Live blogging: Mayor Peyton to announce new downtown plan

[thelakelander]

Anything on the fountain?

Not yet.  He's now talking about a need for Flex Space for future festivals, in regards to Metropolitan Park.

[copperfiend]

I have cautious optimism

[thelakelander]

Picnic shelters, open spaces for families and play areas for a revitalized Kids Kampus.  The fences at Metropolitan Park to also come down to open area up for Flex Space.

[thelakelander]

Although funding for everything is not there, the plan is to phase as the money comes along.

[thelakelander]

The Mayor wants to focus his next two years on developing a community vision for the downtown riverfront.  With a focus on the sites mentioned in previous posts.  He mentioned Chattanooga, Charlotte, Asheville and Norfolk as good examples to follow.

Roadtrip: Chattanooga
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2008-jan-roadtrip-chattanooga

Elements of Urbanism: Charlotte
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2008-aug-elements-of-urbanism-charlotte

Learning from Asheville?
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2007-apr-learning-from-asheville

A Lesson for Jacksonville: Norfolk's Tide Light Rail
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-apr-a-lesson-for-jacksonville-norfolks-tide-light-rail

[thelakelander]

The Mayor has been inspired by the Riverside Arts Market.  He wants our riverfront to be the best.  He is now taking questions.

[thelakelander]

Tri Vu: Thinks the plan is great. He wants to know if the mayor has plans to use the actual river.

[thelakelander]

A lady is know giving the crowd the idea of dragonboat races.

I guess all of these things will be discussed as this community visioning process takes place for the next two years.

[TPC]

He wants Friendship Park to be similar to Millenium Park in Chicago.

Unfortunately the surrounding area is full of office and residential building, where Chicago has dining, shopping, entertainment, etc... surrounding the park.

[thelakelander]

No word on what will happen with the fountain.  From what the Mayor has described, this will probably be determined during a two year visioning plan for the urban riverfront.

[thelakelander]

Now the Mayor is mentioning the convention center issue.  He said that we will not have another hotel the size of the Hyatt come to downtown for a while.

[BridgeTroll]

There was a small article in the most recent ARBUS magazine on an architectural firm that showed a concept of that park... there was a large grassy area where the fountain once was...

I think someone knows something...

[thelakelander]

Tony Allegretti is now throwing the idea of extending the skyway to the shipyards site.  Like the rest of the ideas mentioned, I guess we'll attack this during the visioning process.

[TPC]

I think we need an IKEA downtown, it would bring people to the core.

[thelakelander]

The discussion is now about the Bay Street signalization project.  Long term Peyton believes opening the street grid back up is key.  In the short term, we'll have to work to find ways to accommodate game traffic flow.  Chris Flagg believes the mindset of how we view game evacuation will have to change.