$12 million on landscape projects plowed under?

[02roadking]

Not sure what to say about this   

The city of Jacksonville has spent millions of dollars on beautification projects, but now city officials are saying they're ready to plow weed-infested road medians that were part of those projects because no one will take care of them.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43414293/ns/local_news-jacksonville_fl/

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Easy, you say - either maintain them or we plow them under, and I think the city already said that.

It's easy to armchair qb this one, but even though there were no contracts signed, you have to believe that there were probably some 'gentleman's agreement' with the groups and their councilmen - you get us the pretty stuff and we'll keep it pretty.  

Have the city maintain right of way?  Really?  Don't people realize that the city ROW goes up to about the placement of their water meter?  Do you really want the city bushhogging all of your carefully planted annuals that you planted outside of your picket fence that's already encroaching on the city's ROW?

The money's already spent, they'll spend less ripping it out and resodding with bahaia (hahahah) instead of St. aug. and mowing the crap once a month.  Get over yourselves, Arlington.

[duvaldude08]

Not sure what to say about this   

The city of Jacksonville has spent millions of dollars on beautification projects, but now city officials are saying they're ready to plow weed-infested road medians that were part of those projects because no one will take care of them.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43414293/ns/local_news-jacksonville_fl/

This is a known problem with the city. We do all these streetscape projects, but we never think about " who is going to take care of this after its built?" These are the type of things we need to do better.

[duvaldude08]

Note to City- Before you spend millions of dollars on these projects, make sure you already have an agreement in place about who is going to maintain Medians. 

[Riverrat]

I really find it obsurd...if the city doesn't want to maintain the median, they shouldn't plant such flower beds.

[iMarvin]

Who maintains Old St. Augustine Rd near Baptist South? Every time I go over there, it looks good.

[St. Auggie]

Who maintains Old St. Augustine Rd near Baptist South? Every time I go over there, it looks good.

Flagler development

[iMarvin]

Who maintains Old St. Augustine Rd near Baptist South? Every time I go over there, it looks good.

Flagler development

Oh. Well... 

[simms3]

This is where self-taxing neighborhood groups come in.  These kind of groups also happen to be in urban, generally wealthier areas.  "Community Improvement Districts"

The "Arlington mess" has been publicized before.  Those people are whiners, poor, and benchwarmers.  Let them deal with their own crap.  As the article said, two Riverside groups have already decided to maintain recent city projects; the people that won't are the Arlington people.  I bet you downtown businesses can come together to keep downtown streets nicer (and they do to a small extent), and I bet you once San Marco streetscape is done, businesses in that area won't let it fall to crap.

Frankly, it's nice enough the city has footed the bill using the entire county's tax base and not left it to neighborhoods to keep up their streets (my city does not do that...it's up to the neighborhood associations, which are supported by businesses).  I would think to pay for routine landscaping maintenance spread out over a ton of businesses would be super cheap.

Five notable business-led, self-taxed community improvement organizations where I live are Central Atlanta Progress (downtown), Midtown Alliance, Buckhead Coalition, Perimeter, and Cumberland (Vinings).  Each covers the cost of streetscaping, maintenance, and transit initiatives.

http://www.midtownalliance.org/ and http://midtown.patch.com/
http://www.atlantadowntown.com/ (website for Central Atlanta Progress)
http://www.thebuckheadcoalition.org/ and http://www.buckheadcid.com/
http://www.perimetercid.org/
http://www.smyrnavinings.com/ (Cumberland/Vinings CID)

Speaking for the Midtown CID, it has been able to fund the Midtown Blue police force, major streetscaping, events, and transit initiatives.

And just to show that even CID's can encompass uber-suburban areas, here is a CID for an area of Gwinnett County, GA.  http://www.gwinnettvillage.com/

$2.5M revenue a year for that is pretty impressive.