Renovations Coming to Friendship Fountain

[mtraininjax]

STJR - As you can see, we are in a bit of a budget crunch, sell the property to the highest bidder and allow for a develper to build a 1,000 foot high building to make the residents of the area cringe everytime they see it. Really, just sell it, City of Jax cannot develop their way out of a paper bag.

[stjr]

STJR - As you can see, we are in a bit of a budget crunch, sell the property to the highest bidder and allow for a develper to build a 1,000 foot high building to make the residents of the area cringe everytime they see it. Really, just sell it, City of Jax cannot develop their way out of a paper bag.

Mtrain, indirectly, the City already "owns" the property through the CITY-owned electric company, JEA.  All that needs to be done is to arrange a friendly "buy now- pay later" inter-company transfer arrangement at a bargain price (like the cost [book value] for JEA which should be a fraction of market value given how long they have owned the property and which would create no gain or loss to JEA for accounting purposes).  The City can just "tax" JEA an extra amount each year to credit toward the "transfer" price.  Whatever the price, it would be small change to JEA, especially if amortized over several years.  No cash necessary.

[mtraininjax]

Why even leave the property on the City rolls? Why not actively market it with a mix-use development? You can get your park, we get revenue from tax rolls and we have a win-win, so again, why let it sit on the city tax rolls as a non-performing asset? All the math back and forth from the City and JEA is bound to lose dollars, so why bother, get rid of it, sell it and move on to other matters. Nothing done in the shell game back and forth, behind closed doors ever works out in the public interest. You and I both know it. Sell it and be done with it.

"Run the City Like a Business".

[thelakelander]

It will be nice to see the fountain looking like this again.

[Jaxson]

nice picture, lakelander!

[Miss Fixit]

Lake, do you know when this photo was taken?

[stjr]

It will be nice to see the fountain looking like this again.

It would be even nicer to see downtown looking like that again, especially if we had preserved more of those historic buildings pictured.

Wonder if putting River City Brewing on the "green" in the picture was in the public's best interest?

My guess is this picture is between around 1965 or 1966, whenever the fountain was first opened.

[tufsu1]

oh yes stjr...the parking lots on the river are quite a nice look 

[Keith-N-Jax]

oh yes stjr...the parking lots on the river are quite a nice look 

We've got the parking lot idea down to a tee.

[Debbie Thompson]

When it was new, and working properly, at night, the lights in the fountain changed every few minutes, changing the fountain different colors...although I always like it best with no colored lights...just the sparkling water.  The fountain had multiple spray patterns, and they would change pretty often.  My favorite was when the middle column rose from the center.  The pattern would have a shorter middle fountain, then the pattern would change, the smaller columns would start up, and the column of water in the middle would grow taller and taller.  You could walk to the top of the pump house on the spiral walkway and view the fountain from the top deck.

Friendship Fountain was amazing in the 1960's.  It should be restored to its original condition and configuration. It's a focal point for downtown.  It's a shame it was allowed to deteriorate.

[Ocklawaha]

Sell the whole damn area to the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida. Trust me, not only will they fix the city's budget woe's they'd bring in more development dollars in an hour then Jacksonville saw in the last decade. I wouldn't even suggest what they do with it, because they are quite able to make it happen with or without us. Talk about a "rope cable tram" to the stadium? Hell's bells, the Miccosukee, could string one to the beaches.


OCKLAWAHA  

[braeburn]

They should always be thinking in a river first mentality.  Make the riverfront the focus of the city (beyond the landing) and build back from the river. 

Wouldn't you say that they are doing exactly this? Friendship Fountain is on the river afterall...

[JaxNative68]

It will be nice to see the fountain looking like this again.

I had forgotten about the "green" next to the fountain.  Seeing the picture brought back images of elementary school field trips to the fountain and bagged lunch on the "green".  I used to love the cast-in-place concrete structures around the park and was recently telling a friend about them, but couldn't vividly remember where in Jax they were.  Thanks for reuniting those memories.  Personally I liked it better as a park than what it is today.

What year was this section of the park taken away?

[stjr]

oh yes stjr...the parking lots on the river are quite a nice look 

Well, Tufsu, that wasn't exactly what I was focusing on.    But, compare to today where all that parking has now moved around downtown and replaced grand old buildings.  The downtown of then had focus and character, the downtown of today is more like a scatter-gram of ink blots.

[reednavy]

And don't forget that the Main St Bridge's Southbank ramp is at grade, and not the elevated crap that exists today.