The Chamber of Commerce held its annual Leadership Trip last week. This year, local government and business leaders traveled to San Diego to see how things are done there. Here are some of their impressions from the trip:
“I have been on several of these trips and this was one of the better trips. The group was very cohesive and very focused. It was a good choice of cities to take this group to. I was most interested in the development of their downtown as far as the residential component and the Gas Lamp District. The Bay Street process is a good example of that. That certainly can be done here in Jacksonville. Fifteen years ago that area was blighted and it has turned around to become one of the most sought after areas of real estate in the country. It was also interesting to see the convention center and what it has done for their city.”
— Craig Meek, president of the
Meek Companies
“The speakers this year were excellent.”
— City Council president
Elaine Brown
“I really liked the presentation on their convention center. It was a catalyst for San Diego’s downtown development. It was a missing part of the downtown equation. We are on a different tier than San Diego but we could have the same kind of impact on a smaller scale. We can’t compete with a Las Vegas convention or a San Diego convention but it could provide a lot of economic vitality to Jacksonville’s downtown.”
— Art Shad, City Council member
“I enjoyed the Super Bowl presentation called ‘Reflections on the Super Bowl.’ They went though a presentation about the preparations they made for their two Super Bowls. They had a number of do’s and don’t’s. I walked out of that meeting with a feeling that we have planned very well for it. We will be ready. We have the right leadership and much of what they found to be successful to help support this endeavor. We are not reinventing the wheel.”
— Pierre Allaire, UNF’s vice president for institutional advancement
“We had quite a bit of education
and discussion about two things that are very important for Jacksonville: work force development and downtown economic development. We learned a lot about both topics and we learned quite a bit about (San Diego’s) downtown and its development.”
— Jeanne Miller, director of business development for the Jacksonville Economic
Development Commission
“Looking at the convention center and seeing its impact on the downtown economic development related to housing and retail areas.”
— Michael Munz, The Dalton Agency
“The highlight for me was the convention center conversation and what it would take to get a larger convention center in Jacksonville. It started as a free flowing conversation and the statistics that we all heard is that the convention center business is a very lucrative business. In order for our downtown to take that next step we need a larger convention center and more retail areas and hotels to support it.”
— Penny Thompson, vice president of public affairs for Shands Jacksonville
“The best part of the trip was the opportunity for the group to respond to issues that were presented and strategise from a Jacksonville perspective on getting those things done. We spent about an hour each day brainstorming and evaluating the various presentations.”
— Richard Danford, president of the
Jacksonville Urban League
“San Diego has a gorgeous downtown. I loved their current slogan to market their downtown — ‘Never underestimate the power of the waterfront.’ I also loved how well they created their downtown district. Everything is walkable.”
— Terry Lorince, executive director of Downtown Vision, Inc.
“Our two communities really have so much in common. Jacksonville’s downtown could be as vibrant and exciting as downtown San Diego is and I look forward to being a part of that growth here in Jacksonville.”
— Debbie Verges, president of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida
“The part that I enjoyed the most was a presentation on the Super Bowl in San Diego. I was particularly interested in the comments made about small and developing businesses and what they did after the Super Bowl was over. There is a lot of hype about opportunities created by the Super Bowl for small and minority owned businesses. That is fine but the real thing that you don’t want to lose is that momentum. It was good to listen and take some notes about what to do after the Super Bowl is over.”
— Janice Donaldson, regional director of UNF’s small business development center
“I really focused on their downtown. I looked at everything they have done and how they planned it out and how they had implemented their plan. I was very impressed. We can do the very same thing here in Jacksonville. It was clean, it had residential living, it had retail shopping, it had a trolley system to get people around. I am glad I went. It was probably the best trip out of the five that I have been on.”
— Suzanne Jenkins,
City Council member