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Old Posted Apr 14, 2012, 8:49 PM
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Worst Urban Transformation in American History

To go along with a few recent threads, I figured I would be selfish and create a thread detailing the wholesale destruction of just one city: Jacksonville, FL.

Jacksonville is my hometown, and due to its horrible reputation nowadays, sometimes I find it difficult to even admit I am from the city for fear I will be labeled some conservative religious nutjob or a redneck. It's definitely a misunderstood city with absolutely fascinating and beautiful old neighborhoods and brewery districts and commercial strips, but its downtown has suffered a lethal blow. Arguably many sunbelt/southern cities were never that large pre-automobile, and if they were they were taken over by suburbs. Jacksonville's downtown is so dead and filled with vacant lots and surface parking that it is hard to imagine that it was one of the thriving industrial and vacation centers of this country for generations.

Given the immense presence of modern day First Baptist Church on 9 city blocks downtown, as well as a traditionally conservative voting record and notable incidents of racism and toil in modern day America, it is next to impossible to imagine that Jacksonville was once one of the liberal meccas of the country, akin to San Francisco.

It is difficult to imagine something that is literally the opposite of the town today.

Jacksonville had a fort and settlement (the French) before the Spanish came to St. Augustine 30 miles down the road in 1564. That makes it the oldest European settled city in America, even older than St. Augustine. Amazing right?

The city's modern forefathers from the 1880s through the 1920s were permanent residents William Astor, Alfred duPont, Henry Flagler and so many other gilded family names. The Vanderbilt family was active in Jacksonville, as were many of the biggest names in Newport and Pennsylvania/Ohio.

Jacksonville had the Harlem of the South in Lavilla, which had between 10,000 and 15,000 ppsm as one point. Ray Charles and James Weldon Johnson came from LaVilla, and Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday performed in Lavilla many many times each year.

Jacksonville had the largest and busiest train station south of the Mason Dixon. The current structure was ironically saved in all this mess, and was constructed in 1917, serving 20,000 passengers a day for decades. It was a permitted knock off of Penn Station and was designed by a NYC architect and built by a Philly contractor. Today it is one of the smallest and most insufficient convention centers in the country and is surrounded by blocks of vacant lots.

Jacksonville had a mob family, tied to the larger families in Tampa and New Orleans. It also competed with Tampa as the hub of world cigar rolling, and finally by WWI stole all of Tampa's cigar businesses. Today Swisher's big old factory and warehouse still stands as its headquarters and is the largest cigar plant in the world.

Maxwell Coffee operates one of the last remaing waterfront factories, where it has processed beans for many many decades. It is less than half a mile from the Swisher plant.

Those are literally 2 of the last remaining bastions of big-industry in Jacksonville. Everything else was bulldozed for nothing. No more smokestacks, no more warehouses ready to be turned into lofts. What was once a city that resembled a cross of San Francisco meets New Orleans meets Mid-Atlantic is now a dead crumbling mess. Fortunately there is still a turn of the century beach that resembles Provincetown/Cape Cod called Atlantic Beach, but that isn't near downtown.


I'll let the pictures speak for themselves>>>>>>>>


The following photos are taken from:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/art...d-haydon-burns

All photos from here on courtesy of State of Florida Archives and editing done by MetroJacksonville.




Precursor of the horrors to come in this thread, yellow represents wholesale destruction.







And here actually the yellow should extend all the way to edges of the photo:






Here is another recent excellent article done by the folks at MetroJacksonville:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/art...onville/page/1


The following photos are taken from this article written by Ennis Davis at MetroJacksonville (also a poster on this site):

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/art...g-railroad-row

RAILROAD ROW - LAVILLA





Today:






Now the following are taken from this article:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/art...rines-and-port

I love this article. Jacksonville is still a major port city, all activity concentrated further north on the river. However, it was a BUSTLING port and center of shipbuilding for decades - right around downtown. The waterfront for miles was packed with warehouses, wharves, piers, businesses, and hotels and brothels for sailors. The scene could have rivaled San Francisco, Seattle, Baltimore, even Boston. It was part of the city's identity, and made it unique in the south. At some point in the 40s and 50s some idiots in City Hall decided that the waterfront was dirty and needed to be filled in and eliminated for surface parking. Ew, Jacksonville's past 60 years of thinking at its finest. Now there is not much of a downtown or an identity for the city, when now the waterfront could be a MAJOR tourist destination filled with shops and hotels and aquariums and restaurants.


Before:











The railroad bridge from the 1800s is still there, but the bridge next to it was destroyed for a boring 6-lane concrete thing.





Now the turn for the worst - the heart of the city being ripped up:















All the buildings in the background to the right have been destroyed; every one! The waterfront was destroyed for buildings like below. A crime.







Now here is a step by step process of how the city destroyed itself, taken from the following article called The Great Skyscraper Extortion:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/art...scheme-of-1911

The Heard Bank, seen here all 17 floors, was built in 1911. Yes Jacksonville had 10 story buildings as soon as rebuilding commenced after the 1901 Great Fire (3rd in scope in the country I believe, seen as far north as Raleigh, NC). Well lo and behold the following process was replicated often on a much more devastatingly large scale hundreds of more times in this period.


Heard Bank seen in skyline view from the 20s or 30s:



Demolished for surface parking in the 80s, with part of facade kept as "entrance" (and surface parking is more of a use believe it or not than many demolitions actually got afterward):



And now all that remains are a few columns in front of the PAC:



AND JUST TO REMIND YOU, HERE IS WHAT THE PAC LOOKS LIKE AS IT WAS CONSTRUCTED TO REPLACE THE "UGLY BLIGHTED" WATERFRONT IN THE 60s:






And now for another TRAGEDY:

The destruction of LaVilla, the Harlem of the South. The history of LaVilla is so unique and so fascinating and it wasn't just a place for blacks. So many famous people have experienced LaVilla and stayed in its hotels, including presidents. It was a whole area that would be reminiescent of some of the coolest areas of New Orleans today (thinking French Quarter). Even some of the architecture (not seen in the following photos, but occasionally remaining spottedly here and there) appears like 1800s Gulf Coast architecture, with those wrought iron balconies. LaVilla was mainly destroyed in the 90s, long after most cities stopped demolishing structures.


Before:






Today:


Our beautiful new $350M courthouse - spanning 7 city blocks of pure destruction. We had designs submitted by Canon, Spindela, and all sorts of prominent firms for great designs, all less than $350M, and our IDIOT mayor scrapped them and did some shit design-build crap than came in wayyy overbudget, way too large and resulted in unnecessary destruction. Some buildings were destroyed, and yet the courthouse did not even occupy their sites.





A school! WTF




What once was a bustling area of 2-5 floor buildings spanning dozens of blocks in all directions:
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2012, 8:59 PM
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And now for some pictures of just a few of the beauties destroyed. ALL of Jacksonville's big grande dame hotels were destroyed. And there were many considering that Jacksonville WAS Miami for decades before Miami really picked up or even existed. These pictures are literally just a few random smaller buildings, a couple were signficant, but most were just how the buildings were back then and weren't considered special at all.


Pictures taken from the State Archives of Florida via the following article:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/art...nville/page/14

In the article there are FIFTEEN (15) pages of pictures. It's very hard to read and look at the article considering what could have been. Jacksonville could literally be one of the most talked about shining urban examples in this country today, and a tourist haven.








The following was essentially the Chamber of Commerce. It was destroyed for something so horrible I can't even put up a picture it would be too offensive (more "urban renewal" stuff).







Back when there were pedestrians!!





This was our old Post Office, built in the 1800s, it survived the Great Fire of 1901 (3rd largest fire behind Chicago and San Francisco). We destroyed this for at least something - a prominent department store called Furchgott's whose building is at least still there. STILL...what a beauty!





One of many old factories in the city that gave it a totally industrial look. The city today still hardly resembles the rest of Florida and still has lots of old brick buildings and some old smokestacks scattered about. Would have been cool to keep them all...




For the record, Atlanta has some great stacks remaining and great factories/industrial/warehouse districts, but it could still have kept some more for a more complete grit look. Atlanta really had a ton of stacks scattered about and resembled Baltimore/Chicago until the 1960s.
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2012, 9:08 PM
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Finally, another remaining plant with SOOOO much potential for re-use. Someone on this board with connections and implementation, please take a looky here and come to Jacksonville and get this thing rehabbed, pretty please!

The old Ford Assemble Plant on the Northside, right on the river, a reminder of days gone by when piers and wharves looked like this for miles up and down the river...


This thing was built in 1923 and designed by Albert Kahn. It's pretty large, nearly 200,000 SF. Pictures taken from the following article:


http://www.metrojacksonville.com/art...assembly-plant









There are so many more pictures on that website. It's old and brick with traditional warehouse windows. Could be event space, broken up into lofts or office lofts, etc. It's on a pier ON the river, and not too far from the Springfield warehouse district (which is yet another potential jewel ripe for massive rehab, old warehouses that definitely do not look like they belong in FL, another example of the city falling short).


Here is a finished product of a similar Ford Assembly plant in Richmond, CA:


Taken from http://www.noehill.com/contracosta/nat1988000919.asp



Taken from http://www.mishalov.com/richmond.bay.trail.18dec09/
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2012, 9:23 PM
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Some photos I took that illustrate the destruction and deadness of downtown Jacksonville compared to what it was.


Look at the Shipyards. Just pathetic. At least Maxwell Coffee is still there as a reminder.



There is still the Main Street Bridge at least, though the other lift bridge was destroyed




Building on the left is soon to be demolished from neglect. Really? The city is still practicing the art of demolishing. Someone please come rescue it. It's actually on a great corner near tons of bars, a theater, the 966 room Hyatt, and near the office towers.




There is someee creativity going on...a refurbishment.




The once busy train station today...at least it is still with us!











First Baptist Church went from this pretty 1901 Romanesque structure to a 9 or 16 block campus of insular buildings and garages. Pu-thetic.





An area called Brooklyn, where once were wharves and piers and a thriving industrial meatpacking district is now mostly vacant lots, BUT they did do something about the riverfront, which is good:





A block remains, but the building in the foreground with Jaguar mural is about to be leveled...





Look at this depressing site:








Someone please come rescue this city. This is a serious call! Outside of downtown there are actually several really walkable and livable neighborhoods and you will NOT think you're in FL. There is a thriving brew culture and craft beers are what get's drank. Despite the vastness of the suburbia and the conservative military population, there are beautiful, dense liberal hubs and bohemian areas, all of course outside of downtown, which needs to be saved.



A sign of how bad it is is the fact that even though it's IN Florida, growing rapidly, on the beach and along a river, only a few condo towers went up in the boom. Charlotte, which has no naturally beautiful setting for its downtown no offense saw a MUCH larger boom than Jacksonville, and that should not be. Since there aren't any more historic districts and the waterfront is empty land, it should at least be filled with condos, a new convention center, and activity centers for tourists and visitors. It would offer what most cities can only dream of.
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2012, 9:57 PM
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It's just horrifying. Those are some awesome urban scenes in the old photos. I've been through Jacksonville, and found the downtown to be pretty crypt-like. A torrential downpour started so I got back on the highway without seeing any neighborhoods.

It's amazing/depressing that you can go to cities like this (and I'm not picking on Jacksonville - places like Minneapolis, Denver, Hartford, Omaha, etc... have brutalized their downtowns as well, to somewhat lesser extents) and never have any idea what used to lie beyond the remaining intact parts.

Thanks for putting this together. Edifying as it is heartbreaking.

My apartment overlooks this, which is now surface parking with a couple of crappy 1960's high-rise slabs. It used to be the heart of downtown Jersey City.
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2012, 10:04 PM
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Visiting Jacksonville for the first time in June. Not looking forward to it.
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2012, 10:08 PM
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Where did everybody go? The Suburbs??
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2012, 10:13 PM
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Buffalo was recently discussed here as being an example, and also there's that hideous freeway that carved up Hartford.
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2012, 10:49 PM
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Simms I have been through Jax before several times but never really stopped. What I do remember was the smell of the paper mills along the river. I remember picking up a old National Geographic magazine from the late 60's that touted Jacksonville as Florida's premier business city with banking and Insurance as it primary industries.
The way the article portrayed Jax it was the future city for all of Florida.

Instead by the disappointing photos you have displayed many city leaders really didn't care about it's urban core throughout the last few decades. They seemed to have planned on "Urban renewal" and instead demolished the heart of the city.

Is there really any reason for anybody to go to downtown except for work, a Jaguars game or for a tourist to spend a couple of hours at Jacksonville Landing getting a drink or do some shopping?

Also the leadership at JTA (JAX Transportation Authority I believe) is very screwed up agency from what I read. It's an agency that is in charge of both roads & mass transit.
Why can't they do what Miami has done with two seperate agencies instead?

Jacksonville was supposed to be Florida's "it" city but it didn't even benefit from the boom that other Florida cities did during the last decade. I know it's a conservative & a very suburban sprawly city but I know you have a new Mayor which may help turn things around. The residents need to get on board as well if they want to Jacksonville prosper or lose out to other emerging cities in the South.
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Old Posted Apr 14, 2012, 11:11 PM
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Interesting. Never knew...

I drove through Jacksonville once, maybe if more of all of this was left, we would have had a reason to stop there.
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Old Posted Apr 15, 2012, 12:31 AM
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Unfortunately, this sort of thing happened in many cities.
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Old Posted Apr 15, 2012, 2:01 AM
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Originally Posted by Evergrey View Post
Visiting Jacksonville for the first time in June. Not looking forward to it.
It's not that bad...I've been there a couple of times and found lots of interesting things to do. The beaches are nice and there are a few nice places to experience. I mean, it isn't a wasteland, even though the urban landscape was raped and pillaged (as it was in most large cities during the urban renewal days - and it's easy to look back and realize those horrible mistakes). It's still a large city with large-city entertainment...even without it's historic urbanity. No need to worry about your visit.

Nice thread...I had seen historic photos of Jacksonville and knew there had been a lot of demolition, but this really brought it to life. I still enjoyed the city when I was there, but I tend to not mind looking for the bright spots in any city I visit. I like them all.
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Old Posted Apr 15, 2012, 2:06 AM
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Where did everybody go? The Suburbs??
I don't think that many people left the city..it's hard to tell because of the city-county consolidation that took place sometime in the 1960s, but the population seems to have held fairly steady.
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Old Posted Apr 15, 2012, 2:42 AM
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Originally Posted by M II A II R II K View Post
Buffalo was recently discussed here as being an example, and also there's that hideous freeway that carved up Hartford.
Yes Buffalo suffered many demolitions and urban renewal projects gone wrong. I honestly thought Buffalo was the worst offender of this kind in America, concerning big cities. But at least there's still perfectly intact historic neighborhoods to enjoy! Jacksonville appears to have erased practically all remnants of its glory days. Now that's what I call "a shell of its former self." Downtown Buffalo still has quite some goodies left. What saves Jacksonville though is the weather and lower cost of living. Otherwise it would be in the same or worse shape than our rust belt cities.
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Old Posted Apr 15, 2012, 2:55 AM
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When I started looking thru your photos, I took a look at some satellite views of the city center. Cant even tell you how many times I said wow and omg. The vast stretches of emptiness in the heart of downtown are just shocking! It makes me alot happier that Cleveland THAT!
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Old Posted Apr 15, 2012, 6:19 AM
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I'm lucky to be a Chicagoan, but I've also witnessed a remarkable transformation as New Orleans has come back - not just from Katrina but from a massive streak of blight and abandonment that has dogged the city since the 80s. So I know for a fact that such turnarounds are indeed possible.

The only question is, what drives Jacksonville's economy? You can't rebuild a city without economic growth. To get that growth, you have to offer something unique, and there has to be some kind of way to attract business growth. Low taxes aren't really an option since large cities can never compete with suburban areas on that score - so cities need to offer something unique and market themselves.

New Orleans got an insane amount of publicity after Katrina, and despite the dysfunction and deep poverty it showed, it also placed the city back into the national consciousness in a way that didn't involve getting ripped at Mardi Gras. The clean-up efforts brought thousands of people here from around the country, and a large number of those people either moved here later or convinced others to do so, because they were exposed to areas and facets of the city that were very very strong. These people, because of their earlier volunteerism, tend to be pretty smart and resourceful, and many of them have opened their own small businesses and provided jobs for others.

I'm not suggesting Jacksonville should wish for a devastating hurricane, but it needs to develop a strong and unique strategy for the economy that goes beyond lowering taxes and offering handouts to big corporations. The economic growth needs to occur organically, and the urban growth will follow.
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Old Posted Apr 15, 2012, 6:45 AM
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I'm not suggesting Jacksonville should wish for a devastating hurricane, but it needs to develop a strong and unique strategy for the economy that goes beyond lowering taxes and offering handouts to big corporations. The economic growth needs to occur organically, and the urban growth will follow.
Well this is what every other single metro area wallowing away in this economy is trying to do. Its like a game of musical chairs, we can't all be winners. Look at the country itself, poverty is built in to the system. Someone has to work at Subway and 7-11. Looks like Jacksonville is just a retail worker and a city like Houston is the Wall Street fat cat, just how this game goes.
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Old Posted Apr 15, 2012, 7:31 AM
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I don't think that many people left the city..it's hard to tell because of the city-county consolidation that took place sometime in the 1960s, but the population seems to have held fairly steady.
To the contrary, a huge percentage of the population left Jacksonville's original boundaries.

1950 population: 204,517 (in 30.2 square miles)

2010 population of 1950 boundaries: 104,047

That's a loss of nearly 50%, and a 2010 population density of just 3,445 ppsm, which is extraordinarily low for such a small area.
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Old Posted Apr 15, 2012, 12:36 PM
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At least they didn't gut the nearby St. Augustine.
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Old Posted Apr 15, 2012, 2:47 PM
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To kind of add to everyone's responses so far:

1) I've been to Buffalo. It did not destroy a fraction of what it once had compared to what Jacksonville has destroyed compared to what it once had. Furthermore, beyond just destroying old buildings, as all cities have, Jacksonville destroyed its identity and its culture. It was a liberal industrial waterfront town with a Jewish quarter, its own Harlem, a busy waterfront, a theater district with 16+ major theaters and before there was Hollywood, almost all movies were filmed in Jacksonville up until the late 1920s. All of that is gone, but perhaps the worst was the leveling of the waterfront, which gave the city its reason to exist. Also, Buffalo's largest problems aren't its self-destruction, but its location and a variety of other factors. By default, Jacksonville will grow fairly rapidly no matter what.

I can't speak for Hartford as I've never been, but I looked at some Bird's Eye views and I could tell a lot had been destroyed, but a lot still remains. Its identity as an insurance capital is still intact. Ironically, a nickname for Jacksonville had for many decades been the Hartford of the South, and it was home to the largest insurance presence outside of Hartford. Aetna, Prudential, and BCBS still adorn the tops of 3 of downtown's largest office buildings, and as recently as a few years ago that included Humana (now Suntrust, 6th tallest), Independent Life (now the Modis/Wells Fargo building, 2nd tallest), and Gulf Life (now Riverplace Tower, 5th tallest). Chicago Title is owned by a F500 company based in Jacksonville (Fidelity National).

This was a time when vacancy across downtown's 11 million SF of office space was very tight and there were 65,000 private sector workers still commuting in. It was in this time pre-1990s that Jacksonville and Birmingham, AL were larger banking centers than Charlotte. All of that is gone (for both cities), and Jacksonville's insurance industry is also a shell of its former self. Vacancy is well above 20% and downtown workers total maybe half what they were in the mid-90s?


2) Jacksonville's neighborhoods outside of the core are intact, alive and thriving. Riverside-Avondale is one of the largest contiguous historic districts in the country and San Marco on the Southbank is one of the most desirable intown places to live (as are Riverside and Avondale). Unfortunately, unless you live in Jacksonville and know about these wonderful areas, you just have no clue. SoFlas and New Yorkers who move down are immediately shown "communities" on the Southside (suburbs) or the beaches, and it takes months or even years for them to find out that all the good restaurants, bars and cultural venues/museums are in Riverside, Avondale and San Marco...then they sell their suburban home and move in if they can.

Visitors and business travelers only see the least impressionable places (i.e. downtown, suburbs, port and industrial parks). It's a shame. I-95 all the way through town is the worst impression of all...it's not even taken care of.


3) Grassroots is alive and thriving in Jacksonville. Preservation societies are pretty large and powerful outside of downtown and because of the close-knit community, small business owners who run successful shops do much better than chains. Farm-to-table was going on in Jacksonville restaurants before it became a national call in the last few years. Breweries have always been a part of the city's scene, and that grassroots scene has only exploded in the last 5 years.

To top it off, there are several websites dedicated to the city:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/
This one is the most active and is probably the best. It has actually been highlighted on national cable news outlets as a shining example for other cities. Editors of this website are now part of the current/new mayoral administration.


http://www.urbanjacksonville.info/
Another one I follow.

There are plenty others. The obstacle is that a Good Old Boy network (appropriately nicknamed the GOB in the city) has been in control since the 1940s. Their last bastion of control is downtown and they are relentless on letting that control go. They have long lost control of the neighborhoods of Jacksonville, but they are the ones who destroyed downtown and developed the suburbs and became rich in the process.

Perhaps the most egregious example of this was locating the 20,000 student UNF on land owned by the local Skinner family in the suburbs before there was even a paved road, then lo and behold Gate Concrete, run by our former mayor and his family (Peyton family) built the massive highways out there. The rest of the city wanted to see UNF go downtown, which would have meant a more prosperous city center, but a few large families in town who happened to have the political power, as well, decided they would rather line their pockets. This practice still happens today. Different from the rampant Democrat corruption in cities up north, Jacksonville suffers from major Republican corruption and strongholds.



Bottom line is the place isn't all bad and there is hope. I really equate Jacksonville to Milwaukee. Both cities give me similar vibes, and both are sort of "forgotten." Granted Milwaukee is larger and denser and kept its core, the vibe there is similar. It's a city than can really give you the wrong impression unless you know someone there who can show you around and show you a good time. Both are cities where everyone knows everyone, literally. It's fascinating.

I'll have more pictures to come.
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