Urban Jacksonville

You could look at it that this work may show that the economy in coming around.

Leadership(power) in Jax lies in the sprawlways, not the urban enviroments.
urban projects as concieved are window dressing, cheap veneer
the decent urban projects that came along with BJP were shackled to roadway and developer payouts...
these problems are rooted in consolidated governemnt and alphabet "authoritys"
until the balance of power can be more equitably distributed...dont expect much enlightened progress.
at least you get a JCCI study once every few years. telling you the same things every other JCCI report ever did.
perhaps what we need is more quality of life enforcement.

How does one enforce Quality of Life?

QoL is ostensibly the greatest of urban myths.
QoL would/should/could be incumbent upon individuals and not a community, power(s), or any larger entity.

Inversely, there is individual responsibility. That works.

Collect a circle of individuals - grow that circle concentrically. Sumpin' might happen!

I was being facetious. "quality of life enforcement" by JSO recently ended with shooting.

In no way was my question, "how does one enforce QoL?" directed at you - not at all, not one bit.

Hey, I just had lunch at Bryant Park today! I too had to bail the Jax scene for Brooklyn, NY. As much as I enjoy my friends in Murray Hill and the Beaches, I couldn't rationalize raising my kids in that environment. Wish I could bring you all to visit Jane Jacobs land (ie, NYC) and see how we balance the commercial and residential spheres. It's a mind-blower.

That said, I don't think Jacksonville is geographically capable of building a critical mass of human energy -- it's too sprawling to allow for any sort of consolidated force. The answer is not more football, more 30-ft berths between storefronts and walkways, more strip malls or St Johns Town Centers. The answer is simple, compact neighborhoods that force families and individuals to interact with each other. It's about LESS space, more pedestrian access to commerce, and cheap public transportation.

Give my best to TSI, Chamblin's and all the cool Indian restaurants...

Principles without Practice - therein lies the rub.

For one great read inre: urban planning(s) and economic development of various sorts, I vote for "Devil in the White City."

One plot line chronicles Burnham's leadership for the Columbian Exposition. By comparison, Jacksonville's crack at the Super Bowl doesn't count on a dram scale . . . well, at least not yet.

Regardless and relative to urban planning, the process, and viable results, one can note another dimension of Burnham's work:

This year marks the centennial of one of his urban plans, adopted in 1909 (Chicago). Plenty of challenges contemporary to the landscape, econoscape, and politiscape of that time so not necessarily different than Anywhere, USA 2009 or Anywhere, USA Ever.

100 years later - the hope of the people, and the goal of the current administration - this plan may be completed in 2009. Maybe not.

The general theme is "Only four miles to go." There is much more than that, not the least of which is the last leg of eminent domain and a sizable inventory of other goals entirely separate from the waterfront axis.

Greenville - boy, that town has been an example of great urban projects for quite some time. They set a national record for public-private partnerships with the first phase of DT revitalization some years ago. I think it took all of 6 months - conceptual idea to usable, picture-perfect completion.

Immediately FOLLOWING COMPLETION of Phase I (all those years ago), all kinds of cool, unusual, foreign, domestic relo, etc. investment, jobs, and people started showin' up. High attrition/low recidivism. Launched a mini-megapolis with Spartanburg, Clemson, onward and outward. Best airport in the US - no contest if you would rather travel than shop. My second favorites are all in NYC where TSA helps not hinders. I could go on . . .

This consideration - hiring from within v hiring from without . . . it has got to be so incredibly frustrating to want to do a job, be hired to do that job, bust ass in your job, be great during tenure (perform and achieve as required and desired) , and never "see" the point of your job: AKA what did I ever do? Will what I did ever get done? These worries have got to up the number of nightmares in any given career.

Is this a deterrent to many with talent AND experience in emerging and mature metropoli from considering Jacksonville? Is this why talent vacates to "more exciting" towns and cities?

"Here's a third vote for local talent. Its definitely here. The key is leadership. That talent has to be placed in the right positions and allowed to do what it does best."

Agree with lakelander on this one, and the City has no idea how many persons of talent it loses to other cities each month!

vicupstate is also correct when he says the City thinks it has the planning talent, but obviously doesn't. I would say this also applies to the City thinking they have/have hired the best marketing talent ("The Place Where Florida Begins", "Jacksonville Journey" strike me on this one).

I would also suggest the the City needs to do a better job at looking at problems from the 40,000 ft, rather than the 200 ft level. The Riverwalk, MetroPark, Hogan's Creek issues and the parks that go northward in the Emerald Necklace are all tied together, but are being addressed/planned separately. This, and other aspects of planning -- i.e. transit, commercial/economic development, street-scaping -- should all be part of a master plan, which doesn't just exist, but is actually followed! But this doesn't happen b/c of functional silos, budgetary silos and political silos.

These have got to be broken down and open discussions/implementations pursued if Jax is to have any hope!

Here's a third vote for local talent. Its definitely here. The key is leadership. That talent has to be placed in the right positions and allowed to do what it does best.

One big problem is the 'leadership' thinks that THEY have the talent, when clearly they do not (Main St. Pocket park, turning a lane of the Main St. Bridge over to pedestrians and other Big Ideas). That is why I chaffe at the thought of City Hall created designs for Metro Park and Friendship Fountain/Park.

Metro Park can become both beautiful and functional, while at the same time DESOLETE and UNDER-USED if what surrounds it is not taken into account and made part of the plans. Continued isolation will kill it's potential, and make the millions spent on it look like a waste.

My city, Greenville SC, has followed a master plan created by the well-respected Sasaki Associates of Boston/SF for 25 years, including a recent revison/update. Link: http://www.sasaki.com/

They held numerous charettes both for the original plan and the revision. The basic concepts of the plan have been followed throughout a number of administrations and the results have been very successful. Delegations from all over the US visit to try to emulate that success. All in a city with probably 1/10 the tax base of Jax.

Hire a professional urban planner(s) to guide the process, get input (and thus buy in ) from the public, develop a plan, and stick to it. That is what it takes. It doen't start with the Mayor, the JEDC and Ron Littlepage telling us what will work and hoping we agree.

i agree on greenville. i went to furman for undergrad, and downtown is amazing. they shut down main street on lots of weekends, allowing families to walk about without fear of cars. also, parking during the day is free but limited to two hours. this encourages people to come downtown to shop and eat, while making sure that workers aren't using the street parking for their daily commute. i haven't been back in a few years, but i understand that the new west end area is super nice.

Leadership in the city seems to be a recurring theme over the past couple weeks. I'm glad we have two votes for the talent being here. That's encouraging. For people who are looking for the post Jason is referring to: Why I Love Jacksonville

The talent is here, the leadership to enable the talent to strategically plan and implement is not.

We do have talent here, and like the discussion with Audrey's "Why I Love Jacksonville" post, we lose quite a bit of our talent to other cities. Its also nice to get some outside perspective as well, however.

The city obviously went elsewhere and with a big name for the downtown library and that building, at least from the exterior, is very underwhelming and does absolutely nothing for the pedestrian.

But, I digress...

I guess the point is we have very capable people in Jacksonville, just not in the positions we need them in, yet.