The Great Reset: What Will It Mean for Jacksonville?

(1) Acknowledging the End of Development for Development's Sake

 
“New housing development,” Florida observes, “brought shopping malls, with chain restaurants, big-box stores, and the like providing at least the semblance of expand-ing jobs and growth.  Of course, all these new homes needed furniture, electronics, appliances, granite countertops, window treatments, and more, necessitating even more retail.  And the people flocking there needed more and more cars, which meant more car dealerships and ultimately more roads.  The syndrome spilled over to the public sector.  Cities grew, tax coffers filled, spending increased, and the people just kept coming.  Yet the boom neither followed nor resulted in the development of sustainable, scalable, highly productive industries or services.  It was fueled and funded by housing, and housing was its primary product.  In this debt-intoxicated, crazy real estate bubble era, whole cities and metro regions became giant Ponzi schemes.”  (p. 93, emphasis added)

While Florida does not expressly note the political ramifications of this pattern of development, it is worth observing that here in Jacksonville, the local suburban growth-home building lobby has historically determined who gets selected – and has their campaigns funded – for public office.  Likewise, their ability to withhold advertising acts as a powerful check on “allowable discourse” about planning for our future in our local media outlets.  Whether or not Jacksonville can reshape its economic base into something that is more sustainable in the long term – and adjust its politics accordingly – is, of course, one of the questions at the heart of the Great Reset.