Exploring JAXPORT

[Overstreet]

......This is the the kind of economic development Jacksonville should direct resources to, rather than thinking a professional sports franchise or stadium expansions will provide the kinds of high-paying employment that the port does.........

Where have you been? They've been working on it for years. If it were an either or decison this might be valid. But it is not. They have to work economic devleopment on many levels and playing fields. Otherwise they'd be "putting all their eggs in one basket."

[finehoe]

I guess I didn't make my point very well.  Yes, having professional sports teams lend a certain air of "having made it" to a city, and can be useful in marketing said city.  My post wasn't meant to be read as the Jaguars (or any other team) are worthless, or anything like that.  What I’m trying to point out is our priorities.  A great deal of time, money, and effort is often expended on trying to attract things of ephemeral value, but a commensurate amount of effort (to my knowledge) hasn't been expended on developing and promoting a resource with a much greater impact on the local economy.  Yes we can do both, but it seems that too often we concentrate too much on "feel good" projects and too little on "the real deal".

[Wacca Pilatka]

Yes we can do both, but it seems that too often we concentrate too much on "feel good" projects and too little on "the real deal".

Unfortunately, that certainly seems to be the case quite often with downtown development.

[thelakelander]

This is why I'm a big fan of bringing passenger rail back to Jax.  The spin-off economic benefits from the investment would be much larger than most tend to imagine.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Great article on the ports. Correct me if I am wrong but didnt Peyton sit down and talk to 'Kraft' the owner of the Patriots during our SB. With no Jaguars does this meeting even take place. Alot of these owners are very rich and have many other bussiness. You never know what bussiness might spin off a casual conversation at a football game about shipping through our port vs somewhere else or starting another bussiness right in our downtown. Were lucky to have such a nice port and NFL.

[RainDoggie]

No joke.  I just finished re-watching season 2 of The Wire and the whole time I was thinking "gosh, I don't really know anything about JAXPORT.  I wish MetroJacksonville.com would do a post on this topic to help educate me".  Ah, the internets never let me down.  And neither do you MetroJacksonville.com.  Thanks for a good article and for your awesome psychic abilities. 
(for those who don't know, season 2 of The Wire primarily focused on a commercial cargo seaport in Baltimore, the struggles of the port's stevedores, and a corrupt officer of their union)

[billy]

you left out the dead russian hookers in one of the cans.....

[stjr]

The port needs to dredge the river to really move forward, but there is opposition due to environmental concerns.

From what I have read, the environmental concerns can be significant, especially with respect to changing the salinity of the river.  We may be forced to ask, "Do we advance the port or kill the ecology of the river?".  I firmly believe the river's ecology trumps port interests if it comes down to this.

[Ocklawaha]

A JAXPORT IDEA...

There exists along Talleyrand a court of flags, from various international trading partners that visit JAXPORT. While I believe the court to be part of the Crowley Maritime Terminal, the concept would serve the entire Port Authority well. Those of us who are expatriate's can testify to the truth of the warm fuzzies one gets when observing ones flag flying far from home.

In this regard we have an opportunity and a need to flaunt what we have in JaxPort. Why not line the BAY-TALLEYRAND stretch from the Jaxport offices at Talleyrand and 21St Street, all the way to Bay and Main  with the flags of EVERY Jaxport trading partner. (another similar display down Hecksher Drive would impress the hell out of cruise passengers)  A colorful ribbon on top of each flagpole, or streetlight flag arm, would proclaim the countries and perhaps their motto such as:

COLOMBIA, Peace and Order

A second ribbon could contain the name of the carrier, and or the customers names. A nautical plaque above or below the flag pole or streetlight flag fixture, would hold the name of the sponsor of that particular flag display.

Do we have an artist onboard that could post a little rendering? What do y'all think?

OCKLAWAHA

[urbanlibertarian]

People's Republic of China

[Ocklawaha]

COLOMBIA = Coffee, Coal, Lumber, shoes, lingerie, fruit, oil, orchids, LG Appliances, flowers, Old Hippie Railroad Planners = inbound to USA

Auto's, Railroad Equipment, plastics, machinery, computers = outbound to Colombia


OCKLAWAHA

[finehoe]

A JAXPORT IDEA...
Why not line the BAY-TALLEYRAND stretch from the Jaxport offices at Talleyrand and 21St Street, all the way to Bay and Main  with the flags of EVERY Jaxport trading partner. (another similar display down Hecksher Drive would impress the hell out of cruise passengers)  A colorful ribbon on top of each flagpole, or streetlight flag arm, would proclaim the countries and perhaps their motto

I LOVE this idea!