The Better Jacksonville Plan has given the city a high goal of development to reach in the coming years. Unfortunately, the loss of convenience and tax dollars for citizens may be too costly in exchange for the fruits of progress. Citizens of Jacksonville can't drive three blocks without seeing road construction in the process. It seems like every other road is being affected by the intention this city's leaders have of achieving progress as quickly as possible.

While progress and change are generally good things, Mayor John Delaney and many of the city's other leaders seem to have visions that are a bit shortsighted. One of the first signs of the city's shortsightedness occurred in July of last year when city leaders decided to change the site for the arena. The change moved the arena to the site of a park-and-ride lot and resulted in the loss of $800,000 of tax payer investment. City leaders contend that building the arena on the most suitable site will more than offset the immediate loss of tax payer money, but citizens have to wonder why city planners didn't choose the best possible site in the beginning.

The city's shortsightedness with building and road construction hit home during the first week of classes. Students using the university's St. Johns Bluff entrance for their commute noticed the detour when they had to pass the entrance and make a U-turn to enter the university. While road construction for St. Johns Bluff as well as many other roads is certainly necessary, the city probably couldn't have chosen a worse time to force students into a detour from the main entrance. City leaders and construction workers are certainly entitled to a winter break just like students, but it would have been far more timely if construction had taken place during the week before classes or sometime in the middle of the semester. Either of these times would have avoided the heavy influx of students that occurs during the first and last weeks of the semester.

City planners were either too shortsighted in their thinking or didn't care about inconveniencing students. To be fair, Jacksonville's planners and construction workers generally seem to have concern for commuters. They often use night hours to take care of major projects that would divert traffic. Unfortunately, the city chose the absolute worst time for students to ignore concerns for commuters. Jacksonville citizens should hope that city planners and developers are able to focus more intently on the progress at hand or too many tax dollars and too much convenience may have to be sacrificed before we really make Jacksonville better.