2 cities with a marine and rail foundation that was built up over the 19th Century.
San Francisco and Jacksonville.
2 different cities, 2 different results.
San Francisco actually purchased the port facilities from the State of California and began a 35 year process of transitioning the Embarcadero from a shipping and freight center to one of tourism and marine/urban development. And what about the railroad (The San Francisco Belt) that ran down the middle to the street?
They converted the tourist section into a trolley line which transports people to and from the central city. They abandoned the rest out to the Presidio (the tunnel still exists under Fort Mason).
Jacksonville, wanting to quickly abandon their waterfront, took out the piers, and removed the rail that ran down Water Street.
Is SF finished? No. Many piers are still standing empty awaiting further development. But they did turn many into functional centers of activity, shopping, dining, transportation (ferries) hub, submarine museum, all things that enhance the urban/marine lifestyle. Even the roundhouse for the railroad was converted into an office building, with the rails still splayed in front, set in the cement.
Could Jacksonville have duplicated this? Possible.
Jacksonville piers in the 1950's were dilapidated and in poor shape. It was considered "un-urban" or perhaps "un-modern" at the time to have freight railroad tracks running through your central business district. For SF, this wasn't the case as their central district was south of the piers.
Jacksonville would have had to make a substantial investment in either reconstruction or rehabilitation of those piers to keep them viable. Jacksonville didn't have a ready made array of ferry destinations at hand like SF did that would draw people to the waterfront. (Alcatraz, Angel, Sausalito)
When all international shipping was going container and moving to Oakland, SF saw a chance to "seize" its waterfront and reinvent it. Jacksonville simply moved the shipping to Talleyrand and Blount Island, and removed all indications it had a marine presence at all.
It's easy to be critical in hindsight, but SF proved that with patience and a little vision, one can make something of an older asset that doesn't have immediate value.
It seems Jacksonville was in a hurry, SF wasn't. Expedience was the catapult for change.
Great comparison. Historically, Jacksonville does have a lot in common with older waterfront cities like San Franscisco, Seattle, New York City, Baltimore and Norfolk. We should pay a little more attention to the success and failures of what they've done with their waterfronts over the years, as we look at what to do with our own. Nevertheless, although we've wiped out most of our old piers and the structures that were on them, we still have three or four left at the shipyards site. So, some opportunity to take advantage of these historic structures in some form still exists.
I guess a key point was that they created a vision for their waterfront and have for the most part hung with it over the years.
Through variations over the many years, (political, financial, social) they have pretty much stuck with it.
I think if we can get a vision that can withstand 30-40 years of the same variations, it can make a difference.
While SF has been patient and taken a long term view, sometimes I think we aren't...on both sides of the argument.
San Francisco definitely turned their waterfront into a popular destination. Here are a few shots from the Embarcadero and the piers.
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/Learning-From/San-Francisco-Aug-2009/DSC0137/625036203_KgNnT-L.jpg)
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/Learning-From/San-Francisco-Aug-2009/DSC0146/625042161_rJTRz-L.jpg)
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/Learning-From/San-Francisco-Aug-2009/DSC0142/625039585_7JwQm-L.jpg)
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/Learning-From/San-Francisco-Aug-2009/DSC0155/625050840_yZXUs-L.jpg)
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/Learning-From/San-Francisco-Aug-2009/DSC0159/625053825_zh2T9-L.jpg)
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/Learning-From/San-Francisco-Aug-2009/DSC0169/624234623_j5Lqo-L.jpg)
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/Learning-From/San-Francisco-Aug-2009/DSC0174/624236430_Mvht8-L.jpg)
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/Learning-From/San-Francisco-Aug-2009/DSC0197/624244286_sRzWE-L.jpg)
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/Learning-From/San-Francisco-Aug-2009/DSC0196/624243905_szyXp-L.jpg)
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/Learning-From/San-Francisco-Aug-2009/DSC0203/624246115_mK8MV-L.jpg)