Water-taxi, No Boats, New Boats, WHY NOT IDEAS???

[Ocklawaha]

Just thinking out loud, apparently the new boats for the water taxi are the same as the old boats. One wonders what they could look like and how much more attractive they could be if we actually invested a little thought into them...

Check out that Jacksonville Parade float, makes me wonder 'what-if.'



Another thought would be a comfortable tour boat with a classic flair.



Lastly as evidenced by these boats in Savannah, we are SO outclassed with our 'lawn chair on a 4x8' mentality. Why is it I get the feeling that if American Cities were big box stores, we're all living in WAL-MART.

[I-10east]

Practicability > Window dressing

[urbanlibertarian]

Entrepreneurs are WAY more likely to come up with workable and profitable solutions than COJ and some competition would be great too.  Why do we have to have just one provider?

[IrvAdams]

Entrepreneurs are WAY more likely to come up with workable and profitable solutions than COJ and some competition would be great too.  Why do we have to have just one provider?

It's apparently just some kind of regulation for some reason known only to them. The sizes and number of fleet for the selected vendor had to be under certain restrictions but for the life of me I cannot see why these particulars were chosen. The existing vendor wanted to continue but somehow didn't fit the new parameters as specified by whoever. Go figure.

[Ocklawaha]

It's Jacksonville people, obviously somebody had an itchy butt, and I bet now that somebody else has a smelly finger!

[Noone]

It's Jacksonville people, obviously somebody had an itchy butt, and I bet now that somebody else has a smelly finger!

It's RICO baby!

[I-10east]

To me, the Jax water taxis are totally fine. I'm cool with practical water taxis that don't look like they came from a large theme park somewhere. The bigger 'permanent' hardtop water taxis are in larger cities has far more tourism (NYC, Chicago etc). High end boats goes along with high end tourism. You can't expect the Queen Mary to go hand and hand with spotty 'event' driven tourism that is DT.

Even (NYC and others) they are far from the freaking showboatin' Southern Belle (usually god-awful loud colors like yellow) woohoo!!!! NYC's look like a cab; yay, classy nautical prestige!!! No freaking big deal. The beautiful Inner Harbor of Baltimore (as many say) has the same damn boats Jville has, I guess that something is 'wrong' with theirs also...

www.waterfrontpartnership.org/water-taxi

[fieldafm]

The beautiful Inner Harbor of Baltimore (as many say) has the same damn boats Jville has, I guess that something is 'wrong' with theirs also...

That is the same company that Jax just kicked out. Within the Inner Harbor there are also multiple pleasure cruise boats operating as well.

[Dog Walker]

The pontoon boats are superior for water taxis with short trips.  They don't rock and roll in wakes.  Twin, wide apart engines make them more maneuverable.  Wide open sides means everybody gets a wonderful view and wide entry ways make loading and unloading faster.

They are also inexpensive to purchase given their passenger capacity.

[Ocklawaha]

The pontoon boats are superior for water taxis with short trips.  They don't rock and roll in wakes.  Twin, wide apart engines make them more maneuverable.  Wide open sides means everybody gets a wonderful view and wide entry ways make loading and unloading faster.

They are also inexpensive to purchase given their passenger capacity.

EXACTLY! WAL-MART CHEAP.

This 'spotty event driven tourism' that I-10 E typically defends, will forever stay 'spotty event driven tourism,' if we don't do something to make ourselves stand out from the crowd. Mention an area where one believes we could do better then NYC, Baltimore, Savannah etc... and immediately the cry goes up that our 'lawn chairs on a raft' as just as good as the QM2. Ever wonder why we are so stuck on mediocrity? Our citizens defend it, praise it, and can't wrap their minds around doing something even better.

[IrvAdams]

The pontoon boats are superior for water taxis with short trips.  They don't rock and roll in wakes.  Twin, wide apart engines make them more maneuverable.  Wide open sides means everybody gets a wonderful view and wide entry ways make loading and unloading faster.

They are also inexpensive to purchase given their passenger capacity.

EXACTLY! WAL-MART CHEAP.

This 'spotty event driven tourism' that I-10 E typically defends, will forever stay 'spotty event driven tourism,' if we don't do something to make ourselves stand out from the crowd. Mention an area where one believes we could do better then NYC, Baltimore, Savannah etc... and immediately the cry goes up that our 'lawn chairs on a raft' as just as good as the QM2. Ever wonder why we are so stuck on mediocrity? Our citizens defend it, praise it, and can't wrap their minds around doing something even better.

This city needs to work on its Mojo!

[I-10east]

The pontoon boats are superior for water taxis with short trips.  They don't rock and roll in wakes.  Twin, wide apart engines make them more maneuverable.  Wide open sides means everybody gets a wonderful view and wide entry ways make loading and unloading faster.

They are also inexpensive to purchase given their passenger capacity.

I bet that they cost significantly more, but no one wants to bring that up of course... Every tiny issue has become a whinefest nowadays (even when Jax don't do wrong). Very trivial esp in direct comparison to the real problems that Jax has (occupying DT etc). Ock and many of you others may hate Walmart, but their is no denying that Walmart is efficient, rather than going over their heads.

[JayBird]

[NativeDigs]

Would water taxi service to a point in Riverside (i.e. Memorial Park) for daily travel and the RAM on Saturdays be a feasible option? The time to get from one point to another would be lengthy but for someone visiting Jacksonville, it would give a chance to visit mulitple points without having to resort to driving to each destination, as well as actually enjoy time on the river. In addition, for those who live in Riverside/ Avondale, a way to get to the stadium on game days without having to resort to traditional Jacksonville travel (cars).

[tufsu1]

If you care about the water taxi (one way or the other) go to the City Council meeting tonight and speak up