Located on the southern bank of the Savannah River, Augusta is Georgia's second-largest city and offers an interesting comparison for Jacksonville, regarding the concepts of urban revitalization.

The view of the Chicago Skyline from the Adler Planetarium, which is part of Chicago’s museum campus, along with the Field Museum of Natural History, the Shedd Aquarium, and Solider Field, home of the Chicago Bears.  To the left of the skyline is the 110-Story Sears Tower, America’s Tallest Building.

Tampa’s rise and decline follows a similar pattern to Jacksonville’s. Both cities had a significant population during the early 20th century and are blessed to contain urban districts and architectural treasures that are rare to the Sunbelt. Both have also suffered from urban renewal, ill-advised peoplemovers, and 1970’s master plans that called for converting downtown retail districts into pedestrian malls. Today, we examine how Tampa has responded to downtown revitalization and expose some of the successes and failures of this Central Florida community’s urban core.

Our Rust Belt comparison finale takes us to the Queen City, the nation's 25th largest metropolitan area.  It is considered to have been the first major American "boomtown", rapidly expanding in the heart of the country in the early nineteenth century to rival the coastal metropolises in size and wealth. However, by the end of the century, its growth unexpectedly stopped and it was surpassed in population by many other inland cities.  Cincinnati is also known for the distinction of having the largest collection of nineteenth-century Italianate architecture in the country, primarily concentrated in the Over-The-Rhine neighborhood, just north of downtown. 

Founded in 1701 by French fur traders, over the years, Detroit has become known as the world's traditional automotive center and an important source of popular-music legacies, celebrated by the city's two familiar nicknames, Motor City and Motown.

However, the city's crime rate has also brought it notoriety.  Today, the city continues to struggle with the burdens of racial disharmony between itself and its suburbs and experiences budget shortfalls. Nevertheless, Detroit is currently experiencing a downtown revival with the construction of the Compuware headquarters, a recently renovated Renaissance Center, three gambling casinos, new stadiums and the Detroit Riverwalk..

On any given Saturday, some 45,000 Detroiters, suburbanites and out-of-staters can be found shopping elbow-to-elbow at Eastern Market, just North of downtown Detroit.  The success of this market has not only made it a profitable city owned operation, but one that has become the economic catalyst for the redevelopment of a former industrial district surrounding it. 

As the JEDC and Beaver Street Fisheries hastily make plans to relocate Jacksonville's market next door, to make room for Beaver's plant expansion, a lot more vision is needed from our decision makers on this issue.  To put it bluntly, this has become much more than replacing the sheds of a struggling local public market.  Instead, its the perfect opportunity for Jacksonville to finally do something right and not only fix the market's profitbility problems, but also spur the revitalization of an entire inner city district.

Tower City Center (formerly known as Cleveland Union Terminal) is a large mixed-use facility located on Public Square in Downtown Cleveland. The facility is comprised of a number of interconnected office buildings including the landmark Terminal Tower, a shopping mall, two hotels, and the main hub of Cleveland's three rapid transit (light rail) lines.

The development of the Emeryville Amtrak Station and the surrounding office, retail and residential uses provides a unique example of a long-term, multiphase redevelopment oriented around transit. This 20-acre mixed-use development known as EmeryStation sits on a former brownfield site and includes new construction as well as reuse of old industrial buildings.

Our final installment of the Downtown Texas comparison series takes us to the big city of Dallas, TX.  While Dallas is in the midst of its own revitalization process, it is an excellent example of what can happen when rail transit is introduced to a sprawling metropolitan region.