Lost Jacksonville: The Theater District

[stjr]

One thing San Diego has that I think might help Jacksonville are city recognized community planning groups elected by the citizens in each planning area. Projects for a said community are vetted by the citizens. A vote is held to recommend denial or approval. (These are projects that do not conform to the adopted community plan.) City planning liaison staff are available to provide information at the meetings which are held monthly in each planning area. If a project fails to pass muster, it is returned to the city to be re-worked. The city council can over ride, but I have not heard of this happening for many years. I believe there are approximately 54 planning groups in the city. They have been around for + or - 30 years.

The above is a great idea and should not only be considered in Jacksonville/Duval County, but throughout Florida and maybe the entire U.S.  I hope someone on this board with input into such an idea can run with it to the powers that be.

San Diego's idea should be forwarded to the Charter Revision Committee under way.  Any volunteers?

[grimss]

I'm a big believer in the "echoic" effect of history, as so beautifully defined in Peter Ackroyd's master work, "London."  Essentially (as he explains it), the ground on which we tread is saturated with the footsteps, and character, and personalities of those who came before us--and, in surprising ways, those initial imprints still influence the personality of these sites, however altered, today.  Look at Riverside, where so much of the early, amazing structures were destroyed, and yet the character of what was then Jacksonville's most urban--and yet urbane and eclectic--neighborhood still bleeds through to today.  What was energetic and artistic and extravagant then is, on the same spot, still echoing today.

BTW, RAP has started a new http://www.riversideavondale.org/that sort of mimics this notion that "you can't appreciate where you live today without knowing where you're stepping," although it's not so inelegantly stated.

[grimss]

Okay, didn't get the link quite right. Meant to say the RAP has started a new series called Backyard Treasures that tries to get people to make historic connections to the places they see everyday.

[finehoe]

it has successfully filtered out anyone who would rather not live in a cultural wasteland with no identity

How very true.  I know that's why I left.

[DavidWilliams]

it has successfully filtered out anyone who would rather not live in a cultural wasteland with no identity

How very true.  I know that's why I left.

I wouldn't go that far. I don't think it is a cultural wasteland with no identity. There is quite a bit of culture if sought. Hope you are happy where you are currently.

[stjr]

it has successfully filtered out anyone who would rather not live in a cultural wasteland with no identity

How very true.  I know that's why I left.

I wouldn't go that far. I don't think it is a cultural wasteland with no identity. There is quite a bit of culture if sought. Hope you are happy where you are currently.

I take the term "cultural wasteland with no identity" as a relative term.

Compared to other cities that are the age of Jacksonville and that were blessed with far less quality and/or quantity of historic structures than us, yes, we have wiped a great deal of our "cultural identity" off the map.  Jax could have easily been a Charleston or Savannah or on par with the historic district of any city in the U.S.  But sadly, both quantitatively and qualitatively most of it has been destroyed.

The worst part, we continue to destroy what little history is left with no outcry from our civic leadership.  We need to recognize that the best representation of our culture is our history.

[Dog Walker]

One thing San Diego has that I think might help Jacksonville are city recognized community planning groups elected by the citizens in each planning area. Projects for a said community are vetted by the citizens. A vote is held to recommend denial or approval. (These are projects that do not conform to the adopted community plan.) City planning liaison staff are available to provide information at the meetings which are held monthly in each planning area. If a project fails to pass muster, it is returned to the city to be re-worked. The city council can over ride, but I have not heard of this happening for many years. I believe there are approximately 54 planning groups in the city. They have been around for + or - 30 years.

The above is a great idea and should not only be considered in Jacksonville/Duval County, but throughout Florida and maybe the entire U.S.  I hope someone on this board with input into such an idea can run with it to the powers that be.

San Diego's idea should be forwarded to the Charter Revision Committee under way.  Any volunteers?

The Florida Hometown Democracy amendment to the Florida Constitution does this very thing.  It makes the public approve or disapprove any changes to the comprehensive plans of each city.

[simms3]

As in the case of the Prime Osborn Convention Center, the number of volunteers who flocked in to help with the Florida Theater was amazing and heartwarming.

These structures did not have to die, and the people of Jacksonville mourned them as they came down.

I was the last real occupant of the Arcade/Center theater.  It was owned by an absentee landlord who lived in New York.   He refused to put a dime into the building, which he bought at tax sale, despite the considerable fortune that he had amassed, first as a lawyer then as a judge.

The original elements of the building were all intact, from the nearly priceless Tiffany demi Globes that lit the ceiling, to the red silk brocade of the original wall coverings.

The bathrooms were inspirational, as they were done in original italian marble and had sculpted fountains in both of them.

I had my first magazine there in 1986-1987.  Brian Leisegang of Filter (and the other half of Nine Inch Nails) and the unspeakably annoying future publisher of Movement Magazine, Max Michaels lived with me briefly at the building.

Kema De Sagrada, the noted librarian at the Main Branch, Bill Cowan the owner of Big Shiny Shoes (the first new shop in the Five Points renovations) and many others all worked there at some point or another.

Downtown was still a city then, and the streets were literally full of people the entire day.   Hemming Park had been fatally wounded by the Gilmore era renovations, but the Landing was in the final phases of Construction so no one realized that the retail was on its way out forever.

The foundations for its destruction had already been laid.

The owner of the Carling was in the process of getting screwed over by the city over similar water connection issues faced by Cameron Kuhn, the parking division was getting revved up, and absentee landlords were beginning to be more common.

The old guys like Joe LaRose and the Cohen family, and Bernie Etlinger and so many long time downtowners were pessimistic.  But they wouldnt lower their rents when the vacancies happened.

The real estate agent who leased the Center/Arcade Theater was an interesting woman  by the name of Gerri Jones.  She'd made a name for herself by being a female pilot who showed her prospective clients properties from the air.

After we left the Arcade, she leased part of my space to Eddie Cotton and Pretty Boy Freud.   They used my old production room as their band practice space.

After that, she sickened and died with cancers of the breast and brain.

And after that, no one looked after the Arcade again.

It 'fell' just as the city wanted to tear the building down for a parking lot, the victim of powdery bricks and neglect.

Interesting story.  Almost hard to read.  Can we have a new slogan that forbids any praise of any mayor who presided over any destruction of downtown?  Some of it was inevitable because every city faced it, but is there a mayor since the 40s who was actually pro-downtown and opposed to any demolition?  They all think they did something great, but none of them have anything significant named after them and Jacksonville is still a small town.  If one of them had been so great, the city would have a memorial for that mayor by now and the city would just be a lot more significant.

[mtraininjax]

Pretty Boy Freud

Wow, now that was a few years ago. WOW!

[lawmn1717]

Unbelievable!  Who is responsible for the atrocities that were committed on this city?  Are they still at it? Is it the same freakin people that want to do away with our music concerts at Metro park?  Oh, and the parking lots that replaced all the beautiful buildings are not doing the city a bit of good.  It's not parking lots that bring people downtown, it's having something to do and see!!