I've had this on my mind for a while and finally remembered to actually POST it, so here goes..
Has anyone been past Jesse B. Smith Memorial Park lately? Its that little "pocket park" across from the Florida Theatre. I honestly dont know any normal people in their right mind that would come anywhere near this park, as the proliferation of Jerry Moran's downtown vagrant brigade seems to have made this place their home base. Every time I drive/bike past the plot, I can almost SMELL its inhabitants. Why isnt anything being done about this?
Secondly, Drove by the main street pocket park on the way home, you'll be glad to hear that its already looking great with plenty of plastic bags, newspapers, and other assorted trash blowing around in it (nary a human in site to A) clean it up, or B) actually ENJOY the park). Brilliant.
Third, does anyone else agree with me when I say that this city is short in the statue/monument department? When I say short, I dont mean build statues of Peyton around town.. I mean we need some more monuments.. Parks should have a focal point, and monuments/statues do that.
Just my monthly gripe.. You'll now be turned back to your regularly scheduled programming.
The Jessee B. Smith Memorial Park is the same one Tri Vu suggested the city renovate to actually make it work a few years back. Personally, I wish we could have kept the mid rise building that used to sit on the site.
A few of us stopped by the Main Street Park a few weeks ago, to see how it was progressing, only to find out the ground was littered with Popeye's Chicken remnants and Milwaukee's Best cans. I came back the next day with a camera, but the site had been cleaned. Tufsu1, mentioned that the city was thinking about turning the Main Street think into a sculpture park. Hopefully, they do something to give it a theme and drawing power, because what's there now is unacceptable.
I go by the park several times a day, there is not a law that prohibits sitting on benches, and that is exactly what they do. But, if we are talking about sleepers or open containers then we have something...
Calling JSO for starters, they can issue a no tresspass for the sleepers (1-year) and the open containers they are subject for arrest.[/font]
i have noticed a lack of monuments in the area. the park on the river in riverside that i can't remember the name of has a nice one.
i think a sculpture park could be a good idea, but because of the bad choices in sculpture picking at the school i went to and the seemingly poor public decision making i keep hearing about around here, i wonder if we might end up with something ugly and too expensive to replace for thirty years.
Parks need focal points. The city here doesnt understand that a bunch of trees, a few benches, and some nice flowers dont make a park... They need something more.
A few examples from my hometown.
(http://images.43things.com/place/1119392xl.jpg)
(http://images.43things.com/place/1119020xl.jpg)
(http://images.43things.com/place/1119404xl.jpg)
(http://images.43things.com/place/1119434xl.jpg)
Quote from: DetroitInJAX on September 08, 2007, 01:18:59 PM
Parks need focal points. The city here doesnt understand that a bunch of trees, a few benches, and some nice flowers dont make a park... They need something more.
A few examples from my hometown.
a few from mine, although it's hard to tell that they're in a park. there was also a giant arch, but everyone has seen that.
(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1073/1348788059_98ce1206a7_o.jpg)
(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1055/1348788111_8041b9da97_o.jpg)
Where is Jacksonville???
I was looking at the fine photos in this thread thinking, how short our city is on sculpture or statues. We have SO MANY famous people who were born, lived or worked in Jacksonville, but we turn our backs on their memorys. From Jean Ribault (he brought his own monument) to Ronnie Van Zant, we have a parade of fame. Events from Fort Caroline, to today, something like 444 years! From this we get next to nothing? Contrast this with the so-called "3rd World" in the Colombian City of Medellin:
(http://static.flickr.com/52/137314274_5945deab4e_m.jpg)
(http://static.flickr.com/1196/776361969_2ff36a51b1_m.jpg)
(http://static.flickr.com/31/58263025_dac9f9ef5b_m.jpg)
(http://static.flickr.com/29/58286739_03f69ad5dd_m.jpg)
(http://static.flickr.com/27/58288756_9685edf1cb_m.jpg)
(http://static.flickr.com/187/409885309_024d194b73_m.jpg)
(http://static.flickr.com/1058/557757563_931bf5015b_m.jpg)
(http://static.flickr.com/25/58276606_3601ce9dfa_m.jpg)
So if Medellin is in the third World, where the hell is Jacksonville???
Ocklawaha
Just wanted to update on anyone thinking that the Main Street Park doesn't get any use. Here are some pictures to prove you wrong.
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2183/2100284322_12143a4538.jpg?v=0)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2213/2100282578_754cc9baab.jpg?v=0)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2326/2099502391_cce48a3bd0.jpg?v=0)
See, Peyton and his gang do know what they are doing!
This doesn't include the hotdog stand and the other homeless people I couldn't fit in the picture.
But you know what, at least it takes the homeless and vagrant away from Hemming!
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2344/2099516245_e5e9591727.jpg?v=0)
WRONG AGAIN!! Oh yea, I couldn't fit all the homeless in this picture either, but I thought this one hit it on the head.
QuoteThis doesn't include the hotdog stand and the other homeless people I couldn't fit in the picture.
But you know what, at least it takes the homeless and vagrant away from Hemming!
Nope. Like sticking five restauarants next to each other, it just creates a critical mass of vagrant vibrancy.
The city is also using prisoners to pick up trash in Hemming Plaza. It adds a nice touch on a Saturday afternoon. For some reason the prisoners are allowed to fraternize with the vagrants.
Yeah, I saw those lovely orange t-shirt'd folks just hanging out in Hemming Plaza yesterday, along with all those that homestead there...seemed like such a comfortable mix, don't you think?
I thought the orange t-shirt people were some kind of Downtown Ambassador assistants.
Quote from: hanjin1 on December 10, 2007, 08:18:40 AM
I thought the orange t-shirt people were some kind of Downtown Ambassador assistants.
the Orange T-shirt people (w/ beige hats) are the Downtown Ambassadors....but the City has been using prisoners for almost a year to help w/ street cleanup on Sat. mornings....it helped offset the budget cuts and insurance issues that Downtown Vision had in doing trash pickup
What? No smartass defense of the Peyton administration or their new "park" on Main Street, tufsu? I am disappointed in you. ;)
Quote from: RiversideGator on December 10, 2007, 06:49:47 PM
What? No smartass defense of the Peyton administration or their new "park" on Main Street, tufsu? I am disappointed in you. ;)
no need and not productive....I still think the park has potential...especially if it gets used as a sculpture garden for MOCA....time will tell!
Quote from: tufsu1 on December 10, 2007, 07:57:05 PM
no need and not productive....I still think the park has potential...especially if it gets used as a sculpture garden for MOCA....time will tell!
Actually, I think your idea of a sculpture park is great - let's do it in Hemming Plaza. Since MOCA opens up to Hemming, it makes perfect sense, instead of next to a surface freeway.
One of my biggest problems with the park is that the location of the park, with relation to the rest of Downtown Jacksonville. The only way that an urban area will work is if it has connectivity. If we break up every other block with a park, you kill the connectivity.
Instead of this massive, take up half a block park thing, why not take that money and repair the existing parks, and improve them. Let's put it towards the Friendship Fountain pump repair. Let's use it to help cleanup Confederate Park or Klutho Park (I know that these aren't located on the southside, but we'll let it go).
I just think that they had some money to spend (the money had to be spent on parkland), they had a vacant lot, and they just took the easy way out, probably because the Mayor's Office really doesn't care about downtown (let's be honest). Not to mention, there is a lot less paperwork to turn a city-owned parcel into a park, than to RFP it.
Speaking of Friendship Fountain, does anyone know how the city came up with the $800,000 price tag to fix those pumps? Did they get a quote? If so, from who?
So its now February, is it too early write an email to Peyton saying "I told ya so" regarding the Main Street Park? I drove by it a few days ago and saw the homeless, with shopping carts (no doubt filled with treasures they picked up shopping downtown :D ), sprawled out on the benches, laying on the grass, laying on the walls.. trash everywhere. In the middle of the day.
Friday Night I was driving up Duval Street, stopped at the light at Main, and watched a well dressed gentleman cross Duval, start walking south past the park, saw the bums, stopped in his tracks, and jaywalked across Main to walk on the OTHER SIDE of the street, nearest the library. The people that the stupid park is targeting are avoiding it!
This city is led by quite possibly the most retarded and inept people in the country, whose lack of vision is absolutely frightening.
Quote from: Lunican on December 11, 2007, 12:07:10 AM
Speaking of Friendship Fountain, does anyone know how the city came up with the $800,000 price tag to fix those pumps? Did they get a quote? If so, from who?
Was ProLogic Consulting doing the work?
Quote from: DetroitInJAX on February 04, 2008, 12:28:12 PM
So its now February, is it too early write an email to Peyton saying "I told ya so" regarding the Main Street Park? I drove by it a few days ago and saw the homeless, with shopping carts (no doubt filled with treasures they picked up shopping downtown :D ), sprawled out on the benches, laying on the grass, laying on the walls.. trash everywhere. In the middle of the day.
Friday Night I was driving up Duval Street, stopped at the light at Main, and watched a well dressed gentleman cross Duval, start walking south past the park, saw the bums, stopped in his tracks, and jaywalked across Main to walk on the OTHER SIDE of the street, nearest the library. The people that the stupid park is targeting are avoiding it!
This city is led by quite possibly the most retarded and inept people in the country, whose lack of vision is absolutely frightening.
The latest plan is to put some pooper scoopers in the park, since a few resident's pets consider it their personal bathroom.
well....if you want more downtown residents, there need to be places people's pets can go to the bathroom!
I'm not complaining. Lord knows it needs help. From Jerry Moran's videos, half of downtown is a bathroom.
QuoteThe latest plan is to put some pooper scoopers in the park, since a few resident's pets consider it their personal bathroom.
Are you sure it's the pets making the poopy-mess? lol.
So we're all good, provided we train the "knot head" population in the Carling/11E area to either take a dump right IN one of the trash cans or at least use the provided pooper scooper.
Anyone willing to stroke a check to pay for these monuments? I think it a good idea, but how will they be paid for? We arlready don't have enough to pay to ensure the parks we already have are kept clean. Take a look at all the previous posts to validate this. Just throwing that out there for thought.
In several cities, new major park improvements are being funded through public/private partnerships. That may be an avenue we could take advantage of that we haven't done to a high degree in the past.
I was at the library Sunday afternoon. It was crowded and guess how many people I saw at the pocket park? Zero.
I saw a few "urban outdoorsmen" with over-capacitated shopping carts enjoying the pocket park's benches this past Saturday. However, thats becoming a regular scene in that space, so sometimes its easy to overlook.
I grabbed breakfast at Bread & Butter on Saturday morning....and then sat in the new park with my dog and ate....hope I wasn't one of the "urban outdoorsman" Lake!
Good for you. Hopefully, more residents will follow your lead and we all can find a way to make your experience a regular use of the park as opposed to an isolated incident.
Btw, tufsu1, a while back you mentioned that there were plans to turn the pocket park into a sculpture park. Is this still the plan?
I had heard that the idea was discussed....at least for occasional exhibits at MOCA....but I don't know if any decision was made
The park already has moving sculptures. One of the most recent works is entitled "Shopping Cart Lady" :P
Quote from: tufsu1 on February 12, 2008, 10:15:40 AM
I had heard that the idea was discussed....at least for occasional exhibits at MOCA....but I don't know if any decision was made
How about use the park that is over 100 years old for sculptures (and right outside the front entrance of MOCA?
Everytime I walk or drive by that park I try to be objective and find a shred of beauty.
It is without doubt, THE MOST USELESS AND UGLY PARK IN NORTHEAST FLORIDA. For me it's not about the money, if a quality product had been implemented and built more than a block from an existing, far superior park, I was ok with it. But come on everyone this park is truely HORRIBLE. Who the heck designed it? Maybe they could use it on weekends for a farmer's market or something. It would work ok for that I guess.
I tend to agree. Its like the designed it to be utilitarian, but then forgot to leave open areas so it can be utilized....
As near as I can tell, it was 100% designed to collect homeless people, with all of its comfy ledges, and shade trees.