Landing bill moves forward without preservation funds, but mayor may veto

[Ocklawaha]

Lake do you have more photos of the mayors aborted plan to clean the downtown clock with his merry-go-round and such?

I actually think the elements as depicted in the 2 photos you posted are quite superior to the current crop of blah, blah, blah.  Peyton's buildings evoke a atmosphere of "Flagler-Florida," the "Great Florida Boom" of the 1920's, and our own "Dixieland" park and "Subtropical Exposition".

While I would totally fight any plan to take down currently functioning venues, such features scattered along either side of the Riverwalk would improve it tremendously.  Imagine that "house" as our visitors center and small cruise port... What about the merry-go-round? Just a carnie event or a World Class unit that would have aficionados coming from all parts. Reconstruct one of our expo buildings near the arts market or as a new venue, move the maritime museum in.  Make a steamboat,  "The City of Jacksonville" no doubt, complete with a steam Calliope (and I bet You, Lunican and I know where we could get one built!  In fact I have the prints!

Got to say, it is out of the box.

OCKLAWAHA

[Jim]

Ocklawaha, I'm trying to track down more pics of the Big Idea that were posted on MetJax but I'm not having any luck.

The problem with the Big Idea was more the overall concept which may as well have been drawn on a cocktail napkin and conceived as an idea int he time frame it took to drink down the bear it was sitting under.

We can green up the River Walk if that's the charm found in those renders.  But ripping up the Landing to install a merry-go-round or adding hot dog and cotton candy vendors on a working drawbridge just screams "I have no idea what I'M doing".

And the whole thing was conceptualized and presented to the media without a single dime considered for or any affected retailers, business, government agencies, etc...informed or contacted regarding it.

[fsujax]

Oh Jim, I remember that so well...thats how I first got involved with MetroJacksonville

[Jim]

That's what started it off for a lot of members.

It was just such an asinine idea that people had to speak out.

[thelakelander]

Its what really got the whole thing off on a larger level of public participation.  You can thank city hall for creating this online monster.  Its unfortunate that we're still debating this Landing issue today.

[thelakelander]

Lake do you have more photos of the mayors aborted plan to clean the downtown clock with his merry-go-round and such?

I actually think the elements as depicted in the 2 photos you posted are quite superior to the current crop of blah, blah, blah.  Peyton's buildings evoke a atmosphere of "Flagler-Florida," the "Great Florida Boom" of the 1920's, and our own "Dixieland" park and "Subtropical Exposition".

While I would totally fight any plan to take down currently functioning venues, such features scattered along either side of the Riverwalk would improve it tremendously.  Imagine that "house" as our visitors center and small cruise port... What about the merry-go-round? Just a carnie event or a World Class unit that would have aficionados coming from all parts. Reconstruct one of our expo buildings near the arts market or as a new venue, move the maritime museum in.  Make a steamboat,  "The City of Jacksonville" no doubt, complete with a steam Calliope (and I bet You, Lunican and I know where we could get one built!  In fact I have the prints!

Got to say, it is out of the box.

OCKLAWAHA

I'm not really a fan of copying old architecture from eras gone bye.  From a personal architectural perspective, what you design should reflect the time you live in and the materials available in today's society.  As generations pass, people should look at what we've done in the same light preservationists treasure the works of Architects like Klutho, FLW, Sullivan and Kahn.

Anyway, I don't recall too many images being put out there of the Big Idea.  That plan went south pertty quick.  Nevertheless, how about a hot dog cart on the Main Street bridge?  This should surely get you walking across it.



For those interested in the old Big Idea project, here is a review:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2008-dec-peytons-struggles-the-big-idea

[tufsu1]

at least they had a decent idea with putting the Main St Bridge on a road diet...I think a 2-lane or 3-lane (1 reversible) bridge would be great...and would allow for bike lanes and a wider sidewalk.

[Mattius92]

at least they had a decent idea with putting the Main St Bridge on a road diet...I think a 2-lane or 3-lane (1 reversible) bridge would be great...and would allow for bike lanes and a wider sidewalk.

That would be nice, with the Acosta bridge right down the river, they could very well narrow the bridge, and widen the sidewalk.

Thinking about it, how important is the Main Street bridge (transportation wise) that they couldn't just convert the whole thing to a pedestrian bridge.

[tufsu1]

right now the Main St Bridge carries more traffic than the Acosta...but the combined capacity of both bridges would still be enough even if Main St Bridge was 2-3 lanes

[Jim]

at least they had a decent idea with putting the Main St Bridge on a road diet...I think a 2-lane or 3-lane (1 reversible) bridge would be great...and would allow for bike lanes and a wider sidewalk.

Why not keep the lane count as is and widen the sidewalks out away from roads? 

Thinking about it, how important is the Main Street bridge (transportation wise) that they couldn't just convert the whole thing to a pedestrian bridge.

It's far more important to motor traffic than using it as a whole for pedestrian traffic.

I recall the data not long ago showing it carried about as much motor traffic per day as the Acosta bridge does.

[Mattius92]

However the Acosta is 6 lanes and is considered a freeway, the Main Street bridge isn't. The Acosta can totally handle all of the traffic off the Main Street Bridge and more, take the Fuller Warren its a 6 lane highway bridge, and it handles 100,000 cars a day almost just fine.

You need to know that getting downtown more ped friendly will be a big thing that will help bring more residential and office development to downtown.

[thelakelander]

Why not keep the lane count as is and widen the sidewalks out away from roads?

That was Peyton's last idea for the Main Street Bridge but I don't know what came of it.  To be honest, it would be a better investment in DT than Metropolitan Park.

[Jim]

However the Acosta is 6 lanes and is considered a freeway, the Main Street bridge isn't. The Acosta can totally handle all of the traffic off the Main Street Bridge and more, take the Fuller Warren its a 6 lane highway bridge, and it handles 100,000 cars a day almost just fine.

You need to know that getting downtown more ped friendly will be a big thing that will help bring more residential and office development to downtown.

Certainly but the cost of increasing pedestrian access should not come with the complete closure of a major motor traffic bridge.  Especially when the same volume of pedestrian access can be created without the need to close a single lane.

You also have a lot of agencies to deal with, not just JTA, when it comes to closing off the main street bridge to vehicle traffic.

[mtraininjax]

Main Street bridge investment? Maybe, if it connected to something with a plan. The southbank is more disjointed than the northbank. Focus people, focus on downtown.

[thelakelander]

^Agree 100%.