The StoryMap focuses on the impact of Jacksonville Jaguars on the city of Jacksonville and its growth, demographics, and financials over the last three decades. The map takes us through a timeline of the start of the franchise and the steps that went into establishing it and introduces the market, Jacksonville obviously. Although Jacksonville was the 30th largest city in the country, it ranked 56th in television market. The limited metro population was the main reason, and the project seeks to focus on different aspects of this. Next, he focuses on the demographics of the city and notices a significant drop in the white population relative to other races. After the market and demographic analysis, the map goes into financial analysis and looks at income and growth of all sorts of establishment like restaurants, bars, hotels, and jobs created. The most interesting aspect of the jobs created section was the point made that Jacksonville was immediately eligible to host a Super Bowl. The main takeaway of the map is that when it comes to expansion teams in new cities, they benefits greatly outweigh the costs and that cities with the opportunity, should jump at the opportunity.
I thought an overall strength of the StoryMap was the actual maps that were made and the different elements of ArcGIS that were displayed. Whether it was overlaying an aerial view of current Jacksonville, pie charts showing demographics, timeline, and I think the slide was used well in most scenarios. I think there is a clear question that the map is asking and the project does a solid job of answering it.
Some improvements that can made are also in the maps. In the market section, I am not sure what those maps of Jacksonville highways are trying to show or add to the section. Also when using the swipe, there is no difference between the two images. The fact that Jacksonville did host a Super Bowl in 2005 and it wasn’t even mentioned was a missed opportunity. The map could’ve drawn from facts and things that occurred in 2005 instead of what an average modern day Super Bowl is. There is also a ArcGIS Dashboard that isn’t visible.
