Why We Can't Have Nice Things

[IrvAdams]

When I was younger (college-age), many of my friends and relatives left Jville for other locations, citing various reasons (some justified). Now many of them have come back to live, or at least to visit, and they say stuff like "Wow, what great strides this city has made.". Point being, if you back up and look at it, things are changing for the better and that should be the focus, I think. Building up the positive.

[peestandingup]

Jax also has three of the top-100 largest parks in the US:

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0933260.html

Since when do you count State-owned nature preserves with few or no public amenities as a city park? If we wanted to count up who's got the largest amount of pine forest let's call it what it is. If it has benches, fountains, sidewalks, a playground, etc., then call it a park. These aren't parks, they're forests etc., with nothing in them other than land. It's also self-contradictory, including mostly State parks in a list that claims to be city parks.

I agree, but honestly everyone does this. Even if they're nature preserve-ish type of "parks", as long as they're open to the public, people can camp there, hike, etc. Not exactly my cup of tea, but they're still a park. Take Yellowstone for example. No sidewalks, playgrounds, etc.

It sounds like the beef here is consolidation & what a place such as Jax is able to call a "city park". Technically it's correct, even though misleading.

Now, lets all go out for some frosty chocolate milkshakes.

[Scrub Palmetto]

I see a great deal of potential in Jacksonville's parks, and that's speaking of the ones that aren't already in good shape. Let's focus on the goal, the prize. We're not there yet... but yes, we know, that's obvious, take the needle off the record. Focusing on the present state may be an important component of progress -- knowing where we stand helps to know where to move -- but too much of that alone can be the opposite.

I think that if we have relatively little parkland outside of amenity-deprived preserves and forests, then shouldn't that be a blessing? Shouldn't the improvement and even perfection of those few really 'urban' parks be that much easier, with a higher citizen-to-parkland ratio? You have more potential advocacy/volunteer pool, higher usage pool, etc. per park or acreage.

Also, as someone who loves Florida's natural history almost more than its human history (if my username doesn't already give that away), and who lives to hike and be in wilderness, I rather like that Jacksonville has as much protected land as it does. And I see potential in that, too, and no reason that that should detract from the truly urban parks. They can both be improved and both be sources of pride. And all the derisive mentions of pine forest in this thread surprise me. I love Florida's pine-dominated ecosystems! Flatwoods, scrub, sandhills -- heck, these are places where my username looks best.

Here in Kansas City, citizen-led park improvement and public-private partnerships have had tremendous success. There's a lovely historic park near me that sits down in some ravines, and it had largely been neglected in recent decades. Citizens got together to create a hiking/mountain-biking trail plan, and they spent months blazing these trails themselves, removing invasive plant species and garbage, fundraising, etc. The park got so much attention that the city has been doing its part, too, adding/improving sidewalks, planting over 100 new trees, and replacing deteriorated playground equipment. Other deteriorating urban parks in the area are seeing a similar renaissance. But it's not people complaining and begging or ignoring, it's people doing. People are realizing the potential that their neighborhood parks have and they're taking a leading role themselves.

This is the kind of proactive, positive spirit that gets things done, and frankly I'm not seeing many signs of that at all in this discussion or in Jacksonville in general. Change isn't going to happen easily without it. Jacksonville is not this terrible place, but people have to start having more pride in their community, if we have to slap it into them. I'm not convinced shoving more bad news in their faces is the way to do it. Here in the Midwest, decay's omnipotence is news enough in most cities. An article like this would be very "duh." You can't avoid the decay, but you can't dwell on it, either. You can push against it. Politics aside for a moment, where are Krestul & Metro Parks' advocates? What are they up to? If people organized and demanded permission to improve these parks where they can, even if only through fundraising, would they be turned away? Isn't advancing ideas like this in MJ's power?

[brcool]

This article is not about parks, people.  You cannot even see that the real point of Mr. Mann's editorial is that we are a city without commitment and fortitude, showing an ugly face to anyone who bothers to look.  Even when we have a plan we quit halfway through.  And we continue to throw bad money after good - or vice versa - with projects that just aim to "dress up the ugly" rather than address the root causes within our government, our population, our business community...  The point here is that there is so much squandered potential.  And any person who references "they" in their comments is part of the problem.  WE have opportunities, WE have challenges to meet, WE have choices to make, WE have rights -- but not without responsibility.  I have a classic photo of then-Mayor Hans Tanzler posed with actress Lee Meredith (circa 1968 when Jacksonville was consolidated) in front of a sign toting Jacksonville as "The Bold New City of the South".  We have failed miserably over the past 45 years on almost every front, and could probably learn a thing or two from our past mistakes.  No vision, no consensus, no passion for anything that doesn't benefit ME (or my neighborhood, or my district, or my constituency, or my pocketbook...) directly.  Not much interest in the higher good.  And we're not doing much to engage our youth in being part of tomorrow's success either.  Everything seems to come down to bureaucracy and power.  I moved back to Jacksonville twelve years ago because "I believed" in what could be.  Not so much anymore.

[BridgeTroll]

This article is not about parks, people.  You cannot even see that the real point of Mr. Mann's editorial is that we are a city without commitment and fortitude, showing an ugly face to anyone who bothers to look.  Even when we have a plan we quit halfway through.  And we continue to throw bad money after good - or vice versa - with projects that just aim to "dress up the ugly" rather than address the root causes within our government, our population, our business community...  The point here is that there is so much squandered potential.  And any person who references "they" in their comments is part of the problem.  WE have opportunities, WE have challenges to meet, WE have choices to make, WE have rights -- but not without responsibility.  I have a classic photo of then-Mayor Hans Tanzler posed with actress Lee Meredith (circa 1968 when Jacksonville was consolidated) in front of a sign toting Jacksonville as "The Bold New City of the South".  We have failed miserably over the past 45 years on almost every front, and could probably learn a thing or two from our past mistakes.  No vision, no consensus, no passion for anything that doesn't benefit ME (or my neighborhood, or my district, or my constituency, or my pocketbook...) directly.  Not much interest in the higher good.  And we're not doing much to engage our youth in being part of tomorrow's success either.  Everything seems to come down to bureaucracy and power.  I moved back to Jacksonville twelve years ago because "I believed" in what could be.  Not so much anymore.

Great first post brcool... welcome to the forum!   

[BoldBoyOfTheSouth]

This thread is a perfect example of what's wrong with Jacksonville.

The parks were just an example of the dilapidated state of our city on so any levels. It points out the lack of pride, motivation and gumption of a provincial people who've given up and can't imagine a better city.

It's obvious that public education in this city does not encourage critical thinking because everybody is only concerned about the size of their, well, parks.

Oklahoma City now thinks outside of the box. They are no longer concerned about their size of their oil wells but concerned about the physical and intellectual aspects of their city and the human capital of her people.

[Ocklawaha]

This is short because post op, I can't see! LOL!

brcool, Excellent! Welcome aboard and as we say on MJ x1000

BridgeTroll, Thank you, agree completely.

BoldBoyOfTheSouth, BINGO! x 1000, exactly. A city spending WAY too much time arguing over the shade of color on it's fire trucks while the whole damn town burns down.

Robert Mann
aka: OCKLAWAHA