City leaders are acutely aware of the problems facing downtown. Falling prices and shrinking businesses, struggling retailers, and lack of interest from locals to live in the area are clear.
Ron Barton and the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission have been put in charge of turning around downtown.
"We're basically the master developer and trying to shepherd a vision for our downtown," Barton explained.
He said they have seen a big drop in interest from companies since the start of the last year. They have been watching what is happening in downtown and organized their master plan for the future of downtown about a year and half ago.
"It really is a ground level p[playbook for what we believe are important initiatives to revitalize our downtown," Barton said.
He says that play book is a massive document, you can read it on their website, but it has 19 guiding principles that they want to achieve for downtown.
"I think there is a tendency to always believe in the silver bullet theory," Barton said, "and history tells you experience tells you that downtown revitalization is more complicated then that."
The plan, Barton said, is focused in the public realm, things that the city has direct control over and can improve to make the area more desirable.
He says near the top is making the street level experience more enjoyable.
"And Jacksonville has not done a good job of that over its history, we have tended to focus on buildings and not on the street level experience," Barton said they want to make the streets more walk able and comfortable place for people to be.
"Most of our downtown streets are very inhospitable. Very little shade canopy, very harsh in fact, for a number of months in the year," Barton said.
Turning one way streets into two way streets to slow down traffic, adding trees and getting businesses into those empty store fronts will make it into a place people want to be.
The example they have in mind is called the Laura street project. They want to take that central road and turn it into the tree lined two way, walking destination that he envisions the rest of downtown could be.
"And it will be a great demonstration project. I think we will find people saying 'gee, I want more of our downtown streets to look like Laura Street,'" Barton said.
The last piece of the puzzle is bringing more people to live downtown.
"Focus on residential. Residential will cure our issues with retail. Residential will give us balance in our employment center. Meaning, more companies will look downtown if they have a worker base that is higher education, higher income, high skill sets living closer in," Barton said.
He is aware of the problems the city is facing with money and the potential for those money problems to put their plans on the shelf. But he insists that it is these very projects that will help lead Jacksonville out of recession.
"So, in my mind, the things we do in a slow period in our public realm will accelerate our climb out of the recession," Barton said.
He said reforming downtown is a marathon, not a sprint, and the plans are ready to be implemented as soon as the money is available.
"The outline and the approach are there, we will just have to bide out time, related to the right funding environment to accomplish what we want to accomplish,"
Barton may be confident but the city is facing tough choices with the budget with one councilmember suggesting that the entire JEDC getting shut down. He doesn't expect that to happen, and thinks the recession is at bottom with companies getting ready for recovery and possibly a second life for Downtown Jacksonville.

Listen to Part Three