Jake Gordon came to town three years ago as CEO of Downtown Vision Inc. from an economic development career in New Jersey. Before that he practiced law in Los Angeles. The nonprofit DVI provides advocacy and services for a 90-block business improvement district. He lives in San Marco, near Downtown.
Generally, Downtown is doing very well. The credit belongs to Mayor Lenny Curry, City Council, the Downtown Investment Authority and its CEO, Aundra Wallace. Then you see Steve Atkins putting all his resources into the Laura Street Trio and the Barnett Building. There’s a lot of investment coming into Downtown.
I’m in a little Downtown bubble. I try to talk to everyone in Jacksonville and other places. A better Downtown Jacksonville is better for everyone, even if you never come here. You see that with big urban centers. They are the engines for economic activity with a ripple effect that is unbelievably beneficial to the surrounding communities.
It’s interesting that people think our challenges are unique. I don’t find them very unique. Everywhere around the country is struggling with transient, homeless individuals. I think it’s good to take those best practices in other places that have worked and make them uniquely Jacksonville and make sure that they make sense for us.
What Downtown needs more of is people. Right now we’re at 4,450 residents Downtown. Once we get to 10,000, things start happening. The retail on the street becomes a lot more viable.
Florida State College at Jacksonville, Jacksonville University and the University of North Florida have put part of their campus Downtown. I don’t think you can underestimate how important that is for the success of Downtown and for the success of those universities and our city.
I love being in this Downtown community. There are a lot of things in Downtown that are fun, so I feel that I am always working. I do have two small children – 7 and 5 – and they are a huge amount of my time. I feel like the only time I’m truly not working is when I’m traveling.
I’ve got a bunch of books. I just got “Radical Candor” by Kim Scott because I feel like I already practice radical candor. I am a pretty honest and upfront straight-shooter person.
One of my hobbies is highpointing. I had a goal since law school of climbing the highest point in all 50 states. I only have four states I’m missing. I need Alaska, which is the hardest one, Wyoming, Montana and Oregon.
I read “Into Thin Air” about the 1996 tragedies at Mount Everest and Everest Base Camp and became enamored with that story. When I graduated college, I saved up to take a trip to Nepal and I trekked to Everest Base Camp. I met a guy who said his goal was to climb the highest point in all 50 states*. I was like, “That’s a thing?”
He gave me a book. When I was studying in law school for finals, I used to look at it and think about climbing high points in the states. From 2001-11 is when I got to them.
There’s something human about being very high up in the air. I don’t have any fear of heights. I have an exhilaration that comes with heights. It shows how small we are and how much natural beauty there is in the world.
The secret cool thing about Downtown is with Florida being so low, geographically, if you go to The River Club on the 35th floor, you can almost see all the way to the beach.