Next Batch of Cities for Comparison Articles

[thelakelander]

Yeah, it looks like a lot is going on in urban Cincinnati.  Hopefully, I can get a couple of photographs of successful ideas that could be put to use in Jacksonville.

[9a is my backyard]

Lake if we're going to stay in this Transit Race, a shot of each Amtrak station, road and track side if possible may help our own designs. Interior shots are good to. We need to see every multi-modal station as well as all of the older stations, as THEY were designed for huge crowds.

Y'all just remember, "our train is coming..."

OCKLAWAHA

That's a part of the plan.  In fact, I'll be using transit to access and transfer between modes in larger city's intermodal centers.

Great plan!  It'll be interesting to see how each city stacks up against one another and see what works and what doesn't.  You're quite the road warrior Lake.

[thelakelander]

Alright folks, have fun.  Hopefully, my next post will be sometime tomorrow morning with my initial reactions after exploring urban Lexington, KY.

[reednavy]

Hopefully you'll do a piece on Midtown Atlanta.
Birmingham should be interesting.
I'm really waiting for Nashville, since I helped out. However, I will caution you, next week is CMA Music Festival 2009, so expect a very crowded downtown between the 11th and 14th.

[nicktooch]

http://www.bizjournals.com/edit_special/80.html

thought this was interesting in terms of growing cities to watch... towards the end of the article it names big gainers in population in the next decades... oh and jax is mentioned once.

[reednavy]

Those numbers are seriously skewed.

[Ocklawaha]

LAKELANDER, NOTE. Amtrak passed new rules on photography, thanks in part to the "Homeland Security Gang." The bottom line is unless you get premission from the STATION MASTER anyone taking photos from the platform will be subject to investigation. So make sure you ASK FIRST, if the answer is no, go to neutral ground to get your photos. The rule aparently does not apply to inside the stations, or the stations themselves, just the platform and train boarding area.

Picking up a copy of the new "TRAINS MAGAZINE" will give you a double page map that shows all sorts of targets in the old Antracite Coal area of lower Pennsylvania. Anyone that could send you to the former Lehigh and New England, or the New York, Ontario and Western facilities would be doing history a big favor. They both died about 1960, and both were HUGE, shocking abandonments. Scranton - Binghampton are the biggies of rail in the historic area. Another that you will cross and offers trips is the "WILD MARY" AKA: Western Maryland Railroad. You can ride it from Cumberland, up through the water gap. BEAUTIFUL, STUNNING scenes of the mountains.

OCKLAWAHA

[Coolyfett]

dang, all those cities will be better than ours.

I wouldnt say that, I see 12 out of 20 cities on the list with NO NFL team, not everyone is better than Jax on the list.

Lake, dude do you really have enough time? It would seen one would need more time to get a fair critic of all these places. A lot of hidden gems get overlooked when visiting as a tourist, know what I mean?

[JeffreyS]

nichtooch Interesting article. If Jax is right at 2mil in 15 years Governor Gridlock may have us willing to pay any price for mass transit.

[Ocklawaha]

Lake, just noted your journey into Cincinnati...

Wow, man

DON'T MISS C-U-T, Cincinnati Union Terminal, this is a world renown art deco palace. Shapped like a giant RADIO of the 1930's it is perhaps the most incredible design of a train station in the country, at least of that era. It's a MUST SEE! Trust me my urban planning friend, you'll be amazed!

OCKLAWAHA

[thelakelander]

I enjoyed the couple of hours I spent in downtown Lexington this morning.  Its great to see what has come online in the last five years (my last photo visit).  Common observations that apply to Jax.

1. Lexington's convention center is about the same size as the Prime Osborn.  However, it has a Hyatt directly attached to it.  It also has skywalks that connect it to another hotel and an urban mall across the street.  There's also a nice urban park with fountains and shade in the middle of everything.

2. That urban mall is a block wide collection of victorian era commercial buildings connected with an enclosed interior block common area.

3. Lots of people on the street at a RAM-like farmer's market.

4. Their courthouse complex has a nice linear greenspace in front of it. It has seating areas and a couple of water features.  The concept would be a nice thing to do with the front of our courthouse project.

5. It always helps to have a major university near downtown.  There's lots of new residential urban infill.

Hopefully you'll do a piece on Midtown Atlanta.
Birmingham should be interesting.
I'm really waiting for Nashville, since I helped out. However, I will caution you, next week is CMA Music Festival 2009, so expect a very crowded downtown between the 11th and 14th.

Good.  I like crowds.

Lake, dude do you really have enough time? It would seen one would need more time to get a fair critic of all these places. A lot of hidden gems get overlooked when visiting as a tourist, know what I mean?[/color]

Outside of Nashville and Huntsville, I've already been to the rest of the cities on the first road trip list multiple times.  However, I'm not really trying to be a fair critic.  All I try to do with the Elements of Urbanism series is expose Jacksonville residents and officials to what peer city urban environments look like.  Through the series, the hope is that you'll find a load of good and bad examples from places that may have already dealt with many issues we face in Jacksonville today.

In Lexington, the convention center, a network of bike lanes in the urban core, pocket park planning and the courthouse square concepts really stand out.

Alright, on to Cincinnati.

[reednavy]

I've said it many times to people here before, Nashville is the best city we need to look at for urbanism. As of the last 10 years, everythign has been going good and the past 3 mayors, current included, have really focused attention to land at least one large project for downtown. Bredesen, current governor, got the Sommet Center, LP Field and the Titans. Purcell got downtown on the move by getting old laws either thrown out or adjusted to make a downtown a true destination with the housing and commercial space boom. Now, Dean is working to get the new covention center, with which the land purchasing has been voted yes on the 3rd reading and will begin soon.

[vicupstate]

Lake, just noted your journey into Cincinnati...

Wow, man

DON'T MISS C-U-T, Cincinnati Union Terminal, this is a world renown art deco palace. Shapped like a giant RADIO of the 1930's it is perhaps the most incredible design of a train station in the country, at least of that era. It's a MUST SEE! Trust me my urban planning friend, you'll be amazed!

OCKLAWAHA

I have seen this station. It is worth a visit.  It is some distance from DT as I recall (but not TOO far).  It has been converted  into a collection of museums all under one roof.

[tufsu1]

LAKELANDER, NOTE. Amtrak passed new rules on photography, thanks in part to the "Homeland Security Gang." The bottom line is unless you get premission from the STATION MASTER anyone taking photos from the platform will be subject to investigation. So make sure you ASK FIRST, if the answer is no, go to neutral ground to get your photos. The rule aparently does not apply to inside the stations, or the stations themselves, just the platform and train boarding area.

maybe I should have read this before taking pics at Sante Fe terminal in San Diego today :-)

[Coolyfett]

Outside of Nashville and Huntsville, I've already been to the rest of the cities on the first road trip list multiple times.  However, I'm not really trying to be a fair critic.  All I try to do with the Elements of Urbanism series is expose Jacksonville residents and officials to what peer city urban environments look like.  Through the series, the hope is that you'll find a load of good and bad examples from places that may have already dealt with many issues we face in Jacksonville today.

I gotcha.