Don't Blow It
Jacksonville's Special Committee on the Future of Downtown
Since May, the City Council Special Committee on the Future of Downtown has met three times with additional meetings in the offing. This committee, appointed by former Council president Ron Salem and extended by newly installed City Council president Randy White, presents a promising opportunity to rethink our understanding of and approach to reinvigorating Jacksonville’s historic downtown urban core, and engage the local citizenry in deep and meaningful ways.
The committee’s charge promises a “public discussion,” one that would allow “the very identity of Jacksonville itself, to be properly aired and framed.” It calls for including Downtown Investment Authority (DIA), nonprofits, Downtown ambassadors, the development community, and “the public at large” in the committee’s deliberations.
At its first meeting, committee Chair Kevin Carrico mentioned inviting presentations from “stakeholders and experts” including Downtown Vision, Visit Jacksonville, the legal community, the Mayor’s Office, Sulzbacher Center, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, the Jaguars, Public Works, Sheriff’s Office, JEA, small and emerging businesses, Jacksonville Transportation Authority, and the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce.
No mention of civic-minded architects, local historians, preservationists, park advocates, environmentalists, urbanists. No mention of academic expertise and folks who’ve succeeded at this work in peer cities.
A Vexation
Despite its promise, the committee’s conversation thus far has been focused too narrowly on what’s right and what’s wrong with DIA, not that that discussion isn’t worthy.
The larger opportunity—exploring historic downtown’s role in shaping the very identify of Jacksonville itself is one we would do well to exploit. What is it about downtown Jacksonville’s story, one told through its relationship to the St. Johns River and its early 20th Century architecture, that makes Jacksonville a unique place? How might we preserve that identity and foster a sense of place far into our future?
Examining DIA
In fairness, examining the successes and failures of DIA makes sense. Initially formed in 2012 by City Council, DIA’s purpose is narrow: invest local public tax dollars to spur private economic development in what DIA considers downtown—a sprawling area spanning nearly 4 square miles along the St. Johns River from the Southbank to the stadium of the future.
But DIA’s downtown is not synonymous with historic downtown, with the downtown implied in the Special Committee’s written charge. DIA is not responsible for preserving our collective identity or fostering a sense of place. Nor is it charged with framing a conversation about Jacksonville’s identity, and how to preserve and build upon that identity.
Sadly, DIA’s downtown is something of an albatross, a curse even, whose sprawling geography strangles any hope we have to focus our attention and resources on reimagining the future of downtown, to reclaiming an identity as a resourceful and resilient people who built something special out of 1901 Great Fire ashes.
Where is Historic Downtown?
According to Ennis Davis’ The 7 historic districts of Jacksonville, Downtown Jacksonville Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. This 158 acre site is home to “176 contributing buildings, one contributing site and two contributing objects.”
Folks, contributing means special. Unique. Unlike any other. Physical assets created by the genius and grit of previous generations, and which give meaning to we contemporaries—the inheritors of the place they built—who walk the same streets situated along the same nearby St. Johns River. The physical assets previous generations built provide us with a sense of place, an identity.
An Asset-Based Approach
Wonder how different the Special Committee’s conversation might be had they begun with an understanding of the geography and the history of the place itself, of the 158 acre downtown Jacksonville historic district.
How different might their eventual recommendations be if they exchanged their inquisition from what’s wrong and right with DIA, to what’s special and unique about historic downtown Jacksonville, and how we might build upon those assets.
How different might those recommendations be if the committee genuinely invited into their conversation committed and dedicated active local citizens, themselves “stakeholders and experts.” Folks who have an impressive track record imagining, restoring, and caring for common civic space, like historic Riverside and Avondale and Memorial Park; who have spearheaded creation of Riverside Arts Market; who have studied and know better than developers, DIA staff, and the Special Committee about what works in other cities; folks who care deeply about and love historic downtown Jacksonville more than most, and who have absolutely nothing financially to gain.
They deserve the opportunity to make presentations.
Instead, engaged and caring citizens get their three minutes and you’re done, but only if the committee time clock hasn’t run out as it did during the July meeting.
What’s The Problem?
Solving the DIA problem might be a problem we need to solve, but the larger problem is our lack of appreciation for place and history, and this unwillingness to listen to civic-minded people with expansive knowledge and experience.
As Jacksonville Historical Society CEO Alan Bliss wrote in May 2023/24, “Jacksonville has often seemed to care less about its past than other [peer] cities do.” This despite the fact that everyone knows that one’s past helps identify who one is, and that other more successful cities with thriving urban cores saved and marketed their unique sense of place: Richmond, Charleston, Savannah.
Upcoming Meetings:
The Special Committee next meets at 1 p.m., Monday, August 12, in City Council chambers in the St. James Building. Come prepared to speak, though you may not be heard.
sources:
https://dia.coj.net/Resources/Downtown-Overlay-Zone-Design-Standards
https://www.jaxhistory.org/who-cares-about-preservation-in-jacksonville/
Sherry - prescient and powerful.
Yes - City Hall, City Council and the DIA don't know what they've got - and won't know until its gone.
The 2016 Map, Discover Downtown Jacksonville, produced by Downtown Vision Inc. and "Visit Jacksonville" defines Downtown as being:
Northbank = Broad Street (west), Church Street (north), St. Johns River (south) & Market Street (east)
Southbank = Prudential Ave (south) and St. Johns River (north)
Seems like most everything in Jacksonville is interpreted in myriad ways - no wonder there is so little continuity or appreciation.
Thank you very much - Rick
PS - now we have to contend with a new "downtown core" compliments of the urban place-making expertise from our resident Bumper Magnate. First we had white flight, then retail flight, then Regency's suburbanization, then the Southside's emergence, then St. Johns "Town Center", then Brooklyn's debut and now a "new core" around a pair of stadiums???????
We need a collective Light-Bulb moment.
Wasn’t this committee created by former City Council President Ron Salem as a vehicle to criticize the DIA? That was my sense of it and the actions described by Sherri bear that out. So not much surprise that the committee has spent so much time and energy critiquing the DIA. Lost opportunity? Sure, but the committee is being true to its founding intent. Unfortunately.