SPARK District Urban Arts Live Work Proposal

[Metro Jacksonville]

SPARK District Urban Arts Live Work Proposal



When Bill Killingsworth---the brilliant Urban Planner and visionary who created the Mobility Plan--- was piecing together the elements for creating downtown as a bona fide 'arts district' (which came to be called the "SPARK district") one of the most important elements was to provide affordable live/work space for the creative community.  He put together the Urban Arts Initiative to do just that.  Join us after the jump for the details of his startling forward thinking proposal.

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2014-sep-spark-district-urban-arts-live-work-proposal

[sheclown]

The thing that really sticks out to me is how smart and in tune Killingsworth was while Planning Director.  The City doesn't lack for brilliant people, good ideas, or the raw talent to make things happen, it seriously lacks leadership and suffers from some terribly asinine bureaucracy.

Yes, he made preservation possible in this town with the mothball ordinance.

[thelakelander]

Why is it called the "SPARK district"?

When Bill and the Planning Department first drew a map of the arts institutions (the florida theatre, the MoCA, the Symphony, the Library) and drew lines between them it looked like a kind of sparking electrical connection to them.  They also wanted the district to "spark" a cultural renaissance in the city itself.

The name stuck, and in fact the One Spark Festival was named after the district, not the other way around.

Further discussion concerning the bolded statement can be found at this location:

www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,22599.msg390414/topicseen.html#new

[GoldenEst82]

What demographic of artist is this targeted to?
The needs for a young, single artist would be very different than someone like me, who has a family.
With those differences in mind, how are they defining "affordable"?

[CityLife]

The thing that really sticks out to me is how smart and in tune Killingsworth was while Planning Director.  The City doesn't lack for brilliant people, good ideas, or the raw talent to make things happen, it seriously lacks leadership and suffers from some terribly asinine bureaucracy.

Yes, he made preservation possible in this town with the mothball ordinance.

He is a genius.  I think it was one of the really significant blunders of the Brown Administration to not keep him around.

Mayor Brown terminated him and then he got the state level equivalent of his COJ position at the Department of Economic Opportunity. Would be like Mayor Brown losing the mayoral race and turning around and winning the governorship. HUGE blunder from Brown.