Seriously. Do you know?

Back in the heady pre Super Blow days of February 2004, Mayor Peyton chose Urban Design Associates of Pittsburgh over seven other urban planning firms to come up with a way to revitalize Brooklyn while attempting to keep some of the historic fabric. And there is some left, just drive through. Not much though. Our ode to Los Angeles, the Big I will pinch much of Brooklyn like 95 did. I give a great deal of credit to the Mayor and UDA for looking at this thing and putting a plan together. That plan should be available to the public. If you are interested make a request. I'd try the JEDC first.

UDA handled the design job like a charette where residents from Brooklyn, along with city planners, activists, business owners, and developers could provide input and come out with a design that all of those interested could buy into.

Every meeting would start with the same story about how once they got in the cab at the airport the consultant would ask if the driver knew where Brooklyn was (in Jacksonville). Always, the cabbie did not know. So it made for a good story. Here was this historically relevant downtown neighborhood (I tease my Springfield friends all the time that Brooklyn was platted in 1868) and not even the most geographically astute of us knew where it was. Clearly we have a problem.

The first thing that concerned me about the charette was the name. It was called the Brooklyn/Riverside Avenue Neighborhood Strategy Plan. Why throw in Riverside Avenue? If its in the district why add in one street name? I asked this question alot. No one wanted to answer it other than something along the lines of "we have these great local corporations and successful development along the river on Riverside Ave and we want to highlight that". Bullshit. Not bullshit thats why they named it that but bullshit in general. Why go to the trouble of telling this story (mostly to business owners and residents of the long forgotten neighborhood) that no one knows where your neighborhood is, and then immediately dilute the brand by highlighting the only successful part of it by segregation. Why must Brooklyn and Riverside Avenue be two seperate things? I asked this every time "branding" came up. I really got on the nerves of then DDA leader Al Battle who was not going to change the name of the plan. Throughout the charette's breakouts and committees I would hear things like we need to re-brand and then I would bring up that the damn name of this entire excercise is turning its back on Brooklyn. Re-brand? You can't even admit you are in Brooklyn (accomodations were provided by the Haskell Co.). I said what about a campaign that basically says: "Five of Jacksonville's top ten corporations are located in one of downtown's most storied and beautiful neighborhoods." Each of the powerhouses on Riverside Avenue could adopt Brooklyn and claim it as home which would have been and still could be a huge win for the hood. America's Design Build Leader is in Brooklyn, the largest healthcare company in the state, Our Paper of Record is in Brooklyn, the largest land owner in Florida is in Brooklyn, the largest company in our city is in Brooklyn... you get the picture.

It only got worse. Urban Design Associates and Councilmember Reggie Fullwood did an admirable job of keeping the peace with residents who were expectedly skeptical during the community meetings. In the breakout sessions I attended there wasn't much of the neighborhood represented. In fact in one such session a political heavy hitter actually put a name change on the table. Saying that "Brooklyn" had a negative connotation. Whoa. Thankfully we convinced her (I pray) that the original Brooklyn was one of America's shining examples of a diverse, walkable urban neighborhood. Perhaps our best.

This name change came up again in 2007 and I'll talk about it in a later post, but its really why I'm posting all this. Well that and the fact that Joey posted some amazing pics from a Brooklyn gallery opening.

With large dollar infill projects like Brooklyn Park, the haven't-heard-from-in-awile McCormack Baron Salazar, and Hallmark's riverfront office building, Brooklyn's future has never looked so bright. If the money, businesses (note location in article headline) and consultants keep investing in Brooklyn (should it hang on to its name) she will rise like a Phoenix. Yes that Phoenix will have to squeeze through the Mighty St. Johns and the Merge, but she will.

Please do your part and tell your cabbie where the damn thing is.