Paul
Krutko, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority, is
probably best known around City Hall for his doodling.
It's pretty serious doodling, however.
Krutko, Jacksonville's point man for revitalizing downtown,
frequently conducts meetings by covering a large map of the urban
core with onion-skin paper and drawing in proposed projects and
illustrating how one area will be linked to another district.
It's an off-the-cuff seminar in downtown planning and Krutko, 44,
the energetic professor, typically leaves his audiences excited and
interested.
First-term City Councilman Reggie Fullwood, whose district
includes parts of downtown, calls Krutko "probably one of the best
investments the city has made."
Nearly 2 1/2 years into his job in Jacksonville, Krutko has begun
to win the bureaucratic battles to make his vision of downtown
development -- one in which residential growth plays the leading
role -- the blueprint for Jacksonville.
In addition, he's played a leading role in the city's
well-received Downtown Master Plan, a 10-year blueprint that carves
the city into a series of special-use districts.
It calls for making the city more pedestrian friendly, creating
parks along Hogans and McCoy's creeks, and establishing distinctive
business, residential, cultural, sports and retail districts within
the center city.
The plan calls for the city to spend about $12.5 million in the
next two years. Some of the project funding -- including more than
$7 million to extend the Riverwalk -- already has been set aside by
the administration, said Susan Wiles, the mayor's top political
aide.
With downtown housing projects under way, Krutko's vision, formed
during his nearly two decades in various urban planning jobs in his
native Cleveland, can soon be judged by objective measures.
For now, however, the early reviews are positive.
"I think the city got just what we were after -- an expert in
urban core planning, downtown housing and urban historical
buildings. And he's been very good at that," said Mayor John
Delaney.
Krutko's boss, Jacksonville Economic Development Commission
executive director Mike Weinstein, has a similar outlook. "We
brought him in [in December 1997] to do exactly what he's doing, to
be energetic and excited about downtown, specifically housing," he
said.
Krutko, whom the city pays $99,750 yearly, was part of the urban
planning team in Cleveland that helped revitalize rust-belt
Cleveland in the 1990s with a combination of downtown housing and
sports, cultural and entertainment projects.
Housing should come first, Krutko said, because once "you get
people to the area that you want and you have vitality, the
entrepreneurs will figure out" to locate businesses there. Krutko,
who lives in Avondale with his wife, said his goal "is to get
wallets downtown" and then retail shops and restaurants will follow.
In Cleveland, Krutko also learned that nothing happens fast and
the best way to ensure continuity is to put a plan, endorsed by
local government, in place.
"One of the real salient lessons that I take from my time in
Cleveland is that many times communities fail when they follow the
fad of the moment," he said. A community needs "to figure out a
vision, describe it, and then work to see it work."
That's why he thinks the Downtown Master Plan, which has been
approved by the City Council, provides a firm foundation for
Jacksonville. "If you get buy in into a plan then it can survive
into future mayoral administrations," Krutko added.
A chance to be the architect of such a plan -- and the chance to
move to a growing, Sunbelt city -- helped lure Krutko away from
Ohio. "I look at downtown and see potential, the historic buildings
and the riverfront." He's in Jacksonville for the long-term, too, he
said.
So far small steps have been made to change the city -- like the
Adam's Mark hotel, the master plan, housing plans and the business
improvement district. And if Jacksonville's potential turns to
promise, then Krutko really will have been worth the investment.
