My Afternoon Walk Along Hogans Creek

[Mathew1056]

If you live in Springfield, or spend anytime in the neighborhood, you may recognize these images. The following pictures were taken along Hogans Creek, in Springfield and Klutho Park, to be exact. These parks are central to the downtown and the historic neighborhood of Springfield. It is one of the few places a Springy can go and be in public. I've met many of my neighbors in these parks. This is why I'm venting my frustration on Metro today. For something so iconic and central to a neighborhood the parks are in deplorable condition. Beside the periodic mow, no effort seems to be made to improve the overall condition. Trash accumulates under the bridges. Paths are covered by overgrowth. Sidewalk networks lead to nowhere. This asset should be the main tool used to lure people into this transitioning community. I'm not calling on some multi-million dollar plan to improve facilities, I'm talking edging the freaking paths and trash pick-up. This is short-term stuff. Stuff that citizens should not tolerate for any given period of time.


I should know this, but who is in charge of park maintenance? Parks and Recreation? Do they contract out to a third party property manager? Regardless of the bureaucracy, anyone maintaining any piece of land should be required to do just that. Is skimping on edging saving the city that much money? There has to be hidden cost to neglecting something the city invested money into in the first place. Take into account that the first time the path is cleared will be the most strenuous, but once it is done upkeep will not be that difficult. It's not Springfield's fault that someone let overgrowth take over. And how about picking up under the bridges.

The bridges are a story in themselves. Was the city trying to construct the perfect hobo hide outs? There is even a little sleeping ledge. Not to mention the fact that these perfect homeless hangouts have no lighting, though they do have blank circuitry under them. I assume they had lighting at some point. I have no idea why it would have been removed. At night I avoid the bridges entirely. Not because I'm afraid of getting mugged, I feel completely safe here, it's more out of respect. I don't want to disturb a sleeping homeless person. All I know is that I've walked past my last pile of human feces in that park. Replacing lights, picking up garbage, and edging pathways are easy fixes. The city should be taking it up, but you may just see me down there with a shovel and a trash bag. If the homeless can shit under a bridge I can do yard work in a park.     

[BIG CHEESE 723]

Next visit I make to clean up at the Drew house I might make a small contribution to the clean up at klutho, too. 

[BackinJax05]

Sad. The Hogans Creek "corridor" would make a great park from the river to Shands.

[movedsouth]

I am regularly walking these areas with my dog, and agree with your assessment. There is little the city does to maintain them. Even the trash barrels are often overflowing. About once a year there is a blockcaptain cleanup focusing on the creek, and the river keeper had cleanups in the past (annual?).

The lighting was removed by the homeless sleeping under the bridges to salvage copper. The street lights close to the Broad Street bridge are pretty much permanently disabled after most of the cables connecting them to power where removed. The cables where exposed under the bridge. I think the picture you have is one of the junction boxes.

There is a famous "Greenway" project that should address much of what you suggest (search here, you may find more details in older posts). But I think it is stuck in city confusion land.

I usually try to fill up the grocery bag I have for my dogs "refuse" after she is done. But it can be hard to find an empty trash barrel. Normal weekly trash pickup will not empty park trash barrels. JTA has a pretty well organized pickup for the bus stops but again, they drive by anything else. Then there is a city crew that empties the non-JTA trash containers along the street (if they use a liner). Finally, there is a highly specialized park-trash-barrel emptier crew that may get around once a quarter it seems. Just having the weekly trash pickup empty the trash barrels in the park at times would be helpful.

[TPC]

I play disc golf there on the weekends and I've only seen the park in a somewhat OK condition once and it was just after a large clean up by the River Keepers. Next weekend I was back and the trash and feces started piling up again.

[Mathew1056]

I do think that trash in the park is a systemic problem. No single trash pick-up event is going to fix it. More garbage bins and more frequent emptying of the bins is a start. I don't think the home owners of this neighborhood are the ones trashing the park. It is a transient uneducated group of people. They don't have the mind to pick up a piece of trash that they see on the ground, or in their hand. The easier you make the process the more likely you will see a difference. I'm sure there is some ratio of education level to feet walked to throw away trash. We live in an under educated city. Trash bins need to be everywhere.

[thelakelander]

That park is going to need a "Friends of Hogans Creek" type of citizens group to get it turned around.  The city can't even afford to keep its street lights on and grass mowed, much less make the type of improvements this space needs.

[fieldafm]

That park is going to need a "Friends of Hogans Creek" type of citizens group to get it turned around.  The city can't even afford to keep its street lights on and grass mowed, much less make the type of improvements this space needs.

As someone who has been cleaning up Hogans Creek for three years... I could not agree more.  That being said, who is going to step up?

It's a tiring, frustrating and unforgiving assignment... but I truly believe it will be worth the effort some day. 

[Bill Hoff]

Spar was the applicant for, but was not awarded,  a federal grant last year that would have employed a dedicated advocate for the Hogans Creek park system. COJ is applying for a feasability grant for Hogans Creek, as I understand it. As someone mentioned,  Spar organizes a community clean up project in the park about once a year, and once in a while another non-profit will organize a clean up in the creek

Concerning the park itself, the greenscape is fine. Lots of green grass and space people use on a regular basis. Trash accumulates in the creek and near the bridges, where homeless often camp. Also, the path (and obviously the ballustrades) along the creek needs major work. There's several park nodes following the creek, and each is unique in their condition and needs.

[strider]

I believe at least part of the issue is that the creek itself needs cleaned up and not much else will happen (improvements) until then.  The Army Corp of engineers is, I believe, in charge of at least part of that clean up.  They have done tests (test wells) and several plans have been shown to the public, but I think funding and just how to go about doing the cleanup is slowing things down,.  The recent posts about how the owners of the Park View Inn are being asked to contribute to the cleanup of the coal gasification issues is part of all this. There should be at least one thread about this somewhere.

The park needs action, not just advocacy and feasibility studies.  Like happened to stop demolitions in Springfield,  a group is needed to fight for the parks.

[BackinJax05]

I do think that trash in the park is a systemic problem. No single trash pick-up event is going to fix it. More garbage bins and more frequent emptying of the bins is a start. I don't think the home owners of this neighborhood are the ones trashing the park. It is a transient uneducated group of people. They don't have the mind to pick up a piece of trash that they see on the ground, or in their hand. The easier you make the process the more likely you will see a difference. I'm sure there is some ratio of education level to feet walked to throw away trash. We live in an under educated city. Trash bins need to be everywhere.

Good points. Unfortunately trash bins everywhere aren't going to stop the bums from sh tt ng wherever they please. And with the city going broke thanks to Alvinomics, who is going to pay for the bins, put them in place, and empty them regularly?

[movedsouth]

Trash bins will not help with the root cause, people littering. But they will make it easier for others to help clean it up. Sad, but the next best thing.

There is (was?) a Springfield "Friends of the Park" group that emerged out of the disk golf effort.

Some links about the greenway project:
http://www.downtownjacksonville.org/locations/l-422-hogans-creek-greenway.aspx

Friends of Hogans Creek Greenway Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-the-Hogans-Creek-Greenway/125312910874474

[movedsouth]

And here a plan that indicates a 12ft path was funded for FY 08/09:
http://www.coj.net/departments/office-of-economic-development/docs/downtown-development/dtactionplanfinalpdf121807.aspx

Hogan’s Creek Improve Connections from the Emerald Necklace to the River and Upland Activity Nodes


Construct - Phase I of Hogan’s Creek Greenway is the design and construction of a 12 foot wide multi-purpose path (funded), lighting, pavilions, landscaping, tables, benches, and trash receptacles along the east side of Hogan’s Creek from 8th Street to Market Street.
FY 08/09

Phase II of Hogan’s Creek Greenway is the design and construction of a 12 foot wide multi-purpose path, lighting, pavilions, landscaping, tables, benches, and trash receptacles along the east/west side from Union Street to the Northbank Riverwalk. (property acquisition not included)
2009-2011

Design and Engineering - Phase III of Hogan’s Creek is the Ecosystem Restoration of an area that has been contaminated, and subject to flooding for decades. This will include the dredging of Hogan’s Creek to remove sediments that have been deposited over the years; create 13.3 acres of restored wetlands with a littoral shelf to help treat the water (reduce the effects of pollutants and sedimentation and remove exotic plant species, debris, pipes, and non-historical structures).
2010-2012

Construction - Phase III Hogan’s Creek Ecosystem Restoration

[movedsouth]

The "adopted Capital Improvement Plan" shows that there is a total of about $1M allocated to Hogans Creek Greenway, and about $900k of which haven't been spent yet.

But don't get excited about all this... this is the City of Jacksonville and there may be a hole in the court house roof that the money will be used to plug. So its probably safe to have some meetings, ask for input but avoid doing anything.

Page 74 here:
https://www.coj.net/getattachment/Departments/Finance/Budget/Capital-Improvement-Plans/Full-CIP-PDF-for-publication-web.pdf.aspx

[MusicMan]

I was enjoying reading this thought provoking thread until I read the sentence, courtesy of BACKINJAX05,
"And with the city going broke thanks to Alvinomics..."

Are you ingnorant, poorly informed, or just a partisan hack? Are you saying Mayor brown inhereited a city budget with surpluses as far as the eye could see, but somehow immediately plunged us into defecit? For Christ's sake, like Obama he inherited a complete cluster f%%k of an economic situation, and has been more truthful and creative in his budgetary problem solving than previous Mayor's Peyton and Delaney combined.