JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Downtown Jacksonville development is a hot topic and highly debated. Everyone seems to have a different vision, but what about yours?
That's the question Shelby Vandervort wants to answer on the Instagram account Encourage Downtown Jacksonville.
From scooters to Lot J, she's sharing information and opinions on everything downtown and hoping to get more hyper-locals to hop on board and encourage growth in downtown for the long ride.
She started the account in September in the middle of the Lot J debate.
“I think it is really important to create a downtown area where everyone can take advantage year-round," Vandervort said. "Where we have resources like affordable housing, a clean beautiful area that everyone can take advantage of, more green space where everyone can gather and share their hobbies.”
Vandervort is slowly gaining followers and starting a conversation around the vision for downtown from the point of view of those who live here.
“It’s really important to have a tourist economy," Vandervort said. "I totally get that idea, but I think this past year shows us you can’t always rely on a tourist economy.”
She says when you have a happier and healthier city then it’ll attract tourism.
What’s her take on the scooters? She says it was a good distraction from the problems happening right around the corner: the homeless camps in downtown Jacksonville.
This is the type of feedback she's posting on Instagram and recently she is starting to gain a following.
“I feel like a really good place to start is to get the honest opinions from the community," she said. “I think that a lot of the city developers are just planning on what they think will work instead of taking the time to understand what the community wants or needs.”
What she wants is not scooters. Vandervort wants a major focus on solving the homeless issue and building more affordable housing options in the area.
City leaders like Jacksonville councilmember Rory Diamond know that more work needs to be done
“Certainly I can understand the vision of having an incredible downtown," Diamond said. "I understand why people are excited about it, but it is also money and sometimes the amount of money we have to spend to make something happen is just too high.”
We saw that happen recently when these Lot J plans didn’t pass.
So what next? Diamond says the market has to change to make it enticing for a business to come here and Vandervort says the city can do that by making it a great safe place for locals to live and then the tourists will follow.
First Coast News reached out to the Mayor's office for comment from Mayor Lenny Curry or the Downtown Business & Community Working Group. The city declined to comment for this story.