MJ's Ennis Davis Attends Next City Vanguard Conference

[Metro Jacksonville]

MJ's Ennis Davis Attends Next City Vanguard Conference



Metro Jacksonville's resident urban planner, Ennis Davis, provides a review of Next City's 2013 Vanguard Conference in Cleveland and suggests what it could mean for Jacksonville's future.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-jun-mjs-ennis-davis-attends-next-city-vanguard-conference

[Noone]

Ennis, Congratulations again.
Great update.
I like the Quotes of the Conference.
Talking about the waterfront is irrelevant if you can't get wet." and I want my kids to actually be able to throw me in the water legally." by councilman Jim Cimperman - Very Positive.
Open up the St. Johns River our American Heritage River a FEDERAL Initiative in our new DIA zone.
I am Downtown and why you aren't

[sheclown]

Thank you for this Ennis and for MJ.

I love the waterfront quote too.  It says it all. 

[CityLife]

Congrats Ennis! That sounds like a great trip and experience. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[mbwright]

I remember when Cleveland was a dirty, dying/dead industrial town, especially the waterfront.  The university, museum/Severence Hall area was nice, but the rest was not a place  I would want to be.  It is possible to change, and become a virbant city.  Well done. 
Some great quotes. "If you change who's writing the check, you change what gets built."
Great to see so many gardens.

[TPC]

Ennis, thanks for all you and the rest of the MJ staff do. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[Jaxson]

Congrats to Ennis Davis

[thelakelander]

Thanks.  I'm hoping to get our community more engaged on a national level.  It would be mutually beneficial to us and other communities to share intellectual capital and support each other's quality-of-life and sustainable initiatives.  I believe being associated with Next City and its Vanguards will be a great start to such an endeavor.

[CityLife]

Ennis, have you ever tried to get some of your best MJ pieces published on the good national development/planning type blogs? Think that would be a great way to draw more attention to your work and get national feedback.

[thelakelander]

No.  However, I may write and submit an article on All Aboard Florida to Next City, for starters.  The idea of a Florida railroad privately funding a passenger rail system is during interest around the country.  That project was mentioned during conversation last week. Since FEC is connected to Jacksonville, it seems like a good starting point.

[Lunican]

Great writeup on the trip. This is the kind of summary that I'd like to see from the participants of the chamber trip each year.

[simms3]

Thanks, this was interesting and congrats!  What were some of your conversations with others about Jacksonville like?  Had anyone you met been to the city and if so, what were their thoughts?

[thelakelander]

Thanks simms3. The individual conversations about Jax were pretty broad, depending on the person. Here are a few random questions or remarks about Jax that were tossed my way:

1. Okay, we've heard the city's sugarcoated answers but what's your honest opinion of Mayor Brown's performance?

2. What's your opinion of the results of the Better Jacksonville Plan?

3. Jacksonville is a finalist for some stuff we're considering. What's your take on Peter Rummell and your local Urban Land Institute chapter?

4. What are the major industries in Jacksonville?

5. How was One Spark?  Did you go? Will there be a second?

6. No offense, I visited once with an old boyfriend and hated it.

7. You guys are the reason Rick Scott is in Tallahassee.

8. Do you know anyone who would be willing to write a guest article about the All Aboard Florida project? 

9. How does your city deal with gentrification? What are the specific neighborhoods were gentrification is occurring?

10. How far is the beach from downtown?

11. Hey Ennis, come over here. Heard you guy's hired Aundre Wallace. Do you guy's know to Google, lol?  Wallace was over a trust that stole tons of many in Miami a couple of years ago.  Check out my ipad (as he pulls of a series of Miami Herald articles titled "Poverty Peddlers" from 2007).

12. What's Jacksonville's policies towards the food truck industry? We're struggling to accommodate them.

13. You're with Metro Jacksonville?  I've visited that site before.