Two decades ago I was a city girl living the city life walking distance to everything. And part of being a city girl living in a city is that its heartbeat and yours start to sync up. You start to care about its streets and sidewalks, the people and purpose that blend together to infiltrate every possibility for potential.
Because, as a bridge and tunnel girl from birth, always just on the other side, I had never really gotten to know it intimately. Me and the city, we were on a get in, get what you need and get out basis. But can we overcome our fear of the mess we remember and move past it to enhance our relationship and build up trust again?
And that's what we're going to tackle today...
My guest Laura Phillips Edgecombe is the Director of Development & Strategic Partnerships for Build Up Downtown (BUD), a privately funded, nonprofit that facilitates and advocates for preservation, smart development and great public spaces in Downtown Jacksonville through communicating, connecting and informing current and future businesses and stakeholders. She also served as Co-Chair of Mayor Deegan’s Infrastructure Transition Committee’s Parks and Recreation Subcommittee.
#DTJAX #BuildUpDowntown #Jacksonville
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Two decades ago I was a city girl living the city life walking distance to everything. And part of being a city girl living in a city is that its heartbeat and yours start to sync up. You start to care about its streets and sidewalks, the people and purpose that blend together to infiltrate every possibility for potential.
Because, as a bridge and tunnel girl from birth, always just on the other side, I had never really gotten to know it intimately. Me and the city, we were on a get in, get what you need and get out basis. But can we overcome our fear of the mess we remember and move past it to enhance our relationship and build up trust again?
And that's what we're going to tackle today...
My guest Laura Phillips Edgecombe is the Director of Development & Strategic Partnerships for Build Up Downtown (BUD), a privately funded, nonprofit that facilitates and advocates for preservation, smart development and great public spaces in Downtown Jacksonville through communicating, connecting and informing current and future businesses and stakeholders. She also served as Co-Chair of Mayor Deegan’s Infrastructure Transition Committee’s Parks and Recreation Subcommittee.
#DTJAX #BuildUpDowntown #Jacksonville
Do you have some feedback, thoughts or questions?
Want to be a guest on my show or have an Honorable Mensch to nominate?
Connect on Instagram @SchmoozewithSuze
Subscribe to the Schmooze with Suze Podcast for your dose of #Culture, #Values and #GlobalCitizenship... with a side of #chutzpah...
Don’t forget to leave a review if you enjoyed this episode.
Please LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and SHARE.
Thank you for helping us grow!
Two decades ago I was a city girl living the city life in an apartment with a roof deck overlooking Madison Square, to Central Parks also walking distance to everything. Hear that Walking. And part of being a city girl, living in a city is that its heartbeat and yours start to sink up. You start to care about its streets and sidewalks, the people and purpose that blend together to infiltrate every possibility for potential. Because, as a bridging tunnel girl from birth, always just on the other side, I had never really gotten to know it intimately. Downtown the city, we were on a get in, get what you need and get out basis. But can we overcome our fear of the mess we remember and move past it to enhance our relationship and build up trust again, and that's what we're going to tackle today.
Speaker 1:Hi, I'm Sue's, here with your weekly dose of culture, values and identity and where we tackle those topics others may consider off limits. A little about me I'm a busy Gen X mom who, quite frankly, wanted to grow up like the Brady Bunch but how could I, being raised in the shadow of Schindler's List? So this means I've spent a lifetime navigating these mixed messages we get hit with daily. Don't know those conversations where we wonder if it's safe to speak our minds. Can we share our experiences, voice our fears and concerns, or should we just keep our mouths shut? Well, too bad. I need to know, but I'm no expert, so I'm going to schmooze the experts and get their thoughts. Why so? When we engage with our kids, colleagues or the countless committees we interact with, we can do it with competence, kindness, confidence and maybe a bit of humor. If this sounds like your cup of coffee, welcome to Schmooze with Sue's.
Speaker 1:My city self started to think like we walk and talk fast and with purpose, finding the quickest route to take with the least amount of traffic, literally and metaphorically. In fact, you don't know this, but over my 15 years in New York City working in real estate and development, one of my favorite people to retain was, is and always will be an expediter. Imagine a career in which you made it happen quickly and we expedited. Abandoned Harlem brownstones were reclaimed and filled with families. Broken Brooklyn warehouse spaces were reinvented into loft departments that housed both high end and affordable housing, and vacant lots like missing teeth looked like they got braces, and in only a handful of years. So when I moved away to any other city, large or small, and people needed time to convene, study, survey, render things that had been already done. And eventually I moved to Florida, where walking is not the norm. I got comfortable in my car to the front door of the next strip mall and every time I had to a city, alone or with my family, I announced public transportation that includes your feet. So when I heard my guests say Jacksonville doesn't have a parking problem, it has a walking problem People don't like to I knew I had to have this conversation.
Speaker 1:Laura Phillips edge comb is the director of development and strategic partnership for build up downtown, a privately funded nonprofit that facilitates and advocates for preservation, well development and great public spaces in downtown Jacksonville through communicating, connecting and informing current and future businesses and stakeholders. She also serves as the co-chair of Mayor Deacon's infrastructure transition committees, parks and recreation subcommittee. Her career and community development, event production and fundraising spans over a decade. As a creative and versatile leader, her success is directly attributed to her ability to conceptualize the big picture. She brings a wide range of professional and community experience and takes pride in delivering the intended results to the satisfaction of all stakeholders, and in this case it's a city of Jacksonville.
Speaker 1:Hi Laura, hey, susie. So you have a previous career in large scale event planning and from someone like me who plans and executed my glorious wedding in three weeks from engagement to hopper, I know the talent, time management and solid system of streamlining that goes into making things of that scale happen seamlessly or as close to on a tight turnaround. So tell me what is the reaction you get when you speak with someone about downtown Jacksonville?
Speaker 2:Oh Lord, it genuinely. It depends on who I'm talking to. Give me some examples. So if I'm talking to and you're going to hear me probably pick on Mandarin a bunch when we talk here on third generation I grew up in Mandarin, so why does it matter to someone in Mandarin?
Speaker 2:Why does it matter to someone that left the urban core or was raised in a suburban neighborhood of Jacksonville? Why does it matter? So my conversation with them has to be different. It has to be different If it's someone who's already madly in love with an urban environment. Already in their mind has like the big picture there, but they want to know why something hasn't moved forward. Or they want to try to understand some of the city side of things, or they want to understand who are the big players in the room.
Speaker 2:That conversation changes also Because ultimately there's all these small little parts. Every single person in our city is part of what's going on in the entire city. Clearly for me, I really want all of those individuals to be giving their love and vision and time towards downtown. But when I talk to someone, no matter what, I'm very, very passionate and it's hard not to be right Like it's hard not to take my love for this city and share it with others, because I need, I want, I need people to understand that what we're doing right now, this moment in time, is so, so different than what's been going on for the last few decades.
Speaker 1:So I've said over and over again to me, when I look at the landscape of Jacksonville and when I talk about my years in real estate development, I will be honest with you 20 years ago on loopnetcom, I remember we sat and we surveyed Jacksonville and the things that we talked about were it's 10 times the rent roll, there's lots of low income housing, nobody is actually a landlord that's present, they're all absentee landlords and that did not subscribe to my family's culture and values of how we did real estate. So we skipped on Jacksonville. But I also have this belief that here I'm looking at it and it feels like a 30 year overnight success story that we're like on this precipice and I say it over and over again because I can feel it it's palpable, it is it's like a heartbeat. So here's what I want to talk about. We can't heal what we don't feel, laura, so I want to say some uncomfortable things that I've heard over and over again.
Speaker 1:Are you ready? I'm ready, okay, this is where renderings come to die. This is the city of studies. What are they studying if they didn't already study it before? Can't you use your last survey? Aren't these recommendations repeated over the course of multiple administrations. So one, is that true? And two, even if it is, are we at our point where there are significant and substantial pieces already in place, that if they can be done during one administration, we won't have to resurvey, re-study, resubmit, re-vote, et cetera, et cetera?
Speaker 2:1000%. Being the co-chair for one of the subcommittees for this administration's transition team, I will tell you, yes, I had an amazing committee and we researched studies that date back to. We got to 2005 and I was like, okay, we're done, we're not going to go back any further than that. But the reality is that we've had some it's like these starts and these stops and like renderings go to die or all of these other very negative uh, content of you know statements, because that's what everyone's feeling. So, yes, those statements are true, we have had starts and stops, whether it's because of administration and the priorities in which that administration set forth, because that's really what it comes down to. What are our priorities as a city? We're a consolidated government that lends to a whole myriad. That's a whole. That's a five episode podcast, right, because that is a whole other.
Speaker 1:You're welcome back.
Speaker 2:I can't wait. Um, that's a whole other. You know, it's a whole other topic, because how we have to manage our assets and our resources and then we get someone who's super excited to be here and then it's like squirrel and they go and they find something else. Or because our downtown was very industrial and our river was very contaminated for, you know, a myriad of years. It costs money to abate those properties and now that our river is finally clean, you know, we want to take a really good care of it.
Speaker 2:Right, we have to be careful about how we're developing and we have to talk about resilience and there's just all these things. So, these studies that were done before, there's a lot more components that we have realized. We're kind of catching up. We've got to put into our studies now resilience, equitable access, like there's so much more that goes into it to truly make our downtown a downtown for the entire city eight hundred and sixty four square miles, not just the four square miles of that downtown. So, while, yes, we are kind of re going and doing some new things, I will tell you that this administration, her priority, is downtown.
Speaker 1:So that's the question.
Speaker 2:I want to talk about the difference.
Speaker 1:When you say the priorities, okay. When you say downtown, let's break it down into stages, right. So there's the open green space, of which there is a lot of it. I'm not talking about the vacant properties.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about the stuff that our parks and public places. You say parks and public places, but I don't see a swing set anywhere. Okay, so here's what I want to compare this to, back in 2001. Right, 9, 11. I worked in downtown Manhattan I actually worked in Fideye, so this directly impacted me and it was dead for a long time. But then it came back and it became residential. Financial district in downtown Manhattan became residential. What happened was that it was dead and no one wanted to move in there because they didn't have a playground. Why would they? Five days a week, it was all businessmen in Wall Street, correct. So they put in a playground and that changed everything. What's the story with the open spaces?
Speaker 2:So the downtown investment authority, which is our city agency, that is, you know, their CRA is downtown and they are tasked with disposition of property. They're also tasked with redeveloping these great public spaces. And so when you look at these green parks, that's everything from Memorial Park within the downtown CRA, that's Memorial Park, that shipyards west You're hearing a lot about, that is Riverfront Plaza, the old home of the landing. In between that you also have the old courthouse annex and then the green space that is adjacent to the annex and then you can go all the way down and you look at smaller, little intimate parks corkscrew park, you get down to the floor, warren and the, and Geffen Park at Ram.
Speaker 2:That activation in those spaces is pivotal for the success of being a true iconic destination downtown and part of that why you haven't seen it before is because our downtown was just business, our residential. While we did have residential, we do have residential in downtown, these mixed use developments, which is kind of what you're talking about, where you take spaces and you have residential over retail, residential over restaurants, over daycares, over dog grooming places. I said it just the other night at an over a Walgreens right, like when we incorporate all the things that are needed.
Speaker 1:I'm a CVS girl. I just want to be very clear here CVS, cvs.
Speaker 2:CVS.
Speaker 1:I just want to be able to go, if I need to go buy some band-aids have some place to like if I skin my ear when I'm riding a scooter and I fall off.
Speaker 2:I want to be able to go.
Speaker 1:I understand a band-aid, right, right, and that has certain things and you address those things in the TEDx talk that you did the other night. So TEDx Jacksonville is an exciting, exciting prospect because it really invites these thought leaders to share their knowledge and input. Because I like to tell people, very rarely am I the smartest girl in the room. I love to surround myself with people who are much smarter than me.
Speaker 2:I love it, I love it. Oh my God. So we're going to have to rock paper scissor for who's smarter today? Right, I don't think it's going to be strong spots.
Speaker 1:It's pretty equal.
Speaker 2:True.
Speaker 1:It is, but that's part of what I see when I look at that environment. I told you like almost anecdotally, I want to open a boutique downtown. Yes, that's my vision to open the boutique downtown called.
Speaker 2:Little Black.
Speaker 1:Dress, where I'm only going to sell black dresses. Because when I said to my husband, benjamin, I want to go downtown for dinner and a show, he laughed out loud. But we did. We went downtown for dinner and a show and then we went to the Silent Disco at the Sip and Stroll and when I came home to over the bridge in two tunnels to the suburbs of St John's County, which I want to talk about, the development of people didn't believe me. They saw my pictures on social media and they were like where'd you guys go? Were you in? Like Savannah? We were down the block because it's 20 minutes door to door and, by the way, I parked two blocks away from where I went.
Speaker 2:I walked off my dessert. Oh right, Exactly.
Speaker 1:Or that glass of wine that you had when you were sipping and strolling. The second glass. It was the first one I didn't want to walk off. I was intentional with that one.
Speaker 2:But I was like, so just to go with that. So right now, between the actual active development that's going on in downtown, dvi, downtown vision they are, you know, our agency that who's Sip and Stroll and Artwalk and this but they also are in charge of all the research for downtown and so the DIA build up downtown colliers. Like everyone uses the data and information that they research and find for us to be able to talk about what's going on downtown.
Speaker 1:And this is all public information. People can go to the downtown vision website and there's a whole page.
Speaker 2:They do an annual report. They do and it's getting ready to come out. Yeah, we got numbers from last year, because we all use the same numbers. So last year, literally almost 365 days ago, we had five billion, that is, with a B dollars in construction, either in the works already approved or on its way to approval. And I'll tell you now like those numbers change, clearly, like where they live in that bucket. Yeah, but it's still there. It's not like it's like down to, you know, under, and five years ago we were in the hundreds of thousands.
Speaker 2:So it's one of those things where, as that continues to grow, then from the city side, in our public spaces, there are plans and by plans I mean like almost fully completed there's money in the CIP budget to actually fund those parks the new administration is asking for, has asked like how much more money is needed in order to continue to fund them all the way to completion. That's part of our parks report. The downtown investment authority and the department of parks and recreation and community services is having very close conversations with the administration to make sure that those iconic parks come to fruition and when you look at them yes, they're a riverfront plaza will have a playground, and it's not just a playground with the swing set. It is the way that playgrounds work now, like they talk to the space. It's more of an experience.
Speaker 2:It is, it is, it's a story. You have to sell the vision. Yes, it's a story and it's amazing and I'm so excited because, well, my son is 16 now, but when he was younger I talk about this all the time we would go downtown to the main public library for story time and then we would go to Met Park, to the Slash Park, and then that was really kind of it, like there wasn't a restaurant that I felt safe to take you know, not even safe.
Speaker 1:I know what you mean, but safe for my son to run around in peace. Now there's sweet peace For your child running. Sweet peace. Sweet peace with kids, with kids, yeah, super kid friendly.
Speaker 2:They have like this cute little spot on the corner.
Speaker 2:And of course I'm a little biased because I was part of designing that space, but you know, it's one of the it's best you can like, close off the doors and the kids can run around and it's we are creating inclusive environments for all generations, for and we go back to this downtown as a heartbeat. Downtown is 100% equitable. It's just like every human being has a heartbeat, right, Every human being that's there's. I don't care what you think, what you believe, what you look like, what you do in your you know, in your private time, what you do in your public time, you still have a heart. It's the only way that you are here right, Standing here alive.
Speaker 2:Our downtown is like that. It has to be totally blind to anything and everything and just be a great space for everyone, and it's the only way that it works. So, yes, you see green lawns, I promise you, like we already. Riverfront Plaza is already under construction Friendship fountain, although we've had some delays, unfortunately, because what we end up learning is that things that we built 20, 30, 40 years ago they need updates, and so it's like Is this infrastructure that needs to go back?
Speaker 1:It's electric, so that's the right-.
Speaker 2:So originally we were behind on Friendship Fountain because some of the interactive there's audio equipment that's coming. There's a light show every night.
Speaker 1:Wow, it's so beautiful.
Speaker 2:Is it gonna? Be, wifi, free wifi, so free wifi, so there's actually parts of downtown. When OneSpark came a decade ago we had we got wifi in parts of downtown.
Speaker 1:I wanna talk about that. That was how I used to live in Madison Square Park area. I did a lot of remote working. By remote meaning I would go downstairs, and that was another thing that I wanted to talk about in terms of downtown. Where are we sitting? Right, we need to sit, where can we sit and just sit? And I understand, and again, we can't heal what we don't feel the unhoused population. And here's another little known fact about me Back in the real estate days, in addition to doing development and construction, I also did. I was the director of a homeless shelter, and so when I say homelessness is something I'm very familiar with. I really intimately worked on everything from single room occupancy shelters to family housing and ensuring that students could stay for more than 28 days in their apartment without having to be rehoused every 28 days.
Speaker 2:Yes, cause that's a thing.
Speaker 1:Back then I remembered the social workers in New York City housing authority telling people you should move to Florida. Now it's easier to be homeless in Florida. And when I moved here to Jacksonville eight years ago when I say this every episode Ben said I got a job in Jacksonville and I said I don't do bills or birds, you're gonna commute, right. But I got here and I haven't looked back. But I did notice the homelessness population and I've had Dr Colleen Bell from Salzbacher, who is dynamic, speak with me about that. So two things One, I understand why we're trying to prevent people from sitting around downtown. Two, is there a better way to do this so that we can accommodate our community's entrance into downtown? Why are we preventing everybody when we're trying to distinguish one group from and? I still don't understand that.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say this is a hot topic. But I'm a hot topic girl.
Speaker 2:Because I cannot be as passionate about what I do if I'm not emotional Right. So that's like the highs and the lows, Like I go. It's all the things right, but this was.
Speaker 1:Dr Edith Eger. By the way, you can't heal what you don't feel it's important when it comes to city government and with how we invigorate and revitalize a city.
Speaker 2:And it's more than just right. It's the people in Mandarin right it is, it is, it's this how do we help everyone who's feeling something get the information?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then they can choose to do with it what they want, and the hope is that it's a healing process, right? We just rediscovering. You know people spend lots of money on therapy, so we discover themselves and it takes a lot of time. That's where we are right now.
Speaker 1:So if you need your, why you should look it up online at your website?
Speaker 2:You can you can look it up on our website, that's what I like I mean, you can call me.
Speaker 1:So share that information, because most of what happens in relationships is that they fail due to uncommunicated expectations.
Speaker 2:Yes, so look at us. You're like my spirit animal. We are on the same plane, so that's how I feel about Jacksonville.
Speaker 1:I feel like it's uncommunicated expectations. People are holding onto these grudges and you give a lot of shit to Mandarin.
Speaker 2:But from the time I got here till now. My mom is still lives there. I love Mandarin, but that grew faster than downtown did.
Speaker 1:In eight years that I've been here. That was the sprawl, right. So what are you saying to me? Good for you, mandarin. You jumped onto the St John's County bandwagon and expanded from Racetrack Road north on 13.
Speaker 2:So here, my big thing with me. Well, wait, let me go back, because they unhoused, cause I just want to say, I'd want to say just two things about that. I don't want to act like we skipped over, cause there are things that we have to look at. I mean, there are challenges in every major city. The unhoused population, I mean there's a couple different and again, this is a totally different episode because it's in and of itself, affordable housing, attainable housing. So they're, there are three buckets, or workforce, yes, affordable and attainable, and they're all different, right?
Speaker 1:Yes, and that I'm going to put in the show notes. Totally, actually, because I'm finding that that is one of the biggest misconceptions that people are not understanding when they think about housing in downtown, compared to what development is for commercial, compared to businesses, compared to the Jags Everything. Because everyone is comparing everything to how much you're going to give the Jags, correct? So where's the priorities? Let's go to all of those. You tell me what you think.
Speaker 2:So when you look at, I will say, in the in our past administration and it's an initiative that's continuing to go forward with the current administration changing homelessness has, in conjunction with the Salisbury you mentioned, you know, Claire White mission, we have amazing, amazing institutions who are targeting what do we do about this? Like there there are credit unions, self-help, there's lists, who goes in and to? You know, like out East and works on how how do we help people who have, you know, who are generationally impoverished, to understand the meaning of them having a home? Like, how do they fix up those homes? There's funding out there. There's all these things. It has become one of the top priorities across a ton of organizations. Those ends United Way, I mean, like the community foundation, like it is, it is something that we are looking at and the and then also our city is looking at. What do we do? How do we change this? Zoning laws have to change. Right now, most of Duvall County is done for single family Got to change. Nefbot is big on this. Like it's one of the big things that they like, that they, because they are, they have the ability to lobby.
Speaker 1:It's one of the things they lobby for A little bit about that. So there's two things I want to talk about.
Speaker 2:Multifamily. Multifamily, yeah, more than one family living under a an building, right. And then single family. Those are our suburbs, right? Yeah, so when we look at density, we need density. We need density for a lot of reasons, right, but density allows for there to be mixed income housing within a particular building. They do it in major cities, you mentioned it.
Speaker 1:I said it to you the other day. They do it in Charleston In a note. It's beautiful. I know you read it.
Speaker 2:Yes, I did, of course I did, but like when we so, in Charleston they have this particular project. It's maybe two years old. It's gorgeous, yeah, inside you would have no idea who has a voucher to be there. Right, he doesn't, right. I will tell you the Barnett building downtown, which is a beautiful. It was, it's now. It has residential, has Chase in the bottom and has an office space. It's like it is a true mixed use project. They have affordable units in there. They do Do people just not know this.
Speaker 2:Girl, this is the problem. If I say affordable housing, you think I'm talking about Section 8, housing in the hood, and that's like this horrible, horrible, like it's a horrible visual Right, that's, that's not that's not what it is.
Speaker 2:Now, don't get me wrong Decades ago, that's how it was built, and so, yes, you would have these impoverished neighborhoods that were literally being built impoverished. That's not how it is now, and we I think that we as a city are learning that one. We can't run from our history, we can't pretend like it wasn't here. We can't pretend like we didn't suck, to suck and I don't know how else to say it Because you can't heal if we don't feel Come on, come on and so if we have your life, coach, now women.
Speaker 2:Can we also just do this all the time here on on a podcast? It's the truth to get it out. We you have to talk about it to move forward and you have to talk about it to understand, because without understanding the wants and the needs of the community in which we are trying to create and serve, like it doesn't matter what I think someone needs in fill in the blank neighborhood.
Speaker 2:I mean like downtown, even right, Like that's why, for me, downtown needs to be for anyone and everyone. There's got to be community engagement, there has to be community conversation. I will say that one of the things that also has become really great over the last the course of, like the last nine months, these community parks, like these great iconic parks that we're talking about, um ADG, as a consultant, like they work out and they go into these neighborhoods. That don't it's you know. I mean, yes, there are surveys that go out, but there's also like, let me go sit in your community center, let me ask you what you need, because you're not logging on, right? No, you don't have internet or you don't have a computer, right? So those things get, those things get gathered and then they are part of the design of these parks, they are part of looking at that. You talked about seating right, cause that goes back to the unhoused.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Seating, safety cameras, lighting, phone charging stations oh, phone charging stations these are just every basic things that we should be providing for. Anyone and everyone like access right, and so seating is absolutely one of them. Or or we have places. You know if or not, or but, and you know if we have a huge green public spaces, then do we have someone that's got blankets? Like does the park have blankets that they can give you so you can go have a picnic? Like you don't have to pick me back, you just, you just need a blanket. So you're now talking about place making.
Speaker 1:Oh, here we go. Oh my gosh, I wanted to do a whole episode on that.
Speaker 1:I'm obsessed with, with her vision and how it has. This is the other part I want to ask you. So there's buzzwords that come around a lot when we talk about downtown. Yes, Okay, One we just said was um place making. What place making means is finding places that people want to hang out, congregate, collaborate and spend their time with. The second thing that we hear about is a vibrant downtown and a resilient downtown. So, for clarity's purposes, can you explain what the differences and why both are necessary?
Speaker 2:I will. Well, let me get back to the place making. Just because I I I also always add this right Place making is also an experience. So degree behavioral sciences like I want.
Speaker 1:Actually I want sociology, there was no math or science requirement.
Speaker 2:Well, I actually went to school for chemical engineering and then I changed my mind and decided it wasn't what I wanted to do, because I didn't want to be in a lab, I wanted to be out, yeah.
Speaker 2:I wanted to be Of a people person I wanted to like watch, and so behavioral sciences being able to like watch and study what people are doing, how they interact with the space that is what I love. So place making is also how do we create like in those spaces and it's a, it's a big component of what they do. And you mentioned Katie yellow. Like it's what it's how she approaches so many things. How do we make sure that it's a place that anybody can go to yes, anyone. Again back to these people with heartbeats how can anyone go, walk away with a memory and experience Like that's, that's a. That is an example of a good public space. It's not so overly curated that you're not going to go there unless it's something you like to do. Oh my gosh, that's such a great point.
Speaker 2:We have to make sure anyone can go there and there's something to do. So I just want to add that. So then, vibrancy and resilience also buzzwords, so vibrant. What does that mean? Vibrant is being up and past five o'clock Monday through Friday, being open on the weekends being able. You know, the majority of our arts and culture are within our downtown or rural adjacent to it. We're also very fortunate to have a theater group out at the beach and, like you know, they're creating their own scene, which is really fantastic. But you know, arts and culture.
Speaker 1:It is mind blowing how much amazing talent we have here and we want to retain our talent, we have to figure out how to like lift them up and get them.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's, which is also another process.
Speaker 1:So like that was yes, yes, because I always see my friends whose kids are going to LaVilla and DA and then afterwards they can't wait to leave and go to New York City and I'm like, but what? Why? Why can't we get a new school Southern campus here down? I'm just making the suggestion throwing it out there, because I saw how quickly the parts of alphabet city transformed from being not safe, the impressions that people had once they had student housing there, because student housing came with security guards and a front desk, and now, instantly, the community was rallying around getting lighting up, was rallying around the stop lights being synchronized, actually.
Speaker 2:Well, and we're working on two way streets in downtown right now. There's money in the sea.
Speaker 1:I just slow down traffic, so that is more pedestrian. Stop right there, no way.
Speaker 2:Groundwork. Jax is working on the Emerald Trail. It's coming right through downtown.
Speaker 1:I know about that Emerald Trail. Yeah, that is right, that is.
Speaker 2:All right, great, Good, they're again. And these are things that are happening, not things we're just talking about. So, vibrancy, vibrancy is being able to walk Like this bike pet. Yes, I'm gonna tell everyone. They're gonna have to walk. I tell this story all the time. If I, if we're standing at the jacks chamber, right, and I'm like, hey, we're gonna walk to the stadium. Or, perfect example, my office happens to be in the jacks chamber. If I parked there for a Jags game and I was like, hey, whoever wants to ride with me let's go, and then we'll walk down to the stadium, Half of my crew is gonna be like, of course, like it's not even a mile. The other half's gonna be like are you out of your mind?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And I'm gonna be like I'm sorry, are your legs broken? Because if they are, then that's fine, but we got it right. But we got back to vibrancy.
Speaker 1:Okay, but theoretically you're saying that if that path, was filled up with other things along the way. Nobody would think twice about doing that, like I do from anywhere in Manhattan to Madison Square Garden, and not even one place. Or the Javits Center People don't remember but the Javits are all day, all day. Miles from one park to the next is actually a place marker. So if I start downtown at Thompson Square, I go to Union Square, then Madison Square, then keep going and I hit the library and then Central Park.
Speaker 2:And you know where you are, and you know where you're done.
Speaker 1:Exactly so. That's how I envisioned Jacksonville.
Speaker 2:When.
Speaker 1:I got here and I saw three bridges and I told you this it was to me the Brooklyn, manhattan and Williamsburg Right, because I don't know anything about those Bronx bridges, they're not my people, but they were my three bridges with this riverfront view. And I remember, for a hot minute we were at the Chard House and I saw people jogging yes on the something and I was like hitting my husband going there's people here, what is this?
Speaker 1:Eight years later, we're the people that are down there and we're waiting to see what's coming next. So there's so much coming next. Well, here's my question.
Speaker 2:Well, you wait, resilient, and I love how we're like, we're back forth, back forth. I know, I know I could talk to you all day. I was like we and this was the joke at the TEDx salon and I said it like the five of us that were out there. We could have talked for 10 hours.
Speaker 1:all we had was an hour and 40 minutes, but you don't need to talk to each other. You already know what's happening. No, we wanna engage and talk with everyone else about like answer everyone's questions.
Speaker 2:It's so important. Resilience.
Speaker 1:Which you did, you did.
Speaker 2:We tried very hard to.
Speaker 1:yes, we tried very hard to yes, for people to engage one on one and, by the way, that is a dynamic way to conduct what and how we want to engage with our citizens. I agree.
Speaker 2:I agree, we have to talk to citizens. So we talked about like de-siloing and I will say that there's ever a lot of organizations have de-siloed and are working together collaboratively, which is fantastic, but now we're just kind of all in one big silo. So how do we get out? Like we can't have a silo, the room where it happens? The room where it happens, did you like that?
Speaker 1:I always sing that. I tag you in that post because I start to feel now and I'm sharing this with everyone I speak to don't just have opinions, get up and get in the room where it happens. I've attached all the links to the communities and the boards and the transition teams because I see you guys are working diligently at getting what you just said. I don't want to give you what I think you need. Tell me what you need so I can give it to you.
Speaker 2:Correct, every day of the week, every day of the week, and there is so much capital and money in Jacksonville, in Florida, there are grants and there's all the stuff.
Speaker 1:Can we do one episode on all the left on the table money? We could totally have a whole different one on that. That's a whole separate episode. I know it's usually somebody else's job to do waste, fraud and abuse, but I am like chomping at the bit to find out where and what and how we can make up the difference now, can we?
Speaker 2:We can, and I will tell you again. We got back to priorities. Talk to me about compound interest we're going to write it. It's like how much money can we make up what we could have been making and what did we leave? But we talk about priorities. This particular administration you know Mayor Deegan has said grants are gonna be a big part of this. We're not gonna leave money on the table anymore. It's people over profits, really, really, it's love Like it's love for the city.
Speaker 1:She says that and I believe it. You know, my daughter calls her Mayor Barbie, and it's a true story because from and I'll tell you why when the campaign was going on, the Barbie movie was like doing all the media, and every time she saw Donna Deegan she would say like, oh my God, it's Mayor Barbie, I could be Mayor too. Think about that, that's what we need. It took so much time, and now, every time we see her, she's out engaging with people, she's answering questions.
Speaker 2:She's not afraid to answer questions or say I honestly don't know. I didn't realize that was a problem I will get with whomever on my team and I love how she's like my team, like not my staff she's like my team.
Speaker 2:Right Again, choice words change feelings of people right, like how someone talks about someone, how they lift them up, how they include them, how they have these conversations. It just it neutralizes and we're gonna have, and we are having, some very uncomfortable conversations, but they're conversations and discussions. They're not arguing, they're not blaming, it's not this. And then again we go back to what ends up happening in those conversations is you begin to understand that not everyone knows what's in your brain, not everyone understands what's going on. You're not a mind reader, not a mind reader. So like I don't know what you need or want and you don't know what I'm doing, unless I tell you.
Speaker 1:And I won't know unless I ask you. You're gonna ask me.
Speaker 2:Right and so and there are people who have sincere PTSD on trying to get a seat at the table and then not even being allowed in the room, let alone in the like the gallery right, and so that has changed. They just and I this swell was coming. It was like a tsunami, it was already coming, it was gonna happen. It's coming so much sooner now that we have an administration that is open to allowing us all to like, say what we think and feel, because I it's a reality. Feelings are real. Feelings make your reality.
Speaker 1:Right, your perception is your reality, and so, if I'm coming from my informed background, like I said, new York City, to me this seems so obvious and you see it and understand why anyone, whether it was in Clay County, st John's County, duvall County, didn't get it. And they just kept saying because you don't get it? We've seen this come through a hundred times before. Okay, so let's leave on a positive note yes, oh, definitely. What is the fastest turnaround time on a downtown project or event that you have seen buzz, excitement and activity around?
Speaker 2:event wise, I'm going to go sip and stroll every day of the week. Yeah, the way that they active, the way that downtown vision activated the South Bank. It's presented by PNC. Pnc is a huge community and then also River Jams.
Speaker 1:And yeah, by star, right yeah.
Speaker 2:So DVI in the Florida theater are partners in that. And then the city right, the city provides the planning, the permitting, like the infrastructure. Um, but I mean literally. We had 17,000 people for Boys to Men, not this April but the April before. We have anywhere between 10, on average 10 to 14,000 people that come because it's a free concert in a public space and it's like you know, pick it, it's well done.
Speaker 1:There's food trucks, there's security. Oh, I always joke.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I joke that downtown or not downtown, but Jacksonville in general will come anywhere If there's fireworks, live music and free beer.
Speaker 1:You're absolutely correct. It's because it's an experience.
Speaker 2:Oh, you won't whine but it's an experience, right? Yes, that's what it is, but because we genuinely the one thing you're you're not from here you may answer this question Is Jacksonville nice? Are people nice to you?
Speaker 1:Oh, I love it here.
Speaker 2:Right Like oh my God, when I got here, I was.
Speaker 1:I was seven months pregnant when I first started to look at here and the neighbors next door came with a pie to me and they gave it to me. And when my husband got home I made no mention of a pie. That did not exist in our home anymore, but we got cakes after that that I shared. That never happened to me before in my life.
Speaker 1:We are nice, you are nice, it is a nice city and you're welcoming and you're inclusive. And what I would love to see more of and this is what my you know podcast is really about, the culture, values and global citizenship is compassion, and a lot of that, like I say over and over, is you can heal what you don't feel, and so if we don't share our stories, we don't talk about what's uncomfortable for us or how what we're living is not the right fit for how we want to live 100%, how can we come to an equitable and brilliant final, brave, bold, brilliant Jackson.
Speaker 2:Yes, and we're there.
Speaker 1:I mean we're getting there, and that's the difference.
Speaker 2:It is. It is so different now it is hands over. It's just amazing. It's also amazing how many people, even new people, love this city. You're new, it's clear, you love our city and you're new.
Speaker 1:You don't even know that I'm the de facto Jacksonville Tourism Board. I like, do like my little reels on social media and people came here for winter vacation to St Augustine last year. Like all the people that went to Miami and I'm talking about a bunch of Jewish families they went to St Augustine instead it's the oldest city in the United States, Correct? And they took the tour. It's beautiful. I love that.
Speaker 2:So I love talking to you and I could talk to you forever.
Speaker 1:But I want to know if you're going to come back. Of course I'll come back. Just ask me. Of course I'll come back. You can ask her anything, people. So I want to say this about downtown and what they're doing Stand up, speak out, let your priorities in what this city has to offer be known, because nobody can pick your priorities but you.
Speaker 1:So now it's time for our honorable mention. Menge is the Yiddish word for person of integrity and honor, with a sense of what is right and responsible. This week's honorable Menge is Margie Rogoszinski. For the past decade, margie has advocated for shelter, animals and their needs with her consistent Towels for Tales initiative. It started together with her beloved Cacaboo, frankie May he rest in peace and continues on with honey as she posts, collects and, together with her partner in crime, dr Abe, schleps thousands of towels and linens to various shelters around Jacks. While Margie, a former educator, is also a volunteer docent at the Cumber Museum. It is connecting, compassionately caregiving and sharing beauty daily. That makes Margie an honored member of our Jacksonville community.
Speaker 1:If you know of someone who is the kind of Menge who should get an honorable mention, send me a note at schmoozwithsuesorg or drop me a line on Instagram. That's going to do it for us today. Thanks for sticking around. Make sure to subscribe to Schmooz with Sues on YouTube and follow me on Instagram to get your daily dose of chutzpah. I'm Sue's, your well informed smartass who's not afraid to stand up and speak out, because what's an envelope if not for pushing? Hey, stay inspired and inspiring.