Deliberate Hemming Park Neglect and DeAmenitization

[Dog Walker]

In Amsterdam they are doing something of the sort except they are paying the homeless in beer. Cut out the middleman?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/world/europe/amsterdam-has-a-deal-for-alcoholics-work-paid-in-beer.html?_r=0

[Keith-N-Jax]

Wow that's bad

[Tacachale]

Wasn't replacing permanent seating with moveable seating part of the plan at one point or another? What happened with that?

[Tacachale]

So what happened with that? Is the park bringing in movable chairs?

[TheCeleryStalker]

I sometimes take the people mover to Hemming Plaza for meetings to avoid the hassle of parking downtown.

What I find most ironic about this situation is that the homeless and underemployed have started sitting on the steps and flower bed walls closer to the people mover station so it seems that removing the seating simply has transformed the problem ... not eliminated it.  Now, if you buy lunch from a food truck .... where are you going to sit??

I wonder if someone (perhaps a corporate sponser) would be able to pay the homeless to help take care of the park?  I think it might be a good avenue to help some people get back to work at a place they are familiar with.

Perhaps the two hundred thousand a year money they were going to pay a management company to do this would help defray the costs as well?

Sounds good to me.  When it comes to Hemming Plaza, they constantly attack the symptoms and never address the problem.  Instead of thinking "How do we keep these homeless people out of "our" park" and then removing the tables and benches, they need to be thinking "why are these people homeless and is there a cost effective way to help them get back into the workforce?".

[thelakelander]

Hemming Plaza getting a new look for One Spark

By Max Marbut, Staff Writer
The most comprehensive landscape improvement for Hemming Plaza in decades is scheduled to begin today.

In the first phase of the plan, volunteers from Naval Air Station Jacksonville will remove almost all of the existing plants in the landscape beds to make way for new foliage, flowers and shrubs.

Soil amendments will be added, if needed, and the irrigation system will be inspected.

"It's the most attention the plaza has gotten in a long time. They're going to take out everything except what's worth saving," said Anna Dooley, Greenscape of Jacksonville executive director.

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=542410

[TheCat]

They're going to take out everything except what's worth saving,

Are we placing bets?

[IrvAdams]

The landscapers sound like a good group. The plant mix could probably use a makeover for Spring, which really is coming, although it doesn't seem like it today.

[Overstreet]

I sometimes take the people mover to Hemming Plaza for meetings to avoid the hassle of parking downtown.

What I find most ironic about this situation is that the homeless and underemployed have started sitting on the steps and flower bed walls closer to the people mover station so it seems that removing the seating simply has transformed the problem ... not eliminated it.  Now, if you buy lunch from a food truck .... where are you going to sit??

I wonder if someone (perhaps a corporate sponser) would be able to pay the homeless to help take care of the park?  I think it might be a good avenue to help some people get back to work at a place they are familiar with.

Perhaps the two hundred thousand a year money they were going to pay a management company to do this would help defray the costs as well?

In my company we couldn't hire them.
A. They probably don't have the required ID + other documents to be hired and pass I-9 verification.
B. there's a drug test.
C. Our Loss prevention office and Workers Comp Insurance company would have a fit.

[Lunican]

So what is considered Jacksonville's premiere park? The northbank riverwalk maybe?

All of the parks seem to be in varying states of disrepair.

[thelakelander]

^That's a pretty difficult question. I guess it would be the riverwalk.....which is really a sidewalk moreso than a traditional park.

[acme54321]

^That's a pretty difficult question. I guess it would be the riverwalk.....which is really a sidewalk moreso than a traditional park.

I think the proper spin/buzz word is "Linear Park" 

[tufsu1]

So what is considered Jacksonville's premiere park?

I'm betting that would be either Memorial Park, Riverside Park, or Stockton Park in Ortega

[fieldafm]

Memorial Park, Riverside Park, Stockton Park in Ortega

While all of these have maintenance issues... all also have private people raising money to maintain/enhance these public spaces... that is certainly not an insignificant trait when you paralell with Hemming.

[Lunican]

I'm betting that would be either Memorial Park, Riverside Park, or Stockton Park in Ortega

Premiere doesn't mean meet the basic minimum requirements for a city park. Or maybe it does...