J Magazine Spring 2018

THE FINAL WORD
Investments needed
for Jacksonville to
become a great city
PRESTON
HASKELL
PHONE
(904) 791-4507
EMAIL
preston.haskell
@haskell.com
great city is characterized by a
A thriving Downtown, superior roads
and public transportation, extensive
access to parks and natural amenities, quality
education for all, accessible libraries and
broadband, low crime levels, aesthetic beauty,
high levels of human and social services, quality
arts and cultural institutions and, correspondingly,
high per-capita incomes.
These are not simply abstract or aspirational conditions.
Cities with these characteristics provide a superior
environment for earning a living, raising a family,
starting or expanding a business. Such higher quality
of life attracts smart and educated people and supports
thriving business enterprises who invest in their
businesses and pay superior wages. In this environment,
the economy thrives, personal incomes go up, property
becomes more valuable — in short, everyone benefits
from a high level of economic activity and prosperity.
In Jacksonville, we have not made adequate investments
in economic development, infrastructure,
social services, neighborhood beautification, arts and
culture, and other attributes essential to achieving this
level of quality of life. Indeed, we have operated our city
government on the cheap: lowering the millage rate year
after year, making it well below our peer cities, refusing
to consider new taxes and even eschewing the continuation
of existing taxes. We are only meeting essential
operational needs, not investing in our future.
We have become not the best city in Florida, but the
cheapest.
Our peer cities in Florida have not taken this self-destructive
route. Orlando/Orange, Miami/Dade and Tampa/Hillsborough
have invested far more, on a per capita
basis, in public safety, infrastructure and environment,
parks, social and children’s services, arts and culture,
and libraries than we have. Their property tax rates are
higher, but their vibrant downtowns, superior infrastructures
and comprehensive social services and intellectual
resources have resulted not just in better quality of life
but also higher per-capita incomes.
Raising taxes is never pleasant or uncontroversial.
But if so doing will return benefits to the citizenry well
beyond the cost, we should, thoughtfully and boldly, set
out to do it. We should begin by funding the Downtown
Investment Authority at a level that will enable it to
attract significantly more housing, retail and entertainment
venues to our city center.
We must invest in public transportation to make
neighborhoods and downtown more accessible and
slow the rate of suburban sprawl.
We should maintain our parks, recreation venues and
river accesses at a higher level.
We must increase services to children and resources
for education.
We must improve conditions of the indigent, homeless
and underemployed with a view toward making
them productive and secure members of our society.
We must make resources like libraries and broadband
accessible to all.
We must increase support for public safety, our arts
and cultural institutions, and for the beautification of
our city and neighborhoods. And we can do this and still
remain a relatively low-tax city.
Transformation of our community in this manner
will require thoughtful and resolute leadership from
our elected officials, particularly the mayor. It will also
require commitment from our civic leaders, business
leaders, nonprofit institutions and the private sector generally.
These forces, under the mayor’s leadership, must
join together in crafting and communicating a vision for
a more prosperous and higher-income community — a
vision that people will believe in, will support and will
implement because they know that it is in their own
best interests and the best interests of their children and
grandchildren, to do so.
We already enjoy a distinct combination of natural
assets in our ocean and beaches, river, climate and
nature. If these features were accompanied by adequate
investment in infrastructure and services, it would create
a city known throughout the U. S. as a highly desirable
place to move to or invest in. This, in turn would create a
virtuous cycle of ever-increasing economic activity supporting
a higher quality of life, which in turn increases
economic activity — a dynamic that will perpetuate itself
far into the future.
If we do all of this, we will make Jacksonville one of
the finest and most desirable cities in America.
Preston Haskell is founder of The Haskell Company
and a leading Jacksonville philanthropist. He and his
wife live in Jacksonville’s Ortega neighborhood.
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J MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018