Elements of Urbanism: Coronado, CA

[Metro Jacksonville]

Elements of Urbanism: Coronado, CA



Ever imagine what 3rd Street, through our beach communities, could resemble if developed to be more pedestrian-scale?  San Diego County's Orange Avenue (Downtown Coronado) could serve as a great visual example.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2011-oct-elements-of-urbanism-coronado-ca

[ben says]

I'm not saying I even like it (it kinda looks sterile!), but sheesh, why do Californian cities always look so damn clean/cookie-cutter/put together??? I know that's probably a huge positive for most people, but it sort of leaves me asking, "where's the flavor?"

[thelakelander]

I've only been to Southern California but I found it to have a lot of flavor.  If a place like Coronado or Santa Monica is to pristine, it also has communities like Venice Beach....







The one common thing they all had were that they were quite pedestrian friendly, full of life and human scale activity....

[Captain Zissou]

What is the length of Orange avenue compared to 3rd Street.  We could definitely do a better job of making the street pedestrian scaled, but from 16th South to Atlantic Beach is a long way.  I'd love to see a streetcar down the middle of 3rd with more infill from 16th South to 14th North and the area near the Beaches Town Center.

[Tacachale]

We'll have to do something about 3rd street eventually. As more and more people are walking and biking in an area bisected by a large arterial, 3rd Street is getting dangerous.

[tufsu1]

Orange Avenue is about 1 mile in length from the circle down near the hotel to the park overlooking the bay

In Jax. beach terms, that would cover the area from around 7th Ave. North to 7th Ave. South

[thelakelander]

What is the length of Orange avenue compared to 3rd Street.  We could definitely do a better job of making the street pedestrian scaled, but from 16th South to Atlantic Beach is a long way.

3rd Street from 16th Street South to Atlantic Beach is 3.5 miles.  Orange Avenue from 1st Street to Pomona Avenue is 1.5 miles.  South of Pomona, the name changes to Silver Strand Blvd and stretches another +7 miles before leaving Coronado's city limits.  However, that stretch is suburban (although it does have a parallel multiuse path for cyclist and pedestrians).

[Captain Zissou]

This article prompted me to explore San Diego on google maps.  How is it that San Diego can afford to have so many museums and cultural attractions.  Balboa park has 15+ large museums, theatres, concert halls...etc.  There's also point loma, the aircraft carrier, and dozens of other venues.  How is this possible??

[thelakelander]

Speaking of Balboa Park, that place is beautiful.  I spent a whole day exploring the various attractions in it, wondering what would it take to establish a similar type recreational open space atmosphere with the chain of parks lining Hogans Creek.  That's another article I'll probably do at some point.

[thelakelander]

Here are a few pics of Balboa Park:

[fsujax]

very nice pictures. they have a will to do things like that, where as here we just want to continue to build things like SJTC, and strip malls.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Looks pretty nice,love those parks and palms. See those gas prices ugh?

[fieldafm]

This article prompted me to explore San Diego on google maps.  How is it that San Diego can afford to have so many museums and cultural attractions.  Balboa park has 15+ large museums, theatres, concert halls...etc.  There's also point loma, the aircraft carrier, and dozens of other venues.  How is this possible??

They arent trying to maintain the lowest possible taxation rate of any city or municipality in the United Sates, no matter what it costs to their quality of life in order to attract companies that still havent flocked to Jacksonville after 60 years of tempting them with our "low taxes' hanky.

I'll have to respectfully disagree.  Coronado is pretty much a mirror image to Sarasota/Siesta Key.  Neither communities have ad valorum or sales tax rates that are any higher than their neighboring communities... however each community places a high value on quality of life issues.  While Jaksonville Beach still has room for improvement, clearly over the past 20 years they have started to make these same investments in themselves given their limited resources and downtown Jacksonville Beach has reaped the benefits of this investment(believe they are not perfect, but clearly better than the dump it was when I was a kid).  It's not always about how much money you have, but how you chose to allocate your resources. 

[fieldafm]

This article prompted me to explore San Diego on google maps.  How is it that San Diego can afford to have so many museums and cultural attractions.  Balboa park has 15+ large museums, theatres, concert halls...etc.  There's also point loma, the aircraft carrier, and dozens of other venues.  How is this possible??

You really need to take a week-long vacation to San Diego.  Stay away from Tijuana though

[vicupstate]

This article prompted me to explore San Diego on google maps.  How is it that San Diego can afford to have so many museums and cultural attractions.  Balboa park has 15+ large museums, theatres, concert halls...etc.  There's also point loma, the aircraft carrier, and dozens of other venues.  How is this possible??

They arent trying to maintain the lowest possible taxation rate of any city or municipality in the United Sates, no matter what it costs to their quality of life in order to attract companies that still havent flocked to Jacksonville after 60 years of tempting them with our "low taxes' hanky.

I'll have to respectfully disagree.  Coronado is pretty much a mirror image to Sarasota/Siesta Key.  Neither communities have ad valorum or sales tax rates that are any higher than their neighboring communities... however each community places a high value on quality of life issues.  While Jaksonville Beach still has room for improvement, clearly over the past 20 years they have started to make these same investments in themselves given their limited resources and downtown Jacksonville Beach has reaped the benefits of this investment(believe they are not perfect, but clearly better than the dump it was when I was a kid).  It's not always about how much money you have, but how you chose to allocate your resources. 

The 'neighboring' community in this case is San Diego.  San Diego and California in general have high taxes compared to just about any state, and certainly compared to FL.  So saying Cornado has the same taxes as it's neighbors is not indicative of low taxes overall.

Also, the tax RATES don't have to be high, if the PROPERTY VALUES are already higher than average.

Certainly how efficiently you allocate resources is important, but you still have to pay for quality.