Print ArticleParts of Jacksonville would look completely different if the opposite decisions were made on these ten missed opportunities.
4. Successfully Turning $100 Million For A Rapid Transit System Into A County Courthouse
Approved by voters in 2000, the $2.2 billion Better Jacksonville Plan set aside $100 million for the Jacksonville Transportation Authority to start the development of a rapid transit system.
Instead of putting the money into getting something off the ground, years were spent attempting to launch a billion dollar bus rapid transit system, complete with elevated busways in the median of I-95, only to terminate in places that stopped growing decades ago, such as Gateway Mall.
As the years passed and the Duval County Courthouse costs ballooned to more than $100 million over the original estimates guess who's money went up in smoke and disappeared faster than a bad magic trick?
14 years after taxpayers voted to give $100 million for a local rapid transit system, we still haven't gotten anything off the drawing board. They say use it or lose it. In this situation, that principle is about as applicable as it gets.
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