Jacksonville Problem (Miami, Orlando, University: university, pros and cons, organic)

[mawipafl]

Yes, let's lighten up and have fun, but at the same time, why don't we -- the awesomely creative members of C-D -- collaborate and come up with some great ideas. If you don't feel Jax needs a slogan or doesn't have an identity crisis or has problems not worth trying to fix, well, that's ok -- just don't post and insult anyone's ideas.

I like River City .. but in my tiny world I'm reminded of The Music Man and that River City full of uptight straight-laced inhabitants. :-)

Gateway .. makes me think of a gate that I enter and leave on my way to something else.

Sports-minded Center For The Arts ... in a perfect world it would be possible for those two worlds to meet and coexist.

I dunno - creativity juices aren't flowing at the moment. However, the discussion has made me think of product ad campaign slogans over the years, and what has worked and what hasn't such as "Have it your way", "You're in good hands", "It's the real thing", "Where's the beef", "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz", "Reach out and touch someone" -- I'm guessing the majority of you know what products/companies belong to those slogans.

Windy City, Beantown, Big Apple, City of Angels ... even tiny Shenandoah, 30 minutes north of Houston TX with about 500 families is known as the Safest Little Town in Texas. What's some ideas for Jacksonville?

[LewLew]

Originally Posted by NuName

"I believe that a large part of the Jax population is also transient. With people always coming and going it is hard to establish a sense of community."


Welcome to FL my friend... Orlando is even worse, probably the worst. Everyone either just got here (NY/Mass./NJ) or they are wanting to leave (natives/ppl who used to like it here/ppl that cant afford it).

Jacksonville is also largely military...the military has always been known for moving their soldiers around. Even though military usually gives a sense of community, it can be very short lived in the physical. I think that adds to Jacksonville's transient feeling in areas.

[LewLew]

Originally Posted by mawipafl

ooowwweeee – some very strong opinions! And as long as we all understand that everyone is entitled to his/her opinions and thoughts even if they conflict with our own, then we’re good.

The point of the original post was that when one is asked “where do you live?” and the response is “Jacksonville”, there’s no mental picture that’s formed. If someone says “Manhattan” or “Chicago” or “Boston”, automatically one can picture Times Square, the Sears Tower, Faneuil Hall respectively. (Before you throw something at me, yes, I know these cities conjure up a ton more mental pictures – but I’m trying to keep it simple here.)

Jacksonville is home and it doesn’t matter whether you’re here for the short-term or long-term. It’s home, and home is where you hang your hat as the old cliché goes. You don’t have to be proud to call it home and you might be just biding your time until you leave. That’s fine, really. But that’s not the point of this thread.

There have been many opinions expressed, and they all have a common theme: “people not getting along … citizens themselves having no sense of belonging”, “you have to work very hard to live happily in Jacksonville”, “Jax is too spread out to be a real destination … need a city core, and places close to town to get the city moving”, “roads are full of too many people who have to drive too many miles and take too long to get home”. The common theme is that there’s no identity to glue it all together and change these situations.

Slogans can be great, but they can also bomb. “First Coast” as example … first coast of what? someone might wonder. I’m not very creative with marketing nor am I pushing any particular agenda, but what if the Jacksonville area became known for its cracker-jack public transportation? What if there were rapid-transit trains you could hop on and travel north, south, east, west and get to wherever you wanted to go easily? What if the Jacksonville Arboretum and Gardens became the premiere destination in ‘the network of American public gardens’? What if Jacksonville became a cruise ship capital to rival that of Miami and New York? What if strip mall sprawl continued willy-nilly so that the area was known for its concrete and asphalt ribbons?

A point was well-made … “The city will grow with the citizens input or without it.” And that’s the importance of a city’s identity. Whether you’re leaving, thinking of leaving, planning to never leave, it’s hoped that your thoughts would be “what I’d miss the most is [fill in the blank].”

Very well said. I said previously, sadly, that I can't think of anything besides friends that would complete the last "fill-in-the-blank" of your post.

[LewLew]

Originally Posted by agreatlife

I too, like many seemed to have missed the point of this thread.

Maybe we need a slogan to get an identity, let's post 'em up.

Here's some ideas taken from the posts above:

Jacksonville - it ain't NY
Jacksonville - the non-home
Jacksonville - not quite a concrete jungle
Jacksonville - Florida's Drive Thru
Jacksonville - Family Friendly
Jacksonville - It ain't for Singles

I'm just having fun here. Let's lighten up a little bit.

LOL....the thread needed some humor.

[riveree]

I really think of Jacksonville as a city of the future......indulge me here :

I think we first have to remember that the Jacksonville of today is actually a compilation of many smaller cities/towns consolidated in 1968. This accounts for the big spread-out aspect of Jax and it accounts for all the different and sometimes confusing zoning.

Going back even further is the Fire of 1901, so even though Jax is really older than that (back when it used to be Cowford), the city was essentially burned to the ground on 1901 and had to be rebuilt again - who knows what the city would be now had that not occurred?

Today, Jax is still a very young city with tons of room for growth...tons. We not only have the physical room for growth, but we're so far behind other Southern cities in many regards (mass transit, for one), that when we finally do implement these things, we can learn from the mistakes of other cities. Hopefully, we won't ever have the bad road planning of Atlanta, for example.

I agree that Jax does not have one overriding identity element. The river doesn't get nearly the attention it should - it could be a focal point of the city and we fall short on that in a big way.

We have some neighborhood identity, but even that does not get the city support it should. The Town Center Plans were a step in the right direction...if only the city could get off its' rump and complete them all. Supporting these older neighborhood town centers might create more urban/suburban destinations along the lines of San Marco. Imagine if we had 7 or 8 neighborhoods like San Marco/Riverside/Avondale....and mass transit to link them together .

I really don't worry too much about it. I think the city's identity will reveal itself in time. If others worry about it not comparing to NYC or Boston or Chicago, that's okay.

One last thought - Jacksonville has some fantastic history (another thing we don't capitalize on ). If you've never checked out Wayne Woods' books, give them a look. They're more like tomes than books, really , and they're available at our local libraries. We have some impressive architecture and the largest number of historic homes in Florida, something that a casual observer might not be aware of.

[rtt]

I got talking with a neighbor who's married to a Jax native the other day. He has two young daughters, and said that life here has been nice, but they're thinking of moving up to Boston for their daughters' education. I told him that Jax has been good to us. His answer was, "yes, its cheap and easy but there's more to life than that, isn't there?"

[apvbguy]

Originally Posted by rtt

I got talking with a neighbor who's married to a Jax native the other day. He has two young daughters, and said that life here has been nice, but they're thinking of moving up to Boston for their daughters' education. I told him that Jax has been good to us. His answer was, "yes, its cheap and easy but there's more to life than that, isn't there?"

I guess this falls under the grass is always greener on the other side, if you've always had cheap and easy a fast paced place like boston might seem attractive.

for me after living and working in NY/NJ for all of my life, cheap and easy is mightily attractive

[riveree]

Originally Posted by rtt

I got talking with a neighbor who's married to a Jax native the other day. He has two young daughters, and said that life here has been nice, but they're thinking of moving up to Boston for their daughters' education. I told him that Jax has been good to us. His answer was, "yes, its cheap and easy but there's more to life than that, isn't there?"

I'd be curious to see if he follows through. I adore Boston, but I think it's easier to move from Boston to Jax than it would be to move from Jax to Boston. Housing, career, taxes, weather - all these things are a greater struggle in Boston than they are in Jax.

[jwolfer]

I looked at Jacksonville as Los Angeles would have been over 50 years ago: spread out, sparsely populated, good-potentially-great beaches, with still a lot of space and relatively cheap land in the outskirts of the city.



I talked to a guy at a gas station one time. He grew up in Los Angeles. He said the same thing. Jax reminds him of LA back in the 1960s. When I was at University of North Florida in the early 1990s I had some friends from Miami and and Orlando. They liked Jacksonville better. Orlando was build around Disney and filled with tourists. The guys from Miami said when Jax fills up it will be crazier than Miami. ( that being a good thing.)

There may not be the same number of clubs and bars in Jax like in Orlando but what we have here is genuine and real not glomming of tourists from elsewhere

[pirate girl]

As someone who considered Jacksonville "Florida's Drive Thru" for many years, I have to give my opinion.

When I lived in the Northeast (Phila area) and drove to Florida, there was never anything about Jacksonville that compelled me to stop and spend any time there (like South of the Border or Savannah or even Daytona who all market themselves better) so I never stopped.

When I moved to South Florida, Jacksonville became significant to me- only because when I was doing my road trips up north to visit family, it was the Gateway to exit or reenter Florida (it's a pretty long ride from So Fla to the state line).

Ten years ago I was transferred to the Daytona area and chose to make my home in Flagler County. I was excited about being closer to Orlando and St. Augustine, I loved the lower cost of living and the more down to earth lifestyle as compared to South Florida. But the proximity to Jax was a nonissue because I knew nothing about it other than it was the milestone that marked my exit from the Sunshine State when I was traveling.

For the first couple of years I lived in Northeast Florida, Jacksonville meant good malls, the Jaguars and some nice restaurants. OH- and another airport option that had less crowds and easier navigation. As I adjusted to living here, became more familiar with the city, I was pleased with the city culture that Jacksonville offers. Plays, concerts, symphony, etc.

The downtown area has such great potential- the old buildings, the small geographic area. The waterfront. But there's really nothing to draw me there more than once or twice a year.

When the super bowl was coming I hoped we would see a downtown revitalization- not just prettying things up, and new hotels- but some attractions/draws. That didn't happen.

Now that Jax has become a cruise port, I hoped the city would capitalize on that- but they haven't.

I think Jacksonville is a wonderful city- but they are definitely missing the proverbial "boat" by not creating an identity for themselves. If there was something that made people want to stop and spend the night, they would certainly enjoy more tourism dollars.

I think you opened a great dialoge here- and I'm another person who is posting questions/problems rather than answers because I really don't know what the answers are.

Definitely not amusement parks.

Maybe something that capitalizes on the strong military presence?

Maybe a hub for antiques and arts?

Maybe focus on the rich history of Jacksonville that nobody is aware of?

Maybe focus on the river with some floating hotel rooms or something?


There really is no distinct regional cuisine so I think any culinary draw is out of the question. But there has to be something positive and interesting that can become synonomous with Jacksonville.

I know it would take years for something like this to take off, but I do believe if they build it, people would come. After all, how many people pass through on their way to Disney, Tampa, and other parts of Florida. The drive is long and I do know this- it's about 13 hours from the Phila area to Jacksonville. About 15 hours from NYC, about 10 hours from the metro DC area. People like to have some kind of mid way or better destination that gives them a break from the long trip.