Where's that Super Bowl Spirit?

[Metro Jacksonville]

Where's that Super Bowl Spirit?



Now with the highest murder rate in the State, a lackluster downtown, and a community looking down on itself, the Mayor of Jacksonville wants to know if we can get that Super Bowl spirit back.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/855

[zoo]

Leadership in transit and parks...where's Jacksonville's?

[zoo]

Whoops, my bad. I forgot we got that great pocket park on Main.

[copperfiend]

We have regressed since the Super Bowl.

[SunKing]

Detroit?  Birmingham?  Those cities are bankrupt.  Houston's got a gajillion people.  Omaha?  C'mon please, I want rail like anybody else but as bad as it is right now I wouldn't look to any of those cities as shining examples of planning or anything else positive.

Don't we have the largest park system in the nation?  It might not all be Central Park but we do have an Olmstead Brothers.

Regressed since the Super Bowl?  Those were FAKE bars on Bay St during the game.  Now they are real.

[reednavy]

Regressed?

In some ways yes, but others, we are slowly getting it going. The biggest hurdle is getting a new administration in this city. If we can get a progressive mayor, we'd be set.

[JeffreyS]

I understand the developer of the Strand and the Peninsular fell in love with the property during his Superbowl visit.(Urban Legend?) Can we count them as our legacy project. Having a legacy project would have been a wonderful way to approach hosting then we could look back and say we have this because we hosted a Superbowl.

[vicupstate]

Plans for The Strand and The Penisula were in place LONG before the Jax Super Bowl took place.   The fact that Jax was going to host a bowl might have made an impression, but it is impossible for the event itself to have swayed the developers in any way.  The die was already cast by then.   

The SB was a tremendous wasted opportunity.

[vicupstate]

Detroit?  Birmingham?  Those cities are bankrupt.  Houston's got a gajillion people.  Omaha?  C'mon please, I want rail like anybody else but as bad as it is right now I wouldn't look to any of those cities as shining examples of planning or anything else positive.

Don't we have the largest park system in the nation?  It might not all be Central Park but we do have an Olmstead Brothers.

Regressed since the Super Bowl?  Those were FAKE bars on Bay St during the game.  Now they are real.

If memory serves, a COUPLE of the bars were real at the time. There are like four now.  Progress perhaps but not much for all the money spent.

There are cities of 30,000 that Jacksonville could learn from.  I've never been to Omaha, but I keep hearing lots of positive things about it.  No doubt, they have their act together a lot better that the folks on Duval street.   

Jax may have the largest park system, but it also has the lousiest.  97% of it is unused conservation land. 
 
That is part of Jax's problem.  2/3rds of the city has a inferiority complex and the other third has a superiority complex based on apple-to-oranges population figures made possible by consolidation.   

[Lunican]

A park, by definition, is land set aside for recreation by humans.

Like vicupstate said, most of the land included in the Jax 'Park' System does not meet this criteria.

[David]

The only permanent nightlife downtown at the start of the Superbowl was the London Bridge. Burrito Gallery had not officially opened yet, but had a makeshift setup leading up to game. There was no Marks, Dive or Ivy. I believe TSI was still in it's original location where the Pearl is now. I don't recall what the landing had at the time because I never went there. A part of the problem was not seizing the opp we had with the SB, but I think expectations were probably set a little too high, including my own. A Superbowl by itself isn't going to magically transform a city.

[thelakelander]

The super bowl won't but progressive leadership can.  Charlotte and Charleston are shining examples.

[reednavy]

That's exactly what I said!

[copperfiend]

Regressed since the Super Bowl?  Those were FAKE bars on Bay St during the game.  Now they are real.

Perhaps regressed was the wrong choice of word but failure to take advantage of momentum may have been more appropriate.

[lewyn]

1.  Not true that Jax has highest murder rate in state.  Orlando had 42 even before December,
http://www.cityoforlando.net/police/pio/releases/2009/01-07-09-Year_In_Review_2008.htm (page 12 of pdf) which means it has at least 23 per 100,000 people.  If a city Jax's size had that many murders it would have had about 190, way more than the actual number.

2.  The notion that one football game was going to have a transformative effect is just stupid.  Does anyone besides a hard-core football fan remember who hosted the Super Bowl in what year?