The 1960’s also hosted considerable cohesion in North Florida, as Jacksonville merged with Duval County in 1968. This “consolidation” led to Jacksonville becoming a 747 square mile city with 528,865 residents by the 1970 census, resulting in a 163.1% healthy growth rate over the previous decade.
Examining U.S. census information tells a tale of a city and county on polar opposite ends of the “growth spectrum”. A city is healthy if it is growing. It is in decay if growth rates are in decline. Duval County’s growth during the 1950s was a very healthy 49.8%, according to the 1960 census. Adversely, Jacksonville’s growth rate during the 1960’s was -1.6%. Let’s look at a 30 year stretch of population growth for Jacksonville and Duval County:
JACKSONVILLE growth rate
1950 18% 1960 -1.60% 1970 163.10%
DUVAL growth rate
1950 44.70% 1960 49.80% 1970 16.10%
To launch from a declination in citywide population, to a beaming 163% growth rate within a decade is a considerable achievement. While the impressive numbers hid what was taking place within the pre-consolidated city urban core, they also showcased the county’s strengthening development pattern based around the accommodation of the automobile.
Now long demolished, Jax Center was one of the first autocentric shopping centers to open in Jacksonville. Jax Center was located along North Main Street in the neighborhood of Panama Park. Panama Park was a late 19th century railroad suburb later engulfed by mid-20th century sprawl.
Through the 1970s, growth pushed south and east prompting major commercial projects like the establishment of Arlington’s Regency Square Mall and Clay County’s Orange Park Mall. The sprawl eventually reached the shoreline too. For example, once a small early 20th century resort community miles from the city, during the 1970s, Jacksonville Beach’s population increased 21%, which is a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since.
As Jacksonville’s population has incrementally increased since the turn of the 21th century, development pressure has spread into neighboring counties. Today, Clay County residents suffer with the longest average commute times in the state and neighboring St. Johns County ranks as one of the top counties in the country for highest percentage of growth. National trends and local construction and development projects suggest that downtown Jacksonville is finally in the midst of a resurgence as well.
For Jacksonville to survive economically long term, solutions will have to be found to reinvent struggling inner city neighborhoods like Sugar Hill.
However, Jacksonville’s real battle to alter the sprawling growth pattern that has already spilled over into neighboring counties isn’t downtown. It’s in the walkable inner city neighborhoods that millennials and hipsters avoid and aging inner ring suburbia that fueled autocentric sprawl five decades ago. Is the city ready for the fight that will involve redeveloping brownfield sites in poverty stricken districts, retrofitting out-of-date suburbia and finding new uses for increasingly vacant strip malls and big box retail outparcels? Only time will tell.
About the author: Evan Halloran is a Copywriter for RedZone Realty Group and a longtime resident of North Florida.
Sources
- visitjacksonville.com/about-us/history
- jaxhistory.org
- census.gov/population/cencounts/fl
- censusviewer.com/city/FL/Jacksonville
- google.com/publicdata/explore </i>
Original article copy edited by Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com