Jaxtoberfest relocating from downtown to SJTC

[fsquid]

I've gotten free tickets to Jaxtoberfest the last two years and it was still a ripoff. Almost all of the beer can be bought or had on draft at Beer:30 , Kickbacks, Alewife, etc. There's very few things to do there, and it's usually a scorcher in the middle of a contaminated shipyard field while a shitty cover band plays pop-country tunes. Good riddance.

Agreed on that. 

[CCMjax]

I've gotten free tickets to Jaxtoberfest the last two years and it was still a ripoff. Almost all of the beer can be bought or had on draft at Beer:30 , Kickbacks, Alewife, etc. There's very few things to do there, and it's usually a scorcher in the middle of a contaminated shipyard field while a shitty cover band plays pop-country tunes. Good riddance.

Yeah the Shipyards probably wasn't the best location.  I still think Hemming Park, Riverside Park or Memorial Park are better for these things since they are close to where people live.  Ok, maybe not Hemming Park but at least it is the center of downtown.  They are great for festivals with the shade they provide.

[CCMjax]

To be honest, I don't think "most" people in Jax care where Jaxtoberfest is located. The mindset in Jax isn't significantly different from the general mindset across the majority of the country. This place is just a much smaller community than most of us believe. This is Dayton, OH with a lot more suburbs and a beach. This isn't meant to be a knock on Jax. It's just the reality of a smaller 200k city, consolidating with its core county.

I agree with the comment that most people wouldn't care in most places in America, or anywhere for that matter, people are pretty similar personality and interests-wise no matter where you are in the world from what I've found.  But this has nothing to do with Jacksonville being a smaller city.  My hometown Kalamazoo, MI was lame as hell when I was younger and people didn't care one way or another about anything like this, that was until they started improving downtown and holding large festivals like this downtown, not at shopping malls.  It gave people a different perspective and opinion of their city.  Still not the greatest place on earth but that town has seen huge improvements and civic pride as a result.  I've lived in Greenville, SC as well . . . . . same thing.  So I don't believe it's because Jacksonville is not the size of Chicago or Atlanta, etc.  Jacksonville is actually much bigger than those two smaller cities I've mentioned even if you just take the central area, not all of Duval County.  I believe the actual city populations of Kalamazoo and Greenville are both around 100k.

[Sentient]

Relocating from downtown?  SJTC IS the downtown of Jacksonville.  It will only continue to grow and grow.  Already strong residential is popping up all around it, next will be more office spaces, etc.  and it is all organic growth.  You can have your dozens and dozens of plans for downtown "revitalization", until it comes about organically, downtown will continue to fester...

[Tacachale]

I'm sure the event will be a success in its mall parking lot. Then it will get lost in the shuffle like every other similar event before it, and fade away. That's the risk you face when you go that route.

[johnnyliar]

Relocating from downtown?  SJTC IS the downtown of Jacksonville.  It will only continue to grow and grow.  Already strong residential is popping up all around it, next will be more office spaces, etc.  and it is all organic growth.  You can have your dozens and dozens of plans for downtown "revitalization", until it comes about organically, downtown will continue to fester...

SJTC came together "organically?"

Sure.

[Sentient]

Relocating from downtown?  SJTC IS the downtown of Jacksonville.  It will only continue to grow and grow.  Already strong residential is popping up all around it, next will be more office spaces, etc.  and it is all organic growth.  You can have your dozens and dozens of plans for downtown "revitalization", until it comes about organically, downtown will continue to fester...

SJTC came together "organically?"

Sure.

Why do you think there has been wave after wave of expansion, and continues to be?  Success with the initial investment premise is begetting increased success.  It's the exact same dynamic as King Street.

[rylo]

Relocating from downtown?  SJTC IS the downtown of Jacksonville.  It will only continue to grow and grow.  Already strong residential is popping up all around it, next will be more office spaces, etc.  and it is all organic growth.  You can have your dozens and dozens of plans for downtown "revitalization", until it comes about organically, downtown will continue to fester...

Is the growth actually organic if it is growing around a pre-fab, forced growth shopping mall? It's a parasite; just because it is growing doesn't mean it is growth that the city needs. The unfortunate thing is that SJTC is successful and will continue grow, but at what cost to the rest of the city? I know that the majority of Jacksonville is fine with the spread out, car-centric, mid-rise office park, pre-planned neighborhood suburbia that Jacksonville has become, but some of us aren't.

Not that Jaxtoberfest is something spectacular, but this is the kind of bullshit that puts a damper on our downtown.

[Elwood]

Yea, that's it. 50 years of downtown failure rest on the developers of SJTC. Wow.........

[ProjectMaximus]

I don't think it's that big a deal. Downtown can't host everything and you're gonna have events spread throughout the city. it's not like the SJTC folks are gonna sit there and not plan things. Jaxtoberfest isn't some kind of long-standing tradition with a ton of history in downtown. I'd be pissed with Artwalk or Jazzfest going to the burbs.

[Sentient]

Relocating from downtown?  SJTC IS the downtown of Jacksonville.  It will only continue to grow and grow.  Already strong residential is popping up all around it, next will be more office spaces, etc.  and it is all organic growth.  You can have your dozens and dozens of plans for downtown "revitalization", until it comes about organically, downtown will continue to fester...

Is the growth actually organic if it is growing around a pre-fab, forced growth shopping mall? It's a parasite; just because it is growing doesn't mean it is growth that the city needs. The unfortunate thing is that SJTC is successful and will continue grow, but at what cost to the rest of the city? I know that the majority of Jacksonville is fine with the spread out, car-centric, mid-rise office park, pre-planned neighborhood suburbia that Jacksonville has become, but some of us aren't.

Not that Jaxtoberfest is something spectacular, but this is the kind of bullshit that puts a damper on our downtown.

See - this is the idiotic master plan thinking that retards downtown development.  Who are you to know what people want and need?  You can't know.  You can have a guess and the market will tell you if you are right.  SJTC developers (initial phase) saw a gap in the market (upscale, outdoor destination shopping - which was popular all over other places btw) and put up their money and the market proved them right.  That's why there have been numerous and continuing add on developments from different investor groups. 

Because the entire area is most surely providing what people actually do want, not something that somebody is telling them they really should want.  And the more it continues to succeed - the more stark Downtown will continue to become.  Unless the entire downtown landlord base wakes up and provides an environment for organic growth, and the freedom to let that go where the market wants, not where some know it alls say it "should" go.

[Downtown Osprey]

I don't think it's that big a deal. Downtown can't host everything and you're gonna have events spread throughout the city. it's not like the SJTC folks are gonna sit there and not plan things. Jaxtoberfest isn't some kind of long-standing tradition with a ton of history in downtown. I'd be pissed with Artwalk or Jazzfest going to the burbs.

^ this. And to add to that I'm consistently seeing more and more beer-themed festivals crop up all over the city, in fact there is two at the beach coming up. Bruval and a Beachs Oktoberfest. As craft beer popularity continues to grow I'm sure DT will host more and more events so losing this one doesn't seem like that huge of a deal to me.

[Bill Hoff]

Lets just all go to Art Walk instead. They are doing a Oktoberfest type event next month.

Bingo.

[johnnyliar]

Because the entire area is most surely providing what people actually do want, not something that somebody is telling them they really should want.

The SJTC is a perfect example of rampant american consumerism. The whole place exists because people are being told that they want new clothes, brand names, frappachinos, BUY BUY BUY!

[Sentient]

Because the entire area is most surely providing what people actually do want, not something that somebody is telling them they really should want.

The SJTC is a perfect example of rampant american consumerism. The whole place exists because people are being told that they want new clothes, brand names, frappachinos, BUY BUY BUY!

Naive thinking.  So everyone lacks free will but you?  How do you do it???