Downtown; The Old Neighborhood

Perennial debate on what to do with downtown Jacksonville has become fashionable once again.  How does the country’s largest city (which is really a county of 804 square miles) revitalize its urban hub?   Apparently not easily, as numerous past attempts have not quite panned out as well as city leaders had hoped.  But hope springs eternal and a $2.7 million makeover for Laura Street will soon begin.

Time will tell whether or not this will be the spark that Mayor Peyton wants it to be, but one thing is certain; downtown’s current dilemma started long ago.  The die was cast when a few premiere landowners grabbed large swaths of land east of the St Johns River and carved out City support for convenient urban exits leading to boulevards that bear their names today.  That land speculation, when combined with a post civil-rights urban exodus and America’s love affair with the automobile, set the stage for today’s downtown Jacksonville.

Focus on the urban core has come in fits and starts, while support for Southside growth has been unyielding and non-stop.  Year after year, acres of land acquired by a handful of 20^th century City-stalwarts have been transformed into the most desirable and burgeoning addresses in the City.  Office parks, strip malls and siloed communities (each seemingly with their own Publix) continue to turn pristine pinelands into a patchwork of suburbia while downtown Jacksonville dwindles.  Yet City leaders seem stumped at why the urban core resembles a ghost town.

In order to effectively grow the urban center, City leaders need to realize it wasn’t by happenstance that downtown faded away, but that it was more by design.  For years City Planners and Leaders have pandered to Southside landowners and developers by overlooking impact fees and happily rezoning land trusts for just about any project that crossed their credenzas.  All while, making conspicuously cozy deals for riverfront development that have only yielded taxpayers a few half empty, high-rise condominiums and a Grand Jury investigation.

Vibrant downtowns require a steady mix of long-term residents, shoppers and workers; all needing a reason to stay awhile.  If City leaders are finally serious about redeveloping an urban core, and capturing a population for more than an 8 hour shift, than they need to exhibit the same exuberance and cunning for downtown development that they put forth in building out the JTB Corridor. If not, than they need to come to the stark realization that downtown has been destined to what it has become by their own actions and will remain a transient hub, relegated for official errands and waterfront industry.

Southside development has shown that a Publix on every corner seems to work, so perhaps leaders need to implement a version of this model for downtown. Otherwise, they might as well save the taxpayers millions by scrapping the bejeweled pedestrian walkways and dredge the St John’s River to entice at least one revenue generating Shipyards project.

Tags: City of Jacksonville, Downtown Development, Downtown Vision Inc

This entry was posted on Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 8:06 PM and is filed under Local Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.