Have to say, I am really upset about this. Really appreciate the Daily Record for diving into this pretty disgusting act.
http://jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=545174 (http://jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=545174)
Really weird. If not the City or FDOT, who else would have cut them all down?
Bizarre story. What do you say we MJ posters chip in for a reward to anyone that gives up the perpetrator? I'll chip in if others do.
Daily Record has now updated the story and confirms that COJ considered them 'blight'
QuoteCity spokeswoman Aleizha Batson said Tuesday morning the locks were removed by the parks maintenance staff because the area supervisor considered them to be blight and graffiti.
What's truly disturbing, is that I see COJ employees routinely walk by overflowing traschans and 'actual' liter along the Northbank Riverwalk and do nothing about it.
Wow, thanks for doing so much for downtown, COJ! It's all fixed now, just take the rest of the year off.
It looked like art to me. The locks on that fence with the Southbank in the background looked incredible. Well thank goodness I just bought some locks. I guess it's time for my love and I to put them up
QuoteThe "love lock" custom began about 15 years ago in European cities, then spread to America and other countries.
While Jacksonville's display was just a few locks, in some locations, hundreds, even thousands, of the locks have been placed on bridges and pedestrian walkways over water.
In 2013, the New York City Transportation Department removed more than 5,000 locks from the Brooklyn Bridge
Love locks on the Brooklyn Bridge last week:
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/Learning-From/New-York-City-March-2015/i-KMWCZM9/0/L/DSCF5460-L.jpg)
Gosh, look at how 'awful' these things look. So glad the City removed them instead of doing things like actually picking up trash along the riverfront.
(http://wide-wallpapers.net/wp-content/uploads/walls/thumbs/Lots-of-Love-Locks-600x337.jpg)
COJ has the right to maintain its own property, but I would still love it if someone filed a class action suit against the city for reimbursement of the locks. I'm not a lawyer, but think that the city allowing them to be placed there and allowing them to remain in place for a length of time somewhat implies that the city accepted their placement. This in turn encouraged future placement of locks.
You really want egg on someone's face, make them defend against that. Ultimately, the city would probably settle by offering to create a new spot for "love locks" Downtown.
Here's an example in South Korea of a public art display using the locks.
(http://worldwalkabout.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/love-lock-trees.jpg)
You can't see the locks here, because the city allowed a massive yarn bomb project, but this along the Andy Warhol Bridge in Pittsburgh. There also locks near the gorgeous Schenley Park near the University of Pittsburgh.
(http://rivista-cdn.pittsburghmagazine.com/Best-of-the-Burgh-Blogs/The-412/August-2013/warhol-knit-the-bridge-3.jpg?ver=1376322007)
Frankly, I've seen this in just about every city I've been to.
QuoteCOJ has the right to maintain its own property
Correction: They have a duty to maintain public property.
A duty in which they fall short. While there is a really cartoonish blight mascot walking around town, COJ-owned properties in economically depressed neighborhoods sit and rot. Maybe it's time COJ start cleaning up those properties and putting them to better use instead of cutting down some padlocks on the Riverwalk.... or maybe even empty the trash cans along the Riverwalk with more regularity.. or maybe mow the right of way more often?
^I agree they are working in the public interest and don't think this move is in the public interest. Like you, I think its ridiculous. The City should be facilitating and encouraging things like this, not seeking to destroy it.
I was speaking more to the legal aspect of their removal for the basis of reimbursement by the city.
At least they didn't just cut down the gay locks of love.
Quote from: CityLife on March 31, 2015, 11:01:10 AM
Bizarre story. What do you say we MJ posters chip in for a reward to anyone that gives up the perpetrator? I'll chip in if others do.
I still have an open contest on MJ if anyone can take a picture of the NEW Waterways signage and post it on MJ that was never presented to the Jacksonville Waterways Commission. I'll treat you to Chopstick Charley's and we'll use Uber or Lyft. 2014-665, 2015-127
MJ posters we have all given up asking you know who about you know what. 2010-604
When it comes to the St. Johns River an American Heritage River a FEDERAL Initiative in our new super duper restricted CRA/DIA zone who is the RICOKEEPER?
Visit Jacksonville!
I guess that throwing tied shoes over telephone wires is 'desired art' also....
Mike, My initial reaction was the same as yours but I can appreciate that too many locks seem to have caused structural
problems in other cities.
Quote from: Kay on April 01, 2015, 07:56:34 AM
Mike, My initial reaction was the same as yours but I can appreciate that too many locks seem to have caused structural
problems in other cities.
In this instance, that was not why they were cut down. They were considered 'blight' and removed accordingly. My issue with that line of thinking is that I use the Riverwalk multiple times a week and often find myself having to pick up the litter and overflowing trash cans that I routinely see COJ maintenance workers drive right past on their John Deere Gators (the very same workers tasked with keeping the Riverwalk clean). A woman on Facebook messaged me that she was really saddened that her lock that commemorated her deceased father was cut down. Every time she walked by it on the Riverwalk, it made her smile because her dad was taking in the view of the river. Is that really blight? Doesn't that evoke a personal attachment to a place? Doesn't downtown need more of that?
This is a much larger issue than 3 dozen padlocks. There are plenty of publicly owned spaces, parks and buildings which are not maintained properly by COJ... but yet, time and effort is being spent on cutting down some heart-shaped and decorated padlocks commemorating love for one another? Last night, my dad and I had dinner at Uptown Market and drove past the buildig being consumed with overgrown weeds at 9th and Main. The City owns that building. Multiple parties have tried to buy it. Yet it sits there blighted as can be.
We all need to love each other more, and also to love our city enough to care about maintaining it in a proper fashion. This lock issue is really the perfect metaphor to illustrate that disconnect.
Someone made a personal judgement call that didn't work out so well. Ok, I don't want to personally piss in their Cheerios about it, but that's particularly hard to stomach on a much broader scale when trashcans are overflowing.
Quote from: Kay on April 01, 2015, 07:56:34 AM
Mike, My initial reaction was the same as yours but I can appreciate that too many locks seem to have caused structural
problems in other cities.
The day that we have enough people coming downtown and putting up enough locks to cause a structural problem...yeah, that will be a good day for downtown.
Quote from: Ajax on April 01, 2015, 08:54:57 AM
Quote from: Kay on April 01, 2015, 07:56:34 AM
Mike, My initial reaction was the same as yours but I can appreciate that too many locks seem to have caused structural
problems in other cities.
The day that we have enough people coming downtown and putting up enough locks to cause a structural problem...yeah, that will be a good day for downtown.
Preach. I'd love nothing more than to have Paris' issue. Over there, it really did cause structural problems.
City changing positions. Read the full story via Daily Record:
http://jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=545184 (http://jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=545184)
Good move by the City. This kind of thing should be encouraged, not eliminated.
Looks like love may be prevailing in our fair city:
http://jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=545191 (http://jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=545191)
Paris has begun removing their love locks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/world/europe/paris-bridges-locks-of-love-taken-down.html?_r=0