Team Urban Tallahassee, what do you think of this idea.

Why not pursue developing Tallahassee as the Washington DC of the South. Let's think of Tallahassee as a destination point offering a wide variety of museums and recreational points of interest along the a wide landscaped vista known as the Avenue of the South.
It will be just as the huge Washington Mall in DC.

Our Smithsonian Museum will feature Florida and Southern History from pre-history to present. Our museum of Natural History will feature habitats from Florida and all over the South. We would also feature world class Florida Aquarium (like the Ga. Aquarium in Atlanta) We could also have a museum featuring the Agriculture of Florida and the entire Southeast. We could have our own version of Air and Space Museum. The offerings could be limitless.

No other city in the South has done this!
We would become not only a destination point for Florida residents but also for families throughout the Southeast and the Nation. We could market Tallahassee nationally and internationally. Think of the increase in air traffic as we become a tourist hot spot. We would fill hotels throughout the year with tourists and academics. The city could collaborate with FSU and FAMU to pull this together.

These projects would provide clean energy jobs both now and in the future.

What do you all think?

^I love this type of thinking Skydave. Creating a Tallahassee more in the likeness of the Nation's Capital is fine with me any day!!!

Sounds like a great idea...

Now if we could get KCCI to focus on this grand plan..

Great idea, but I'm thinking Atlanta has already beaten' Tallahassee to it.

^ In what way has Atlanta already done this?

Atlanta has a lot going on, but it is not the Washington DC of the South. That designation is out there for an enterprising city looking for an identity. Tallahassee fits the bill perfectly in my opinion.

Aside from museums and being our nation's capital, D.C. has much more going for it than Tallahassee. Designed by a pioneer of urban planning (L'enfent used many of the same ideas as those utilized in the 19th Century redesign of Paris), Washington has a very pedestrian friendly design to it. Tallahassee would need years to get the same level of urban infill as Washington. To bolster this design, residents of Washington enjoy world-class public transit. Again, Tallahassee is lacking. Can we add some of these elements in Tallahassee? Sure, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We don't have the population, resources or history to make our city into a world-class capital city. At least not at the moment. However, this shouldn't stop us from perusing some of these elements, in order to improve the quality of life in Tallahassee, and make it a more desirable destination.

This is a great dream, but I'm afraid it is premature, or unattainable. That said, we should try, while also looking to cities like Raleigh, NC and Austin, TX. Also, mid-sized cities that became more than just sleeping state capitals.

Plus, Washington, D.C. is technically the Washington, D.C. of the South (seeing as George Washington donated land that would have been part of Virginia, and Maryland was a slave state). Placing the capital in the South was a bargaining chip used for ratification of the Constitution with the Bill of Rights.

I took from Skydave's comments a direction that we could try to steer the city into to help discover our calling as a place considering our abundance of museums. I didn't think he was suggesting the act of positioning ourselves as somewhat of a Museum Capital would in and of itself make a world-class destination of Tallahassee -- but means to gain exposure to an outside world that may not be interested in Florida's government or Tallahassee's Universities.

How can a dream be premature? Unattainable? 60 years ago who had ever heard of a little farm town called Orlando?

Everybody knows that Rome wasn't built in a day, but it doesn't hurt to dream...

hmmm... we're the washington d.c. of Florida.

No offense, but what are you guys smoking?

Big E, I heard you were a big tooth buckeye

What?

don't know to be honest