Has Riverside Avondale Lost Its Identity?

[Metro Jacksonville]

Has Riverside Avondale Lost Its Identity?



According to Bill Briggs of SwitchYard Media, it has. He included the neighborhood in a list of 10 that have lost their identity.
 

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2011-apr-has-riverside-avondale-lost-its-identity

[acme54321]

So according to the article, Riverside lost it's ghetto boarding house identity?  Wasn't that the whole point?

[Dashing Dan]

From the headline I thought the article would be negative.  In fact Riverside is in very good company on this list!

[ChriswUfGator]

I fail to see how it's a negative thing, and I have to question the title of the article?

As he acknowledges himself, the neighborhood fell into blight in the 70s and has now turned around and become again what it was in the 1920s. Certainly lost the blighted identity, but that was never the neighbirhood's real identity in the first place. Moreover all the historic building stock is intact. I don't get what was 'lost'?

[ben says]

Yeah...uh...not sure what the 'negative' aspect of the article is...

And ditto to Dashing Dan's comment. Very good company!

[mtraininjax]

In the 1940s, during WWII, folks took single family homes and created duplexes to help with revenue as the "man" of the house was typically working for Uncle Sam. Had Mandarin or Southside been developed, they too would have had the same issues.

I agree that the value of the article is the same that we paid for it.

[Ocklawaha]

Okay folks, this guy is an idiot - he can't title a story correctly. Riverside-Avondale went from "plantations" (according to him anyway) to "mansions" to "rooming houses" and now back to "mansions." Really? True the south was a plantation society, but how many knew that 5-Points was a "Negro picnic grounds and park at the edge of a swamp," according to Jacksonville Traction Company records? So what identity? That people of color might live there? That wealthy people might live there? Truth is it was a mixed group every since the last Spanish soldiers clattered past...

Frankly there is probably no more quickly identified neighborhood in all of northeast Florida if not the whole state. Quick, name THE neighborhoods of Florida:

Coral Gables
Ybor City
South Beach
Worth Avenue
International Drive
San Marco
Riverside
Avondale

OCKLAWAHA

[heights unknown]

I guess they (or HE in this instance) are expecting Riverside/Avondale to become imbued with mansions like it was "way back when." I don't think that will ever happen again. I think RAP was good for the area; I remember it. My very first Apartment was in the red brick building across from Wendy's at Five Points, that is now Doctor Offices I think. I lived upstairs and it was very nice back then, shag carpeting, air conditioning (window units), etc., I'm talking 1978 here, and that is when they first started RAP. The neighborhood was in fact, as I remember, on the down low and decline until RAP took over. There were numerous so called ex-mansions renting out rooms (boarding houses I guess) because I had many friends, both civilian and Navy (we were all young then) who rented rooms or efficiencies out of those houses, and, they were very very nice back in the day. I have visited Jax quite often of late and cruised around Riverside/Avondale and the Neighborhood looks absolutely super; there is room for improvements, but when I lived in that area, both in 1978 and later in 1993-94, the area was much worse than it is now. There are more stores, restaurants, bars/clubs, and things to do. Back in the day you had to either go downtown or to Arlington or the Southside to find things to do as aforementioned. I think the area overall has really improved for the better!

"HU"

[heights unknown]

Okay folks, this guy is an idiot - he can't title a story correctly. Riverside-Avondale went from "plantations" (according to him anyway) to "mansions" to "rooming houses" and now back to "mansions." Really? True the south was a plantation society, but how many knew that 5-Points was a "Negro picnic grounds and park at the edge of a swamp," according to Jacksonville Traction Company records? So what identity? That people of color might live there? That wealthy people might live there? Truth is it was a mixed group every since the last Spanish soldiers clattered past...

Frankly there is probably no more quickly identified neighborhood in all of northeast Florida if not the whole state. Quick, name THE neighborhoods of Florida:

Coral Gables
Ybor City
South Beach
Worth Avenue
International Drive
San Marco
Riverside
Avondale

OCKLAWAHA

Negro? Haven't heard that word in many eons. Not saying it should not be used, it just sounds strange in today's world. (LOL)...guess I'm getting old.

"HU"

[ChriswUfGator]

I don't think a mixed neigborhood represents any kind of "loss" or "gain" and I don't think that's what anyone was referring to. Speaking personally, my statement meant the 1970s-1990s period for Riverside, where half the neighborhood was vacant and many structures were not being maintained and looking like they were about ready to fall in on themselves. I don't mind diversity at all, it's a pretty diverse neighborhood now and that's one of the things I love about it.

[ChriswUfGator]

I guess they are expecting Riverside/Avondale to become imbued with mansions like it was "way back when." I don't think that will ever happen again. I think RAP was good for the area; I remember it. My very first Apartment was in the red brick building across from Wendy's at Five Points, that is now Doctor Offices I think. I lived upstairs and it was very nice back then, shag carpeting, air conditioning (window units), etc., I'm talking 1978 here, and that is when they first started RAP. The neighborhood was in fact, as I remember, on the down low and decline until RAP took over. There were numerous so called ex-mansions renting out rooms (boarding houses I guess) because I had many friends, both civilian and Navy (we were all young then) who rented rooms or efficiencies out of those houses, and, they were very very nice back in the day. I have visited Jax quite often of late and cruised around Riverside/Avondale and the Neighborhood looks absolutely super; there is room for improvements, but when I lived in that area, both in 1978 and later in 1993-94, the area was much worse than it is now. There are more stores, restaurants, bars/clubs, and things to do. Back in the day you had to either go downtown or to Arlington or the Southside to find things to do as aforementioned. I think the area overall has really improved for the better!

"HU"

The old model railroad club space! Stephen Dare's friend lives there now.

[PeeJayEss]

I think this is just a case where the author wrote an interesting piece about cool comeback neighborhoods (or previously cool, then not, then cool again - or not cool and then hoping to be cool one day like Vancouver) and his editor gave it a dumb title.

[urbaknight]

The title was a good one, it got my attention.

[grimss]

Looks like a quick cut-and-paste job with a message totally at odds with its title.

[PeeJayEss]

The title was a good one, it got my attention.

I should rephrase my statement to say "inaccurate" rather than "dumb." It is certainly effective, just misleading.