Urban Jacksonville

Before you start to read this post put on the PB Wolf V-tine’s Day mixtape and grab a glass of chardonnay.

13 votes to 3. The council [hearts] Brad Thoburn. Brad says “I would have been happy if they found that guy [the super-planner] but they just [the mayor] didn’t do it”. - From the Brad Thoburn interviews @ Boomtown

Do you need to do some last minute shopping for your sweetie? Check out new Spring arrivals at Wolfgang and Tiara.

Do you love Brooklyn? Tony Allegretti does. He wrote a great post yesterday about our long-forgotten, first platted, Jacksonville neighborhood Brooklyn. And those jerks at the city wanted to rename the neighborhood because Brooklyn has a bad connotation. Tony intelligently points out that “Five of Jacksonville’s top ten corporations are located in one of downtown’s most storied and beautiful neighborhoods.” Show your love and read Where Brooklyn At?

Yesterday I did an interview with the TU about the influence of the Metro Jacksonville group on downtown policy makers. Keep and eye out for the story, I’ll link it up when it drops.

What I loved about this interview was my analysis of the difference between groups like Metro Jacksonville and Downtown Vision. Basically I said Downtown Vision is a marketing organization that is selling downtown to the city and beyond. Their ultimate goal is making the existing state of downtown Jacksonville more appealing.

Metro Jacksonville is trying to influence policy and change the way downtown functions in terms of rules and regulations. Thus making the environment, laws and zoning more hospitable for new and existing business. DVI is active, Metro Jacksonville is pro-active.

Inertia is having a birthday party this weekend: storewide sale, free keg, water balloon fights, and other horse-assery. Inertia @ 5 p.m. (tip: Josh and Jaxopolitan

Bye Bye Gullet’s Grocery. I wrote about Gullet’s Grocery at First and Walnut in Springfield a while back. It was demolished yesterday.

Here are some links you will love:
Inside the Park View Inn (Metro Jacksonville)
Homeless Family’s Blog endorses Linda Storey for District 4
Help this guy find his jacket (YouTube)
Park & King Shopping District: Photo Tour (Metro Jacksonville)

tags: jacksonville, brad thoburn, springfield, metro jacksonville, brooklyn

Interview Part 1 - Clay Doran and Mark George (MP3 - 13:10)
Interview Part 2 - Ian Chase (MP3 - 7:47)
Bright Young Things photoset

Friday night I went to the Jane Gray Gallery for the first time to check out the Bright Young Things opening in Brooklyn, or North Riverside, your choice. It featured the artists Clay Doran, Mark George, Ian Chase and Andrea DeFlorio.

What a great juxtaposition between this show and the Collaborative Surface of Temporary Interest show at Wednesday night’s Art Walk. Wednesday night was gritty. Friday night was refined. Wednesday night pieces were between $30 and $50 dollars. Friday pieces were between $300 and $1500 dollars. Wednesday night was set in a building with unfinished drywall and BYOB. Friday night was set in a glamorous photography studio with wine and hors’ dourves. And BYOB.

Regardless of the venues it’s clear the Jacksonville art scene is accelerating toward an uncertain future. Is it gaining momentum from the exploding scene around the country and beyond? Or is this just another bubble in slow simmer that is Jacksonville? I do mention in my interviews with the artists that I am a newcomer to the Jacksonville art scene so maybe my observations are unfounded. But having experienced and vibrant scene in Minneapolis I am recognizing some parallels here in Jacksonville. We seem to be on our way to creating something substantial in our city.

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tags: jacksonville, jane gray gallery, bright young things, clay doran, ian chase, andrea deflorio, mark george

Jane Gray Gallery is holding it’s second show since opening in December of last year. Bright Young Things will features works by the hottest young painters living and working in Jacksonville, Florida. The show will feature Ian Chase (shown above), Andrea DeFlorio, Mark George, and Clay Doran. The show will open with a reception for the artists on Friday, February 9th from 6-9 pm and will run through March 30th.

I spoke with Missy Hager, one of the owners and asked her a few questions about Bright Young Things and the Jane Gray Gallery:

1. Who started the Jane Gray Gallery and why?
From a press release: Missy Hager, former director of the House Gallery, and her husband Thomas Hager. They have partnered with Daryl Bunn, a longtime Jacksonville art patron and commercial photographer. “Daryl has given us a tremendous opportunity to bring sophisticated art to Jacksonville’s cultural landscape”, says Missy Hager. Jane Gray Gallery will foster art education and believes that education serves as an important role of the gallery. “We are excited to present artist talks and collecting seminars to the community,” adds Hager.

2. What is the theme of the Bright Young Things show?
After reading the press release, I don’t know if there is any over-arching theme. It seems like it is just a normal show with artists showing whatever art they have to show at the time.

3. Describe the state of the arts in Jacksonville.
I believe the “state of the arts” in Jacksonville is promising. As a gallerist, I hope to contribute to Jacksonville’s cultural landscape by showcasing area artists as well as artists around the country who are exploring their mediums with a mission for their quest as artists. We hope also to bring “arts education” to the community by providing artist talks and seminars.

4. Who’s more artsy? Riverside & 5-Points, Springfield, San Marco, Downtown or LaVilla?
As for the “artsy” areas of town. I believe that San Marco, Riverside, Downtown, and Springfield all have their own creative personalities. I do not think Jacksonville has yet established a true “arts district” per se.

Jane Gray Gallery is located at 643 Edison Avenue (one block off Riverside Avenue - map). For additional information about the gallery or to request photos please contact Missy Hager at (904) 338-5790. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 9am- 5pm. Evenings and Weekend by appointment.

tags: jacksonville, jane gray gallery, ian chase, andrea deflorio, mark george, clay doran

Sorry about the quality, this is from my mobile.

Brooklyn Park is coming to Jacksonville. This huge 8-block development in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Jacksonville will consist of Mixed-used (residential/commercial), town homes and multi-family units.

So far information on the Brooklyn Park website is sparse. There is a well crafted marketing message that will make you feel all warm and fuzzy about Brooklyn Park. A sign up for regular updates on Brooklyn Park progress. Don’t expect much from this, I’ve been signed up for months and not received any updates yet. The most intriguing aspect of the website is the Brooklyn Park siteplan.

It offers details on two of the 8-block mega development. In this first screenshot is shows details for Block-B which will be at the corner of Park Street and Leila Street. Block-B will contain a 4-story garden apartment and will host 145 units. This will be make for quite an entrance into Brooklyn from the Park Street viaduct.

Block-B

The next screenshot shows details of Block-C. The 5-story condos will have 105 units ranging in price from $170k-350k.

Block-C

Related:
Disappearing Brooklyn: Saving What’s Left Before It’s Too Late
Urban Jacksonville posts on Brooklyn
Miles Development Partners
Developers, city unveil Brooklyn redevelopment plan
Mayor Announces Initiatives to Revitalize Brooklyn

tags: jacksonville, brooklyn, brooklyn park, miles development partners

Welcome to Brooklyn, Forest Street and Myrtle Avenue

Downtown this week has a huge cover story on what’s happening in Brooklyn, a little neighborhood just north of 5-points.

Some are positioning the stretch of Riverside Avenue that runs though Brooklyn as Jacksonville’s version of Brickell Avenue. For those who don’t know (I didn’t) Brickell is the international banking and business center of Greater Miami, south of the Miami River. This is interesting:

Harden said every piece of property from Riverside Avenue to Park Street between Forest Street and Downtown has either already been sold or has been optioned by developers.

This is great for Brooklyn in terms of Riverside Avenue. Hopefully the prosperity will flow west to Park Street and into the neighborhood. It’s possible there will be some resident displacement from the apartments and shacks in the surrounding area. This would suck, but I just don’t see any developers coming in and building affordable housing in Brooklyn.

Other encouraging things from the article are a focus on historic preservation and public transportation options that might include the use fo trolleys along Riverside Avenue. How awesome would it be to one day be able to ride a trolley from Springfield to Downtown to Brooklyn to 5-Points

From The Daily Record:

Pioneers-4-Jax is holding its bimonthly meeting Aug. 10 at 6:32 p.m. in the Community Center of the 11 E. Terry Lorince, executive director of Downtown Vision Inc., will be the guest speaker. “We have two important announcements that introduce action intended to move the livability and viability of our downtown forward,” said Susann Marino, founder of Pioneers-4-Jax.

and

Downtown Vision, Inc. estimates there are now 55,000 working Downtown.

Dave Siebert: Interview with the RiverKeeper (Metro Jacksonville)
Tony posted some Art Walk photos (Tony Allegretti)

tags: jacksonville, brooklyn

Boomtown Hours, the Boomtown weblog, has a great recap of the JMoMA warehouse party.

Troy Spurlin was at the door in anachronistic 70s style powder blue ruffled tuxedo shirt of the type which used to plague high school proms vengefully.

Moon Colony Razorblade redesigns, again, again. I love the four-column layout and they have a rss feed for their blog entries.

TSI is doing something very interesting. Each button in thier left navigation links to a different MySpace accounts, except Thursday. If anyone want to give me a MySpace tutorial I am down. I have to stop being a MySpace hater and turn on the love.

The SPAR Council will host a “Meet the Candidates” political forum at 7 p.m. Thursday in Springfield. All candidates running for federal, state or local office in the Sept. 5 primary election have been invited to participate and the public is welcome to attend. The forum will be held at the Springfield Woman’s Club and admission is free. (Jax Daily Record)

A Ray Ray for breakfast in Brooklyn (Downtown This Week)
NAACP releases with recommendations to curb city crime (WJCT > MP3)
Smitten! -The Relationship between The Art Collector and Artist (The Medici Club)
1951 Market condos closing soon (Tony Allegretti)
Bike messenger style invades Jacksonville (The Most Hated Man in Riverside)

The Environmental Protection Agency is inviting members of the community to draw their visions of what Hogans Creek, Deer Creek (Eastside) and McCoys Creek should look like in the future. This is what the creeks look like much of the time.

The “Vision-to-Action” process is designed to inspire community members to:

1. visualize what they value about the place they live and/or visualize how they’d like their community to change
2. translate their visualizations into the actions needed to bring their visions into reality

The process utilizes artist/facilitators to help bring participant’s visualizations to life and to help people get in touch with features that make communities unique and livable. This interactive process encourages the participants to think visually about all ways - Social, Economic and Environmental - their community can be enhanced.

Once the visioning process is complete, the community has a document that details the steps needed for implementation, a visual plan, identification of the key players who can help with implementation and funding.

This is a unique opportunity for you to have a say in the future of Hogans, Deer and McCoys creek. Architects, artists, land planners and community members should all be present to build the future of these. Here are the details of the meetings:

Hogans Creek

Monday, 19 June, 2006
Open House 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Community Vision Drawings 6:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Location: Springfield Woman’s Club 210 W 7th St

Tuesday, 20 June 2006, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00
Visioning: Summary, Integration & Strategy Discussion
Location: SPAR Council, 1321 N. Main St.

McCoys Creek

Tuesday, 20 June, 2006
Open House 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Community Vision Drawings 6:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Location: City Rescue Mission
426 South Mc Duff Ave.

Wednesday, 21 June 2006, 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Visioning Summary, Integration & Strategy Discussion
Location: City Rescue Mission
426 South Mc Duff Ave.

Deer Creek

Saturday, 24 June, 2006
Open House 8:30 - 9:00 a.m.
Community Vision Drawings: 9:00 a.m. - Noon.
Break: Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Integration and Strategy Discussion: 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Jacksonville Children’s Commission,
1095 A. Philip Randolph Blvd.