD be considered a peer for Jacksonville to compare itself to? 

Which ever cities you pick, there will always be aspects that differ  from Jax, despite whatever multitude of similiarities do exist.  No two cities are identical. 

Like Lake said, there's always something you can learn from evaluating others. 

Let's see what happens mid May, If the election goes wrong again, we'll probably be comparing JAX to downtown Gainsville.

[tufsu1]

well actually comparing Jax. to Gainesville might be a compliment...and that's coming from an FSU grad!

[urbaknight]

I meant no insult to Gainsville, I just met that it"s knida in the country.

[thelakelander]

One could argue that urban Gainesville is already more vibrant than urban Jax, given it's size. I don't think we have any urban district that can compare with the strip, in terms of length and 24/7 life.

[mtraininjax]

Mtrain, In your view, what city SHOULD be considered a peer for Jacksonville to compare itself to? 
Which ever cities you pick, there will always be aspects that differ  from Jax, despite whatever multitude of similiarities do exist.  No two cities are identical.  Like Lake said, there's always something you can learn from evaluating others.

True, but comparing Jax to wealth centers like WPB or Atlanta are just not fair or realistic. Personally, I would compare our city to San Antonio. We both have a major sports franchise, we both have a riverwalk, although San Antonio has expanded theirs better, both cities are spread out to all get out. San Antonio has a similar diversified economy with Government, Healthcare, Financial Services, and tourism. We could add the transportation aspect for ourselves. Population was 1.2 million area-wide in 2005 and they have been adding more land for more growth, I am sure there are some areas we differ, but we both have uncontrolled sprawl and anyone who has been to San Antonio knows they have an impressive highway system around the area. Although they appear to have better education with over 30 different higher ed facilities.

I will go with San Antonio as a good match for what ails us in Jax. Although they do have better Tex-Mex for obvious reasons, I will compare our Mayport Shrimp to Tex-Mex any day. 

[Timkin]

Mtrain,

In your view, what city SHOULD be considered a peer for Jacksonville to compare itself to? 

Which ever cities you pick, there will always be aspects that differ  from Jax, despite whatever multitude of similiarities do exist.  No two cities are identical. 

Like Lake said, there's always something you can learn from evaluating others. 

Let's see what happens mid May, If the election goes wrong again, we'll probably be comparing JAX to downtown Gainsville.

More like Hawthorne

[wsansewjs]

Mtrain, In your view, what city SHOULD be considered a peer for Jacksonville to compare itself to? 
Which ever cities you pick, there will always be aspects that differ  from Jax, despite whatever multitude of similiarities do exist.  No two cities are identical.  Like Lake said, there's always something you can learn from evaluating others.

True, but comparing Jax to wealth centers like WPB or Atlanta are just not fair or realistic. Personally, I would compare our city to San Antonio. We both have a major sports franchise, we both have a riverwalk, although San Antonio has expanded theirs better, both cities are spread out to all get out. San Antonio has a similar diversified economy with Government, Healthcare, Financial Services, and tourism. We could add the transportation aspect for ourselves. Population was 1.2 million area-wide in 2005 and they have been adding more land for more growth, I am sure there are some areas we differ, but we both have uncontrolled sprawl and anyone who has been to San Antonio knows they have an impressive highway system around the area. Although they appear to have better education with over 30 different higher ed facilities.

I will go with San Antonio as a good match for what ails us in Jax. Although they do have better Tex-Mex for obvious reasons, I will compare our Mayport Shrimp to Tex-Mex any day. 

As a moderate-knowledgeable person in marine science and the local marine environment, Mayport Shrimp today are not truly from Mayport area, but much more further out to the Atlantic.

-Josh

[thelakelander]

The point of the Elements of Urbanism series is not to compare wealth, population size, demographics, etc.  The point is to see what peer communities are doing and taking a look if some of the revitalization methods that have worked in other places may be worth pursuing within our own environment.  With that said, if a place like West Palm Beach was successful at creating a TIF to revitalize a section of DT, it doesn't mean that can't be a successful concept for certain areas of Jax, just because Worth Avenue is across the bridge from DT West Palm Beach.  By the same token, even though a place like Lakeland, FL may be several times smaller than Jax, it still doesn't discount the fact that we can't tap into public/private partnerships like they did to fund major public park expansion and maintenance of our own.  The revitalization concepts mentioned above are only two examples of several that can work in a city as large as Chicago or as small as Fernandina Beach.  These are the things that we should be looking at, when talking about comparing things.  Not who has the most professional sports teams or millionares.