Five Ways To Activate The Northbank's Laura Street

[thelakelander]

Ferris wheels, cranes and entertainment centers in stadium parking lots are nice but there's really no good reason that Downtown Jacksonville should not already have at least one walkable street in the core that's just as vibrant as the main streets found in many of the smaller cities across Florida and the Sunbelt. Here's five steps to bring life to Laura Street.

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/five-ways-to-activate-the-northbanks-laura-street/

[Captain Zissou]

Great article, Ennis.  Question:  I know Lori Boyer was working on downtown zoning changes.  Do those changes make it any easier to have signage and outdoor seating?

[Captain Zissou]

Just a thought.  I don't know tons about Texas Tech or its home, Lubbock, so I googled them this morning.  Here is the description of the city on Google.

Lubbock is a city in northwest Texas known as the birthplace of rock 'n' roll legend Buddy Holly. The Buddy Holly Center celebrates his life and music with artifacts and mementos. Nearby is the West Texas Walk of Fame, with a statue of Holly and plaques honoring musicians from the region. The Museum of Texas Tech University houses millions of objects of art, history and paleontology, plus the Moody Planetarium.

I wasn't alive when Buddy Holly was big, but I'd have to think that our combination of Skynard, Allman Bros, Molly Hatchet, 38 Special, Limp Bizkit, Yellowcard, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Inspection 12 (better than all three prior bands listed), The Black Kids, as well as all the Jazz and Hiphop artists with local roots should warrant a museum, statues, plaques and recognition.  Laura Street would be the perfect place for a southern rock museum, a jazz museum, or a North Florida Hall of Fame. 

[MusicMan]

How about inside The Landing?

[thelakelander]

Just a thought.  I don't know tons about Texas Tech or its home, Lubbock, so I googled them this morning.  Here is the description of the city on Google.

Lubbock is a city in northwest Texas known as the birthplace of rock 'n' roll legend Buddy Holly. The Buddy Holly Center celebrates his life and music with artifacts and mementos. Nearby is the West Texas Walk of Fame, with a statue of Holly and plaques honoring musicians from the region. The Museum of Texas Tech University houses millions of objects of art, history and paleontology, plus the Moody Planetarium.

I wasn't alive when Buddy Holly was big, but I'd have to think that our combination of Skynard, Allman Bros, Molly Hatchet, 38 Special, Limp Bizkit, Yellowcard, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Inspection 12 (better than all three prior bands listed), The Black Kids, as well as all the Jazz and Hiphop artists with local roots should warrant a museum, statues, plaques and recognition.  Laura Street would be the perfect place for a southern rock museum, a jazz museum, or a North Florida Hall of Fame. 

Councilwoman Boyer's visitors center is supposed to have a historic Jax music heritage theme. With that said, I do believe it would be good for both her visitor's center concept and some sort of Jax specific museum to take up space in the Landing. We have 126,000 square feet of vacant commercial space sitting there in public ownership. It would be pretty dumb to raze all of it, instead of using the asset to reduce the cost of a lot of things we say we want but can't afford to build from the ground up.

[thelakelander]

How about inside The Landing?

Here you go: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/10-potential-uses-for-the-jacksonville-landing/

We have 126,000 square feet of vacant commercial space in the heart of the city, anchoring Laura Street. If more green space is desired, wack off half of it and fill the rest with a mix of the type of uses described in this article and you now have established the Landing site as an anchor for a vibrant walkable district in the heart of the city. Turn it into a lawn, and you just created another site for vagrants to hang out in.

[thelakelander]

Great article, Ennis.  Question:  I know Lori Boyer was working on downtown zoning changes.  Do those changes make it any easier to have signage and outdoor seating?

Let me read through the latest version and check.

[MusicMan]

I think we've solved The Landing.....  Put a 'Jacksonville's Own Southern Rock Museum', La Villa Greats of Jazz Interactive Space, 
Jacksonville 'A Navy Town' Theater and museum and , a tribute to The Great Fire and our Architectural Heritage, repro PT Boats offering 30 minute cruises all over the St Johns (where allowed), a 'CSX and the History of the Railroad in Florida' exhibit/theater, revolving tall ships exhibit, a "Tribute to the Blue Angels" Theater, ....... A water taxi picking up and dropping off, FREE with paid admission, over to Friendship Fountain and MOSH....  Under Armour or NIKE Kiosk for Jags and NFL/Players Championship/ attire.... Maybe even a Kraft Foods Kiosk ...

It sure doesn't seem that hard to create a unique Jacksonville Experience. Fill the food court with Black Sheep, Sweet Theory,  a Beer Garden for our local brewers, Southern Roots, LOCALLY founded restaurant offerings..... There are plenty of choices...

That would draw people, complement the TU PAC next door, and be a terrific anchor to Laura Street.

[Kerry]

I think we've solved The Landing.....  Put a 'Jacksonville's Own Southern Rock Museum', La Villa Greats of Jazz Interactive Space, 
Jacksonville 'A Navy Town' Theater and museum and , a tribute to The Great Fire and our Architectural Heritage, repro PT Boats offering 30 minute cruises all over the St Johns (where allowed), a 'CSX and the History of the Railroad in Florida' exhibit/theater, revolving tall ships exhibit, a "Tribute to the Blue Angels" Theater, ....... A water taxi picking up and dropping off, FREE with paid admission, over to Friendship Fountain and MOSH....  Under Armour or NIKE Kiosk for Jags and NFL/Players Championship/ attire.... Maybe even a Kraft Foods Kiosk ...

It sure doesn't seem that hard to create a unique Jacksonville Experience. Fill the food court with Black Sheep, Sweet Theory,  a Beer Garden for our local brewers, Southern Roots, LOCALLY founded restaurant offerings..... There are plenty of choices...

That would draw people, complement the TU PAC next door, and be a terrific anchor to Laura Street.

All great ideas!  Driving down Shad Road the other day I saw a small sign for the Florida Mining Museum of Contemporary Art.  Who the hell knew this was even here and how come it isn't located in more visible location.

http://floridamininggallery.com

[Captain Zissou]

Florida Mining's owner is also the owner of Harbinger Sign and the gallery is housed in the Harbinger offices.  He is the one who restored the Fuel Coffee House building and brought in Bread & Board to 5 points.  He's a huge advocate for the core, so I'm sure he'd love to move it downtown if he could.

[Tacachale]

^Steve Williams. I know he's toyed with an urban core move before, but obviously it's easier for him to host it in a building he's already in charge of. Maybe one day!

[fieldafm]

^Steve Williams. I know he's toyed with an urban core move before, but obviously it's easier for him to host it in a building he's already in charge of. Maybe one day!

Steve has been involved with art galleries in the urban core before. One in Brooklyn (Brooklyn Contemporary Arts Center, since demoed for the widening of Riverside Ave.. which briefly moved to San Marco after the Brooklyn building got knocked down) and one in the Dyal-Upchurch Building on the Northbank.

[Kerry]

There are 4 empty store fronts in 220 Riverside right now....and they are for sale.

[Pastor Eric Wester]

Kerry - Did you put out an invitation a few weeks ago for an informal meet up for JAX Rising (or something like that) as an exploratory move toward a PAC?  I could not make it but, if it was you who issued the invitation, did anything emerge?  I bring that into this thread in that the creative and, from my view, achievable possibilities brainstormed in this forum made me wonder - are there enough political allies to advance alternatives to elected leaders and municipal officials?  The few public statements I have picked up about the Landing seem very short on envisioning what follows the plan to raze what stands now. The possibilities surfaced here seem worth serious consideration. Thanks to all the contributors.

[marcuscnelson]

Kerry - Did you put out an invitation a few weeks ago for an informal meet up for JAX Rising (or something like that) as an exploratory move toward a PAC?  I could not make it but, if it was you who issued the invitation, did anything emerge?  I bring that into this thread in that the creative and, from my view, achievable possibilities brainstormed in this forum made me wonder - are there enough political allies to advance alternatives to elected leaders and municipal officials?  The few public statements I have picked up about the Landing seem very short on envisioning what follows the plan to raze what stands now. The possibilities surfaced here seem worth serious consideration. Thanks to all the contributors.

Hi Eric, I was at that meeting as well. We discussed mostly the concerns of being able to get people informed about and caring about the issues we'd be focusing on. Some of the big questions that came up were of spreading awareness and recruitment. We're still working more on the concept and principles of what we would want to do with this idea.