Urban Parks: Riverside Park

Metro Jacksonville · November 10, 2008, 05:00:00 AM

Urban Parks: Riverside Park

Bordered on the north by Interstate 95, Riverside Park offers 11.39 acres of open space and a diverse range of recreational opportunities in Five Points.

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http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/937

reednavy · November 10, 2008, 10:01:42 AM

The storm that ravaged the park produced this area's highest measured wind gust. 106mph at NAS JAX with severe damage reported.

Jason · November 10, 2008, 10:17:57 AM

Great photo tour.

IMO, the little island in the middle of the pond could use some TLC.

thelakelander · November 10, 2008, 10:24:06 AM

It would be great if the land under I-95 could be regained as park space. Right now, its just wasted dead space that cuts the park off from the Annie Lytle school and area north of the interstate.

Bike Jax · November 10, 2008, 01:21:59 PM

I remember seeing the city's original architectural plans and the entire length under I-95 from the Annie Lytle to the St. Johns was to be park space. It was beautiful on paper. Not sure if that is still happening or not.

That pond in Riverside Park needs some serious maintenance. It is becoming a health hazard.

reednavy · November 10, 2008, 01:23:59 PM

A good bit of it is the nesting and resting birds and ducks shitting everywhere.

thelakelander · November 10, 2008, 01:37:51 PM

Things could have been a lot worse if the expressway authority had their way with it in 1950.

fsujax · November 10, 2008, 02:00:04 PM

Thank God this never happend. I remember the storm that destroyed the tree canopy, Memorial Park was also hit pretty hard. I actually have pictures of me standing on the root structures of some of the old oaks that were uprooted. they were pretty massive.

Ocklawaha · November 10, 2008, 02:15:26 PM

Francis Lytle begs to be a terminal for the Skyway, and the sidewalk leads straight from the steps into 5-Points. With bus-skyway-streetcar running out of PS-4, and a beautiful arbor leading from the terminal to the action. Now just add vendors in the terminal istelf, a mini-craft mall - with food and gift services. Can you imagine the tourist traffic? Can you imagine the re-birth of this corner of the historic city? Can you imagine?
If you can your probably not COJ or FDOT employed, rather a visionary that can touch this future of ours.

OCKLAWAHA

deathstar · November 11, 2008, 01:24:30 AM

Some of my favorite memories as a child growing up in Riverside in the 80's, was going to Riverside & Memorial Parks. Lived off of Forbes, Donald, and even in that pink colored apartment on the corner of Cherry Street.

RiversideGator · November 12, 2008, 12:23:36 AM

Quote from: thelakelander on November 10, 2008, 01:37:51 PM
Things could have been a lot worse if the expressway authority had their way with it in 1950.

That is insane!

Thank goodness that never came to pass. It would have been still better to have I-95 run a bit farther to the east though IMO.

Thanks for the tour of the park.

Keith-N-Jax · November 12, 2008, 12:28:21 AM

Nice park I agree with others, pond and the island needs some TLC.

Jason · November 12, 2008, 07:35:01 PM

I think the island is almost entirely comprised of bird poop.

grimss · April 27, 2009, 10:15:21 PM

I've been doing some digging into RAP's files and discovered that during the Godbold administration, there was a plan afoot to pave over a good deal of Riverside Park to provide surface parking for Five Points. Yikes! It's so interesting to review the old records and see how something we absolutely TREASURE today could have been an afterthought, ready to be sacrificed, in previous eras.

Oh, and there was also a plan to put in a six-lane Riverside Freeway . . .

lindab · April 28, 2009, 08:00:49 AM

Quote
Quote from: Ocklawaha on November 10, 2008, 02:15:26 PM
Francis Lytle begs to be a terminal for the Skyway, and the sidewalk leads straight from the steps into 5-Points. With bus-skyway-streetcar running out of PS-4, and a beautiful arbor leading from the terminal to the action. Now just add vendors in the terminal istelf, a mini-craft mall - with food and gift services. Can you imagine the tourist traffic? Can you imagine the re-birth of this corner of the historic city? Can you imagine?
If you can your probably not COJ or FDOT employed, rather a visionary that can touch this future of ours.

Yes, I can imagine it. Instead of just imagining, I spoke three times to transportation officials. FDOT and JTA just looked at me like I was crazy. Restore a dilapidated historic building - we'd rather go somewhere and tear down a historic building! The MPO (renamed TPO) wants new headquarters. Their leaders want to stick it in Lavilla and build a new building to house it. I asked them to consider ANNIE Lytle, PS#4. For the cost of building new in Lavilla they could rehab the school, save a historic building, and be in the very center of things in Riverside. The staff loved the idea; decision makers not so much.

Annie Lytle school just sits, a prime candidate for stimulus money to make her a pride and glory for Riverside.