credit: Metro Jacksonville – Duval County Courthouse: Still stumbling in the Dark
This post is for all those people who said my 2009 Predictions were too optimistic. I just finished reading Peyton’s Struggles: Building Yesterday’s City and I have to say it revived a bunch of feelings I suppressed when I was writing my ’09 predictions.
The article starts with
The Better Jacksonville Plan, which was supposed to have helped place this community among the first tier of American cities, is rapidly becoming an impediment to our very survival as a community.
Doh! Here are the main points that piss me off:
- While one may be justifiably concerned about this administration’s ineptness with respect to executing these last major elements of the Better Jacksonville Plan, the real danger is that City Hall will continue to promote [major infrastructure] projects that may be functionally obsolete even before they are built.
- Given the spectacular history of failed planning in adjacent LaVilla, the question of how a new courthouse will further Jacksonville’s urban design objectives (if, indeed, it has any) is of tremendous importance to what kind of city Jacksonville will become in the future. Sadly, neither the Mayor’s Office (in practice, JEDC appears to speak for the Peyton Administration in this respect) nor the City Council seems to have the slightest interest in such questions.
- In light of changing energy supplies and falling highway revenues, for example, we might – if we are prescient enough – rethink our options with respect to building light rail lines that connect our existing population centers as opposed to funding such things as the horrendously expensive outer beltway through Clay and St. Johns Counties whose exurban hinterland may, now, never materialize.
As a citizen of this city who wants urban oriented development, smart transit plans, downtown revival, a decrease in sprawl, etc., it makes me want to scream when I read articles like this. Like I’m trapped in a bad dream, screaming “No no no!” and no one around is listening.
It’s this kind of stuff that makes me want to run for political office to change things from the ground up, but I know that is a redonckulous thought. Not that I have skeletons in my closet and yes I did say redonckulous.
Hot on the heals of the Metro Jacksonville article, Peyton emailed the taxpayers, as he’s started doing from time-to-time to say: I know we fucked up. Here’s what we’re going to do about it.
His email is a response to Duval County grand jury’s release of its final report regarding the courthouse project. Which will have huge implications for a wide swath of Downtown and LaVilla. About 12 blocks worth. It starts with:
This report clearly demonstrates their frustration that after eight years and millions of dollars, construction has not started on the Duval County courthouse.
Uh, ya think? What follows is a list of 9 recommendations and what the city is going to do to make sure these recommendations are followed up on:
- A consistent and periodic public monitoring of the city’s actions and plans in regard to the courthouse project.
- That city policy/ procedure be enforced on all contracts out of compliance and “change orders†procured.
- The city needs to re-negotiate the contract with JEA for the Chilled Water Facility to reduce the payment until the actual courthouse is built.
- The city should pursue every legal means to reduce the losses associated with the parking garage. Expedite the purchase of the parking garages as early as possible.
- Every effort should be made to get back money from Skanska that may have been paid above its contract fee. Under no circumstances should Skanska be paid additional monies.
- The commitment to hire any vendor, contractor or consultant should be preceded with by a financial background check to insure the solvency of those businesses, especially in this time of economic uncertainty.
- Committees involved with construction projects, should have a balance of construction experts and users of the facility for vendor and design selection. Committee involvement should be carried through from inception to completion.
- An immediate, and thereafter periodic audit, should be performed and reported to the Chief Administrator and the Project Manager and, of course, be available to the public.
- Creation of a citizen’s board or ombudsman selected for and from the lay community to facilitate community involvement and knowledge of major projects is strongly suggested.
To me the last one is the most important. We need to make sure the new courthouse complex interacts with the city and it’s residents in beneficial ways.
With little thought being paid to how the new courthouse will interact with its urban surroundings and stimulate new development, this is the visual scene that will front the courthouse complex. Credit: Metro Jacksonville – Duval County Courthouse: Still stumbling in the Dark
Here is the Mayor’s commitmment to this item:
The BJP (Better Jacksonville Plan) did go to great lengths to ensure community involvement as demonstrated by the FAC/PAC and Oversight committees that have been mentioned above. As noted by the grand jury this may be an appropriate model for future large scale construction projects.
The city has previously created an Office of Inspector General and Procurement Ombudsman in an effort to ensure that the community has many points of access to this local government.
Yeah, it’s kinda vague. What they should have done is listed ways qualified people could apply to to be on the citizen’s board or ombudsman. Personally I nominate Milt Hays, Jr., author of Peyton’s Struggles: Building Yesterday’s City, the article that started this rant.
All of this comes as a prelude to the city releasing it’s 2008 quality of life report from JCCI. It’s the 24th edition of the report that acts as a yardstick for our collective vision for Jacksonville’s future. It should prove to be pretty interesting.
This report provides details covering nine environments impacting our quality of life. These include education, the economy, health, public safety, arts and culture, social wellbeing, transportation, civic engagement and governance, and our natural environment. The report event typically draws a great deal of media attention and helps set the agenda for public discussion on a number of issues.
2008 Quality of Life Progress Report release
10:30 – 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Main Library, Multi-Purpose Room
So it’s 2009 and culturally, I think we’ve moved the city forward. Politically, I feel like we are in the same place. It’s like we are frozen in time. I’m excited for Jacksonville’s version of Barack Obama to hit the scene. Lord knows this city needs some change to shake up the status quo.
