NoCo No-Go: 4 reasons to ax DIA's Downtown rebrand

[Tacachale]

The Downtown Investment Authority has released a survey floating a variety of rebranding options for Downtown neighborhoods. Included in the options are new names for the Northbank that feature all hip swagger of an insurance commercial: 'NoCo' and 'SoBa.' Here are four ways this project misses the mark – and what to do about it.

Read more: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/noco-no-go-4-reasons-to-ax-dias-downtown-rebrand/

[CityLife]

Very nicely done Bill!

They clearly should have done a better job workshopping ideas and concepts with the public before even getting into the design phase. Did they do any public outreach at all or was this all DIA/consultant driven?

[Tacachale]

Very nicely done Bill!

They clearly should have done a better job workshopping ideas and concepts with the public before even getting into the design phase. Did they do any public outreach at all or was this all DIA/consultant driven?

Thanks! I don't know for sure what kind of outreach they might have done, but the first I and everyone else I spoke to heard of this was when the survey came out. I expect if there had been much if any public input or workshopping, at least the South Park thing would have come up, considering it took literally only hours for it to come up in our social media and forums. Or leaving out African Americans (!) from the LaVilla vision statement. I expect this was all an internal thing with DIA and their consultants.

[thelakelander]

Very nicely done Bill!

They clearly should have done a better job workshopping ideas and concepts with the public before even getting into the design phase. Did they do any public outreach at all or was this all DIA/consultant driven?

There was some limited out outreach with a select number of stakeholders identified. I was one of the stakeholders notified. However, the virtual meeting notices came out like a couple of days before the meetings (sometimes around 24-72 hours before the meetings). Unfortunately, I couldn't make any of them on short notice. As a general rule to thumb, you really need a good month of public notification to allow the public the opportunity to work meeting dates into their schedules.

[Tacachale]

Very nicely done Bill!

They clearly should have done a better job workshopping ideas and concepts with the public before even getting into the design phase. Did they do any public outreach at all or was this all DIA/consultant driven?

There was some limited out outreach with a select number of stakeholders identified. I was one of the stakeholders notified. However, the virtual meeting notices came out like a couple of days before the meetings (sometimes around 24-72 hours before the meetings). Unfortunately, I couldn't make any of them on short notice. As a general rule to thumb, you really need a good month of public notification to allow the public the opportunity to work meeting dates into their schedules.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. So it's a problem of how they did their outreach rather than total lack of outreach. I can't imagine they got many responses for it to look this way.

[bl8jaxnative]

Any rumors about what they're up with all of this?

[Tacachale]

Lol, they've been eerily quiet.

[thelakelander]

I believe a meeting is planned about rebranding the Cathedral District into Cathedral Hill.

[Captain Zissou]

I believe a meeting is planned about rebranding the Cathedral District into Cathedral Hill.

Why though?  The Cathedral District is already a brand and it works.  Not to mention the hill is maybe 10 feet tall.  Lets rebrand the shipyards the Meadowlands.  Hogans creek area can be Downtown Canyon.  The landing will be the Prairie...  Just WHY?

[simms3]

Once again, they want to copy.  There is literally already a cathedral hill in San Francisco, and it would be no surprise if there were a couple more already.  The Cathedral District actually sounds just as good and to have "hill" in the name in Jacksonville would give quite a few people a belly laugh.

What prompted this massive desire to rename and rebrand everything???  Which firms are bilking the people working at the City and thus bilking the taxpayers?  This is so silly...

[thelakelander]

I agree, it is pretty silly. Names like the Cathedral District, LaVilla, Northbank, Southbank, etc. are fine as is. The money allocated for rebranding would have been better used in a proper Downtown master planning effort.

[jaxjags]

They can call them what they want but, locals will still use the terms above.

[CityLife]

I believe a meeting is planned about rebranding the Cathedral District into Cathedral Hill.

I was 100% sure this was satire, until further reading the thread.

Bold strategy to double down on rebranding.

[Tacachale]

It's worth noting that while contrived neighborhood renamings are common, and many end up being adopted into common parlance, they're usually led by realtors and developers rather than the city government. There are other cases where a city government is involved, for example Charlotte's renaming of its Downtown to Uptown in the 1970s. One has to wonder why the city felt this was a good use of its time and resources.

[Tacachale]

And yes, "Cathedral Hill" is at best a pointless change to a name that isn't better in any measurable way than the burgeoning "Cathedral District" name and brand. In marketing, it's bad practice to mess with the brand when you don't have a good reason to do so. Changing things just to change them is a waste.