(https://photos.moderncities.com/Cities/Jacksonville/Neighborhoods/Downtown-April-2019/i-jc6sXWh/0/8cc6fbbf/L/20190407_175034-L.jpg)
QuoteFerris wheels, cranes and entertainment centers in stadium parking lots are nice but there's really no good reason that Downtown Jacksonville should not already have at least one walkable street in the core that's just as vibrant as the main streets found in many of the smaller cities across Florida and the Sunbelt. Here's five steps to bring life to Laura Street.
Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/five-ways-to-activate-the-northbanks-laura-street/
Great article, Ennis. Question: I know Lori Boyer was working on downtown zoning changes. Do those changes make it any easier to have signage and outdoor seating?
Just a thought. I don't know tons about Texas Tech or its home, Lubbock, so I googled them this morning. Here is the description of the city on Google.
QuoteLubbock is a city in northwest Texas known as the birthplace of rock 'n' roll legend Buddy Holly. The Buddy Holly Center celebrates his life and music with artifacts and mementos. Nearby is the West Texas Walk of Fame, with a statue of Holly and plaques honoring musicians from the region. The Museum of Texas Tech University houses millions of objects of art, history and paleontology, plus the Moody Planetarium.
I wasn't alive when Buddy Holly was big, but I'd have to think that our combination of Skynard, Allman Bros, Molly Hatchet, 38 Special, Limp Bizkit, Yellowcard, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Inspection 12 (better than all three prior bands listed), The Black Kids, as well as all the Jazz and Hiphop artists with local roots should warrant a museum, statues, plaques and recognition. Laura Street would be the perfect place for a southern rock museum, a jazz museum, or a North Florida Hall of Fame.
How about inside The Landing?
Quote from: Captain Zissou on April 09, 2019, 09:33:16 AM
Just a thought. I don't know tons about Texas Tech or its home, Lubbock, so I googled them this morning. Here is the description of the city on Google.
QuoteLubbock is a city in northwest Texas known as the birthplace of rock 'n' roll legend Buddy Holly. The Buddy Holly Center celebrates his life and music with artifacts and mementos. Nearby is the West Texas Walk of Fame, with a statue of Holly and plaques honoring musicians from the region. The Museum of Texas Tech University houses millions of objects of art, history and paleontology, plus the Moody Planetarium.
I wasn't alive when Buddy Holly was big, but I'd have to think that our combination of Skynard, Allman Bros, Molly Hatchet, 38 Special, Limp Bizkit, Yellowcard, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Inspection 12 (better than all three prior bands listed), The Black Kids, as well as all the Jazz and Hiphop artists with local roots should warrant a museum, statues, plaques and recognition. Laura Street would be the perfect place for a southern rock museum, a jazz museum, or a North Florida Hall of Fame.
Councilwoman Boyer's visitors center is supposed to have a historic Jax music heritage theme. With that said, I do believe it would be good for both her visitor's center concept and some sort of Jax specific museum to take up space in the Landing. We have 126,000 square feet of vacant commercial space sitting there in public ownership. It would be pretty dumb to raze all of it, instead of using the asset to reduce the cost of a lot of things we say we want but can't afford to build from the ground up.
Quote from: MusicMan on April 09, 2019, 10:03:05 AM
How about inside The Landing?
Here you go: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/10-potential-uses-for-the-jacksonville-landing/
We have 126,000 square feet of vacant commercial space in the heart of the city, anchoring Laura Street. If more green space is desired, wack off half of it and fill the rest with a mix of the type of uses described in this article and you now have established the Landing site as an anchor for a vibrant walkable district in the heart of the city. Turn it into a lawn, and you just created another site for vagrants to hang out in.
Quote from: Captain Zissou on April 09, 2019, 09:23:47 AM
Great article, Ennis. Question: I know Lori Boyer was working on downtown zoning changes. Do those changes make it any easier to have signage and outdoor seating?
Let me read through the latest version and check.
I think we've solved The Landing..... Put a 'Jacksonville's Own Southern Rock Museum', La Villa Greats of Jazz Interactive Space,
Jacksonville 'A Navy Town' Theater and museum and , a tribute to The Great Fire and our Architectural Heritage, repro PT Boats offering 30 minute cruises all over the St Johns (where allowed), a 'CSX and the History of the Railroad in Florida' exhibit/theater, revolving tall ships exhibit, a "Tribute to the Blue Angels" Theater, ....... A water taxi picking up and dropping off, FREE with paid admission, over to Friendship Fountain and MOSH.... Under Armour or NIKE Kiosk for Jags and NFL/Players Championship/ attire.... Maybe even a Kraft Foods Kiosk ...
It sure doesn't seem that hard to create a unique Jacksonville Experience. Fill the food court with Black Sheep, Sweet Theory, a Beer Garden for our local brewers, Southern Roots, LOCALLY founded restaurant offerings..... There are plenty of choices...
That would draw people, complement the TU PAC next door, and be a terrific anchor to Laura Street.
Quote from: MusicMan on April 09, 2019, 10:55:10 AM
I think we've solved The Landing..... Put a 'Jacksonville's Own Southern Rock Museum', La Villa Greats of Jazz Interactive Space,
Jacksonville 'A Navy Town' Theater and museum and , a tribute to The Great Fire and our Architectural Heritage, repro PT Boats offering 30 minute cruises all over the St Johns (where allowed), a 'CSX and the History of the Railroad in Florida' exhibit/theater, revolving tall ships exhibit, a "Tribute to the Blue Angels" Theater, ....... A water taxi picking up and dropping off, FREE with paid admission, over to Friendship Fountain and MOSH.... Under Armour or NIKE Kiosk for Jags and NFL/Players Championship/ attire.... Maybe even a Kraft Foods Kiosk ...
It sure doesn't seem that hard to create a unique Jacksonville Experience. Fill the food court with Black Sheep, Sweet Theory, a Beer Garden for our local brewers, Southern Roots, LOCALLY founded restaurant offerings..... There are plenty of choices...
That would draw people, complement the TU PAC next door, and be a terrific anchor to Laura Street.
All great ideas! Driving down Shad Road the other day I saw a small sign for the Florida Mining Museum of Contemporary Art. Who the hell knew this was even here and how come it isn't located in more visible location.
http://floridamininggallery.com
Florida Mining's owner is also the owner of Harbinger Sign and the gallery is housed in the Harbinger offices. He is the one who restored the Fuel Coffee House building and brought in Bread & Board to 5 points. He's a huge advocate for the core, so I'm sure he'd love to move it downtown if he could.
^Steve Williams. I know he's toyed with an urban core move before, but obviously it's easier for him to host it in a building he's already in charge of. Maybe one day!
Quote from: Tacachale on April 09, 2019, 01:52:28 PM
^Steve Williams. I know he's toyed with an urban core move before, but obviously it's easier for him to host it in a building he's already in charge of. Maybe one day!
Steve has been involved with art galleries in the urban core before. One in Brooklyn (Brooklyn Contemporary Arts Center, since demoed for the widening of Riverside Ave.. which briefly moved to San Marco after the Brooklyn building got knocked down) and one in the Dyal-Upchurch Building on the Northbank.
There are 4 empty store fronts in 220 Riverside right now....and they are for sale.
Kerry - Did you put out an invitation a few weeks ago for an informal meet up for JAX Rising (or something like that) as an exploratory move toward a PAC? I could not make it but, if it was you who issued the invitation, did anything emerge? I bring that into this thread in that the creative and, from my view, achievable possibilities brainstormed in this forum made me wonder - are there enough political allies to advance alternatives to elected leaders and municipal officials? The few public statements I have picked up about the Landing seem very short on envisioning what follows the plan to raze what stands now. The possibilities surfaced here seem worth serious consideration. Thanks to all the contributors.
Quote from: Pastor Eric Wester on April 10, 2019, 09:00:51 PM
Kerry - Did you put out an invitation a few weeks ago for an informal meet up for JAX Rising (or something like that) as an exploratory move toward a PAC? I could not make it but, if it was you who issued the invitation, did anything emerge? I bring that into this thread in that the creative and, from my view, achievable possibilities brainstormed in this forum made me wonder - are there enough political allies to advance alternatives to elected leaders and municipal officials? The few public statements I have picked up about the Landing seem very short on envisioning what follows the plan to raze what stands now. The possibilities surfaced here seem worth serious consideration. Thanks to all the contributors.
Hi Eric, I was at that meeting as well. We discussed mostly the concerns of being able to get people informed about and caring about the issues we'd be focusing on. Some of the big questions that came up were of spreading awareness and recruitment. We're still working more on the concept and principles of what we would want to do with this idea.
Quote from: marcuscnelson on April 10, 2019, 11:39:05 PM
Quote from: Pastor Eric Wester on April 10, 2019, 09:00:51 PM
Kerry - Did you put out an invitation a few weeks ago for an informal meet up for JAX Rising (or something like that) as an exploratory move toward a PAC? I could not make it but, if it was you who issued the invitation, did anything emerge? I bring that into this thread in that the creative and, from my view, achievable possibilities brainstormed in this forum made me wonder - are there enough political allies to advance alternatives to elected leaders and municipal officials? The few public statements I have picked up about the Landing seem very short on envisioning what follows the plan to raze what stands now. The possibilities surfaced here seem worth serious consideration. Thanks to all the contributors.
Hi Eric, I was at that meeting as well. We discussed mostly the concerns of being able to get people informed about and caring about the issues we'd be focusing on. Some of the big questions that came up were of spreading awareness and recruitment. We're still working more on the concept and principles of what we would want to do with this idea.
Just to follow up on what Marcus said, yes we met and there were several good ideas that we discussed. It really came down to two primary areas: Public Awareness and Politics. Most people in Jax don't even know what walkable urbanism is so they have to be educated on the subject. We discussed some ways to accomplish that but we could really use a brainstorming session to flush out those ideas. On the politics side there are several options. We could endorse candidates, donate time/money, run for office ourselves, speak at DDRB and Council meetings, review projects and give them an Urbanization score, etc...
I'm open for another meetup if anyone is interested and I'm thinking of doing some things unilaterally just so I can feel better about Jax :) but would welcome anyone who wants to join in.
QuoteCouncilman-elect calls for community brain-storming on Landing's future
City Council member-elect Matt Carlucci made a pitch Wednesday for the city to use a charrette-style workshop for residents to brainstorm ideas about the future use of the Jacksonville Landing, saying interest is high in what comes next and there should be upfront buy-in from the public.
Carlucci even found a new way to describe the importance of the Landing's location on the downtown riverfront.
"It's a beloved piece of property," Carlucci told the Downtown Investment Authority board at its monthly meeting. "Even if it's not a currently viable piece of property, so many people want to have a say in its future. The Landing, to so many people, is like the centerpiece at the Thanksgiving table."
Carlucci won't take office until July 1, but the future of the land occupied by the Landing is likely to be one of the biggest decisions for the next City Council.
Others have called the location on the downtown riverfront the home plate, front porch and front lawn of the city.
Full article: https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20190417/councilman-elect-calls-for-community-brain-storming-on-landings-future
Regarding a charrette, I've done enough of these in the past to know that it should be set up to be realistic. Far too many I've seen where the facilitator directs things in a manner where various forms of adaptive reuse are literally an afterthought and budget and implementation timelines aren't a part of the process. Visioning in this sort of manner is great but I'm not sure the community needs to come up with a specific design. Better yet, the community should be allowed to openly express what the type of uses it would like to see happen with the site. That information should then be included in a RFP for redevelopment. Doing such will likely result in several qualified responses coming in that address the issues in various forms.
While public input is great, I often think of this when elected officials try and outsource responsibilities to the public instead of professionals. https://youtu.be/q_zknCszY58 (https://youtu.be/q_zknCszY58)
Quote from: thelakelander on April 17, 2019, 08:49:57 PM
QuoteCouncilman-elect calls for community brain-storming on Landing's future
City Council member-elect Matt Carlucci made a pitch Wednesday for the city to use a charrette-style workshop for residents to brainstorm ideas about the future use of the Jacksonville Landing, saying interest is high in what comes next and there should be upfront buy-in from the public.
Carlucci even found a new way to describe the importance of the Landing's location on the downtown riverfront.
"It's a beloved piece of property," Carlucci told the Downtown Investment Authority board at its monthly meeting. "Even if it's not a currently viable piece of property, so many people want to have a say in its future. The Landing, to so many people, is like the centerpiece at the Thanksgiving table."
Carlucci won't take office until July 1, but the future of the land occupied by the Landing is likely to be one of the biggest decisions for the next City Council.
Others have called the location on the downtown riverfront the home plate, front porch and front lawn of the city.
Full article: https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20190417/councilman-elect-calls-for-community-brain-storming-on-landings-future
Also from the article:
"The city used charrette workshops four years ago when Alvin Brown was mayor and he supported demolishing the Landing. Those workshops resulted in a concept for an apartment building on half of the property and park space on the other side, with the potential for a museum or hotel as a second building."
Don't think we need to do that again. There aren't new ideas to be discovered by a charette. Just need to follow the known best practices.
^Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen a Landing charrette that hasn't ended up with complete demo and rebuild. They're typically facilitated that way because people are directed to not be held by any limits or constraints. However, that's not the world we live in, so you end up with something that will never be built. There should have been a master plan for downtown already developed to address sites like this. Since there's not one, they basically needed to toss their plan out there for public criticism and feedback, get a feel for what the majority of community really wants to see with the site, and then craft a RFP for redevelopment based off the process. The private sector can deal with the details of coming up with concepts that work and that its willing to pay for.
Quote from: thelakelander on April 17, 2019, 09:08:07 PM
Regarding a charrette, I've done enough of these in the past to know that it should be set up to be realistic. Far too many I've seen where the facilitator directs things in a manner where various forms of adaptive reuse are literally an afterthought and budget and implementation timelines aren't a part of the process. Visioning in this sort of manner is great but I'm not sure the community needs to come up with a specific design. Better yet, the community should be allowed to openly express what the type of uses it would like to see happen with the site. That information should then be included in a RFP for redevelopment. Doing such will likely result in several qualified responses coming in that address the issues in various forms.
Not being in urban planning as a career, I feel like the best way to do this is RFP the thing to the private sector (knowing that after the RFP process they'll be public input), select the best party's conceptual plans (basically the company that best shows a vision for the site), then do the public meetings with some specific guidelines based around the expert's proposals.
It's better than the current idea of blowing up the Landing with no plan or public input.
Quote from: Steve on April 18, 2019, 10:35:01 AM
Quote from: thelakelander on April 17, 2019, 09:08:07 PM
Regarding a charrette, I've done enough of these in the past to know that it should be set up to be realistic. Far too many I've seen where the facilitator directs things in a manner where various forms of adaptive reuse are literally an afterthought and budget and implementation timelines aren't a part of the process. Visioning in this sort of manner is great but I'm not sure the community needs to come up with a specific design. Better yet, the community should be allowed to openly express what the type of uses it would like to see happen with the site. That information should then be included in a RFP for redevelopment. Doing such will likely result in several qualified responses coming in that address the issues in various forms.
Not being in urban planning as a career, I feel like the best way to do this is RFP the thing to the private sector (knowing that after the RFP process they'll be public input), select the best party's conceptual plans (basically the company that best shows a vision for the site), then do the public meetings with some specific guidelines based around the expert's proposals.
And it would need to be a
realistic RFP; not the pie-in-the-sky over-reach they put out for the Convention Center at the Court House site.
Most definitely!