(11-28-2020, 04:20 PM)enigma Wrote:

(11-28-2020, 11:44 AM)Bullseye Wrote: Which is why the city should develop downtown.

I'm speaking anecdotally here, but I really believe many people here in Jax want our downtown to develop and be a center piece of this city and it's future.

I just think it's a select few who are holding back the progression of our city unfortunately. It's time to get with it folks, we have a beautiful city so lets take advantage of that.

I can guarantee you that most people in Jax don't give a rat's rear end about downtown, and I 'll even bet that 40 to 50 % of the population in the Jax metro area have never even been downtown for anything other than a Jaguars game. And what 'select few' are you even talking about? If you're talking about the churches, those buildings are far from the core of downtown, and many of the attendees go to the games after services as well, so in a way, it serves as a draw for the team. And those church populations all migrated to the burbs 10 years ago anyway, so it isnt even a thing anymore. Politicians should welcome development. Business should as well. But as someone who worked downtown for 30 yrs, heard all this 'promise of development' stuff every 5 to 10 years, and have personally seen/reviewed proposed Downtown development plans as part of my job (along with surveys of prospective home buyers and where they most preferred to live), i can tell you that downtown will always be undevelopable crap until they are allowed to return to what they were in the 60s, a separate township that can deal with developing business on their own terms, apart from the rest of Duval county. There's still way too much land in the Jax metro area to still be developed before natural gentrification takes place downtown and all the remaining economically disadvantaged are run out of Springfield and the Pheonix Ave area. Till then, people with money will choose a new house/community in a safer area. NYC and its bouroughs have experienced natural gentrification because they are out of room and demand for property drives it. Jax tries to force it with proposed 'build it and they will come' projects, but it wont work organically till developers are out of room.

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