What if Jacksonville suddenly woke up?

[Garden guy]

This city is the way it is because of the endless amounts of conservative good ole boy leadership that had diseased this city for many many years..good luck.

[Noone]

What is the "True Jacksonville"?  What is it that the people here want?  

 I'm worried about this city.  

So what is it that the vast majority people who are staying here, want - exactly?  

Use the RIVER! Open up Public Access and Economic opportunity to our St. Johns River our American Heritage River especially in our Downtown Jacksonville Overlay Zoning District and especially before a total Govt. takeover of the Entertainment District by a yet to be voted on and created Downtown Improvement Agency that will have to be approved by a new city council.

In 4 days Mayor Peyton will be arriving by boat to the new floating dock at RAM. This is a pivotal piece of what could be an explosive message to the taxpayers of Jacksonville and the citizens of the state of Florida.

Who will be on the boat for this historic symbolism of perceived economic access. Perceived because will it really be expanded. Ron Barton? Terry Lorince? Wayne Wood? Michael Corrigan? Neil Armingeon? Tera Meeks? Daniel O'Byrne? Don Redman? Paul Anderson? Ron Littlepage? Any other guesses on who will be on this historic voyage on our RIVER?

To take a line from Mark Woods column in todays Times Union with a slight variation.

The St. Johns River is Open for Business.  

[Jaxson]

Much respect for Noone.  Jacksonville should take advantage of its existing natural resource - the St. Johns River.  Unlike an amusement park, the river is something that we do not have to build.  It has been with us for eons. 
Why can't we have more water-based recreation downtown?  I remember seeing two-person pedal boats in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.  I also enjoyed seeing the 'Duck' tourist boats in Boston and Philadelphia.  Why do we not make more of our river?  [Gnashes teeth]...

[Garden guy]

Much respect for Noone.  Jacksonville should take advantage of its existing natural resource - the St. Johns River.  Unlike an amusement park, the river is something that we do not have to build.  It has been with us for eons. 
Why can't we have more water-based recreation downtown?  I remember seeing two-person pedal boats in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.  I also enjoyed seeing the 'Duck' tourist boats in Boston and Philadelphia.  Why do we not make more of our river?  [Gnashes teeth]...

Have you ever swam in downtown waters? It's not the cleanest waterway and it needs attention but i do agree that the river itself has not been used enough to boost this city. This city would be a great place for skulling..more sailing schools..fishing...if we have a clean river to use...maybe we could actually get in it. With dying fish..i really dont want to actually swim in downtown waters yet...

[fieldafm]

Have you ever swam in downtown waters? It's not the cleanest waterway and it needs attention but i do agree that the river itself has not been used enough to boost this city. This city would be a great place for skulling..more sailing schools..fishing...if we have a clean river to use...maybe we could actually get in it. With dying fish..i really dont want to actually swim in downtown waters yet...

Its a Christmas miracle!!  Garden Guy, I agree 100%.
Mark this down boys and girls, its 'come together day' on MJ and Garden Guy is leading the charge.

GG,

the river itself has not been used enough to boost this city. This city would be a great place for skulling..more sailing schools..fishing...if we have a clean river to use

If you write a letter with this text and send it to all city council members, candidates for office, everyone on the Waterways Commission, Parks Dept and the mayor's office... I will pay for the postage!

[cityimrov]

Much respect for Noone.  Jacksonville should take advantage of its existing natural resource - the St. Johns River.  Unlike an amusement park, the river is something that we do not have to build.  It has been with us for eons.  
Why can't we have more water-based recreation downtown?  I remember seeing two-person pedal boats in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.  I also enjoyed seeing the 'Duck' tourist boats in Boston and Philadelphia.  Why do we not make more of our river?  [Gnashes teeth]...

Something is stopping it.  It's not that difficult a business to create.  I'm very sure there is at least 1 person willing (unless they already left), to buy a duck boat and is willing to sell rides for a few bucks each.

What does it take to park and operate a duck boat in a downtown pier?

[cgaskins]

For a duck boat, there would need to be a ramp from street level to the river.  The ramp(s) would have to be out of the way of the riverwalk, or the riverwalk would have to be rebuilt as a bridge going over where a ramp is built.
Or, a slightly more pain in the ass, or more dangerous depending how you look at it, way would have the duck boats driving over the riverwalk to a ramp that leads it into the river â€" getting in the way of pedestrians.
My friends in Boston and Baltimore all hate the duck boats, and it seems to be a popular hate that most locals share.  They move slowly on the streets, because they are giving tours of sights, or might possibly only be able to go a certain speed, which brings foot and auto traffic down.
Duck boats would be used less by locals than a theme park or aquarium.  You'll do a duck boat when you're five years old, you might do it again when you have a five year old of your own.
How often do the water taxis get used?  Does anyone have any figures on that?

Duck boats are cute, but I doubt there's really much business for one in a city until that city already has a steady stream of tourists visiting.  Duck boats don't bring the tourists, tourists are already there and ride the duck boats.

Speaking of "cute" things, I was just thinking of memorable things in cities.
The Delta Queen Hotel in Chattanooga.

Vintage cabs in London.

Historic streetcars in San Francisco.

The brightly painted buildings in Tannersville, NY.

The Googie architecture in Southern California, among other places.


Streetcars are well worn territory on MJ, and I strongly believe that a streetcar line in the core would be an amazing thing.  Especially if it uses vintage cars.  Great form of public transit + cool as hell looks = happy locals with pride, and a memorable visit for tourists.

On that note, I wonder if a local cab company would ever be willing to use vintage yellow cabs.  I also wonder if the city, state, or country would help with funds to a company for upgrading vintage cars to be hybrids, or more fuel efficient, because they're preserving classic American made cars.  Just a thought.  If Jacksonville's downtown was full of yellow cabs from the '40s to '60s it would definitely make the city more memorable to people, and give an element of playfulness and historic charm.

A steamboat on the Saint John's that is a restaurant and hotel would make a killing, especially if residents of Duval were given a discount, making it a couple's romantic getaway and interesting alternative for people visiting.

I'm bored at work and just throwing this out there.

[blandman]

Duck Boat Tours are popular with tourists in Philly, but not with residents.  Since last year's collision with a barge in the Delaware River that killed two tourists, "Ride the Ducks" has been lobbying to get access to the Schuylkill (pronounced "skoo-kill") River, on the other side of Center City.  However, the Schuylkill River Path is incredibly popular with city dwellers and they staunchly oppose the idea of having the loud, ugly duck boats ruining an afternoon's job/ride/stroll.  Last month the city sided with residents and decided not to award a contract for the Schuylkill.

[Noone]

Much respect for Noone.  Jacksonville should take advantage of its existing natural resource - the St. Johns River.  Unlike an amusement park, the river is something that we do not have to build.  It has been with us for eons. 
Why can't we have more water-based recreation downtown?  I remember seeing two-person pedal boats in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.  I also enjoyed seeing the 'Duck' tourist boats in Boston and Philadelphia.  Why do we not make more of our river?  [Gnashes teeth]...

Have you ever swam in downtown waters? It's not the cleanest waterway and it needs attention but i do agree that the river itself has not been used enough to boost this city. This city would be a great place for skulling..more sailing schools..fishing...if we have a clean river to use...maybe we could actually get in it. With dying fish..i really dont want to actually swim in downtown waters yet...

No we don't have to swim in the waters yet but we sure can paddle in it and fish too. GG, your right the river does need to be used more to boost this city. Lets Kayak Hogans Creek together. In fact I'll put you ahead of anyone that is running in the Spring elections. I'm saying this in a complimentary way because I believe that you can make it happen.
 

[CG7]

I just think the majority of people are lazy, they are content to sit on the couch, watch tv and eat a delivered pizza. They must be compelled to leave their couches. This can be done as evidenced by huge numbers at the zoo when they open a new exhibit, opening weekeng at RAM etc. We need more people to help bring our assets to their full potential (ie the river and access to the river, our beaches, the nations largest urban park system, the symphony, the jaguars, museums etc) I challenge the people of metrojacksonville to find a cause and do whatever it takes to make it something the citzens of Jacksonville will get off their couches for. Sorry I'll get off the soap box now.

[finehoe]

duck boats...move slowly on the streets, because they are giving tours of sights, or might possibly only be able to go a certain speed, which brings foot and auto traffic down.

Since we have no pedestrain or auto traffic downtown, this wouldn't be an issue.   

[cgaskins]

I just think the majority of people are lazy, they are content to sit on the couch, watch tv and eat a delivered pizza. They must be compelled to leave their couches. This can be done as evidenced by huge numbers at the zoo when they open a new exhibit, opening weekeng at RAM etc. We need more people to help bring our assets to their full potential (ie the river and access to the river, our beaches, the nations largest urban park system, the symphony, the jaguars, museums etc) I challenge the people of metrojacksonville to find a cause and do whatever it takes to make it something the citzens of Jacksonville will get off their couches for. Sorry I'll get off the soap box now.

Is anyone doing a digest size magazine that promotes shops, restaurants, bars, markets, et cetera for the Riverside, Avondale, and downtown areas?  A quarterly or yearly digest that is free.  Get as many locations to submit a little money to go toward printing cost, have maps of areas with markers showing where places are.  Pop in a history lesson about that area every few pages.  Sell ad space to radio stations or law firms...whatever.
Each location gets a paragraph or two written about them and a photo of their shop front...

These are common guides in most cities/neighbourhoods.

If you can open up a little booklet and see all of the shops and restaurants around your house, you're more likely to go visit them.  You can plan out your night of bar crawling, or find out more information about a place you walked by earlier that day that you never noticed before.

There are people who are really up on their game and know about all of the best places in their area, but there are a lot more people who actually don't know where to go and would benefit a ton with a guide like this.
Also, seeing a guide filled to the brim with all kinds of great places makes people realise there is actually a lot more going on than they thought.

All of the places featured in the magazine will carry little stacks of them by their doors.  It's pretty basic stuff that will make locals more aware of what is around them.  If you have a copy on your coffee table and you're thinking about just staying in on a Friday for Netflix and a pizza, you might rethink it when you see how much night life is right in front of your face.

The main thing with this is to list as many things as possible.  Greasy spoons to gourmet, dive bars to posh lounges...  People need to be more aware of what is around them.

You create a neat and tidy package that presents a lot of options to people and everyone wins.

To give you an example of something I've done...
My friend and I had an idea the other year for a website.  We wished there was a website that listed all of the events that were going on in NYC that our friends and us would be interested in.  We started one, now the blog section of the site has hundreds of unique hits a day, we get emails from tons of promoters and bands each week wanting us to list their events.  We've become known as thee website to go to if you're in this niche little world we're in.  People plan trips to NY according to the events we have posted.
Unfortunately, we turn down a lot of stuff and try to stick to things that have to do with '60s garage punk, soul and R&B, surf rock, ska and rocksteady, rockabilly, and other related styles of music.
Check it out:  www.garagepunknyc.com

And just to show you I'm not afraid of print, this is a magazine I do.  We're in 12 countries.  Issue three comes out in three weeks.  It's a free mini-tab.
www.bananasmag.com

[Ocklawaha]

Is anyone doing a digest size magazine that promotes shops, restaurants, bars, markets, et cetera for the Riverside, Avondale, and downtown areas?

Actually they are, it's called:  http://www.metrojacksonville.com/

Though your idea of a free standing PERMANENT section of City and Regional Information and Events might be a cool thing to do here.

OCKLAWAHA

[cgaskins]

Is anyone doing a digest size magazine that promotes shops, restaurants, bars, markets, et cetera for the Riverside, Avondale, and downtown areas?

Actually they are, it's called:  http://www.metrojacksonville.com/

Though your idea of a free standing PERMANENT section of City and Regional Information and Events might be a cool thing to do here.

OCKLAWAHA

A print magazine can sometimes have more of an effect on people than just a website.
But yeah, if this site had a google map with markers showing restaurants, bars, shops... it would be easier to update and maintain than if it were a print booklet.
Now, I'm off to Miami until Monday.

[Know Growth]

The entire region,so ardently inclined to radically change through embrace of "Growth", obviously hated itself.