New Gas Station Proposed for Downtown's Main Street

[thelakelander]

We need a gas station Downtown? Really, when there is already one a block away? One whole block! Wow, just wow.

Really, the market decides.  We have Carl's, Uptown Market, Chan's and a host of restuarants on Main already.  However, I'll be the last to say there isn't anymore need for additional restaurants along the corridor.  I'll let the market handle that.  My focus would be more on making sure all incoming uses are laid out to benefit the corridor and not subtract from it.

[thelakelander]

"I am sorry this just makes me laugh.  You guys want mass transit running up the ying yang around here and a gas station, say it with me, a GAS STATION is news around here.  Come on.  I want the downtown to be more vibrant as well, but this truly puts things in perspective.  Some want all these stores that would never consider our downtown because a gas station is a big deal around here.  Many of you are just gonna think I am a hater, but geez.  Two of the things reviewed in the last 6 months on this site are a Dollar General and a Gas station."

Ha ha ha! True.

Welcome to Jax.  When you have a core that has been ripped apart for over 50 years, you need a ton of things to be self sustainable.  While we at MJ advocate good design, we will continue to push for reliable mass transit.  Btw, stay tuned, there's some good things happening on that front as well.

[hanjin1]

I have a bad feeling this gas station will be just like the one across the street and the new one on 8th and liberty

[thelakelander]

My guess is it would have a stronger chance of not being like the others.  All have been around since before the decline of DT.  The condition and image of the others do nothing but create an opportunity for someone who wants to capture the market avoiding other spots.  In the end, with many of these projects common sense has to eventually come into play.  No one has money to burn these days.  If someone is going to spend hundreds of thousands to build a brand spanking new facility, their more likely to keep it clean, presentable and well maintained. 

[GideonGlib]

Downtown needs an alternative place to fuel up other than the "Shady Shell", but I agree that they could do something a lot more interesting with the design. Perhaps more importantly than design might be taking precautions to keep the vagrants away that lend an unsafe feeling to other downtown convenience stores, knowing that every time I fill up I will be accosted every time I fill my tank by the swarms of homeless that sit in the Shell's parking lot all day and night usually leads me to going to Riverside or the Roosevelt Gate or Daily's to fill up.

I think a key to revitalizing downtown and Springfield must be to bring in the businesses that people need and use, and having them be as clean, safe and pleasant to use as the alternatives in the Suburbs. Not every new business can be an upscale restaurant, night club or clothing boutique.

[Ocklawaha]

I am sorry this just makes me laugh.  You guys want mass transit running up the ying yang around here and a gas station, say it with me, a GAS STATION is news around here.  Come on.  I want the downtown to be more vibrant as well, but this truly puts things in perspective.  Some want all these stores that would never consider our downtown because a gas station is a big deal around here.  Many of you are just gonna think I am a hater, but geez.  Two of the things reviewed in the last 6 months on this site are a Dollar General and a Gas station. 

Yes, it is the topic of conversation, and having lived all over the America's I'm here to tell you that had this issue come up in San Francisco, Dallas, or Bogota, you better believe the planners would be all over it. Too tall, too small, not connected, too open, too closed, etc... I've seen the Los Angeles County Board of Commissioners erupt in a squabble over placement of somebody's mobile home!

We are not Los Angeles (thank God) but we are a microcosm of the City of Sprawl ANGELS. At the very least we could learn from their errors and hopefully not repeat more of them here. A gas station or a Dollar Store is a good start.

Mass Transit up the ying yang around here? You bet, the city can NEVER reach it's potential as one of the Worlds Great Cities without a growth driver, and fixed guideway mass transit is that driver.


OCKLAWAHA

[GideonGlib]

My apologies, on rereading my post it was a grammar nightmare.

[Coolyfett]

lame lame lame...A Skyway Station would be much better....typical Jax.

[thelakelander]

The skyway is two blocks away and this is a private sector project.

[PJparker]

We need gas stations and we love convenience stores.  Competition is a good thing.  More businesses Downtown is a good thing.  The business owners and the city could get together in an aggressive, concerted effort to reduce the issues of loitering and panhandling in Downtown Jacksonville.  It is a problem in every city and in some suburbs.  Lights, cameras and action.  You can't bother the Police for every petty crime, but if the business owners could share pictures and identify repeat offenders and give the information to a downtown patrol officer, word might get around that Downtown Jacksonville is not an easy target.

[Captain Zissou]

The design is horrendous, but the use of an empty parcel for something positive is a plus.  Putting the convenience store fronting main with a door right on the sidewalk would help.  Scale down the awning, make it less visible, and move it off the street.

[hanjin1]

looks like this will make it harder to run down main street without getting panhandled. I would usually just avoid the side with the shell gas station, but this will put a new obstacle for taking a run down main street.

[vicupstate]

I realize that utilitarian things like gas stations are a necessity, but this is the same site that was the proposed site of a attractive, mid-rise, brick condo project a few years back.  Welcome back to reality Jacksonville. 

[Jason]

Ha!  I was just about to mention the same thing Vic.


The Lofts at East Union....

[thelakelander]

Yeah, that project was always pie in the sky.  The land owner cooked that concept up to try and sell the lot.