(05-11-2022, 12:47 AM)NewJagsCity Wrote: So, your most positive growth in the downtown area over the last 30 years has been the growth along Riverside Dr.  I haven't worked downtown now for almost 11 years, so when I have gone downtown for other reasons, I'm always impressed with the development there, both in multi family housing and in small commercial businesses.  This proves the riverfront CAN  be developed as long as its done right. If I were the director of the Downtown Development Authority, I would recognize the simple principle that no one likes to live next to large Industrial Development. It's ugly, it kills property values, it's potentially unsafe, and in general it's just not cool.  So if I were head of the DDA, I would do the following:
1) Relocate all of the heavy industrial on Tallyrand Ave as far north as Main St to Blount Island and any other points east. Rezone and tax the crap out of them if necessary.
2) Get whatever Fed/State $ I could, and couple that with local money for cleanup of the Superfund Site that used to be the shipyards
3) Open the old Southside generating plant property on the South Bank to private development
4) Relocate the Duval County jail to the outer edge of the city limits. Move the Police Headquarters to Springfield. There's more crime there anyway, and there are a couple of old abandoned schools just waiting for renovation that they could occupy.  Leave Maxwell House where it is, cause it's good to the last drop, and it smells good to coffee drinkers.
5) Reinforce Exchange Island with retaining walls and give huge financial incentives for a developer to build a marina / restaurant / housing.  Big cities have stuff in the middle of thier rivers if possible.  NY, London, Paris, for example.  Sure, some feral cats will have to be relocated, but that's progress. 
6) Leave the Landing site as it is. If it's not currently a park, make it one. Maybe put a petting zoo there. It was always a crappy location anyway, too far from the sports complex.
7) Subsidize a yacht for affordable dinner cruises, just like the Annabelle Lee used to offer. Offer that same Yacht for basic affordable River Crossings or River tours of the river. Go as far north as Dames Point or Mayport.  Make it $7 head. I'd take my grandkids on that on the regular for that price.  Savannah does it well, and thier river sucks.

Slums are another problem that can't be solved with simple relocation. That is a problem for another day.  But if you can figure out how to upgrade the A Philip Randolph and Pheonix Ave areas without mass evictions/condemnations, then you have a future in City Planning.  It would also go a long way to stimulating positive housing growth around the Sports Complex.