Urban Jacksonville

I wonder if anyone really believes Peyton was doing anything other than pipe dreaming?

Actually, the mayor was thinking big and intends to lead this community in doing the same. Jacksonville loves its river and people respond to great public spaces. The mayor outlined a plan yesterday that will result in a funded Metro Park investment in his next budget. He will find ways to “soften” the area around Friendship Fountain and bring the “park” back to the park. For some other parts of his plan, he wants public input and engagement. Because together we can plan what our riverfront can be.

The Mayor thinks big as long as he’s using someone else’s money to fund his “big” projects. I just hope he doesn’t bankrupt the rest of us with his bid ideas. And yes, people do love nice public spaces, but seriously, how much of the “pubic” is going to be downtown using this space. I don’t think that’s the idea behind this project anyway; I think it’s just another grab for public tax dollars to benefit a few downtown businesses and the Chamber of Commerce

Adam. Thanks for posting on UJ and MJ. It’s cool that someone from our city would use these methods of communication as you have done.

The Mayors plans sound lovely but without focusing on promoting actually “living” downtown the improvements will never be utilized in the way we all want or imagine. Like the mayor said, great cities have great downtown’s and I bet no one reading would disagree. Great cities also have density and population which is something ours lacks. With all the great projects the mayor spoke of during his speech one important ingredient was continually missing. people.

What is our city doing to promote living downtown?
I won’t bore you all with my opinions on sprawl and lifestyle and such but this topic seems very neglected and it really shows. (walk DT at night)

I am not sure if any of you have watched the PBS series e2. The one about Portland (linked below) should serve as a guide for turning our city from good to great. (you can get it on itunes also.)

http://www.pbs.org/e2/teachers/teacher_311.html

sorry about the rambling…please don’t comment on my terrible writing. I know it already.

In response to nestliving: I have to agree with you definitely.

When I go downtown, I’m always struck by the amount of buildings with “for lease” signs in their windows and the lack of people walking around. What does it say about Jacksonville that our suburbs seem busier than downtown?

I am happy to see the Mayor “thinking big” and I think this plan is promising. I also agree with Nestliving’s comment.

Adam,

I’m glad to see the Mayor’s office getting involved in the conversation. Thanks for using your real name too.

I agree when you say “people respond to great public spaces.”, the Riverside Arts Market is a brilliant example.

I look forward to being engaged by the Mayor and his staff. I for one would love to help plan what our riverfront can be.

I’d like to look to the future and work hard over the next two years, taking this vision to the max. There are lots of visionary people in this city, it shouldn’t be hard to take the momentum the mayor is offering and run with it.

Joey — For us to be sucessful, all need to be engaged and we look forward to you and others being at the table. Now, let’s keep our fingers crossed for the rest of the weekend and hope that the Jazz Fest is a great success. My wife, son and I attended the all-star jazz band concert at Snyder last night. It was fantastic. Then we had dinner at Casa Doro…business was steady threre and I hope all downtown benefit this weekend from what should be great crowds!

great ideas. too bad we have no money to actually do any of it. i’d like to see actual details, instead of broad visions.

i think the number one focus on downtown should be affordable living. ares of the city thrive then the young crowd moves in. they are followed by people who want to live in a fun area and have the money to develop it. we are seeing that now in riverside, but the downtown buildings seem to want to skip the first step.

I recently moved out of Jacksonville to Boulder, Colorado, and I was amazed at what a much smaller city has in terms of DT life. For one thing, Boulder and Colorado in general have restricted severely the amount and type of “open space” that is allowed to be developed. I know that this is politically dangerous and complex to suggest anywhere in the Southeast, but it seems like of all places Florida is the most potentially receptive environment.

Further, Boulder has injected a lot into one particular street, Pearl street ( ;) ). It made for a sort of congested commerce space from which business and development have radiated. Even on weekdays there are tons of people crowing the streets, including food vendors and buskers. I can think of several areas with this potential in DT Jacksonville, but I think that the city and a few businesses need to collaborate and really focus in on developing.

In the case of Boulder, the businesses came first, then the affordable housing followed (not so affordable anymore).

I don’t know, just some thoughts I had upon seeing a contrast between the two urban areas. I know they aren’t completely analogous, but I love Jacksonville, and I really hope that it develops from a pretty good city to a truly great one. The potential is there.

sorry about writing errors…trying to do too many things at once…

P.S. Thanks UJ for providing a space where I can stay up-to-date on my first home!

S. F. Pitman, I’m working on a blog post about not only developing public spaces, but also considering transportation as a way to make downtown more livable and attractive.

I might throw in something about urban growth boundaries.

I agree that having residents downtown is a key to Jacksonville’s future.

However, while we wait for the developers to come in with dollars to implement (which may take some time in current credit and housing climate), the City should focus on connectivity with surrounding communities that have residents.

Riverside connectivity has happened with he existing improvements to Riverwalk like Tillie Fowler Memorial, Fidelity Park and the RAM, and the weekday, lunchtime trolley. Southbank is relatively well connected with water taxi and skyway (although these are underutilized).

Springfield connectivity is next with two-waying parts of Main, getting rid of interruptive blight (Park View Inn), trolley and connectivity of a revitalized park system — “Jackonville’s Central Park” — with the Riverwalk. These would be just as much a reason for those out of downtown to come downtown, and the residents who do, and continue to want to, use downtown amenities are already here.

Joey, I’m looking forward to see your post about transportation. We’ll get further by investing in reconnecting our urban core neighborhoods with fixed mass transit, than any other idea that has been floated around to date.

Its no secret that every first class city has a decent, dependable mass transit system or that Jax’s neighborhoods originally bloomed from frequent mass transit connections to other areas of town. If we really want vibrancy, we need to reinstall the mobility option that turns isolated pockets of urban neighborhoods into a seamless large pedestrian friendly district.