The Thirteen Moves That Destroyed Downtown

[thelakelander]

Well no doubt your confusion stems from reading your own post as opposed to the original article (which makes no specific mention of fairfield) here: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2016-jun-the-thirteen-moves-that-destroyed-downtown/page/4 

The original article said "Stadium District". That's basically the 19th century suburbs of Fairfield and East Jacksonville, roughly bounded by Commodores Point, the river, Hogans Creek and SR 115. Union Terminal Warehouse and Maxwell House fall outside of that. Doro, JSI, SJRSC, Commodores Point fall in it but these were not black owned entities or even surrounded by historically black neighborhoods.

So my interest in this particular point was the mentioning of a specifically "black" industrial area being demolished for sports activities that helped destroy downtown. What were some of the company's kicked out and when? What was the district's main street or products produced? With a little direction, I can pull and post sanborn maps and historical aerials for various decades.

[Overstreet]

Fine...........but what about the suburban mall/shopping center? Gateway, Regency, Emerson (forgot name),and countless smaller shopping centers eliminated the  reason to go downtown to shop.  I know that we never went down town again in the 50s after the shopping centers moved to our neighboring areas in Indianapolis.

[thelakelander]

^Those malls opened 25 to 30 years before the stores started closing in downtown. In fact guess what opened before Ivey's built its 6-story department store in downtown in 1962? Gateway in 1959, Philips in 1960, Cedar Hills and Roosevelt Square in 1961. Looking at suburban malls and saying they killed downtown retail is an easy out. The true answer is somewhat more complicated and includes a lot of moving parts. The region's population grew rapidly as the suburban malls were coming online. Growth in the city had slowed but there was enough market for all of them...downtown included. However, downtown's environment also became pretty hostile to the end user during this era. Changes included streetcars being eliminated in 1936, parking meters installed all over downtown in 1948 and tolls coming with the Fuller Warren, Mathews and Hart bridges in the 1950s and 60s. In short, coming downtown and getting around became a pain in the ass.

In 1962, WJXT did a survey of area shopping habits. That year, 55% of the local population preferred downtown, while 45% preferred the burbs. By 1970, it had flipped to 25% downtown and 75% burbs. 97% of the respondents claimed free parking. They also preferred the burbs for small item purchases (clothes, linens, etc.) and downtown for large purchases (appliances, furniture, etc.).

During this same period of time, the industry along the waterfront and most of its jobs, disappeared when the wharfs were razed for surface parking. Freigh rail operations and associated warehouses, markets, etc. were relocated in the late 50s to make way for Sears Cadillac Store. The train station, once a major employer in downtown with 2,500 workers, flat out closed in the early 70s. So not only is getting downtown a pain in the ass, thousands who made good money in downtown were not working and spending money in the same area when their industries were relocated. Then by the 1980s, retail trends had completely changed from what they were in the early 20th century. New department stores were a fraction of size of the 4, 5, 6-story flagship stores operating in aging buidings downtown. Sears relocated to Regency in 1981. Levy's and Furchgotts closed in 1984, JCPenney and Ivey's in 1985 and finally May-Cohens in 1987. By the time May-Cohens closed, they were operating the store on one floor of a 4-story, 300,000-square-foot building.

Nevertheless, guess what else was dying at the time downtown's flagship stores were closing......all those suburban malls that opened in the 1950s and 60s (excluding Regency of course).

[Ocklawaha]

I would modify the graphic with the railroads to reflect the following:

1955 - 7 passenger routes -   4 local freight and passenger railroads,  5 including terminal company
1963 - 7 passenger routes -   4 local freight and passenger railroads,  5 including terminal company became 6 passenger routes after FEC strike.
1966 - 6 passenger routes -   4 local freight and passenger railroads,  5 including terminal company Southern Railway cut the last train Royal Palm
1967 - 6 passenger routes -   4 local freight and passenger railroads,  5 including terminal company
MERGER OF THE ACL AND SAL TO FORM SCL
1968 - 5 passenger routes -   4 local freight and passenger railroads,  5 including terminal company FEC ends all passenger service
1969 - 5 passenger routes -   3 local freight and passenger railroads,  4 including terminal company
1971 - 4 passenger routes -   3 local freight railroads, 4 including terminal company. Amtrak joined the ranks of operating companies as the sole passenger carrier
1974 - 4 passenger routes -   3 local freight railroads + Amtrak. Terminal company closes
1976 - DISTANT MERGER FORMS CONRAIL IN THE NORTHEAST AND MIDWEST FROM THE: Penn Central (formerly the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads) and Erie Lackawanna, Ann Arbor, Lehigh Valley, Reading, Central Railroad of New Jersey, Lehigh and Hudson River and Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Lines
1979 - 3 passenger routes -   3 local railroads + Amtrak. Amtrak cuts service in half.
ALSO
1982 MERGER OF SCL'S FAMILY LINES Louisville & Nashville, Seaboard Coast Line, and Clinchfield into the new Seaboard System Railroad
1986 MERGER OF SEABOARD SYSTEM AND CHESSIE SYSTEM (Chessie System was the former Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, which had merged with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and Western Maryland Railroad) to form CSX, Jacksonville chosen as the HQ city.
1990 MERGER OF SOUTHERN RAILWAY AND NORFOLK AND WESTERN to form NORFOLK SOUTHERN
1993 -  4 passenger routes - 3 local railroads + Amtrak. Amtrak extended the Sunset Limited through Jacksonville.
1997 CSX (of Jacksonville) and NS agree to purchase and divide the assets of CONRAIL.
2004 - 3 passenger routes -  3 local railroads + Amtrak. Amtrak eliminates all service through Ocala on the 'S' LINE.
2005 - 2 Passenger routes -  3 local railroads + Amtrak. Amtrak eliminates the Sunset Route to Los Angeles after Katrina.

You could also add.

1932 - 60 miles of urban railway extending from San Jose to Moncrief and from Yukon to Panama Park, much of it on exclusive right-of-way.
1936 - Last Streetcars ran on December 12

Like Lakelander has stated, I doubt keeping the terminal open would equate to the same or similar activity as in the past. One cause is Amtrak's 45 year track record of doing absolutely ZERO to further advance passenger rail services throughout the country, while continuing a long legacy of cutting trains and services. Amtrak would not use the terminal to split or connect trains as the railroads did until 1969 or as they did in 1971. They also eliminated Postal contracts, and railroad express services as well as sharply cut dinning and lounge car services even closing those facilities at their new Amshack in NW Jacksonville. Meanwhile there are no passenger ships or even many buses to transfer to in the urban core.

Stevedores no longer swarm over docks downtown or anywhere else, most today are highly skilled machine operators who load and unload containers with push button ease. The wharves downtown were almost all wood and were rotting in place, some had in fact already collapsed into the river before the dumb idea to create a massive parking lot. Containerization, not the city, killed them.

Lastly, I would take issue with your contention that Ed Ball started "The most violent labor war." Quite the opposite is actually true. During the Great Depression, control was purchased by heirs of the du Pont family. After 30 years of fragile financial condition, the FEC, under leadership of a new president, Ed Ball, took on the labor unions. Union's were demanding a pay increase from all railroads, but Ball stood firm that the company could not afford the same costs as larger Class 1 railroads and needed to invest saved funds in its infrastructure, fast becoming a safety issue. The FEC hired replacement workers after the workforce walked out. This started what became one of the most violent labor conflicts of the 20th century from 1963 until 1977. What should be crystal clear that the overt acts of violence by a small minority of affected employees reflected poorly on all employees; then as well as now. Deliberately blowing up and derailing trains, shooting at replacement workers was/is never called for. On the day President Johnson was visiting Florida, disgruntled striking employees dynamited two trains, the president ordered federal authorities had to intervene to stop the violence, which included several cases of bombings, shootings and vandalism. However, the courts ruled in the FEC's favor with regard to the right to employ strikebreakers. During this time, Ball invested heavily in numerous steps to improve its physical plant, installed various forms of automation,was the first US Railroad to operate two man train crews, eliminate cabooses and end all of its passenger services (which were unprofitable) by 1968.

Thus not only did Ed Ball save the FEC Railroad, his modernization efforts proved to be a model for the entire national system, Thanks in no small part to his stance, an industry that was flirting with extinction is now a American success story. Today we are watching the FEC teach the world that they believe there is even a future for the passenger train. It will be interesting to see what their ALL ABOARD FLORIDA/BRIGHTLINE project shows us.

[TheGeo35]

Excellent observations. Growing up in the late 70s, 80s into the early 90s I saw all of this happening Downtown. There is so much potential in the city that may never be realized unless people act.

[JacksonvilleRising]

 Epic newsworthiness, fascinating stuff.  Wow.  Blown AWAY by #11. ABSOLUTELY SPEECHLESS on that one...if only they could have seen in that crystal ball!!!!   And #12 is simply confounding.  CONfounding.  Thanks for the rich fodder!

[cindy394]

fascinating- all of it- article and especially the "corrections" and commentary.

[MusicMan]

Good article, lots of info.  Common sense completely absence in the history of downtown "development." 

Other cities have made dramatic turnarounds, can ours?

[manasia]

This was a good read.