Two Downtown Parks in my sights..

[Steve]

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.

[Lunican]

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?

[DetroitInJAX]

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 ), 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.

[Steve]

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?

[thelakelander]

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 ), 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.

[tufsu1]

well....if you want more downtown residents, there need to be places people's pets can go to the bathroom!

[thelakelander]

I'm not complaining.  Lord knows it needs help.  From Jerry Moran's videos, half of downtown is a bathroom.

[second_pancake]

The 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.

[DetroitInJAX]

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.

[City Slicker]

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.

[thelakelander]

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.

[copperfiend]

I was at the library Sunday afternoon. It was crowded and guess how many people I saw at the pocket park? Zero.

[thelakelander]

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.

[tufsu1]

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!

[thelakelander]

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.