Metro Jacksonville

Mike Clark of the Times Union takes a look at Jacksonville's forgotten Central Park: Hogans Creek

http://members.jacksonville.com/opinion/premium/blog/406107/mike-clark/2012-11-08/hogans-creekthe-beauty-history-potential (http://members.jacksonville.com/opinion/premium/blog/406107/mike-clark/2012-11-08/hogans-creekthe-beauty-history-potential)

Great video! Hopefully, the Mayor does seriously consider generating some top level momentum in restoring what was once the urban core's premier green space.

Great video.  It was a pleasure to see Mike, Christina and John speak so eloquently about the park and creek.

Great video.  Good luck getting the Mayor to do anything.  Not sure I understand why the environmental issues would slow up the Greenway.  Would like to hear more about that.

The mayor's response in the video was pretty lukewarm.  I loved the footage of the birds and other wildlife.  That really is a beautiful and peaceful area that could be a major destination in our city.  I can't wait to see it restored.

Quote from: MEGATRON on November 12, 2012, 08:34:25 AM
Great video.  Good luck getting the Mayor to do anything.  Not sure I understand why the environmental issues would slow up the Greenway.  Would like to hear more about that.

The greenway trail cannot be constructed as planned for several reasons.  One is environmental contamination that requires remediation before construction. Another is the ongoing flooding problem in the parks near the creek.  There is also an issue with JEA controlled property: the trail is designed to cross the JEA site between Main and Laura, but JEA has fenced that area and at present will not allow public access.

I am aware that the City is applying for EPA brownfields grants related to this project.  We are also working on funding through other sources.  It is a challenging effort but could have monumental results for Jacksonville.

Quote from: Miss Fixit on November 12, 2012, 11:10:28 AM

Quote from: MEGATRON on November 12, 2012, 08:34:25 AM
Great video.  Good luck getting the Mayor to do anything.  Not sure I understand why the environmental issues would slow up the Greenway.  Would like to hear more about that.

The greenway trail cannot be constructed as planned for several reasons.  One is environmental contamination that requires remediation before construction. Another is the ongoing flooding problem in the parks near the creek.  There is also an issue with JEA controlled property: the trail is designed to cross the JEA site between Main and Laura, but JEA has fenced that area and at present will not allow public access.

I am aware that the City is applying for EPA brownfields grants related to this project.  We are also working on funding through other sources.  It is a challenging effort but could have monumental results for Jacksonville.

What type of construction are you talking? 

Does the grant for the greenway expire at some point?  If so, when?

Hey, y'all should think about this...

A grant from the FTA to extend the Skyway north to VA Clinic and Shand's could easily come with whistles and bells that would correct the entire right-of-way under the project. Now if that right-of-way was south and west of Hogan's Creek, a wonderful paved trail, benches, lighting and new balusters could have exactly the effect we are seeking. It's a back door way to kill two birds with a single 'beam'.

These were the editorials that ran over the weekend regarding Hogans Creek:

http://members.jacksonville.com/opinion/premium/editorials/2012-11-16/story/hogans-creek-just-waiting-be-revived (http://members.jacksonville.com/opinion/premium/editorials/2012-11-16/story/hogans-creek-just-waiting-be-revived)

QuoteHogans Creek is like an antique. It has seen better days, but the beauty is still there if only it received more attention.

Some hardworking residents and neighborhood groups have been trying, but they haven’t received enough help from the city of Jacksonville.

The Mayor’s Office needs to pull together all the strands of the Hogans Creek watershed and make something happen.

There are basically three main sections of the creek: Klutho Park near the health complexes at Eighth Street, Confederate Park and the area that dumps into the St. Johns River near the Maxwell House plant.

The stream has suffered from a lot of abuse over the years, so much so that it is one of the streams targeted by environmental officials for cleanup.

The water definitely is not fit to drink. Nor are the fish fit to eat.

The stream itself is so polluted that warnings have been posted near popular fishing spots.

The fecal coliform level, according to a 2012 report prepared for the city Environmental Protection Board, was just below the critical level.

A technical report on the creek was prepared in 2010 in order to address the fecal coliform sources in the creek. Those could come from sources as varied as industry, storm water runoff, sanitary sewer overflows, animals and homeless camps.

And there is some toxic ash cleanup that needs to be finished near Confederate Park that is holding up some redevelopment.

Yet, like an antique, there is beauty, and it’s not difficult to find.

Most of the great parks are located on the outskirts of Duval County.

But what about the center of the city?

Tucked away in the inner city, Hogans Creek peeks out from under a trail behind Shands Jacksonville.

Continuing under Eighth Street, Hogans Creek then peeks up near the Duval County Health Department building and begins as the centerpiece of a series of parks called the Emerald Necklace.

There you find one of the neat additions of the residents, a disc golf course that was built by Springfield citizens who have adopted the area.

Klutho Park has a gorgeous bandstand area that still is a good shape and wide expanses of grass. The feeling is one of a college campus. A nearly one-mile bike, jogging trail is planned along the banks of the creek. Construction is waiting for cleanup of toxic waste in the area.

Confederate Park shows the legacy of master architect Klutho, who brought the Prairie School of architecture from Chicago to Jacksonville.

One of his masterpieces was beautifying the park with a Venetian balustrade along the river â€" broken in many places.

The most unlikely portion of the river is the area just before it empties into the St. Johns River. Local environmentalist John Nooney regularly takes people on kayak rides along this stretch.

It is full of wildlife.

Mayor Alvin Brown is familiar with Hogans Creek. He even dedicated a new kayak launch there. So he understands how a revived creek could help in his effort to revitalize downtown.

We suggested to the mayor that he hold a town hall meeting for Springfield residents, bringing spokesmen from all the relevant groups â€" environment for the creek, planning for the walkway, those involved in the toxic ash cleanup â€" and inform the community of the progress.

Then appoint a single spokesman to keep the community updated on progress.

The mayor reacted positively at once and directly his staff to get it done. If Brown could break through decades of inaction, it would be a great achievement.

Finally, let’s make history and do the Hogans Creek area justice.

http://members.jacksonville.com/opinion/premium/editorials/2012-11-16/story/hogans-creek-calls-jacksonvilles-history (http://members.jacksonville.com/opinion/premium/editorials/2012-11-16/story/hogans-creek-calls-jacksonvilles-history)

QuoteHogans Creek never seems to get any respect.



But like Jacksonville’s perpetual lack of self-esteem, the creek itself winds through the city’s history.

The stream begins near Shands Jacksonville, runs through Springfield and empties into the St. Johns River near the Maxwell House plant.

Its importance to this city is exemplified by its name, a reference to the Hogans family that basically founded Jacksonville. But even its name is commonly misspelled, often in official government documents.

Named for major settlers downtown, the creek later was the focus of grand work by famed architect Henry Klutho. He created what was Jacksonville’s Central Park, an area that later was shoved aside.

The issues that affect Hogans Creek are the same that the city was struggling with 40 years ago â€" polluted waters, infrastructure in disrepair, lack of coordination and a general lack of interest.

A review of newspaper stories in the 1970s and ’80s shows that they are as current as ever.

NOTHING MUCH CHANGED

In 1973, the Jacksonville Journal, the city’s former afternoon newspaper, editorialized about Hogans Creek: “Jacksonville may be the only major city in the United States that possesses such a magnificent centerpiece for imaginative redevelopment of its inner city. But too few Jacksonville citizens are aware of this. Too few get out of their automobiles to take a close look at the two parks and the little creek that meanders through them.”

This could have been written yesterday, not four decades ago.

In 1976, Jacksonville Journal City Editor Dick Bussard wrote about Confederate Park, “If there were a soul so brave as to wander through any of these places during the middle of the night now, he’d probably be picked up by police â€" or worse.”

Wander there in the daylight today, as we did, and you might be stopped by a security officer.

In 1979, landscape architecture students from the University of Florida proposed extending the parkland along Hogans Creek and mixing in new development.

The shame is that almost nothing has changed.

In 1984, the Journal editorialized that the Venetian-style balustrades along Hogans Creek, which have disappeared in bits and pieces, should be restored and flanked with sidewalks and bike paths. Klutho had created an urban masterpiece there. “The best contribution to his memory would be to make amends for the cavalier manner in which much of his magnificent work along Hogans Creek was destroyed,” the editorial said.

There is just enough of the magnificence remaining to create a sense of new potential.

In 1989, columnist Bill Foley described Hogans Creek as “squalid,” winding through a hobo jungle behind the old police garage on Liberty Street, through a no-man’s land of Confederate Park and on to its headwaters behind the Eighth Street hospital complex.

RESTORE THE CREEK

Architect Bob Broward, in his landmark book on Klutho, published in 2003, described what Jacksonville did to the Hogans Creek area after World War II: “In a final act of banality, the city deposited broken rubble into the ponds and covered them over. Klutho’s fine design has now all but disappeared. The lights are broken and disconnected, much of the balustrade has disappeared and the park receives almost no active use.”

Broward was only too accurate.

In 2004, Times-Union columnist Ron Littlepage, quoting Springfield activists, proposed a regional attraction for Hogans Creek with canoe and kayak launches.

Like all the others, this great idea went where Hogans Creek ideas go to die.

It’s time to revive them all.

Springfield residents are understandably frustrated at the inaction. The lack of communication is a big issue, and there are a lot of moving parts.

We will examine this in more detail on Sunday.

http://members.jacksonville.com/opinion/premium/editorials/2012-11-16/story/hogans-family-history-and-klutho-link (http://members.jacksonville.com/opinion/premium/editorials/2012-11-16/story/hogans-family-history-and-klutho-link)

QuotePerhaps one reason Hogans Creek gets so little respect is that the family it was named after is so lost to local memories.

Hogans Creek is regularly misspelled, both in official government documents and in this newspaper, because the family, like the creek, has not received enough respect.

The Hogans family settled in this area long before it was called Jacksonville and even before it was called Cowford.

Reuben Hogans, head of the family, was granted a 385-acre plot on the St. Johns River at Pottsburg Creek in 1808.

His son, John Hogans, had a 650-acre grant in what is now downtown Jacksonville.

As Bob Phelps wrote in the Jacksonville Journal in 1981, “The only traces left of the founding family of Jacksonville is their name on a murky, foul-smelling creek, a misspelled street name (Hogan Street) and their signatures on some Spanish land grants on blurry microfilm …”

THE KLUTHO CONNECTION

To understand the importance of Hogans Creek, one must first understand Henry Klutho, the architect who brought the Prairie School architectural influence to Jacksonville.

Klutho helped Jacksonville rebuild from the Great Fire in 1901, but his influence extended much wider.

Hogans Creek is one example. In 1929, Klutho was enlisted along with engineer Charles Imeson to help improve the drainage of Hogans Creek and turn it into Jacksonville’s Central Park.

Klutho’s Hogans Creek Promenade at Confederate Park opened in 1930 as a place designed for a lovely stroll with a Venetian influence.

Nearby Springfield Park (now named Klutho Park) was developed about 1900 by the Springfield Company developers. The city’s first zoo and first municipal swimming pool were there.

There still is enough of the Klutho influence to deserve restoration.

Mike Clark, Editorial Page Editor

So glad the mayor has shown interest in getting this sovled. I really hope we get something done. Just getting cleaned up would be a major step.