Urban Jacksonville

Cliqset is a two-man development team in San Marco that has made some big news in national tech news, yet remains practically undiscovered by local media.

Cliqset, founded by Darren Bounds and Charlie Cauthen, is taking a shot at combining all of your user data that’s sure to be smeared in a hundred places across the internet.

It’s like this – if you have a profile and lots of friends on NotFacebook.com, and NotFacebook is using Cliqset profile info, and then you create a username on ILoveBurritos.com, your user data can come with you, keeping any existing friends, updates and profile info with you. Cool. Super cool.

I have no doubt that Cliqset has the vision and talent to pull this off, but any one familiar with the web knows that Google and OpenID are racing towards the same thing. What will keep Cliqset ahead of the game? One thing I think will help – their open API. At this point, anyone can take the heart of Cliqset, modify it any way they want and plug it into the user data of their own site.

In fact, Cliqset just announced a $30k developers challenge, ripe with big money prizes (I’m talking $5,000 and $10,000 chunks). If you think you have what it takes to develop some nifty Cliqset API wizardry, head over to the contest page.

A few ways to keep with the guys at Cliqset: the official Twitter feed, Darren’s personal twitter (almost 10k followers, I’m jealous) and the official blog.

credit: Metro Jacksonville

Here’s a collection of reactions to the Mayor’s Thursday press conference announcing his plans for the final two years of office.

Jacksonville mayor calls for salary freeze
This was also mentioned in the press conference but received no questions or comments during the QA with reporters and business leaders.

Chief among the city’s financial woes is the pension contribution, which Peyton said will cost taxpayers $275,000 a day.

Mayor John Peyton: Investing in Jacksonville’s Future via Metro Jacksonville who also live blogged yesterday’s announcements

Mayor John Peyton’s complete presentation “Investing in Jacksonville’s Future” outlines his focus for downtown in his final two years in office.

Peyton shifting priority to downtown, riverfront

He didn’t have cost estimates for the wide array of projects, which are still conceptual. They range from developing a downtown gateway from the Brooklyn area to extending the Northbank and Southbank riverwalks.

Peyton’s downtown vision has considerable potential

Big dreams? Sure. But some of the work could begin now with money that had been set aside for public improvements in Brooklyn, where proposed development is off the table for now because of the bad real estate market.

One Jacksonville Politics blog contributor is not buying Peyton’s plan

The recently released Council Auditor’s report identifies millions of dollars in funding shortfalls (6.7 million of them to be exact) and the Mayor wants to revamp Metropolitan Park and Friendship Park?

Thanks to Mandy Outlaw from JaxScene for all the awesome pictures. If you want to come to Southbank Sunrise it will be going on for at least a few more weeks.

On Sunday, show up on the Southbank Riverwalk behind the [hotel name] around 6:45-7:00. We had doughnughts this week, who knows what we’ll be doing nxt week. There is always free coffee, jazz and fun friends.

Southbank Sunrise Website

Found these in my YouTubes today. I really can’t fathom how I missed the BMX stunt show. Did anyone else hear about it?

The Jacksonville Business Journal reports:

The developer of The St. John, a proposed residential high rise Downtown, has registered for certification in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. Source: Hines goes for green designation for The St. John

Basically LEED is a is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. It promotes sustainable building by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. Here is a link to the LEED page for new construction.

This won’t be the first time Hines, the developer, has received LEED certification so this bodes well for The St. John. The JBJ reports: “Hines has received LEED certification on several projects, including the Gold status for the 1180 Peachtree building in midtown Atlanta, and the One South Dearborn 40-story office tower in downtown Chicago was the first office tower in the state to receive certification.”

Storm water collection and filtration is a hot topic for LEED developers. The St. John should pay close attention to managing storm runoff and all the oil, fertilizer and chemicals it gathers along the way. If they can collect, filter and reuse the storm water some how it, it will never pollute the St. Johns River. For more on LEED certification check out the US Green Building Council.

Just another bit of eco friendly news to report in what seems to be a recurring trend in Jacksonville and around the country. Peyton signs the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement and Gov. Crist signs off on sustainability. Jacksonville also has two sustainability blogs now: Sustainabuild and Sustainable Jax. Thanks to Tony for the tip on Sustainabuild!

The Daily Record reported earlier this month that:

The Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Riverfront has applied to be the first “green” certified hotel in Jacksonville through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Florida Green Lodging Program.

So I wanted to look into this program and learn a little more about it. See how easy/hard it is to become certified. What certification means and spread the word to get other hotels interested in the program.

The Green Lodging Program is a voluntary, non-regulatory program established by the State of Florida to reward environmentally conscious facilities (i.e. green hotels) in the lodging industry. The goal is to encourage hotels continually improve environmental performance.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, this initiative encourages hotels and motels to adopt cost-saving green practices that conserve energy, reduce water consumption, protect air quality, and reduce waste. Through partnerships with national trade associations, Green Lodging encourages the adoption of resource-efficient materials and appliances by the Florida hospitality industry.

There are three levels of certification: One, Two and Three Palm Certifications. Here’s an overview of becoming One Palm certified. Conduct Environmental Baseline Assessment (via a downloadable checklist), Commitment & Organization (GM Support– Green Team, Environmental Compliance), meet Core Requirements (Water, Energy, Waste Reduction, Clean Air and Communication) and finally schedule on-site certifying visit.

All those are pretty broad so lets look at the core requirements which are the important ones:

• Water Conservation: towel/sheet reuse, low flow fixtures
• Energy Efficiency: energy efficient appliances (Energy Star certified) and lighting (CFL lighting)
• Waste Reduction: recycling and purchasing products with post consumer recycled content
• Clean Air Practices: green cleaners, HEPA filters, Cleaning AC Units
• Communications: environmental Policy, Hotel Green Team and Guest Feedback

I can go on-and-on or you can read more for yourself if you are interested. If you are traveling this summer and you’re interested in staying in a green hotel here is a list of hotels that meet or exceed the Florida Green Lodging Program requirements.

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