Top 10 Things to Make DOWN-town a BOOM-town

[stjr]

Rankings seem to bring out the passion in everyone, so let's try this one.  What are the top 10 things that would make our DOWN-town a BOOM-town?

I'll throw out a few items to get the creative juices flowing.  Add your comments and suggestions to the list. Maybe the powers that be will followup on some of the ideas and finally make a success out of downtown that we all want to see.

1) Retail store fronts on the street facing ground levels of all buildings, regardless of use or purpose, and, where possible, along the riverwalks (maybe a themed "Old Florida River Town" village)

2) Educational facilities including four year university campus with residences and research facilites and elementary, middle, and high schools for downtown families

3) Outdoor megasite along the river (Shipyards and/or JEA sites) as our "Central Park
for gathering thousands for events/festivals and hosting ball parks and fields for families with kids living Downtown

4) Commuter rail and streetcars, including family friendly access at the parks and downtown educational schools and higher education facilities

5) High rise residences downtown made more affordable versus urban sprawl 20 miles away by appropriate public policies

6) More pedestrian friendly sidewalks with greater widths, street art, entertainment, greenscapes, and seating and more of same along the riverwalks

7) Emphasis on historic preservation of whats left to create sense of history, unique character, and human connections to buildings

8 ) Unique and world class architecture for new and renovated building projects to make Jax "cool", "hip", cutting edge, interesting, and attractive to both locals and visitors

9) Bigger push for cultural institutions to locate and/or expand presence and/or facilities and/or programs downtown

10) New downtown attractions such as a transportation (rail/air/maritime) museum celebrating Jax's illustrious role in the industry, a Jax Hall of Fame or other celebration of famous Jax residents, a Jax history museum that delves into all aspects of Jax history, from industry to culture to sports to demographics to landscape, etc., a new and bigger MOSH science and history museum for kids, perhaps with an aquarium and/or butterfly and/or aviary addition, etc.

Do all of the above, and all the people, hotels, convention center, restaurants, stores, night-life, pro sports teams, corporate HQ's, and jobs, jobs, jobs will follow.  I guarantee it!

By the way, much of this costs nothing more than making existing and ongoing decisions with downtown in mind.

[thelakelander]

More important than anything else is to change the zoning code to require pedestrian friendly site/building design for ALL building and development projects in the entire pre-consolidated city (not just downtown).  Its simple and cheap to do and requires no chicken or egg.  If every single project proposed in the urban core (the preconsolidated city) has to be designed to properly address the pedestrian and sidewalks, connectivity will begin to happen naturally.

As for a few things on the list, I would classify as secondary issues (ex. wide sidewalks, new DT attractions, additional open space,etc.) that are better evaluated on a case-by-case basis.  For example, wide sidewalks alone won't do anything (ex. Philip Randolph Blvd.).  However, when combined with something else, they have more impact (ex. The Landing, Riverside Market Square, 3rd & Main, etc.). 

Imo, top focus should be applied to things that help build a community from the ground up by better utilizing our existing assets and promoting connectivity, which in term stimulates the synergy needed for 24/7 vibrancy. (ex. zoning, location of educational facilities, historic preservation, better architecture, better mass transit, etc.).

[Jason]

The only thing I would change is the "outdoor mega-site" option.  IMO, our central park is and should be the springfield parks along Hogan's creek.  Revamp/expand/upgrade what we already have and return it to its glory.

[reednavy]

#3, are you joking or smoking crack?

People can't drive here with regular traffic signals, I can't imagine having them on flashing cycle.

[Johnny]

reed, it sounds as if he's speaking of at night time. This is a big deal for those of us that drive the area at night. Sitting for 5 minutes at a red light when no one else is around for miles can get pretty aggravating. I definitely agree with the parking meters, more so then ever now. A few weeks ago, my family and I was at the library. We ended up sticking around so my son could join the toddler thing going on. I went outside with a quarter to extend my 15 minutes remaining by adding 30 minutes... well, instead of adding the time, it just started over. We rushed out of there only to be 2 minutes after the 30 minutes expired and already had a ticket. Needless to say, I was pissed..

[RiversideLoki]

A REAL $%^#$% CONVENTION CENTER IN THE URBAN CORE AND AN ORGANIZATION TO PUSH THE #$%^#$%@ OUT OF IT SO WE CAN BRING HUGE CONVENTIONS TO IT!!!!!!!!1!1!11ONE!

*phew*

[untarded]

4.  End the practice of stampeding 60 thousand potential customers out of downtown in 25 minutes after games.

This is so baffling to me

To what degree do they do this (if at all) for FBC on Sundays?  

Why would someone want to open a business downtown when the city is funneling all of their potential customers away?

[reednavy]

reed, it sounds as if he's speaking of at night time.

I'm well aware that it was to be at night. What they need to do is ditch the timing on all of them and go with regular style like everywhere else. Of course, this can't be accomplished until more streets are two way and not meant to flow cars around easily.

[GideonGlib]

I believe #4 was referring to the current practice of converting two directional roads to single lane highways out of downtown after big games. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the thought on that was that by letting a bit more of a traffic jam occur more people might chose to "sit out" traffic and patronize local restaurants, bars, etc.. while they wait for traffic to die down, creating a post-game boon for downtown businesses and not a rush for the Mandarin Applebee's.

[reednavy]

25 minutes?

I've had to go to the jail and get a few of my shipmates out when I was in the Navy at 3am and it never took more than 10 to out of downtown.

The only thing they need to do is get rid of the timing sequence and a bit of the problem will be solved. Signal control boxes can be done two ways usually, either a timing sequence along the corridor, which most downtown have, or have the regular fiber optics in the streets controlling the lights.

That said, some streets the flashing will work, but others should be kept on all hours.

[thelakelander]

Most of DT is as dead as a door nail.  They could probably remove all the stoplights from the less traveled intersections and replace them with four-way stop signs and be just fine.  I haven't seen it done here, but I have noticed other cities have done this in their downtown cores with no ill effect.

[RiversideLoki]

Most of DT is as dead as a door nail.  They could probably remove all the stoplights from the less traveled intersections and replace them with four-way stop signs and be just fine.  I haven't seen it done here, but I have noticed other cities have done this in their downtown cores with no ill effect.

The problem with that is your typical Jacksonville driver forgets how to use a 4 way stop once they get their license. Once you get people who are late for work/aggravated/texting/blabbing on their cellphone it becomes a recipe for disaster.

[reednavy]

The problem with that is your typical Jacksonville driver forgets how to use a 4 way stop once they get their license. Once you get people who are late for work/aggravated/texting/blabbing on their cellphone it becomes a recipe for disaster.

ain't that the truth!

[Johnny]

Yes, during the day, sadly, I wouldn't recommend leaving it to the drivers to drive responsibly. At night, they can get away with it. There is rarely someone coming from another direction when you are sitting at a street light.

reed, I've been through downtown and it's taken me 10 minutes before too. Unfortunately, I felt lucky on those days. It's not typical. You will spend 10-15 minutes at street lights more often than not.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Number one -- get some people in office who know how to run a city!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!