Redeveloping Hemming Plaza

[L.P. Hovercraft]

So the plan is to eventually remove all the mature shade trees (from a park...surrounded by asphalt...in Florida) and replace with low growing shrubs to preserve sight lines for security cameras?  All for only half a million dollars??  WTF?!? 
That is just infuriatingly bug nuts crazy.  Someone--Mayor Brown, City Council, Metro Jacksonvillians with torches and pitchforks--needs to put the kibosh on this "idea".

[tufsu1]

The plan calls for removing 32 trees....I plan to visit the park tonight and count to see how many are there currently

[KenFSU]

The plan calls for removing 32 trees....I plan to visit the park tonight and count to see how many are there currently

Just based on a rough Google Earth count I just did, 32 trees would basically equate to flattening the entire park.

If there are more than 32 trees in the plaza, it's not by much.

[wsansewjs]

I can clearly say that the sub committee members lack common sense, and may I push further to say they are stupid and ignorance as well?

Good riddance! Save the bloody trees! That's how I REMEMBER Hemming Plaza!

-Josh

[CityLife]

I was just in the park snapping a few pictures to show how many homeless are in the plaza during art walk and how many are there on a regular day at the same time. Gonna go back tommorow for those shots and will post them.

Didn't count all the trees, but I suspect 32 is at least 75% of all trees.

[Noone]

The plan calls for removing 32 trees....I plan to visit the park tonight and count to see how many are there currently

I've been wanting to do that as well. The circumfrence on these trees should also be included in the data. Some serious pruning maybe but not the total removal.

[Fallen Buckeye]

Honestly, I think that there are higher priorities right now than fixing Hemming Park. It is ok for now. Wouldn't that $100,000 be better spent on actually addressing the root causes of our homelessness problem or helping our libraries stay open or making improvements to infrastructure that actually creates jobs? I say that any low or no cost improvements that you can do such as partnering with the Garden Club or teaming up with MOCA/UNF to create public art would be great, but we would be fine without a lot of these changes that supposedly improve the park.

[thelakelander]

+1.  Low cost programming should be the solution for right now.

[tufsu1]

so there were homeless people in the park this evening...and guess what...you basically couldn't tell....why...becuase there were lots of other people there

Folks....the park needs just three things....programming, programming, and programming!!!

[tufsu1]

oh...now this is getting good....

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/403455/steve-patterson/2012-04-04/jacksonville-panel-considers-outside-help-hemming

[ronchamblin]

Looks like the next Hemming Park meeting is to be at 10:00 a.m. on the 18th of April in the Davis room at city hall.  All interested persons are invited.  Therefore, if anyone wants to convey their opinions about the trees and the removable tables etc, the 18th will be the time.  I will probably not attend the meeting, as I've sort of washed my hands of the issue at the meetings. I will however, send an email or two to Denise Lee and a couple of others who are concerned about the park issue.

[Noone]

Legislation is now being introduced to allow 4 hour parking around City Hall.

[Ocklawaha]

MEDELLINS 'Hemming Plaza' back in the day, Bolivar Park.


Bolivar  Park circa 1940



Bolivar park before a popular artist movement overran the park. Yes it DID GET NASTY, then the city conceded.


Bolivar Park today, one driver of Colombia's red hot tourism, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS when Dead-Girls-Don't-Dance's idea is extrapolated out to it's fullest.


Today the city proudly shows off the park and you'll get polite smiles if you mention 'that band of hippies that took over'.



One of my favorites in Medellin, The Park of Lights, a stark concrete plaza with fountains and 75' high spires.


A view across the fountain.


The stunning park bursts to life at night drawing crowds from around the world.


Fountains, did I mention fountains? We have one muy grande, and one pequeno in Hemming Plaza.


Medellin has several too, and EVERY ONE OF THEM would be well worth a short trip off I-95, just saying. The animated cartoon figures and holographic images debued to tens of thousands of enthusiastic spectators, “Vida” is located in front of the EPM building, Colombia’s largest utilities provider. Vida’s elaborate multi-colored lights and next-generation fountain dancing capabilities were showcased during a real-time, highly synchronized live orchestral performance celebrating “Los Alumbrados,” South America’s “Festival of Lights.” Vida continues to be a major tourist draw throughout the continent.

But then there is Hemming Plaza:

Remove the trees
Remove the furniture
Remove the life
Remove the park
God forbid that Jacksonville would want people in the park.

BTW, aren't many of those people "the wrong color?"Maybe they just smell bad? Sounds like a swift butt kicking from the local NAACP or a charity collation, Sierra Club? might be in order, shall I call, or will some of you? I think WE ALL KNOW what is going on here.

We need to get all these minorities out-a-here so we can bring in "OUR" people!




TUFSU1 Here ya go, sorry for the silence, been at the VA all afternoon. UGGH.

the big problem here is that the loudest voices on the commmittee were those concerned about "safety and security"

Taking down trees so cameras have good sight lines....really?  Police state anyone?

[dougsandiego]

The photographs of the tree canopied plaza look inviting to me. I notice that at least one-museum fronts the park, as well. While anti-vagrancy laws can be enforced, it seems like greater success will come from adding vendors, cafes, and cultural events. Maintaining the landscape and keeping the plaza free of rubbish are equally important. I certainly think that trees should be removed only if they are ready to come down of their own accord.

Actually, San Diego is attempting to redo the much smaller Horton Plaza. It is a small, Victorian era park (soon to be enlarged) that suffers the same problems ascribed to Hemming Plaza. The project went through a public outreach over the course of about nine-months. I attended several meetings/workshops/presentations. The final plan includes a cafe, additional fountain, ArtsTix booth (sells same day, 1/2 price tickets to local cultural offerings), new restrooms, restoration of the original part of the park amd its fountain to Secretary of the Interior Standards, and a promise by the owners of the adjacent Horton Plaza Shopping Center to activate the park with events more than 200 days per year (I've gotta see this?!). There will be both hardscape and landscape, much like Hemming Plaza. Finally, the architectural torcheres with special lighting, and the interactive fountain are supposed to also enliven the space.

Centre City Development Corporation is in the process of trying to raise the budget shortfall; about $2 million.

You can see the renderings on the home page at: ccdc.com.

It seems like Jacksonville misses the "public participation" part of the equation?

[KenFSU]

Here are a few pics and a brief video I snapped last time I was in Bryant Park, for reference.

Such an unbelievably beautiful park.

One thing it does have in common with Hemming Plaza is that is partially anchored by the main New York Public Library.