by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
“I love how beautiful it is and I’ve always liked being a little different.”
That’s how Downtown resident and Internet entrepreneur Jennifer McCoy describes what she’s learned to like about being an urban dweller.
In addition to her home address in the 32202 ZIP code, McCoy also works in the neighborhood in an office she and her business partner leased at The Carling.
“I really enjoy being able to walk a block to work,” said McCoy.
She has lived Downtown since she was the marketing director at The Twisted Martini at the Landing. McCoy started Ballyhoo Mobile Marketing Inc., which creates and manages Internet- and social media-based promotional campaigns, as a part-time venture.
“I didn’t think it was a good idea to leave what I was doing until Ballyhoo was going,” she said.
The company has grown from a handful of clients to more than 50 active accounts nationwide, said McCoy, and satellite offices are open in Denver and Philadelphia. An article McCoy wrote was recently published on mobilemarket.com, a Web-based trade publication.
“We’re one of the only social media marketers that work with small local accounts. We do business the old-fashioned way. We walk in and shake hands with our new clients,” she said.
A Downtown resident since 2008, McCoy said she has become accustomed to the reaction from people when they find out where she lives.
“Sometimes, when I tell people I live Downtown, I can tell they’re shocked. Put simply, people just don’t understand Downtown,” said McCoy.
Being a young professional, McCoy said one of the advantages she finds living Downtown is the nightlife.
“I can safely go out to the clubs and I don’t have to drive home. Downtown also seems to attract a different, more sophisticated, crowd than clubs at the beach or in the suburbs,” she said.
When she hears people criticize Downtown over their perception that it’s not a convenient place to live in terms of shopping for necessities, McCoy is quick to share her opinion.
“Everybody in Jacksonville drives their car to the grocery store and the drug store,” she said, and she’s outspoken about other ideas some people might have about what it’s like to live Downtown.
“It’s not just for young, single people. There are retired people, married people, people with kids and dogs. It’s for people like me who don’t want to live in the suburbs and who are looking for a different opportunity,” said McCoy.
When asked what she thinks Downtown needs in order to flourish, McCoy doesn’t take long to think about her answer.
“More than anything, it needs good public relations. To be a successful neighborhood, I don’t think Downtown needs anything other than for people to stop talking negatively about it,” she said.
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