by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
Ten thousand residents would make up the “critical mass” needed to truly revive downtown, redefining it as a true neighborhood, Mayor John Peyton said Wednesday.
The administration is not considering tax breaks for rehabilitated office space, he said at the monthly meeting of the Jacksonville Women Lawyers Association. Housing units, he added, are a different matter.
“There’s not a need to invest in office space,” he said. “If we had an office crunch, perhaps.
“But if we can take a piece of land that has an old, wornout building on it, and re-invest in that building, I’d be happy to take part. Housing, I think, has the greatest promise.”
Peyton said his vision encompassed 10,000 housing units in downtown.
“I think that’s where we start to approach the critical mass so we have a night life here that is equivalent to daylight,” he said. “I think that’s when you start to support the restaurants and dry cleaners and the shops and grocery stores — all those things that help define neighborhoods.”
Peyton’s appearance at the JWLA luncheon, along with that of numerous judges and attorneys, was part of the association’s observance of Women’s History Month. It was held at River City Brewing Company.
The number of inhabited housing units may not be where he’d like to see them, Peyton said. But overall activity, particularly during working hours, has increased to where the City will take another look at the one-way streets downtown.
“A plan is in the works now to re-evaluate that,” he said, in response to a question from the audience. “Downtown is actually getting a little congested.”
Because so many police officers and fire fighters are taking advantage of the early retirement plan, the City is recruiting more and investing more in training, he said.
“We’re not just losing numbers,” said Peyton. “We’re losing talent and institutional knowledge.”
The essence of Peyton’s speech was the same message he has delivered to other groups: the six guiding principles of his administration.
“First and foremost,” he said, is economic opportunity and job growth. The way to improve the local economy is to raise per capita income. And one way to do that, he added, is to maintain the city’s pro-business reputation.
What Jacksonville does not want, Peyton said, is to emulate behavior in California, “an environment perceived to be business unfriendly.”
That perception has become so pronounced, he added, that companies are leaving, in search of more hospitable cities and states.
Number two is public safety, which consumes most of the taxpayers’ dollars and is “the core business of government.”
His aim, he said, is to make Jacksonville the safest city in the nation. Helping accomplish that is a new software program that allows public safety departments to share information.
The result, he said, will be a city that’s better at detection, prevention and protection.
Maintaining a high quality of life is the third guiding principle for Jacksonville.
Number four is to eliminate substandard housing in the city, “probably a 15- to 20-year goal.”
The effect of just those four elements, Peyton said, “would encourage people to come back to the urban core. I am extremely bullish on downtown.”
Streamlining government, using better investment techniques and holding down taxes comprise the fifth principle. By revising its investment policy, the city realized a savings of more than $3 million in the first quarter.
Reinvesting about $60 million that had been earning 1 percent in a depreciating account to buy vehicles is already reaping benefits.
The last guiding principle has become “a personal passion of mine” — taking deep cuts out of the functional illiteracy rate of 47 percent in Northeast Florida.
“A big challenge will be trying to decide where to go with our literacy pilot programs and test programs,” said Peyton. “I suspect we’re going to go to those areas where the need is greatest and do some piloting. If we have some success, we’ll expand.
“We can’t afford to ignore it. We don’t have the option. It’s important for our economy and for individual lives.”