10 Grass Fields To Get You Pumped For The Landing Demo

[thelakelander]

Lol, you can turn city hall, SJTC and your average parking lot into a brawl scene if you're giving Jaxsons free alcohol!

[OldOrangeHause]

It's just the quirks of having to live in a throwaway society. Throw it all away for the sake of wondering where it all went and why? But instead of tumbleweeds rolling across the plains, we have Dixie cups and soda cans! Modern image for the modern mind.

[Jagsdrew]

One might say when looking at this photo, "Wow Jagsdrew, what a beautiful plot of land in Baker County you have!" But really this is Downtown Jacksonville on the corner of Bay St. and Main looking west.

[thelakelander]

Saw this beauty while taking pictures for a Pearl Court neighborhood article. I can't believe this is considered a neighborhood park....

[KenFSU]

There it is:

https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20190604/mavericks-ordered-to-leave-jacksonville-landing-immediately-following-brawl

[Tacachale]

One might say when looking at this photo, "Wow Jagsdrew, what a beautiful plot of land in Baker County you have!" But really this is Downtown Jacksonville on the corner of Bay St. and Main looking west.

Such potential! #JaxOnTheRise!

[thelakelander]

Don't be a hater...




#winning #comingsoon

[BridgeTroll]

[Jagsdrew]

Don't be a hater...




#winning #comingsoon

This was his usual Sunday Night Prayer verse. Disciple Drake

[Kerry]

I can't help but look at that line at Coastal Cookies and wonder what role does race play in the underlying perception behind the Landing and its potential?

For the mayor, I honestly think race has nothing to do with his negative opinion of the Landing.

Seems like a pretty cut and dry political grudge dating back to the election against Alvin Brown.

For the average Jacksonville citizen (or city council member) in support of the demolition however, I'd say it's unfortunately probably higher than it should be, and something that doesn't really get talked about as much as it should.

You hear too many people talk about the Landing with the same undertones that they use when discussing the Regency Mall, or Hemming Park, or the Main Library, or the Skyway/Jax mass transit. Using veiled language about not feeling comfortable sending people there.

Jacksonville's made a lot of progress in the time that I've been here, but it still feels like we have this bad tendency to associate heavy minority presence with blight.

Got back in from New York on Wednesday night and I was on a JIA shuttle back to my car. Someone on the shuttle was passing through Jacksonville on their way to Savannah and asked the bus driver if there was a Dunkin Donuts nearby where they could get coffee before hitting the interstate. The driver said, "There's one on Dunn Avenue, but you never want to find yourself on Dunn Avenue after sundown. You might not come back alive."

I think that bus driver would probably favor the Landing demolition.

Yeah, I wasn't referring to the mayor specifically. Everything is politics with that group. Pretty sad since there is nothing wrong with Dunn Avenue. However, regarding the general conversation as a whole, when it comes down to adaptive reuse vs demo with no plan, I can't keep up with the number of veiled references I've heard people say about a situation that may be as simple as being an environment where minorities are the majority....as support for leveling and leaving a passive grass field in its place. I recall Aaron Bowman mentioning something similar where he encouraged people to stay away from the Landing...and that's coming from a councilmember and someone representing JAXUSA Partnership! If this is the case, some will have a rude awakening coming with downtown's and the entire city's future in general. Our demographic make up is rapidly becoming more brown and culturally diverse. It's time we advance into the 21st century.

Not sure if you have ever been married or not, or intend to at some point in the future...but Rule #1 is don't tell the other person how they are supposed to feel.  If the bus driver thinks Dunn Ave is dangerous it is in fact dangerous.  The same goes for the Landing.  If we want walkable urbanism, which requires people to participate, then we not only have to make the area safe, we have to also make people think it safe.

I can tell you for a fact that dead people inside the building on multiple occasions doesn't make people feel safe.  The vast majority of people don't know anyone who has been shot, and even fewer know someone who has been murdered, and they don't want to hang out in an environment where that becomes a possibility.

Calling people closet racist isn't going build walkable urbanism in Jax.

[vicupstate]

^^ I agree that you do have to deal with the PERCEPTIONS as well as the reality, of the Landing and DT generally. However, there are many people that if asked why they perceive someplace as unsafe, could not cite a specific incident that happened either to them or that they read about. The appearance and demograpic makeup of the area are solely what they are basing their opinion on.  These same people often are very uninformed of the level of crime that occurs in the areas they perceive as safe.   

[thelakelander]

Not sure if you have ever been married or not, or intend to at some point in the future...but Rule #1 is don't tell the other person how they are supposed to feel.  If the bus driver thinks Dunn Ave is dangerous it is in fact dangerous.  The same goes for the Landing.  If we want walkable urbanism, which requires people to participate, then we not only have to make the area safe, we have to also make people think it safe.

I'll take a pass on the lecture when fears and perspectives start falling into the area of being racially, culturally insensitive and outright ignorant. There's a big different between the principles of walkable urbanism (or whatever we want to call it) and the need for some to break out their homogeneous bubble or at least at a city level remove those biases from the planning process.

I can tell you for a fact that dead people inside the building on multiple occasions doesn't make people feel safe.  The vast majority of people don't know anyone who has been shot, and even fewer know someone who has been murdered, and they don't want to hang out in an environment where that becomes a possibility.

A random shooting by an out-of-town gamer at a location where there are already locally based racially insensitive viewpoints, leads to a certain perspective as illustrated by what you've heard about the Landing. There was also a random shooting that left just as many people dead near St Johns Town Center last summer. However, those same people don't think twice about heading to Cheesecake Factory, Red Robin, Publix, Target and everything else off Town Center Parkway. Why...perception, not necessarily reality.  By the same token, I hear some parents that want to keep their kids away from some sports like football because they think its too dangerous. Yet, the same people will put their kids on I-95 multiple times a day, when statistically, driving on the interstate is about one of the most dangerous things one can do. Looking at the crash data, deaths are piling up all over our highways but the general perception is that they're safe.

Calling people closet racist isn't going build walkable urbanism in Jax.

Not facing or acknowledging but forcing policy and planning decisions based off racially insensitive and outright inaccurate perceptions isn't going to help either.  Especially since our demographics are trending to becoming more diverse. Downtown is already hole now because of years of not only not embracing local culture seen as too black, too southern, too redneck, too working class, but actively working to restrict and eliminate some of these things from the area. You want real walkable urbanism and vibrancy. It's easy but it involves removing the barriers and working against the perceptions and biases that limit multicultural inclusion.

[Steve]

If the bus driver thinks Dunn Ave is dangerous it is in fact dangerous.

I'm not going to touch most of this post, but will touch this line, as it's incorrect. If the bus driver thinks Dunn Avenue is dangerous, it is not necessarily in fact dangerous. If the bus driver thinks Dunn Avenue is dangerous, the only thing that means is that the bus driver thinks it is, and Dunn Avenue MAY have a perception from others of being dangerous.

My point is if there is a legit crime issue, then the remedies for that are MUCH different than if an area has a perception of being dangerous.

[Kerry]

The St Johns Town Center shootings only reinforced what people already thought.  Most people saw it as just bringing the Landing problems to SJTC.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.firstcoastnews.com/amp/article%3fsection=news&subsection=crime&headline=police-identify-3-teens-killed-in-shooting-in-st-johns-town-center-area&contentId=77-561979341

[Steve]

The St Johns Town Center shootings only reinforced what people already thought.  Most people saw it as just bringing the Landing problems to SJTC.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.firstcoastnews.com/amp/article%3fsection=news&subsection=crime&headline=police-identify-3-teens-killed-in-shooting-in-st-johns-town-center-area&contentId=77-561979341

I can't even begin to comprehend the lunacy of this post.