As many of our Eye on Jacksonville followers know, we have been watching the Mayor use mob rule tactics to TAKE BACK the Landing vs. negotiating a good deal for the City.

He told us he had an internal plan and he wasn’t kidding.  Read more here:  Internal Plan

Yesterday we wrote that the Mayor’s office was holding back on permitting the Landing for the Florida/Georgia game festivities.  They finally gave them the permit (even though the Landing owners didn’t need one) and it was filled with Regulation Strangulation.  For instance:

• The city stipulates there can not be any more than 7,500 people inside the Landing and only 5 bars.  Problem with that is this:
  • Years ago the Landing owners, the city, the police and fire, Homeland Security and Florida/Georgia security personnel all met to discuss how best to manage the crowds for this specific event.  They determined the crowds should be spread out and not clustered together.  This new regulation goes against those recommendations.  People will now be clustered together in tight quarters around 5 bars.  Is this smart?

• The city stipulates everyone needs to be wanded and counted.  They are demanding the Landing owners pay $50 an hour for Fire or Police officers to click a button every time someone walks into the Landing.  Here’s the irony of that:
  • The Landing already wands and clicks for large crowds.
  • They use a service that manages crowds and pay them to do so. The service does the clicking.
  • The City wants the Landing to pay MORE out of pocket for this service AND to USE Emergency Personnel to click a button for counting heads.  Ridiculous waste of time and resources.  Do they demand this at the Jags games or do they let the Jags use a service for wanding and clicking?

It appears the City is doing all they can to squeeze the Landing owners and create pain, frustration and excessive monetary outlay.

And not only are the Landing owners suffering from the city’s plot to take back the Landing — the worst part of it all is this:

The Mom and Pop establishments at the Landing rely on this big event every year.   Limiting attendance and excessive regulations hurt them too.

It appears the Mayor and his staff do not care about the little guys, the out of town guests or the biggest property tax provider in the city.  They care about one thing and one thing only…

Taking back the Landing.  At all costs.

And we want to know Why?  We want to know Who will get that prime piece of property.  We want to know if there are any back room deals going on regarding The Landing.  We want to know how much the fight to fight a home grown developer and resident is costing the taxpayers.

AND MR. MAYOR — Why the heck are you going to London for the Jags game when you should be here hosting the biggest event of the year for our city?  You’ll be missing the Blue Angels flyovers too.  So much going on in Jacksonville yet you, our Mayor,  feels it necessary to fly to London to watch the Jags play.  Really?  Very sad, Mayor.  Very sad.

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://eyeonjacksonville.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Billie-Tucker-1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Billie Tucker has worked in the CEO world for more than 30 years and was the Chief Operating Officer of Vistage Florida, a think tank for CEOs. She started her own consulting practice, CEO Service Bureau, in 2001 and earned a reputation for her keen understanding of the motivations, challenges and goals of people and became a life-long student and teacher of leadership principles. She craved anything leadership related and enjoyed being around the world of entrepreneurial CEOs. She watched as they made decisions; pondered how they would make payroll when cash flow was tight; and appreciated how they created career opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people. Because of her experiences, she has emerged as a key resource for the media and others who want to understand important insights about executives, management teams and board dynamics. In 2008, Billie became discouraged as she watched some of her clients struggle with the political economic impacts on their businesses. The same CEOs who mortgaged their home and charged up their credit cards to make ends meet to build a business and keep others working, now watched as their government bailed out the big banks who had mismanaged their resources. She cringed as most of her clients laid off employees for the first time and she vowed she would help them… somehow…someway. That somehow…someway showed up in the Tea Party Movement in America. She formed one of the largest tea party group’s in America (more than 9,000 members strong) and helped bring attention to America’s debt problem, out of control spending, over taxation and regulation strangulation on companies. With her background in working with leaders and her influence in the political and leadership world, Billie has continued her dream to help CEOs navigate these troubling waters that permeate the world of capitalism in America. She has been an active participant in the media as a guest on CNN, Fox News, Fox Business, Bott Family Network Radio and co-hosts a political/financial radio show in the Northeast Florida market entitled, Smart Money. She was the first speaker at the House of Representatives Tea Party Caucus inaugural event and was invited by Heritage Foundation to speak at their prestigious annual Heritage Resource Bank, and on their National Security Panel live broadcasts. She spoke at the Congressional Republican House Retreat in Pennsylvania in 2012. She was also the co-host and co-producer of the CNN Tea Party Express Debate in the 2012 Presidential Election. She is a firm believer that America needs more entrepreneurs and more opportunities for people to use their God-given talents and passions to better themselves, their communities and America. Her favorite quote has become her mission to help CEOs succeed: “Vision without execution is hallucination.” – Thomas Edison[/author_info] [/author]