Yes - City Hall, City Council and the DIA don't know what they've got - and won't know until its gone.
The 2016 Map, Discover Downtown Jacksonville, produced by Downtown Vision Inc. and "Visit Jacksonville" defines Downtown as being:
Northbank = Broad Street (west), Church Street (north), St. Johns River (south) & Market Street (east)
Southbank = Prudential Ave (south) and St. Johns River (north)
Seems like most everything in Jacksonville is interpreted in myriad ways - no wonder there is so little continuity or appreciation.
Thank you very much - Rick
PS - now we have to contend with a new "downtown core" compliments of the urban place-making expertise from our resident Bumper Magnate. First we had white flight, then retail flight, then Regency's suburbanization, then the Southside's emergence, then St. Johns "Town Center", then Brooklyn's debut and now a "new core" around a pair of stadiums???????
Wasn’t this committee created by former City Council President Ron Salem as a vehicle to criticize the DIA? That was my sense of it and the actions described by Sherri bear that out. So not much surprise that the committee has spent so much time and energy critiquing the DIA. Lost opportunity? Sure, but the committee is being true to its founding intent. Unfortunately.
Thank you, Sherry. I know I am probably out-of-touch at this point with Jacksonville. Lord knows that along the way I have tried. After thirty years of meetings and schemes I do have an opinion.
The problem with downtown is not that the planners think too small as much they think too big. I remember wonderful times downtown in spaces made by Jacksonville based artists. Studios, galleries, coffeehouses, etc. Spaces defined by personality and vision. Creativity and Dreams. Certainly the opposite of the orlandoesque landscape the planners seem to want.
I dream of spaces defined by reality. A landscape of desire. Plants that grow because they want to instead of ones that are forced to adapt.
Amidst the rubble and rancor, the piles of humanity and the ubiquity of the Sabal palmetto sprouts fingering their way through cracked concrete there could be magic. Only if those who are apt to see would open their eyes and look. Think small and grow.
Sherry - prescient and powerful.
Yes - City Hall, City Council and the DIA don't know what they've got - and won't know until its gone.
The 2016 Map, Discover Downtown Jacksonville, produced by Downtown Vision Inc. and "Visit Jacksonville" defines Downtown as being:
Northbank = Broad Street (west), Church Street (north), St. Johns River (south) & Market Street (east)
Southbank = Prudential Ave (south) and St. Johns River (north)
Seems like most everything in Jacksonville is interpreted in myriad ways - no wonder there is so little continuity or appreciation.
Thank you very much - Rick
PS - now we have to contend with a new "downtown core" compliments of the urban place-making expertise from our resident Bumper Magnate. First we had white flight, then retail flight, then Regency's suburbanization, then the Southside's emergence, then St. Johns "Town Center", then Brooklyn's debut and now a "new core" around a pair of stadiums???????
We need a collective Light-Bulb moment.
Wasn’t this committee created by former City Council President Ron Salem as a vehicle to criticize the DIA? That was my sense of it and the actions described by Sherri bear that out. So not much surprise that the committee has spent so much time and energy critiquing the DIA. Lost opportunity? Sure, but the committee is being true to its founding intent. Unfortunately.
Thanks, Sherry - you capture the problems every time! Such limited vision these folks seem to have.
Thank you, Sherry. I know I am probably out-of-touch at this point with Jacksonville. Lord knows that along the way I have tried. After thirty years of meetings and schemes I do have an opinion.
The problem with downtown is not that the planners think too small as much they think too big. I remember wonderful times downtown in spaces made by Jacksonville based artists. Studios, galleries, coffeehouses, etc. Spaces defined by personality and vision. Creativity and Dreams. Certainly the opposite of the orlandoesque landscape the planners seem to want.
I dream of spaces defined by reality. A landscape of desire. Plants that grow because they want to instead of ones that are forced to adapt.
Amidst the rubble and rancor, the piles of humanity and the ubiquity of the Sabal palmetto sprouts fingering their way through cracked concrete there could be magic. Only if those who are apt to see would open their eyes and look. Think small and grow.