Bostwick Building To Be Demolished?

[Timkin]

Jacksonville is really quite unique when one factors the amount of demolition that has happened to the core of the City.  The area that was La Villa is just that. WAS.    Brooklyn is very similar.

Most if not all major cities in the Midwest, and East coast has torn down far more tall highrises than Jax, not to mention low rises. Detroit's defunct highrises makes Jax's demo history look like the minor leagues. I know that many wanna believe the 'urban legend' that Detroit saves every high rise DT building. Cleveland, and Baltimore are some of the few others that torn down more than Jax also. Many buildings are torn down to make room for other new ones, and it's no different in Jax, contrary to the 'every building is torn down thoughtlessly' argument. Check out emporis, you'll be surprised.

Feel free about dwelling on Jax's melancholy past, it seems very repetitive and tiresome though. It really doesn't have any effect on anything; Maybe it's breaking news to the occasional newbie.

        Thank you for your thoughts as well. 

[Ocklawaha]

Jacksonville is really quite unique when one factors the amount of demolition that has happened to the core of the City.  The area that was La Villa is just that. WAS.    Brooklyn is very similar.

Most if not all major cities in the Midwest, and East coast has torn down far more tall highrises than Jax, not to mention low rises. Detroit's defunct highrises makes Jax's demo history look like the minor leagues. I know that many wanna believe the 'urban legend' that Detroit saves every high rise DT building. Cleveland, and Baltimore are some of the few others that torn down more than Jax also. Many buildings are torn down to make room for other new ones, and it's no different in Jax, contrary to the 'every building is torn down thoughtlessly' argument. Check out emporis, you'll be surprised.

Feel free about dwelling on Jax's melancholy past, it seems very repetitive and tiresome though. It really doesn't have any effect on anything; Maybe it's breaking news to the occasional newbie.

Melancholy past? Jacksonville didn't tear down buildings, but instead we leveled entire neighborhoods at least two of were once independent cities.

Fact is: A city that forgets it's history is destined to delete it. And a city that doesn't respect it's past loses it's soul, in short, a city that ignores it's past has no future. 

[I-10east]

Lavilla-esque large plots of grass or dirt were buildings once stood is not unique to Jax; Those can be found all over the country in urban areas that have seen better days. Jax's situation isn't rare that's all that I'm saying. I'm not saying that it should be embraced or anything like that, just saying that it isn't uncommon. That 'unique razing of Jax residential buildings to pave a path for highways' argument that some mentioned is laughable, I won't even reply to that. I can imagine that many of yall travel to all kinds of places all over the country, and already know that, but lets play the 'only unique to Jax' game just for the sake of it...

[ChriswUfGator]

Nothing bad is ever unique to Jax. Everything good happens here. And if you don't like it, Delta's ready when you are. We get it already. Problem is, at least in my travels, the only two urban areas I've ever seen with devastation on this scale are Detroit and St. Louis. Both of which have reversed the slide. And the real issue everyone's griping about here, which is demolishing multiple square miles' worth of dense development and evicting the residents without any clear plan on what to replace it with, causing something like 70% of the urban core to become urban pastureland, is entirely unique to this city. At least Detroit's streetcar suburbs had become mostly vacant due to macroeconomic conditions when they began demolishing them. We took active dense neighborhoods and kicked everybody out primarily because they were black. Again, we're on par with Detroit in terms of destruction of the urban fabric, the stunning thing is our decline wasn't natural, we did it intentionally.

[I-10east]

I don't even know why we are debating the entire urban fabric of Jax on a Bostwick thread, but whatever, that's what angry thread hijackers who love to repeat themselves over and over do. Get specific Chris, where is this unique vast wasteland in Jax where great residential buildings once stood? The old raggedy shotgun houses on State St? Because you are being very vague.

[If_I_Loved_you]

I don't even know why we are debating the entire urban fabric of Jax on a Bostwick thread, but whatever, that's what angry thread hijackers who love to repeat themselves over and over do. Get specific Chris, where is this unique vast wasteland in Jax where great residential buildings once stood? The old raggedy shotgun houses on State St? Because you are being very vague.

(that's what angry thread hijackers who love to repeat themselves over and over do) Great line I-10east!

[Ocklawaha]

Fairfield was once a location of many stately homes. The late Congressman Charles Bennett made it a personal project to protect that grand old neighborhood, then he died, followed immediately by the destruction of the entire community. Had you been around at that time I-10 East, you would have been posting here about how wonderful our congressman is, and how people that think Fairfield should be torn down are just negative at heart. I suppose that once the congressman died, you would be posting about how people that think Fairfield shouldn't be razed are just negative at heart.

Do we all detect a pattern here? Jacksonville can do no wrong in your eyes? If we save the Bostwick Building and turn it into anything productive it's because we are a great city, and if we don't save it, it's because we are a great city.

We've torn the guts out of Sugar Hill, razed all of Fairfield, Brooklyn and La Villa, don't you think we might have had at least a few notable historic places there that people would want to visit?

[I-10east]

(that's what angry thread hijackers who love to repeat themselves over and over do) Great line I-10east!

Oh, so I'm the initial hi-jacker since I don't follow the "company's" all of Jax is an awful and hopeless apocalyptic wasteland line, right? Gotcha IILY.   

[If_I_Loved_you]

(that's what angry thread hijackers who love to repeat themselves over and over do) Great line I-10east!

Oh, so I'm the initial hi-jacker since I don't follow the "company's" all of Jax is an awful and hopeless apocalyptic wasteland line, right? Gotcha IILY.

What have I missed? I agreed with your sentence I-10east. Jesus Christ!

[I-10east]

I think that yall would be surprised that many US cities have dilapidated areas that still hasn't recovered similar to this stuff that went on in Jax. In some cases, tearing down some old run down structures with no plumbing/ used for illegal acts etc. is progress. It's just that many on this site don't care about the problems of other cities because they don't have any, outta sight outta mind. All of the grids are filled with beautiful buildings in those wonderful Utopias outside of Jax. Thinking all of New Orleans is like the French Quarter, and all of Detroit is Greektown, and all of Baltimore is just like the Harbor etc. Jax is the only unique moonscape situation; Talk about sugarcoating and demonizing at the same time.   

[I-10east]

What have I missed? I agreed with your sentence I-10east. Jesus Christ!

My bad I misunderstood, as I thought that you were being sarcastic. I've been having a bad string of these misunderstandings lately, sorry about that. I definitely gotta tone down that defensive complex, and decipher thoroughly.   

[If_I_Loved_you]

What have I missed? I agreed with your sentence I-10east. Jesus Christ!

My bad I misunderstood, as I thought that you were being sarcastic. I've been having a bad string of these misunderstandings lately, sorry about that. I definitely gotta tone down that defensive complex, and decipher thoroughly.

No problem. 

[I-10east]

I 10.  Most of your posts have something to do with how people for urban development 'hate' the suburbs.

This imaginary argument, while at least having the extra benefit of being uninteresting, doesnt explain why such an advocate of the suburbs never spends any time posting about the suburban areas you claim to like.

Why is that?

I wouldn't call myself an advocate of the burbs anymore than I'm an advocate of downtown, I just know that life does exist outside of downtown. I guess that my enthusiasm for the SJTC development hasn't been shown on MJ, that's one area that I like off the bat. The many MJers who say things like, "great Nordstrom's chose the SJTC over downtown" and keep reinterating on how the layout sucks, awful traffic etc" obviously do hate the burbs; I dunno what's so imaginary about that. Some even say it straightforward everytime any suburban news is brought forth. I don't even have a problem with people who hate the burbs, but it does get very annoying anytime SJTC news comes, and the obligatory dissing right on the spot happens.

[JFman00]

I think that yall would be surprised that many US cities have dilapidated areas that still hasn't recovered similar to this stuff that went on in Jax. In some cases, tearing down some old run down structures with no plumbing/ used for illegal acts etc. is progress. It's just that many on this site don't care about the problems of other cities because they don't have any, outta sight outta mind. All of the grids are filled with beautiful buildings in those wonderful Utopias outside of Jax. Thinking all of New Orleans is like the French Quarter, and all of Detroit is Greektown, and all of Baltimore is just like the Harbor etc. Jax is the only unique moonscape situation; Talk about sugarcoating and demonizing at the same time.

New Orleans is a great example of a city with large amounts of blight, yet you don't see it leveling entire neighborhoods. For that I'm thankful, as some of my favorite places in New Orleans (Freret St before Tulane, Oak St, Carrollton) used to be in very rough shape. Indeed, large portions of Uptown New Orleans still are. However, either through lack of money or lack of will, structures (many in AWFUL) condition still stand and *do* end up getting rehabilitated and reused. New Orleans *has* a Warehouse District, just a couple years ago an "urban wasteland", where old warehouses are now condos selling for upwards of $300/sqft. If that city had torn down every building that got to the state the Bostwick was a couple years ago (who knows how bad a shape it's in now), there wouldn't be much of the city left even without Katrina.

[Ocklawaha]

EXACTLY JF!

I 10.  Most of your posts have something to do with how people for urban development 'hate' the suburbs.

This imaginary argument, while at least having the extra benefit of being uninteresting, doesn't explain why such an advocate of the suburbs never spends any time posting about the suburban areas you claim to like.

Why is that?

The many MJers who say things like, "great Nordstrom's chose the SJTC over downtown" and keep reinterating on how the layout sucks, awful traffic etc" obviously do hate the burbs; I dunno what's so imaginary about that.

STJTC has a horrible layout, Lack of canopies mean shoppers either get wet or swelter in the sun, acres of parking lots without a comprehensive sidewalk system often leads people to dart between cars, and drives to get from one area to another.  The add on shopping plaza's are no different then the 1950's vintage Cedar Hills Shopping Center, only newer. So in my book is STJTC evil? Of course the shopping area isn't evil, in fact the shopping center has some nice stores.  STJTC could have done a much better job of laying out pedestrian access and mass transit services.

Just as an example, ever notice that just east of the TC there is a north-south high tension power line right of way? BRT from JTB or Beach?  How about a circulator streetcar such as the ones at The Grove in Southern California?  You constantly misread what some of us are saying, you seem to believe we think that Jacksonville is bad because it has a huge sprawling mall, or that the mall doesn't have a streetcar, or we don't have IKEA downtown.  It's more like The Grove has a streetcar so WHY NOT JACKSONVILLE??  Hey, cool idea, let's open a streetcar and an IKEA.  Honestly as planners, I think our take on this is far more optimistic then your apologies for us pointing out new and yes, sometimes better ideas? This places you in the uncomfortable  position of defending the status quo and inaction.

Lastly what is this about hating the burbs? I LIVE in WGV!