Kids Kampus Vanishes

[north miami]

They are planning on doing more, including improving the river access. Let's hope they stick with it and don't just stop

I disagree that Met Park could never have a significant impact on downtown.

for many,Met Park and adjacent is in fact draw to  'Downtown'

[north miami]

Fences keep tots from wandering in the street during a momentary lapse of parental sight, certainly white picket fences would have performed the same task and looked much more welcoming.

glad I grew up in a world of Rock Pit,Canal,Lake,Beach,Ocean,Swamp,Biscayne Bay,tidal flow,big Azzz waves,sharks,barracuda,snakes,lightning,sun burn,wood white fences.

Kid Campus reflective of a Community where too many youth never step foot on  a salt water beach that defines the eastern boundary of their home county.

There is a place for the Campus elsewhere,in the name of Kids welfare let's grow up and finally look to this property for wat iit could be.

I beg the question of my earlier post..........what is the grand scheme for the property??

[north miami]

Clustering complementing uses within a compact pedestrian friendly setting is the best way achieve vibrancy. Metropolitan Park is too isolated from the Northbank core to have a significant impact on DT revitalization.

Lake,we take a stand according to where we sit and having "sat" at this 'isolated' sector,so on the ground aware of the nearby "core" I respectfully disagree.

It floors me to think of this area as "isolated".I bet 'the public' would be in agreement.

If this was a State Conservation Land project MP would function as key component.

[north miami]

What we have now is a clean slate.

This quiet move likely screams future intent.

Or yet more big plans that never materialize.

10/4

carefully note the Kampus Vanish "based on citizen input".

still fascinated with typically obscure intent,outcome profile.

[InnerCityPressure]

The faded plastic houses were ugly as hell.  Kids don't care.  My niece and nephew loved to ride their bikes into them.  Kids Kampus and the mini water park were one of the family friendly features that drew my wife and I to Jax from DC.  We came to start our family.  We have a 9 month old who I would love to take to Metro Park next summer.  I guess she'll be stuck in the plastic wading pool.  Thanks Jax...I could have done that in DC...

[TheProfessor]

I agree with Lake.  Focus investing on the urban core!

[thelakelander]

Lake, I disagree that Met Park could never have a significant impact on downtown. If the amphitheater project from back in the day hadn't been thwarted by myopic fools, it would have helped close the city's general gap in mid-sized and mid-large music venues, and if done right it would have had an enormous influence on the acts who would have played here. But I agree that anything less than a modern amphitheater project probably isn't worth spending a lot of money on when there are other more pressing issues.

Notice, that I never said "never."  However, we certainly need to accept and understand that Metropolitan Park is over a mile from the heart of the downtown core.  IF we want downtown to be vibrant (a vibrant downtown means one that is walkable with activity 24/7 within a compact area), then we must cluster complementing investments within a compact setting to make it happen.  This includes leveraging our limited tax dollars in ways that best get us to this goals.  Investing in infrastructure in a park a mile outside of the heart will not result in the same significant gains as investing the same things right in the center.  For example, would you agree that the jazz festival has a more significant impact on DT, at the pedestrian level, after being moved from Metropolitan Park?  Imagine the impact if more Metropolitan Park events were relocated to the historic heart of downtown and the waterfront between the Acosta and Main Street bridges?  Ever wonder how we and Baltimore have spent funds on similar DT redevelopment projects but our DT still struggles?  It all revolves around making/or not making those investments within a compact urban setting to stimulate synergy and pedestrian foot traffic.

In other words, if there is a plan to drop +$20 million in Metropolitan Park, reaching downtown vibrancy would be better served by shifting those amenity investments to compact urban locations like Hemming Plaza, the Courthouse Square or the Northbank riverwalk between CSX and the Landing.

Over time, as downtown reaches a certain level of vibrancy and expands out to Metropolitan Park, then things done in the Sports District will have a more significant impact on downtown vibrancy.  Nevertheless, realistically speaking, we're a decade or two away from Metropolitan Park having a significant impact on downtown vibrancy (24/7 activity within a compact walkable setting).

[thelakelander]

Clustering complementing uses within a compact pedestrian friendly setting is the best way achieve vibrancy. Metropolitan Park is too isolated from the Northbank core to have a significant impact on DT revitalization.

Lake,we take a stand according to where we sit and having "sat" at this 'isolated' sector,so on the ground aware of the nearby "core" I respectfully disagree.

It floors me to think of this area as "isolated".I bet 'the public' would be in agreement.

Let's go back and look at my statement:

Clustering complementing uses within a compact pedestrian friendly setting is the best way achieve vibrancy. Metropolitan Park is too isolated from the Northbank core to have a significant impact on DT revitalization.

I don't think anyone here would disagree that the key characteristic to a vibrancy downtown is being a pedestrian friendly setting.  To be pedestrian friendly, your built environment must have a high level of walkability.  So what is the definition of walkability?

One proposed definition for walkability is: "The extent to which the built environment is friendly to the presence of people living, shopping, visiting, enjoying or spending time in an area". Factors affecting walkability include, but are not limited to: land use mix; street connectivity; residential density (residential units per area of residential use); "transparency" which includes amount of glass in windows and doors, as well as orientation and proximity of homes and buildings to watch over the street; plenty of places to go to near the majority of homes; placemaking, street designs that work for people, not just cars and retail floor area ratio. Major infrastructural factors include access to mass transit, presence and quality of footpaths, buffers to moving traffic (planter strips, on-street parking or bike lanes) and pedestrian crossings, aesthetics, nearby local destinations, air quality, shade or sun in appropriate seasons, street furniture, traffic volume and speed. One of the best ways to quickly determine the walkability of a block, corridor or neighborhood is to count the number of people walking, lingering and engaging in optional activities within a space.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkability

The walkability and pedestrian friendly built environment of downtown abruptly ends at Liberty Street, along the Bay Street corridor.  That's 3/4 of a mile west of Kids Kampus.  That 3/4 mile walk is characterized by parking lots, a jail, a factory with a blank wall at pedestrian level, vacant lots and an elevated expressway.  In terms of a pedestrian scale environment, that 3/4 mile pedestrian hostile environment would qualify something on the other end as being "isolated" at the pedestrian level.


1. Ambassador Hotel, 2. Barnett/Laura Trio, 3. Jacksonville Landing and 4. Metropolitan Park. This image illustrates the distance between Metropolitan Park and "core" walkable area of downtown.
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-may-creating-synergy-history-the-landing-or-metro-park

Example 1: A vibrant urban area with a high level of pedestrian scale walkability.


Example 2: Downtown Jacksonville core


Example 3: Kids Kampus/Metropolitan Park - the downtown skyline can be seen in the distant background


If the goal of the city is to make downtown a vibrant place, which example setting would serve as the more logical place for the investment of limited funds to achieve that goal (shown in example 1)?  Example 2 or 3?

If this was a State Conservation Land project MP would function as key component.

This statement is sort of an oxymoron.  We're not talking about a rural undeveloped area.  We're talking about a downtown core that everyone claims they want to be vibrant.  Furthermore, I'd suggest my position that Metropolitan Park has a limited impact on the downtown is a fact, proven by Metropolitan Park already being in that location for 30 years.  The park itself is proof that investing in an isolated park site a mile outside of the walkable downtown core isn't a logical move for a downtown revitalization plan.  In fact, the park being there is a detriment to downtown vibrancy.  It's a detriment because we search for ways to make it successful by locating events there that would have a better impact on downtown, if they were in the core themselves. 

Dropping $30 million into it is just a repeat of the same sprawling failed urban public policies we've been doing since 1950.  We already know this path does not lead to increased walkability, which is the central ingredient of a successful downtown.  Why repeat the same expensive mistake again?  Change course and place that desired kiddie water fountain, playscape or outdoor performance venue in or closer to the heart of the core instead.


Btw, this is what public spaces start to resemble when located within a compact setting.  This image was taken two blocks west of the scene shown in Example 1.

The images below are of Detroit's Campus Martius Park.  All of our future urban park investments should be done in a manner that better integrates passive and recreational activity with the built environment around them.










http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2008-sep-a-tale-of-two-parks

[Ocklawaha]

I think the tragic thing about the Kids Kampus fiasco is the fact that in a metro area of 1.4 million people we have next to nothing in the form of carnival, arcade, theme park, aka: children's attractions. Kids Kampus at least partially solved this dilemma. Then along comes our midget minded mayor who was weaned on concrete and gasoline and in one swoop he wrecks the whole place. His showing up at the charette and claiming "We need flex space in Jacksonville," (I'd translate that as him not thinking we have enough empty lots, cleared lots, surface parking and otherwise bombed out visual effects in downtown.

There isn't another city in the country with our rich landscape of City, State and National Parks, then again there probably isn't another city with such piss poor man made amenities. Sadly the few amenities we have are often stale or in a poor state of repair, its not like we can just throw away the little we have without doing damage.

I agree with Ennis, now that the damage is done, it's time to focus on downtown. In the fairly near future we might benefit from being able to "stretch out" our walkable core by centering along the Riverwalk. At least that extends the walkable part of downtown Jacksonville as opposed to a city like Orlando who's walkability must expand in concentric rings. Once we finally get a handle on downtowns core any expansion will likely go in the direction of Brooklyn and Southbank. Both Brooklyn and Southbank are located between very desirable residential and city center, there is simply nothing beyond the stadium/met park to drive organic infill.

OCKLAWAHA

[tufsu1]

well Ock...we do have Adventure Landing...and the City opened a splash park at Hanna Park this year that somewhat takes the place of Kids Kampus

[Ralph W]

They missed the boat on this one... should have laid down a big carpet of artificial turf. The initial cost would have been more than offset by the longevity of the material and the almost complete lack of wear and tear (nothing happening here, folks), saving big bucks on O&M.

[Ocklawaha]

How about teal colored shag carpet? Hell, at least we'd have something to point out and talk about. You can find acres of grass growing all over the once vibrant core.

OCKLAWAHA

[north miami]

Lake,thank you for your reviews.

We need more people like you.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Focus should be on DT not even sure why that needs to still be addressed at this stage. Kid Kampus another mistake just like having the school board building on prime river front land. It was mentioned before why worry about Met Park now when the Shipyards lay in ruins, which is a big void between DT and Met Park. Some landscaping to spruce things up is really not a bad idea though.

[jcjohnpaint]

And what is truly disturbing, is most area politicians really do feel that there is nothing wrong with this move.  I feel most of them do not even see a problem with the core aside from what the numbers show.  You get rid of one clown and there seems to be a big line ready to take his place.  I do feel that have some of these folks travel is a good thing.  They do need to see that our core is indeed very unhealthy in comparison to most peer cities.  Thanks Lake for posting this and you are absoluty right, but when will are politicians understand this?