City Council wants spark to energize Downtown

[Ocklawaha]

Need a spark?  One or two hour free parking.   I've seen that in other places.  That will attract people downtown for lunch, a quick trip to the library, shopping (if stores return to downtown....someday....)  I mean, really, how much revenue does the City bring in on parking meters anyway?  Enough to cover the costs of killing downtown?

Absolutely!

FORGET SMART METERS... That is only a more convenient way to murder what is left of downtown. Yank Em out by the root and give them to St Augustine, which actually has a NEED for metered curbside parking.

IMMEDIATE:

Shift entire core blocks to free parking, regulated by the highly advanced cutting edge piece of chalk on a stick.
NOBODY at parking enforcement needs to lose their jobs, just redefine them a tad.

Depending on location free parking could be

15 minute
30 minute
1 hour
2 hour

I'd also spring for red paint and every curb in front of a fire hydrant gets painted to cover it's access space, as well as JTA and "OTHER" bus stops. The next bucket would be yellow paint, these curbs would be at our loading/unloading zones. Finally blue paint for handicap parking (large stretches of downtown have NONE) on at least a one space per block regimen. And please don't tell me we have this, because like everything else in Jacksonville, it was last updated and MAINTAINED in 1957.

Now that we have free parking and day glow curb paint where needed, we could double fines for parking violators.

NEXT:

Calculate income from the former metered space ($600,000) annual, and apply these fees to the municipal garages on a per space rate.

Discount spaces in outlaying garages for employers that purchase JTA TRANSIT PASSES.

Make downtown a fare-free transit zone with liberal boundaries perhaps Mc Coys Creek/St. Johns River - Washington - State - Lee Streets. Eliminate and consolidate any bus route operating parallel to the Skyway, or future fixed transit. We should also force JTA to issue transfers, at least within the.

STAND BACK AND WATCH DOWNTOWN BLOOM.

OCKLAWAHA

[downtownjag]

Maybe next he'll bump his head on the Laura St Trio and get it some city attention :-)

[Timkin]

Or the Annie Lytle School , or Fire Station 5 ....

[hillary supporter]

Your eyes may roll, and your teeth may grit, but with the present City Administration, a spark to energize downtown you'll never git!

"HU"

Maybe its a typo.... they mean sparkLERS
HU for mayor!

[Timkin]

+1 HS

Want a spark?   Create some real incentives for business/people to move back to downtown.   Stop tearing down everything in sight for surface parking.. I think we have adequate surface parking now.

Follow through with one , just ONE Historic renovation... Like the Laura Trio ... As long as these places remain vacant and basically a shell , NO ONE WILL EVER COME.   

Create destinations aside from eating establishments and bars/clubs. 

Get rid of meters altogether. As downtown revives, create alternate transit methods to bus . If the Skyway is never going to be successful in its present state, either enhance it by extending it to destinations that DO have people and business and recreation ,or replace it with something ground level and far more efficient.