http://realestate.msn.com/buying/Green/Article2.aspx?cp-documentid=8673581>1=35000
Kind of sad
To be fair, nothing screams walkability like a city that is approximately 600,000 square miles. San Francisco, the top city on the list, is a pinpoint compared to Jacksonville. It's also a million times more dense. Jacksonville has a much, much better opportunity to implement good mass transit than it does of being a city with great walkability.
Good point Ken. Also, that transit will enhance walkability as a by product.
I agree with Ken...it looks like the study only looked at official city limits, not the whole metro area....Jax is unfairly large...also, Orlando, Tampa, and Miami aren't even on the list because their official city pop. isn't that large.
A bright side....the study ranks dowtown and San Marco areas pretty high.
It's a great thing that these results are published so concretely! Developers/residents can use this evidence towards new projects and correcting bad ones.
It looks like there was next to no town centers planned for the Southside, so everything just sprawls into seas of huge parking lots.
One solution could be to convert a few of these under-performing huge retail parking areas into real, civ/biz/res mix town centers.
For example, the Baymeadows Publix area. Stick a parking garage in one section of it - perhaps replacing the Winn Dixie I don't know. Turn the rest of the entire parking lot into a park with sidewalks and walkways, surrounded by a ring of shops, some of which are already there.
Or in Mandarin, the intersection of San Jose and Old St. Augustine. That'd be a perfect spot for a 2 story circle of mixed use venues, with a big green park, band area, and lake smack in the middle of it.
That is what i loved about Gainesville-- I could walk or ride my skateboard everywhere i needed to go. it was beautiful. It truly is amazing -- was for me at least-- what the walking factor does for your mental impression of, and feelings for, a city.
Quote from: rjp2008 on July 17, 2008, 04:50:05 PM
It looks like there was next to no town centers planned for the Southside, so everything just sprawls into seas of huge parking lots.
One solution could be to convert a few of these under-performing huge retail parking areas into real, civ/biz/res mix town centers.
For example, the Baymeadows Publix area. Stick a parking garage in one section of it - perhaps replacing the Winn Dixie I don't know. Turn the rest of the entire parking lot into a park with sidewalks and walkways, surrounded by a ring of shops, some of which are already there.
Or in Mandarin, the intersection of San Jose and Old St. Augustine. That'd be a perfect spot for a 2 story circle of mixed use venues, with a big green park, band area, and lake smack in the middle of it.
It would be nice if Regency Square could be rescued in this way also.
And they're making ANOTHER parking lot monstrosity just around the corner at Phillips Hwy.
Perhaps the future of Jax really is the Downtown and Northside area because it would be incredibly expensive and a pain to re-do the Southside sprawl in many areas, and developers would rather move on to a fresh slate elsewhere because it's cheaper and less red tape.
The city has allowed uncontrolled sprawl for years and now we have a mess. The only way to get through this mess is by car. I feel that until the city starts investing in mass transit and setting some restrictions and guidelines for development, the mess will continue to grow. When city planners say yes to everything and anything that is proposed, we end up with 1 story buildings surrounded by huge parking lots and lots of traffic headaches. Perhaps requiring new developments to require sidewalks would also at least make it safer for those who wish to walk or ride their bikes.
QuoteJax rated last in walkability among big US cities
amen to that.