(12-03-2020, 08:05 PM)enigma Wrote:

(12-02-2020, 08:09 AM)The Real Marty Wrote: The problem, if there is one, with Jacksonville, is that there's no "there" there.  People drive through Jacksonville on any road in any direction, and they say, "What exactly is this place? Where is everything?"  

Not everyone wants to live in a suburb.  A lot of people want to live in a city.  There's a reason apartments in big cities are so expensive: supply and demand.  People are willing to pay huge prices for the ability to live in a city, where you can go downstairs and right there within a few feet there are restaurants and bars and nightlife and museums and concert halls.

Exactly. It shouldn't be a surprise when we hamper our own city development projects and then wonder why nobody wants to live in a certain area or businesses don't migrate into the city even further. 

As for my friend who quoted me, if he was personally performing those duties as such, then he very well knows which entities, and who serves them, continuously pull the plug on said developments. To the point of the team drawing from the pool of church goers, establishing a vibrant downtown bustling with businesses, social establishments, and more would absolutely yield far greater returns than what is currently happening. Also, that demographic is most likely to go to a Jags game regardless - even when they live in the suburbs. 

People with money live/move to the suburbs around Jacksonville because our downtown is underdeveloped as it is. Sad to see how we are wasting prime property and real estate, that other places would kill to have, over some nonsensical shenanigans. Our city (and team) would benefit immensely from such progress, both in social and economical terms, currently and for our future.

Hey man I'm with you, I hate seeing prime Property wasted as well. And I can understand the allure of living in a city, I've spent a lot of time working in and experiencing a lot of downtowns across this country. I'm not interested in living in one now because of where I am in life, but I get it. My posts were merely reflecting what I believe is true about downtown Jacksonville. As someone else has said in this thread, it will most likely take one or more generations to come and go before Jacksonville FL has a downtown that's attractive to live in. One of the first things I would do, tho, if I were in charge, is send all that industry along Talleyrand up river to Blount Island. That area could grow like Riverside Drive if properly managed and zoned.

And sorry, I have no idea who made those upper-level deveopment decisions, that was beyond my pay grade at the time. I just did the statistical analysis of the surveys and reported the results.

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