"Name the Entertainment district" contest...

[Ocklawaha]

It's also not so far removed in nomenclature from the current Bay Street entertainment district but is much more picturesque and verdant sounding, and a bay tree image juxtaposed with the Jax skyline could be used as part of the branding (Big city urban amenities with just a touch of small town Southern charm). 

I like the branding idea, how about an artistic rendering of an antique transit under the Bay Tree with the Skyline in the background.


OCKLAWAHA

[L.P. Hovercraft]

Easy to fix, we can get em by the pot full, and really probably should at least have one on the corner of market and Bay, great spot for a historical marker on the founding of the city... A marker that DOES NOT claim we were once called 'Cowford.' Based on the history of that time the community that had started developing around 1800 was probably called 'The Hart Settlement,' which just happened to have a livestock ford in the deep narrows of the river.

OCKLAWAHA

Calling Floridaforester and Garden Guy.  You guys up for a little midnight guerrilla tree planting downtown?

[danem]

Ninja tree planters: By the time you see them, your streetscape already looks nicer!

[L.P. Hovercraft]

I like the branding idea, how about an artistic rendering of an antique transit under the Bay Tree with the Skyline in the background.


OCKLAWAHA

I could definitely see that on street signs: "Bay Tree District" along with a vintage streetcar on tracks going into the distance, a single bay tree (or maybe a line of bay trees), and the Jax skyline above, done in a simple graphic style in 3 or 4 colors.  Get the artist who designed the Riverside Arts Market logo to do it--she or he made the underneath of a concrete FDOT highway overpass look positively artsy. 
Hell, I'd buy the t-shirt today if it was available!

[Tacachale]

Ah bay trees, I like it. 

But do we know if Bay Street was named after the tree? T. Frederick Davis's book says that the big tree on Market Street may have been a bay, and that if so it may have influenced the street name, but later specifically says that "Market and Bay [Streets] cannot be definitely traced as to their meaning".

http://fulltext10.fcla.edu/DLData/NF/NF00000013/file9.pdf
(p. 54 and 56).

Anyway if we're looking for historical names, there are plenty of Indian names we can dust off.

[Tacachale]

For instance: "Basala", a Timucua word meaning "a river or stream bank", or "to cross, pass through, pass by", as in a river. As a verb it could also mean "to party"(!) (apparently in the archaic sense of "part" or "portion").

I'm sure we could concoct something for it to be an acronym of. Or a portmanteau. "Bay Something Something".

[Noone]

Easy to fix, we can get em by the pot full, and really probably should at least have one on the corner of market and Bay, great spot for a historical marker on the founding of the city... A marker that DOES NOT claim we were once called 'Cowford.' Based on the history of that time the community that had started developing around 1800 was probably called 'The Hart Settlement,' which just happened to have a livestock ford in the deep narrows of the river.

OCKLAWAHA

Ock, You rock.

Went to a nursery and was going to buy and then plant a Bay tree next to the yet unidentified street car pole or railroad yard pole or someones very unique welding project. but was informed that there is a fungas and a lot of these trees are dying. Also we are now a more concrete jungle Downtown and a few other variables that may impact there growth and development.

Like the idea. Who sells them and does anyone have experience planting them? Just trying to help.

[Dog Walker]

Red Bay trees all across the South have been dying in thousands for the past couple of years.  There is a beetle that carries a fungus that is doing the damage.  In some places the death rate for the trees is 100%.  It is real tragic to drive through places like Fernandina and Fort Clinch park and see the dead trees with brown leaves still on them.