Richmond & Jacksonville: More In Common Than You Think

[Metro Jacksonville]

Richmond & Jacksonville: More In Common Than You Think



Historically, Jacksonville has more in common with this city than the average person can believe. Common features have included tolls on Interstate 95, Interstate 295 as a beltway, being a  headquarters for CSX, festival marketplaces, Harlems of the South and underutilized urban waterways. However, when it comes to downtown revitalization, adaptive reuse and historic preservation, Richmond has been more than willing to work with existing building fabric. Here is a look at some common links Downtown Jacksonville shares with Downtown Richmond.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-nov-richmond-jacksonville-more-in-common-than-you-think

[simms3]

Never been.  Does Richmond feel very large, or kind of small-townish?  Also, did you get any pics of "the Fan"?

Also, count the Legal Industry as a major player in Richmond.  Definitely a hub of big law firms.  I can think of 2 (McGuire Woods and Hunton & Williams) that are from there and I know there are more (plus tons with a presence there.  I think part of it is proximity to DC and its seat as capital of VA, but I also think that there's a generally abnormal amount of big business that happens in Richmond.  Short list:

Capital One (financials)
Dominion Resources (energy)
Meadwestvaco (industrials)
Altria (major conglomerate)
CarMax (consumers)
Brinks (consumer - security)

[vicupstate]

I recently visited two cities that preserved and rehabbed their warehouse districts.  Lincoln and Omaha NE both had very vibrant warehouse districts, just as Richmond does.  The W.Bay/W. Foryth - LaVilla area could have been the same for Jacksonville.  Unfortunately, that is now an unlikely proposition as the LaVilla buildings are gone.  Even worse is the fact that Jax has clearly not learned from that mistake, as witnessed by the demoltion in Springfield.  Will the warehouse district in Springfield be lost too?   

[Noone]

Enjoyed the tour.

[thelakelander]

Never been.  Does Richmond feel very large, or kind of small-townish?  Also, did you get any pics of "the Fan"?

The core area of the city feels larger than it really is. It has a pretty dense (existing building fabric) core area in comparison to most Sunbelt cities. Here's some images of the Fan. Great neighborhood.















I didn't spend much time in Richmond during my recent trip.  I spent more time in downtown, the Fan, Carytown, etc. during a trip back in 2007.  Here's a link to that photo thread.



http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2007-dec-learning-from-richmond

[simms3]

I recently visited two cities that preserved and rehabbed their warehouse districts.  Lincoln and Omaha NE both had very vibrant warehouse districts, just as Richmond does.

Went to Omaha this summer.  Totally forgot my camera too or I would have taken a ton of pics.  That town blew me away, frankly.  Honestly, while Jax destroyed what it did have, I don't think it ever had anything to the extent Richmond and Omaha still do (and upon further research Omaha apparently leveled most of its warehouse districts, but what's left is still impressive as hell...I think what it had actually made it a semi-rival to Chicago for certain industries for decades).  I know some girls that go to Creighton, so it was a no brainer partying with them downtown.

[thelakelander]

Historically, Omaha and Richmond were slightly larger cities than Jax, although Jax was well on its way to catching them before stalling out in the 1950s. Looking at pre-WW2 density levels, we should have similar scaled urban cores at least.  Yet, I suspect the frame shotgun dominated neighborhoods like LaVilla, Brooklyn, Eastside, Sugar Hill, etc. gave us our peak 20th century density.  On the other hand, Richmond's core is dominated by brick rowhouse style housing. I'm not sure about Omaha.  Yet, given Omaha's isolated location, I suspect it was much more of an industrial center than Richmond and Jax.


1900

Omaha city, NE.....................    102,555

Richmond city, VA..................     85,050

Jacksonville, FL......................    28,429



1920

City -- Population -- Land Area -- Population Density

Omaha city, NE...........    191,601    36.9     5,192

Richmond city, VA........    171,667    24.0     7,153

Jacksonville city, FL....     91,558    15.4     5,945



1950

City -- Population -- Land Area -- Population Density

Omaha city, NE...........    251,117    40.7     6,170

Richmond city, VA........    230,310    37.1     6,208

Jacksonville city, FL....    204,517    30.2     6,772



1960

City -- Population -- Land Area -- Population Density

Omaha city, NE...........    301,598    51.2     5,891

Richmond city, VA........    219,958    37.0     5,945

Jacksonville city, FL....    201,030    30.2     6,657

http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027/tab13.txt


With this said, I'd consider the downtowns and core areas of cities like Omaha and Richmond more comparable to Jax's than cities like Atlanta, Houston or St. Louis or Chicago.

[Noone]

Never have been to Omaha or Richmond.

So tonight at city council is 2013-694 and $43,000,000 for a new TV. Good or bad? Taxpayer subsidized.
Call up to Richmond or Omaha we have $43,000,000 to spend. Where is it going?
Saw just two picks of the canal or whatever the waterway that was completed in 1999. So how is that working out? Open or restrictive like here in Jax?

[Wacca Pilatka]

Great job.  Agreed with Lake that the city feels larger than it is, due to the dense core.  The presence of large corporations, the accompanying wealth and upscale destinations, and the relative proximity to two other larger metros in DC and Hampton Roads, also give the metro area the feel of being a bigger place.

Sixth St. Marketplace failed in part because it was a Landing-type development glued to two department stores in a disjointed attempt to re-create the feel of a shopping mall in the center of the city.  It was schizophenic and lacked identity, seemingly trying to serve as a full-service mall but with the footprint and retail space sizes of a festival marketplace.  It also wasn't the easiest place to access either by car or foot, lacking an obvious main entrance; and the surrounding neighborhood was perceived as unsafe.  It still hung in there for a few years due to Richmonders' vestigial loyalties to the Thalhimers and Miller & Rhoads flagship stores, but once both of those chains were acquired and the downtown stores shuttered, the Marketplace was doomed.

Main St. Station, the large Amtrak station with the clock tower that appears in several of your photos, also served time as an unsuccessful outlet mall/urban festival marketplace development.  And the historic Tredegar Iron Works on the waterfront, now a history museum and Civil War interpretive center, had a short, strange stint as a sort of urban museum/amusement park.  Richmond tried and failed at a lot of the then-hot urban revitalization trends of the 80s, but importantly kept its historic fabric and has successfully leveraged that asset in the last decade and a half.

[fsquid]

I come here once a month on business and have to agree with Wacca and Lake.  The relative intelligence of the average worker seems to be higher in Richmond too.

[simms3]

I come here once a month on business and have to agree with Wacca and Lake.  The relative intelligence of the average worker seems to be higher in Richmond too.

Lol I can't comment, but FL as a state as a whole sets a pretty low bar in terms of overall intelligence.

[CG7]

I think it is more that we are not a bunch of pretentious douchebags.

[fsquid]

I think it is more that we are not a bunch of pretentious douchebags.

that's true, find more of those in Richmond

[I-10east]

The core area of the city feels larger than it really is. It has a pretty dense (existing building fabric) core area in comparison to most Sunbelt cities.

I was thinking the same thing. Richmond is one of those cities that I didn't know much about, besides it being VA's capital; I really didn't expect all of these pics that I saw, as it seems like I vastly underestimated this city. This place has hella historical fabric throughout the city, and a respectable amount of F-500s to boot. Probably my most impressionable 'Learning from-esque' thread.

[Wacca Pilatka]

Never have been to Omaha or Richmond.

So tonight at city council is 2013-694 and $43,000,000 for a new TV. Good or bad? Taxpayer subsidized.
Call up to Richmond or Omaha we have $43,000,000 to spend. Where is it going?
Saw just two picks of the canal or whatever the waterway that was completed in 1999. So how is that working out? Open or restrictive like here in Jax?

I appreciate your dedication to water access issues, but you're miles off course on the "taxpayer subsidized TV" argument.

http://www.wokv.com/news/news/local/43-million-everbank-field-improvements-be-paid-thr/nbDNg/