Retrofitting Suburbia. Ellen Dunham Jones

[Overstreet]

This is a fantastic talk on retrofitting Suburbia. This topic was briefly touched in the movie 'End of Suburbia'.
The mall at the corner of Old Baymeadows and Southside is being used by FSCJ. This goes in line with Ellen Dunham Jones's talk. I would like to see empty parking lots becoming wetlands.

All her examples seemed to talk about the involvement of transit. I wonder why!

Might as well list the mall at Philips Hwy and Emerson used as office park, YMCA, Skating rink, etc.

[brainstormer]

I've been thinking it would be interesting to invite someone like Ellen Dunham-Jones to Jacksonville and let her share some ideas for retrofitting.  How could an area like Tinseltown incorporate sidewalks and connectivity?  How could retrofitting encourage new development near Gateway Shopping Center or the Beach Plaza Shopping Center?  Should the city focus on some depressed neighborhoods by regreening or creating new public wetlands within them?  I think we need to be more proactive and creative in driving new development despite the rough economy.

[TheGeo35]

The picture above shows the old Town & Country Shopping Center including the old Theater....Brings back memories...grew up in Arlington in the early 80s. It was a happening place. There was even a theater on Arlington Rd near Lone Star.

[tufsu1]

Ms. Jones was in Jax a few years ago for ULI Reality Check

[Ocklawaha]

Here's a novel thought... Why not return the urban suburb builder, to the urban suburbs? Imagine! Streetcars in:

Downtown
LaVilla
Fairfield
Springfield
New Springfield
Brentwood
Gateway
Brooklyn
Durkeeville
5-Points
Riverside
Avondale
Fairfax
Murray Hill
Ortega
Etc...

You know what they say, "If Mohammed will not go to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohammed." Lets start laying track!

[ronchamblin]

Some Yuengling induced thoughts after midnight.  The ideas bouncing around are great.  I like the idea of returning some of the paved areas to green.  We have way too many empty malls and parking lots.

One reason we have a local government is so that it can visualize the perfect or the optimum for the environment and the citizen, and then to “force” by subtle methods such as zoning and permitting, and other “rules”, the private sector to move only in directions which will achieve those visions.  To allow the private sector, with motives too often only for profit at any cost to guide behavior and decisions affecting the environment and what is ultimately good for the citizen, is negligent on the part of government and potentially disastrous to the local economy and environment.  Any look around Duval County should convince the casual observer of this.

The “Vision” is the beginning... the vision of the ideal.  If the effective mechanisms to achieve the ideal are not in place, mechanisms such as enlightened local government, a viable economy, and strong leadership, then the vision is set to remain only a vision, dying in the wind.

Local government, if infected with too many individuals who cannot focus clearly upon the vision, or with too many individuals who see it, but cannot assist moving to it because they are excessively guided by habits of self-interest, or by simple greed, then we are also lost in stagnation.  Both of the above types might be some of the Good Ole Boys we talk about.  If the local government, and other local power centers, are infected with too many of these comfortable and self-serving types, we are looking at one cause of the stagnation of our efforts to force any vision to reality, a vision such as that of revitalization.

Another factor to consider as we weigh the causes of our predicament of stagnation and empty buildings and parking lots; a factor which has never affected our economy before this decade, is the negative impact of the Internet on the local business survival and startups.  The Internet is one reason we are seeing so many empty first and second generation malls and strip malls, as it has become an alternative to shopping at local shops, and therefore many local shops are gone, never to return.

For this reason, it makes sense to look at the option of returning some of the asphalt areas, the old malls, to nature.  Certainly some of them can be retrofitted to schools or whatever.  Let us hope that they do not become churches, as we have way too many of these.     

And I agree totally with Ock regarding the streetcar idea, not only concerning the clean running aspect of these machines, but the idea that the fixed route streetcar can result in establishing reliable transportation for citizens.  The routes, if established with some care, can actually force development according to any vision for infill.  One of the most important consequences of a successful streetcar system would be the reversal of the maddening automobile love affair we’ve endured since the fifties.  A good streetcar system in place will result in eventual high ridership,  the disappearance of our “parking problem” in the core, and a momentum to infill the core with businesses and residents.   

The trick in any effort to change large systems, environments, or established habits, things such as the goal of achieving the revitalization in our city core, is to build the infrastructure, which would include the removal of obstacles, no matter what it takes, for by doing so, one creates a continual pressure, a path, for a relentless, automatic movement toward the vision.   

The optimum infrastructure involves the removal of obstacles; some of which might be what some have called the Good Ole Boys, and those in local government infected with too much concern for their own self-preservation in office, their material or spiritual comfort, and their excessive self-interest. 

The road from vision to the achievement of it has no place for excessive self-interest, for comfort, for complacency, for greed, or even for prayer.  The road to accomplish the vision demands clear thinking, dedication, determination, the setting aside of excessive self-interest; it demands real work, and aggressive decisions which force progress toward the vision.

Fundamentally, we need strong leadership to move to the vision.  Nothing happens in our vision-demanding environment without strong and determined leadership.  One could go further, and say that it is impossible to achieve the vision without strong and determined leadership;  leadership able to thrust aside politicking, leadership able to thrust aside old friends demanding favors, leadership able to work the fundamental objectives and necessities while avoiding the fluff of political office.  We are confronted with powerful dilemmas and wartime-like problems.  Therefore we need a wartime mood of sacrifice and hard work.  We need to encourage, we need to demand, the mood of an Enlightenment in our city.