photo credit paperbits

Exciting news to announce! I am now the Website Editor for One Spark, an organization focused on innovation in Jacksonville.

A Nutshell Explanation of What We’re Up To

One Spark is a group of influencers who want to develop a community, focused on encouraging idea generation and disruptive thinking in Jacksonville. We will reinforce the belief that “good” failure is okay, risk is a natural part of new ideas, and that keeping an idea quiet only increases the likelihood it will never launch.

Ultimately we will support the creation, relation, and execution of ideas.

I’ve developed a content strategy that we will execute in the next few months, beginning today. Our first post is called 5 Ways to Help Spark Innovation in Jacksonville. In this post we define our vision of what the One Spark website will be. We also issue a call for connectors, video directors, content producers, designers and event producers who want to join our team:

We’re creating something that not only inspires, but informs. Call it what you want: an online tv station, a magazine, a innovation portal, whatever. It’s all those things and we want to shine a spotlight on smart people and inspire others to do what they’re passionate about.

What Does This Mean for Urban Jacksonville

I am currently working on a website redesign and I will be relaunching with a focus on features and less daily posting. I anticipate more in-depth posts, videos galleries and podcasts coming your way soon.

What Is One Spark?

This Show Is Seriously Awesome

#jaxmayor is an evolutionary, first-of-its-kind, audio podcast. Although I had a slight recording recording issue (we will hammer out the left/right audio issue by next show) the production and content on this show is top notch. This is the best podcast I have put together to date. The content is amazing and I know you will find it informative. I hope you share it with your friends.

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Listen and Subscribe

Download audio file (jaxmayor-Episode-1.mp3)
Subscribe to this show in iTunes | Download MP3

Updates Since We Recorded

1. Warren Lee does his own tweeting
2. Steve Irvine actually does have a Facebook page » here
3. Audrey Moran received Associated Builders and Contractors endorsement

What Is This Show About?

I started the #jaxmayor show to help educate the City of Jacksonville on the 2011 mayors race. I want to cover the race in a way no one else can or will, in an accessible, audio format. Abel Harding and I will discuss candidates, news, issues and the role technology and culture plays in the race.

#jaxmayor is scheduled for eight episodes between now and the March 22nd election. Should we have a run-off election (if you listen to the show you know we will) we’ll extend the show to the final election date. It will be recoded on Thursday night and published Friday morning.

What’s Up With the Name #jaxmayor?

Yes, we did name the show after the Twitter hashtag #jaxmayor. People in the city are using this tag in their tweets to organize content around the topic of the mayors race.

Our show embraces technology and recognizes the pivotal role it plays. This is the first year in Jacksonville’s history that technology will play such a large role and we want the show to discuss the impacts of technology and how it will influences the race.

In a way the name a nod to all the people out there discussing these issues saying yeah, we hear you. We know what’s going on, this is a huge deal. In addition it is a good opportunity to market the show on a daily basis.

Show Notes

This is literally an inside look at my notes from tonight’s show. I won’t always post them like this, but I thought it would be an interesting insight into how the show was run.

Show intro
#jaxmayor
Joey Marchy from Urban Jacksonville
Abel Harding Business Reporter and Political Blogger from the Florida Times Union and Jacksonville.com
Twitter: JaxMayorShow
Facebook: JaxMayorShow

Send a question to @JaxMayorShow or Facebook.com/JaxMayorShow

* show name WHY
* about this podcast
* schedule: every Friday from now until the election and we will continue the show if there is a runoff
* what we will cover in the show (news, candidate and issue profiles)
* twitter.com/JaxMayorShow/jaxmayor
* election is march 22nd, how can someone win?
* early voting
* http://news.jacksonville.com/specials/mayorsrace/

————————————
NEWS
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1) Former Mayor Jake Goldbold (77) joins Moran’s campaign to help with voter outreach » how significant?

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2011-02-03/story/godbold-joins-morans-mayoral-campaign

Mike Hogan’s camp, which had sought Godbold’s endorsement. “Clearly, Audrey’s Obama-like liberal policies, like pro-choice and higher taxes, are being embraced by our former Democratic mayor,” said senior consultant Paul McCormick.

Godbold said he thought his endorsement could deliver tens of thousands of votes and large amounts of money but didn’t believe either would be deciding factors.

————————————
2) TWITTER
————————————
* Faves
* Twitter Total

Mike Hogan 233 (1605)
Audrey Moran 443 (1408)

Steve Irvine 0 (0)
Rick Mullaney 147 (900)

Alvin Brown 56 (339)
Warren Lee 339 (285)

————————————
Candidate Profiles
————————————
Steve Irvine (http://savingjax.com)
Alvin Brown (http://www.alvinformayor.com)

————————————
Outro
————————————
#jaxmayor
Joey Marchy from Urban Jacksonville
Abel Harding Business Reporter and Political Blogger from the Florida Times Union and Jacksonville.com
Twitter: JaxMayorPodcast
Facebook: JaxMayor

Jonathan Insetta’s restaurant group (Black Sheep) has an ambitious plan for building a modern, efficient infill project in the fast growing 5 Points district of the Urban Core. Insetta, of Chew and Orsay fame, is planning to open a new restaurant as the anchor of a three story commercial building which will feature a rooftop bar and gathering space.

The name has not be determined, but the location has. The group has been working hard to reach a complex set of goals, to
place the restaurant at the corner of Margaret and Oak, next to Mossfire Grill. The flatiron lot where the restaurant will sit, presents a unique set of hurdles in terms of parking and some existing trees.

Black Sheep is proposing to add 23 new spaces on Oak Street and upgrade the 13 spaces on Margaret adjacent to the property.  All spaces will be open to the public with a 3 hour limit to encourage visitors to eat, walk and shop. You can bet there will be a sizable bike rack to support the large number of cyclists in the community.

As you can glean from the designs and scale model shown, the plan is an efficient use of space using true urban density design principles while also creating new parking. This project also creates new jobs and new street front retail which finishes a continuous retail link from Riverside Park to Memorial Park, one of the longest retail strolls in the city.

photo credit Design Cooperative

While urban development and the food and beverage industry are both fraught with risk, especially in today’s climate, Insetta’s experience and reputation from Downtown’s Chew and Avondale’s Restaurant Orsay (both in historic buildings) will be helpful. The neighborhoods of Riverside, Avondale, and Historic Five Points have been aware of and involved in the project for weeks.

There is much work left to do for the project to become a reality including the final city approval and a unique commercial zoning change called an Urban Transitional Area (UTA) added to HB 485 that would make this district much like downtown’s with regards to seating capacity required.

HB 485

graphic credit Wingard Creative

The addition of 5 Points to this well supported bill will make it easier for bona fide restaurants to survive and thrive in the spatially constricting spaces that a historic retail area presents.

The UTA – The Riverside Overlay set up the Urban Transitional Area (the Commercial area of 5 Points) to encourage this type of infill development – imagine, living, working and shopping all within a ½ mile radius.  As projects like this, Publix, 1661 and others are developed, the area can truly live up to it’s Urban name.

So not only is Black Sheep investing in the neighborhood it is also paving the way for the further proliferation of destinations in Five Points, opening an economic development zone that allows a more reasonable seating requirement for historic districts. See map below.

Should this change work, expect further developments, local restaurants, jobs, and foot traffic in from Historic Five Points all the way to the river. Our neighbors and co-workers seem galvanized at the idea of further local, sustainable development in 5 Points and hope that urban infill and historic development spreads with the success of this project.

photo credit Design Cooperative

A statement from Jon Insetta

“We at Black Sheep Restaurant Group are very excited for the opportunity to become part of the 5 Points neighborhood. At Chew and Orsay we pride ourselves in the symbiotic relationship we maintain within our surrounding community and hopefully we can be a force for positive change with this new project. As owner operator of both the restaurant and the building itself we bring a level of commitment to the community that few can match.

I also believe that we can act as a bridge between historic 5 Points and the newer commercial district to the south. The project will create more jobs as well as fit the spirit of the urban transition area overlay. We plan on being a part of 5 Points for many years to come and see ourselves as a very positive addition to an already amazingly diverse community of independent and national businesses. 5 Points has a synergy and identity that we feel right at home in.”

What are your thoughts on the project and the design?

photo credit Design Cooperative

video credit Design Cooperative

Disclaimer: the restaurant group involved in this project is a client of Wingard Creative where I work.

I used iMovie 09 to put everything together. There was a bit of an issue getting .AVI files from my Flip Mino impoted into iMovie 09. To do this I used a little software called iSquint to convert the .AVI to an iMovie friendly format. Boo ya.

Solar Energy Initiatives was formed to execute on a grass roots campaign, “RENEW THE NATION”, to help redeploy a portion of the U.S. work force and focus on reducing the world’s dependence on fossil fuels by selling solar thermal and photovoltaic (PV) technologies, while building a profitable company.

Renew the Nation Press Conference » Solar Energy Initiatives, Inc. from Joey Marchy on Vimeo.

http://jaxpublicart.blogspot.com/

Listen and Subscribe

Download audio file (urban-jacksonville-weekly-episode25.mp3)
Subscribe with iTunes

You can now listen right now, click the play button above or watch it by clicking the play button below.

Special Guest: The Mayor – Topic: Millage Increase

A lot happening so these are gonna be rough! Better just listen. – Jack

Mayor – for the increase
City Council – cut spending instead
Residents – siding with council
voting next week (July 28th)
Mayor is optimistic
3-part plan
“we are at a crossroads”
lowest millage rate in FL
Clark’s influence?
Peyton is up for the fight!
Mayor v. Council – is that healthy?
? – shouldn’t fund arts, culture, social etc.
arts and culture will lose
T- people are evenly split on the issue
arts/culture = less than 1/2 of 1% of budget
@hiddentrack: “if we’re guilty of anything, it’s under-investing.” well said, mr. mayor. #ujw
T – Ritz Theatre will not be able to come back if we don’t protect it
government destroyed LaVilla, Ritz is all that’s left
J – fire/police budget always comes up
Peyton – does not support cutting fire/police budget
“violence epidemic in Jax”
“moving from being cheap to being irresponsible”
Sheriff’s Dept largest budget at City Hall
Abel (@jaxpolitics)
Ask Mayor how much faith he has in Council (running for re-election) to support true pension reform? #ujw
Public remains cynical b/c there has been no reform to AMIO positions. They’ve almost doubled in last few years. Nearly $15m. But, yet, emphasis has been placed on social services/cultural cuts. Why not move AMIO’s to civil service and trim to build trust? #ujw
Was there an attempt to bring Council members in on the budget planning process?
Legislature allowed “out” for Duval in statutory tax cuts, why didn’t Mayor ask Council to override that cap last year?
Does the Mayor support combining elections w/ state? What are the downsides?
T – wants the World Cup (Mayor’s for it!)
T- QOL first thing a big business asks about when they come to town
The mayor just said “critical mass.” No that critical mass, but still…
T – Kiplinger named Jax #6 Tax-Friendliest City
fixitnow.cc – website
Last ?: Does Mayor think public wld be more likely to support increase if it was dedicated mil to fund capital improvements/maintenance?
Jags/stadium

Music from Jack Diablo

Tuesday, July 21
Warehouse Show (1850 Wambolt 8B)
Panzram (Ft. Meyers)
Ripper (Jax)
Tourist Trap (Jax)

Wednesday, July 22
Indie-folk at TSI
Kevin Lee Newberry (Jax)
Little High Little Low (Gainesville)
Zeke (Jax)

Friday, July 24
Hip Hop at TSI
Shunda K (from Yo Majesty)
Heavy Flow (Jax)
Tough Junkie (Jax)

Sunday, July 26
College Street House Show
The Daytonas
Matrix Infinity
Erzulie
Omebi
Wudun
Royal Chord (Australia)
Psychic Reality (San Francisco)

Monday, July 27
Shantytown
Psychic Reality
Royal Chord
Bright Orange

Tuesday, July 28
Metal/Hardcore/Prog/Other Stuff at Doozers
Republicorpse (Orlando)
Time To Die (Orlando)
Buff Clout (Jax)
National Dairy (Jax)
Chicken & Whiskey (Jax)

Recommendations

Jonathan – Sulzbacher petition
Joey – budget links
Tony – RAM, duh – Justin Roberts (Paul McCartney of kid music)
Renee – Mayor’s appearances
Mayor – fixitnow.cc GET SMART!

Steadfast was raised in Ft. Washington, MD. Whether it was his sister playing the flute or his grandmother practicing with the church choir, it appeared early on that music would be a mainstay in his lifelong diet. He began writting in 1993 after listening to Wu Tang Clan’s debut album and after cultivating his style he linked up with The Homeless Society, a group of emcees and producers repping the New York, Maryland and DC areas.

He’s now on Social Light Sounds records and will be appearing at Summertime in the City 2009. You can also find Steadfast on MySpace.

Day 2: Summertime in the City Grand Finale Blowout presented by HIP HOP HELL and Red Bull Music Academy

Where: Shantytown Pub 22 W. 6th St. (Springfield) MAP
When: 10pm to 2am
Price: $5.00

Featuring live performances by: Steadfast, Grizleh (aka Blakhart), Mr. Al Pete, The Elevated Hip Hop Exp., Heavy Flow, The N Word, Dr. Sam Beckett, Dope Sandwich and many more special guests.

Complete STITC 2009 schedule and more artist profiles at the Summertime in the City 2009 page. Join the Summertime in the City fan page on Facebook.

Edan is known for his unique/unlikely take on hip hop culture, where traditional rap songs are often skewed by 60’s rock samples, tape echoes, and foreign language choruses, not to mention the off-beat humor and surrealist imagery incorporated via his lyrics.

Edan use to like to wear a wig, but he’s grown his hair out since. From an interview with the Gossiping Bitches blog:

GB: You often wear a wig on stage. Did you run that by Kool Keith first?
EDAN: I deaded that wig shit a long time ago…I actually grew my shit out to accurately replace the wig…that was my scheme the whole time! Cats still think I’m rocking some bullshit wig…but thats part of the punchline.

Edan’s just a Rap Beautician:

Download audio file (rap-beautician.mp3)

Edan cuttin and rhyming, at the same time!

Credit: Nathan Wind as Cochese

Day 1 – Friday July 31st @ T.S.I.

Where: 333 E. Bay St. (Downtown) Jacksonville, Fl. MAP
When: Doors @ 9pm show @ 10pm
Price: $10.00 21-up, $12.00 18-20

Edan performing live with:
Willie Evans Jr, Paten Locke, Dillon and Tough Junkie. Also featuring The $Big Bucks$ DJ Crew on the 1′s and 2′s all night.

Join the Dagha fan page on Facebook
Join the Edan fan page on Facebook

Complete STITC 2009 schedule and more artist profiles at the Summertime in the City 2009 page. Join the Summertime in the City fan page on Facebook.

Paten Locke will be appearing the first day of Summertime in the City at TSI in Downtown Jacksonville.

Day 1 – Friday July 31st @ T.S.I.

Where: 333 E. Bay St. (Downtown) Jacksonville, Fl. MAP
When: Doors @ 9pm show @ 10pm
Price: $10.00 21-up, $12.00 18-20

Edan performing live with:
Willie Evans Jr, Paten Locke, Dillon and Tough Junkie. Also featuring The $Big Bucks$ DJ Crew on the 1′s and 2′s all night.

This is what Clyde Singleton says about Paten:

this cat is still one of the most prominent figures in the Southeast hip-hop scene. Former deejay, and co-founder of the group Asomov- Paten Locke (known as DJ Therapy) is on the cusp of his Tres Records release, “Break Thru” and has blessed ya boy Hustlemania with his latest 12?. this, is some REAL hip-hop right here

You can follow Paten Locke on Twitter or
find him on MySpace or check out a review of Paten here or buy P Locke on Amazon.

Listen to Paten Locke from his album Break Thru

Paten Locke – Break Thru
Download audio file (Break-Thru.mp3)

Paten Locke – Funky Hit Record
Download audio file (Funky-Hit-Record.mp3)

Paten Locke – Just Me
Download audio file (Just-Me.mp3)

Complete STITC 2009 schedule and more artist profiles at the Summertime in the City 2009 page. Join the Summertime in the City fan page on Facebook.

Minneapolis Light Rail. Credit: joelplutchak

To kick off this week I am republishing an article by Michael E. Lewyn of the Florida Coastal School of Law. This article first appeared in Folio Weekly and rebuts the myth that public transit is inherently unpopular by pointing out that where development is compact and streets are walkable, transit ridership tends to be higher.

Public Transit: Myth and Reality

A few nights ago, I went to see a few urban planners and politicians talk about the future growth of Jacksonville. At least two of them repeated the old chestnut: “Everybody says they need [public] transit and they want it, but they want it for the other guy to take it.” This remark illustrates a common view: the status quo is unchangeable, because transit ridership is eternally fixed at the current low level. This view, however, is dead wrong.

Why? Because in fact, transit ridership is very responsive to service quality and other factors that make transit more convenient or less convenient. We know this because we know that in places with lots of buses and trains, lots of people use them. For example, 52.8% of New York City residents use a bus or train to get to work. Similarly, in cities with extensive subway systems such as Washington, Philadelphia, and Chicago, transit’s “market share” hovers around 30%.

On the other hand, where transit service is weak (as in most suburbs of those cities) ridership is lower. In other words, transit ridership is elastic- it goes up and down with transit service.

And nationally, when transit service is reduced, ridership suffers. For example, in the early 1990s, the federal government reduced support for transit while at the same time ordering local transit agencies to provide special transit services for disabled riders, thus reducing the resources available for non-disabled riders. As a result, transit ridership declined by about 10 percent between 1990 and 1995. Since 1995, the federal government has increased spending on transportation infrastructure on all types: as a result, transit ridership has regained its lost ground and then some.

Another factor affecting transit service is the competition: when high gas prices make driving more expensive, fewer people drive and more take transit. How do we know this? Because that’s exactly what people did in 2008. Americans took 10.7 billion transit trips that year as gas prices soared, a 4 percent increase over 2007 and a 38 percent increase since 1995. Ridership increases were not limited to cities with fancy rail systems: for example, 2008 bus ridership increased by 17 percent in Cocoa Beach and 8 percent in Sarasota.

In Jacksonville, of course, transit ridership is lower than in most big cities – but this is due not to some intangible attitude that permeates people’s minds as soon as they move to Jacksonville, but to a few tangible realities.

One such reality is simply lack of service: there is no rail service, most buses run once an hour, and stop running late at night. (I note that JTA is planning to make some buses run more frequently, starting in May). This means By contrast, a subway system is more user-friendly: if you show up at a subway station in Atlanta or New York or Washington, you know that a train will show up reasonably soon.

Moreover, our bus system does not serve enough places. With the exception of one or two routes, JTA is limited to Duval County. So if you live or work in St. Johns or Clay County, you are more or less out of luck. (St. Johns does have its own bus company, but its service hours are even more limited than those of JTA).

All of these problems, of course, could be resolved by more money: we could build light rail or streetcars, or pay for buses to run more frequently. But other difficulties arise from the urban form of Jacksonville.

First of all, our downtown is not the region’s dominant job center. But because most bus routes end downtown, it logically follows that if you work anyplace else, you probably will have to change buses to get to work: for example, if you live in the Beaches, you will have to change buses downtown in order to get to my office in Baymeadows. Given how infrequently most buses run, having to change buses often means a two-hour commute.

The remark in my first paragraph about transit being for the “other guy” was in response to an online survey asking people if they would ride a bus if it was available- but the question was a misleading one, because it failed to distinguish good bus service (say, every 10 minutes with no transfers) and the not-so-good bus service that my hypothetical Beaches resident has (taking a bus that runs only once an hour, and then undergoing a two-hour commute due to the necessity of changing buses). I suspect that many people would be glad to use the first kind of service, but not so interested in the second. So the people who thought the question referred to good bus service may have answered the question “yes” and the people who thought the question referred to two-hour commutes may have answered the same question “no”- even though both groups may have felt the same way.

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this problem, since obviously not everyone can work downtown. A rail system (though perhaps too expensive to be practical) would be helpful for people whose jobs were located on rail stops; they would have a good reason to live near other rail stops so they could use the new service.

Second, Jacksonville does not have as much population density as cities with higher transit ridership. The concept of “density” has been widely misunderstood; some people think that any increase in density means sky-blocking skyscapers everywhere. But all density means, in this context, is that lots of people live near a rail stop or a bus stop. If lots of people live near the transit stop, more people will ride transit. We know this we know that because the cities with the highest transit ridership (New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, and San Francisco) have at least 10,000 or so people per square mile, which means that any transit stop will have lots of potential riders nearby. Jacksonville, by contrast, has only 1000 people per square mile. Thus, it seems unlikely that Jacksonville will have New York-size ridership anytime soon.

On the other hand, some low-density cities and suburbs have increased transit ridership by allowing increased density near transit stations. For example, Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, has a subway stop. The blocks closest to the subway stop are dominated by high-rises; then a few blocks later you have smaller apartments and condos, then a few blocks later you have small single-family homes, and finally the blocks furthest from the train are dominated by typical suburban houses. In other words, a good transit system does not mean that everyone lives in high-rises or smaller houses- just the people closest to the transit stations. So if Jacksonville does invest in commuter rail, light rail, or bus rapid transit, it can attain decent levels of ridership by zoning the land around those transit stations for lots of housing- for example, high-rises or mid-rises as opposed to the typical five-house-per-acre subdivision. This sort of zoning would not involve higher regionwide density at all, but would merely redistribute our density so that the areas closest to the transit stations have the most people, while the areas further from the transit stations get to maintain the status quo.

In sum, transit ridership is a function of two factors: (1) how much service does the transit system provide? and (2) how many people live and work near transit stops? Good service plus compact development means more riders; spread-out development and bad service means fewer riders.

Article written by Michael E. Lewyn of the Florida Coastal School of Law.