After 40 years of downtown revitalization, hundreds of millions of dollars expended, and politicians continuously touting their successes in urban renewal; today Downtown Jacksonville, LaVilla specifically, looks striking similiar to the site of the worlds worst nuclear accident: Chernobyl.

The latest white paper report by the JCCI Convention Center Task Force has been released and so far the recommendations fall in line with what Metro Jacksonville has been saying for over a year.

The following five projects have the potential to positively change the atmosphere of downtown in the near future.

You've always heard in the past that it's hard to set up shop downtown.  This is for a variety of reasons, such as parking, the homeless, etc.  Today, Metro Jacksonville takes a look at yet another reason it's difficult to set up shop downtown: Government and absentee landlords.

 If you answered "yes" to any of the four questions, your company may be engaged in what an article, "Companies And The Customers Who Hate Them" in the Harvard Business Review calls "adversarial value-extracting strategies."Not only do these company-centric methods anger consumers, it makes your customer base vulnerable to new, customer-centric companies.

It costs 10 times as much to get a new customer as it does to retain an old one. So why not shave a few mil from that bloated ad budget and spend it on making your customer base happier? Your bottom line will thank you.

In downtown areas, when a building is destroyed it is often referred to as a "missing tooth". This is because in downtowns, the majority of buildings do not stand alone, but are generally part of a continuous wall of buildings fronting on the street. The missing tooth analogy is appropriate, given the unsightliness of a missing tooth and its overall impact on appearances. Such impacts are especially dramatic when the location of the missing building(s) is at a street corner, where the absence of the building is noticeable from four directions.

Main Street has everything in place needed for a full blown urban renaissance.  These components include immediate population density, an urban zoning overlay, historic building fabric, lots for infill development, proximity to downtown and public support.  Despite all of the positives, Main Street still struggles to hit its stride. Today, Metro Jacksonville takes a photo journey along this pedestrian friendly commercial district to point out issues delaying a full blown boom.

Springfield & San Marco.  Everyone in Jacksonville seems to know there is a difference in two of the most urban of Jacksonville suburbs.  By all accounts, as far as gentrification goes, Springfield is a good 7 to 10 years behind San Marco.

Much has been discussed over the years about bus rapid transit, skyway/trolley ridership, non-user friendly stops and the city's struggle in creating an environment that helps strengthen the downtown convention market.

While JTA does offer a brochure for those looking to use their services to get around downtown, as we ponder expensive solutions to several issues involving downtown, maybe it's time to get back to the basics?

What do Fuddruckers, Einstein’s Bagels, and Chamblin’s Uptown have in common?

The opening of these businesses was delayed by permitting issues. Business after business have attempted to open a location downtown and have been delayed for weeks, and in some cases even months, because a merchant did not have the right permit, or did not apply for the right license.