Learning From Georgia I: Centennial Olympic Park

[thelakelander]

I-10, don't immediately come to the defense of our city.  That's one of the problems with struggling to push this place to the next level.  Nobody means our community ill will, but sitting back and coming up with excuses of why we can't do this or why others can isn't doing Jacksonville any good.

Yes, I did mention Detroit.  I'm still amazed myself that a city with a depressed economy like theirs can swing blow for blow with us, when it comes to recent downtown revitalization.  This tells me that we're definately not taking advantage of the opportunities we have with our city.  If you don't believe me, I'll be in Detroit next week and since I have a new camera, I'll be sure to snap a few shots of some of the new projects going up there.

Here are a few pics from the last time I was there.

Woodward Avenue streetscape


Hockey Town


Campus Martius Park


after the park opened, soon CVS, Borders Books and the Hard Rock Cafe followed...







we're also not the only place seeing people move back to the core..

[I-10east]

Lake, you're on point as always. I don't wanna sound like I'm arguing with people all of the time, cuz I'm not that type of person, and I said this before; I understand making excuses, and being complacent is not good, but it always seems like the basic emphasis on Metro Jax is that every comparsion city is rosy, and unflawed, and Jacksonville is the worst city ever planned. To tell you the truth, I get depressed just by reading articles on Metro Jax; (Fill in the blank city) really puts Jax to shame; Doesn't that get a little melancholy, and monotonous. What really kills me is that erroneous info will go unchecked, as long as it's negative; Someone can say something like "Orlando clearly has a far better military presence than Jax" and no one will say anything.; I'm just like damn, I know there's some very smart people aboard these forums, and yall ain't gonna leave it to me to say something.

[zoo]

Sorry for the one more "negative", but the lighting of the bridges isn't even being maintained. Main St. bridge lights haven't worked for months (maybe we need to have a task force)...

[thelakelander]

but it always seems like the basic emphasis on Metro Jax is that every comparsion city is rosy, and unflawed, and Jacksonville is the worst city ever planned. To tell you the truth, I get depressed just by reading articles on Metro Jax; (Fill in the blank city) really puts Jax to shame; Doesn't that get a little melancholy, and monotonous.

Remember that the point of the "Comparison" and "Learning from" articles are to show things that other cities are doing right, that we could benefit from locally.  They're not to pat ourselves on our back, although occassionally we'll point out what some are doing wrong as well.

Nevertheless, bad information should never go unchecked.  If you see something off base, feel free to mention it and why it's off base.

[Richard Bowers]

Atlanta offers a variety of things that Jacksonville cannot. For one thing, It can build and expand in all directions, we can only go N,W, or S. E is full of whales and sharks.
Jacksonville offers a major river, a consolidated government so there are no city-count governmental issues, no state income tax, and some business incentives. It also has a port.
You must build on what you have. Atlanta could have a dozen town centers. Jacksonville may have one or two very well done. Atlanta is the state capitol which means that every year, everyone wanting to petition the state must come through there. The Governor lives there so he knows what is needed.
Jacksonville barely supports NFL, it is a stretch to do it, and probably could not support NBA or National League Baseball(since most people here think this is what you do only waiting for football season). But we kick Atlanta all over in terms of water related recreation, and indeed, hold our on, with a smaller population, in golf and other outdoor sports.
And remember, our traffic is still less than 10% of Atlanta traffic, there is no comparision between Georgia Road 400 and Butler Blvd. Butler is by far easier to use and to access.
True we do not have the variety of upper end shoping that Atlanta has. But we also dont have their social problems.

[I-10east]

Nice post Richard; You did a good job of looking on both sides of the fence; It wasn't the "doom and gloom to all of J-ville' post that I'm accustomed to on Metrojax.

Let me preface this buy saying I know ATL is a big city and all of that crap; People talk about J-ville having an identity crisis; Look at ATL, a city that's named Atlanta that's no where near the Atlantic Ocean; Wouldn't that kinda be like naming Vegas "Pacifica"; I think it's pretty obvious why that aquarium is there.

[thelakelander]

So why are there aquariums in waterfront cities like Tampa, Charleston and Baltimore?  Regarding this topic, what was done wrong with Centinnial Park that we should avoid doing here?  What are the negatives of Centinnial Park?  How do our best urban parks, compare with the vibrancy of Centinnial?  

We should get some interesting comments when the next line of comparison threads (Savannah, Macon, Detroit, Toronto & Charlotte) hit the front page.

We'll have a wide range of cities that have different economies, forms of leadership, levels of historic urban fabric, attractions and problems, regarding their downtowns.

Overall, we can come up with several reasons/excuses of why city "x" is the way it is and why Jax can't achieve similar positive results or shouldn't be compared.  Nevertheless, sooner or later we have to face the fact that to take advantage of our assets, we must first admit there's room for improvement.  

Right now, we're not effectively doing that.  We would also be open to those who feel that Jax is being unfairly judged at this site, to suggest some additional places for critique that you think match up better with our economy and setting. After all, these photo articles serve as a learning experience, so the general public can see what other places are doing with their cores.

[RG]

I am not so sure that Atlanta has gotten a lot right in the urbanism area.  In fact, they are the poster child for suburban sprawl being even worse than LA.  Of course, they are building there now some great infill developments in Midtown but their downtown is still pretty awful and inhabited largely by the lowest rungs of society and most of the development there is occuring in the far flung suburbs and in Buckhead which is a linear suburban area still and will be for many years to come.  So, in my view, Jacksonville could be the San Francisco of the Southeast while Atlanta already is the LA of the Southeast.

[thelakelander]

 Atlanta's downtown offers both positive and negative examples in how to create a vibrant downtown area.  In the next few days, as the Learning from Georgia series continues, we'll see the good, bad and ugly of Atlanta's downtown area, before checking out Macon and Savannah's.

[I-10east]

An inland city with the name "Atlanta". What's their connection to the ocean? The Georgia Aquarium. That's what I was getting at Lake.

[thelakelander]

gotcha.

[02roadking]

Ummm, prior to Atlanta, the town was named Terminus and I don't think Atlanta's name has any thing to do with oceans.  ;)  Maybe I'm missing your point...

  http://roadsidegeorgia.com/city/atlanta01.html

[I-10east]

Whether ATL 's name does or do not have anything to do with the Alantic, you'd think they'll be a connection. I dont think it's a coincidence that the Georgia Aquarium is the biggest in the aquarium in the world.