The Summer of 2005 - 18 years ago. Seems far more distant. The residential and development market was off the charts - at its peak, with many wolfs on Wall Street.
While Jacksonville toyed with "plans" the adjoining suburbs, particularly the City's most favored bedroom St. Johns County, were leading the nation in housing sales.
Then the proverbial stuff hit the fan and the market didn't begin to truly recover until 2011.
That period was a golden opportunity for Jacksonville to embrace and begin implementing the recommendations in the River Dance Report. But, another opportunity squandered.
Today is the first time since its publication that I have heard of the RD Report. That's my fault.
Comparing the depth, span and thoroughness of the RD Report to the recently released Resiliency Report - I wonder - who reads them front to back? Sometimes less really is more.
Social Media's onslaught offers countless snippets spilling countless tidbits about countless, and often useless and superficial, "information".
Immediacy reigns supreme. "Just Get To The Point" has become the mantra.
As a planner, designer and landscape architect, I never let my project team get mired down with "analysis paralysis". The KISS approach - Keep It Simple Stupid, also known as Using Common Sense.
The underlying message and admonition of both the remarkable RD Report and the Resiliency Report is just that - Use Common Sense. It was also the message of all four of the past Great Cities Symposium speakers. Why we can't seem to do that here in Jacksonville is mystifying.
Thank you very much Sherry for steering us all in the right direction.
JCCI was a true gift to the people of Jacksonville. I was fortunate to have participated in the Visual Pollution study and it was an amazing experience. Our recommendations were fought against by the billboard industry, so you can imagine how that went.
Terrific piece, Sherry. I’m very proud of JCCI’s work and my association with it. I’ve mourned its loss---especially when I see reminders like this of its important work.
Good column, Sherry. And a good analysis of how to respond to our river. Riverfront Parks Now studied numerable other cities and concluded exactly what the Riverdance analysis suggested. Invest in large parks along the riverfront first and the land beyond the parks becomes so valuable that developers will build without a lot of public support (our money).
I'll forward to you the JCCI JAX2025 summary materials (maybe you already have that) Ben Warner sent me in 2014. That initiative was primarily a visioning effort to suggest priorities for our city. There were three multi-hour sessions and the public was invited to attend. 800 Jacksonville citizens participated from all walks of life (in one session a homeless man was at our discussion table).
JCCI was closing down its operations as I became a Jacksonville resident. I tried to access JCCI past reports at https://jcciweb.wixsite.com/jcci/library but found the links to the archives not to be active. Do you know where the archives are located?
Nancy. Not sure Iguana intends to build as required…including stadium. Sent memo to Mayor Deegan discussing resiliency study required for $1B expenditure ,but got no reply. It obviously included what we have learned from recent studies.Very disappointing .
I think it particularly telling that the recently issued RESILIENT JACKSONVILLE document fails to even reference the 2005 (45pp) RIVER DANCE REPORT, as well as the results of the published ADAPTATION ACTION AREA Workshop report. The same is true for the detailed resiliency analyses funded by IGUANA INVESTMENTS dated Nov. 2020 directed toward the Lot J waterfront, but applicable to the entire downtown City core, as well as San Marco and Riverside/Ortega.
A major consequence of an apparent lack of institutional knowledge of the St Johns River environs and flooding history exhibited in the recent work of the out-of-town consultant team --as selected by our Resiliency Officer -- is best reflected in their wholesale assumption that the FEMA Flood insurance predictions were entirely suitable for formulation of their extensive detailed base mapping of Duval County. In contrast to planning protocols perhaps applicable to the State of Louisiana, the documented effects of TS Irma have shown that the FEMA probabilistic flood levels within the St. Johns River southward of the Matthews Bridge are essentially low by as much as 2 to 3 ft.--and potentially more.
The dependence upon erroneous FEMA data therefore , in combination with the consideration of a predicted 2 ft+ of sea level rise over the next several decades , has produced planning "guidance" to the COJ for the development of the downtown waterfront (including improvements at Ever Bank Field) which is woefully inaccurate.
Eric, you have been an expert voice for many years. The “powers that be” need to start listening to you. Obviously Iguana and FIS did as their properties are both “building up” like 20 feet? However the surrounding properties and the roads will still flood maybe making those worse.
The Summer of 2005 - 18 years ago. Seems far more distant. The residential and development market was off the charts - at its peak, with many wolfs on Wall Street.
While Jacksonville toyed with "plans" the adjoining suburbs, particularly the City's most favored bedroom St. Johns County, were leading the nation in housing sales.
Then the proverbial stuff hit the fan and the market didn't begin to truly recover until 2011.
That period was a golden opportunity for Jacksonville to embrace and begin implementing the recommendations in the River Dance Report. But, another opportunity squandered.
Today is the first time since its publication that I have heard of the RD Report. That's my fault.
Comparing the depth, span and thoroughness of the RD Report to the recently released Resiliency Report - I wonder - who reads them front to back? Sometimes less really is more.
Social Media's onslaught offers countless snippets spilling countless tidbits about countless, and often useless and superficial, "information".
Immediacy reigns supreme. "Just Get To The Point" has become the mantra.
As a planner, designer and landscape architect, I never let my project team get mired down with "analysis paralysis". The KISS approach - Keep It Simple Stupid, also known as Using Common Sense.
The underlying message and admonition of both the remarkable RD Report and the Resiliency Report is just that - Use Common Sense. It was also the message of all four of the past Great Cities Symposium speakers. Why we can't seem to do that here in Jacksonville is mystifying.
Thank you very much Sherry for steering us all in the right direction.
The city needs green buffer’s along both the north and south banks. We can’t miss the opportunity to preserve a green buffer along the north bank!
JCCI was a true gift to the people of Jacksonville. I was fortunate to have participated in the Visual Pollution study and it was an amazing experience. Our recommendations were fought against by the billboard industry, so you can imagine how that went.
Great piece, Sherry!
Terrific piece, Sherry. I’m very proud of JCCI’s work and my association with it. I’ve mourned its loss---especially when I see reminders like this of its important work.
Good column, Sherry. And a good analysis of how to respond to our river. Riverfront Parks Now studied numerable other cities and concluded exactly what the Riverdance analysis suggested. Invest in large parks along the riverfront first and the land beyond the parks becomes so valuable that developers will build without a lot of public support (our money).
I'll forward to you the JCCI JAX2025 summary materials (maybe you already have that) Ben Warner sent me in 2014. That initiative was primarily a visioning effort to suggest priorities for our city. There were three multi-hour sessions and the public was invited to attend. 800 Jacksonville citizens participated from all walks of life (in one session a homeless man was at our discussion table).
JCCI was closing down its operations as I became a Jacksonville resident. I tried to access JCCI past reports at https://jcciweb.wixsite.com/jcci/library but found the links to the archives not to be active. Do you know where the archives are located?
Warren, the public library downtown and, I think, UNF should have most of the studies. Possibly, The Times-Union.
Thank you, Lois.
No Warren, I don't know where to find the JCCI archives.
Nancy. Not sure Iguana intends to build as required…including stadium. Sent memo to Mayor Deegan discussing resiliency study required for $1B expenditure ,but got no reply. It obviously included what we have learned from recent studies.Very disappointing .
I think it particularly telling that the recently issued RESILIENT JACKSONVILLE document fails to even reference the 2005 (45pp) RIVER DANCE REPORT, as well as the results of the published ADAPTATION ACTION AREA Workshop report. The same is true for the detailed resiliency analyses funded by IGUANA INVESTMENTS dated Nov. 2020 directed toward the Lot J waterfront, but applicable to the entire downtown City core, as well as San Marco and Riverside/Ortega.
A major consequence of an apparent lack of institutional knowledge of the St Johns River environs and flooding history exhibited in the recent work of the out-of-town consultant team --as selected by our Resiliency Officer -- is best reflected in their wholesale assumption that the FEMA Flood insurance predictions were entirely suitable for formulation of their extensive detailed base mapping of Duval County. In contrast to planning protocols perhaps applicable to the State of Louisiana, the documented effects of TS Irma have shown that the FEMA probabilistic flood levels within the St. Johns River southward of the Matthews Bridge are essentially low by as much as 2 to 3 ft.--and potentially more.
The dependence upon erroneous FEMA data therefore , in combination with the consideration of a predicted 2 ft+ of sea level rise over the next several decades , has produced planning "guidance" to the COJ for the development of the downtown waterfront (including improvements at Ever Bank Field) which is woefully inaccurate.
Eric, you have been an expert voice for many years. The “powers that be” need to start listening to you. Obviously Iguana and FIS did as their properties are both “building up” like 20 feet? However the surrounding properties and the roads will still flood maybe making those worse.