Can Downtown Survive?

[finehoe]

There are completely empty floors in AT&T, I'm just not sure how many.

How wasteful to leave the lights on in them.

[finehoe]

If all of the buildings downtown are so empty, why is the vacancy rate less than 25 percent?

The vacancy rate measures how much space is leased, not how many people occupy that space.

[BridgeTroll]

Artwalk tonight... plenty of parking...

[JC]

Artwalk tonight... plenty of parking...

What time is art walk?

[BridgeTroll]

Now until 9 officially... unofficially the festivities last much longer...

[fsujax]

All on street parking is free metered or not!!!!

[tufsu1]

I wonder if anyone will show up tonight...or if downtown will be dead still 

[Ocklawaha]

some floors in those buildings are mechanical floors....every tower has them. So not all floors are leaseable. This is a very sad discussion and just shows how far our Downtown has fallen....neglected by our elected officials, sure we got fancy public venues, but where the heck is the civic pride from companies! So many lost opportunities. Deutsche Bank just to name one! I do not understand how or why the City can't convince some of these guys to locate Downtown. It seems to me someone isnt doing their job properly. How are we supposed to sell commuter rail to FTA? build it and they will come?

Union Station REBIRTH in Washington DC exactly because it is the crossroads of a city.


"JACKSONVILLE TERMINAL," wouldn't this beat the hell out of the empty "Prime Osbourne?"


Here is a scene of the Tunnels under Washington Union Station today!


This is a photo of the Tunnels under Jacksonville Union Station today! ...and questions?

I think this is easy FSUJAX. STREETCAR will create infill development, we've proved that over and over and over all across the USA, and Jacksonville will be no different. That said, Commuter Rail will tie all of the far flung community together and uniquely lucky for us, (unlike Tampa, Orlando, West Palm, or Miami) Every major road and railroad crosses the river DOWNTOWN, just outside of our future Jacksonville Terminal, Amtrak-Commuter Rail Station. So even if every last office leaves downtown, the streetcar infill will provide a boom of retail, restaurant, attraction, hospitality and housing spaces we haven't seen since 1932.  The guy living in the Westside, and working at the Avenues will be rolling through downtown on the Commuter Rail, further boosting the retail, restaurant trades downtown and exposing the attractions and hospitality to thousands of new customers through word of mouth.


OCKLAWAHA

[tufsu1]

but Ock....I've learned today that government employees don't count...what would Union Station and the rest of downtown DC be without them? 

[cityimrov]

Anyone know why the federal agencies are deciding against downtown?  The FBI, FDIC, etc.  State agencies aren't in downtown either.  Not even Citizens.

[Timkin]

I have a question..  Why did these tunnels get filled in? ... Were they ever used?  Do you think they ever would be used ?

[gridsketch]

"JACKSONVILLE TERMINAL," wouldn't this beat the hell out of the empty "Prime Osbourne?"

Here is a scene of the Tunnels under Washington Union Station today!

This is a photo of the Tunnels under Jacksonville Union Station today! ...and questions?

I think this is easy FSUJAX. STREETCAR will create infill development, we've proved that over and over and over all across the USA, and Jacksonville will be no different. That said, Commuter Rail will tie all of the far flung community together and uniquely lucky for us, (unlike Tampa, Orlando, West Palm, or Miami) Every major road and railroad crosses the river DOWNTOWN, just outside of our future Jacksonville Terminal, Amtrak-Commuter Rail Station. So even if every last office leaves downtown, the streetcar infill will provide a boom of retail, restaurant, attraction, hospitality and housing spaces we haven't seen since 1932.  The guy living in the Westside, and working at the Avenues will be rolling through downtown on the Commuter Rail, further boosting the retail, restaurant trades downtown and exposing the attractions and hospitality to thousands of new customers through word of mouth.

OCKLAWAHA mentions some of my favorite things: mass transit for Jacksonville and Washington DC. A few difficulties to work out though. Union Station in DC has rail lines from Amtrak (National), VRE (Virginia), MARC (Maryland), and Metro (DC) which feeds it people. Jacksonville has nowhere near the density or connectivity of DC. Also Union station has better bones than Prime Osborne Convention Center. Union Station takes Regional commuters (MARC and VRE) and diffuses them to urban commuters by way of subway, taxi, and foot. How would you imagine streetcar working in downtown as part of an integrated system (a sincere question). Similar comparative analysis could be made with Penn Station in NYC.

[finehoe]

Anyone know why the federal agencies are deciding against downtown?  The FBI, FDIC, etc.  State agencies aren't in downtown either.  Not even Citizens.

"Security".  Supposedly its easier for a terrorist to get you in an urban environment.

[Ocklawaha]

OCKLAWAHA mentions some of my favorite things: mass transit for Jacksonville and Washington DC. A few difficulties to work out though. Union Station in DC has rail lines from Amtrak (National), VRE (Virginia), MARC (Maryland), and Metro (DC) which feeds it people. Jacksonville has nowhere near the density or connectivity of DC. Also Union station has better bones than Prime Osborne Convention Center. Union Station takes Regional commuters (MARC and VRE) and diffuses them to urban commuters by way of subway, taxi, and foot. How would you imagine streetcar working in downtown as part of an integrated system (a sincere question). Similar comparative analysis could be made with Penn Station in NYC.

Naturally we are not nearly as big as the DC metropolitan area, but that in no way should deter us from raising our quality of life through fast, frequent, convenient, mass transit and intercity surface modes.

We have Amtrak, which will be doubling it's service to Jacksonville shortly with more on the planning boards. Moreover each Amtrak train will be splitting or consolidating here just like the old days. Bottom line? 10 Years and we sit in the top 10-20 Amtrak stations in numbers of trains served daily.

Jacksonville has amazing density all along the historic railroad and streetcar corridors, anyone who really looks at those zones cannot deny it. Certainly one could take the 840 +/- square miles and do simple math and come up with a ridiculous low density, but that wouldn't be accurate in our corridors.

As for better bones then Jacksonville? Opinion? Maybe. Our station is likewise connected to the Skyway - Monorail, and will have BRT, Intercity Bus, City Bus, Streetcar, Commuter Rail and Amtrak... Not bad for a town with a fraction of the metro-population of the NEC. Ours is also the largest railroad station South of Washington DC, and with the Prime gone, we've got lots of space to play with. Remember that with 32 original tracks our station was once the busiest in the entire world (Florida Boom of the 1920's), and for years it fielded 250 trains a day flawlessly.

As for streetcar, let's just say it's coming, and coming FAST. The first line will link Jacksonville Terminal with Riverside, 5-Points, Brooklyn, and with downtown along Water and Newnan Streets. The Skyway uses different lines and the BRT will use still more varied routes, so in the end game, every couple of blocks will put the future Jacksonville citizen at the door of Mass Transit... I'm not even sure NYC can do that!

Last and certainly not least, ALL ROADS pass through downtown, thanks to our river so in theory even if the urban core became a ghost town or city park, the area of Jacksonville Terminal would still see some of the heaviest traffic via RAIL - AUTO - BUS - MONORAIL in North Florida.


OCKLAWAHA

[Jerry Moran]

Anyone know why the federal agencies are deciding against downtown?  The FBI, FDIC, etc.  State agencies aren't in downtown either.  Not even Citizens.

Didn't I read in a previous posting that government agencies are obligated to consider downtown locations over suburban areas?  Can anyone elaborate on this?