Last chance to see: the Landing is quietly coming down

[thelakelander]

^There is no park or vision. No money has been budgeted for anything outside of laying down sod. Just a bunch of babble of what could happen down the road in the form of studies and RFPs. Same stuff that's been said about most city owned property since the 1970s. What we're getting is what was done with the City Hall Annex and Courthouse sites:





Spaces void of consistent activity and people. Characteristics associated with dead, pedestrian hostile environments.

What's shown above is a far cry from good urban parks that cost millions to build and maintain:

[Kerry]

Just saw the pic of everything basically cleared out and it just shifted my opinion. I see the vision for a beautiful park being built there. The downside of the vision is the city's track record with keeping up with parks.

Jacksonville doesn't have the money .  Urban parks cost millions to build and one the size of the Landing property would be in the $35-50 million dollar range. And then when it was done it would still be over-run with homeless people.  Until Jax fixes the homeless problem downtown will never be more than what it is today.

[Snaketoz]

Just saw the pic of everything basically cleared out and it just shifted my opinion. I see the vision for a beautiful park being built there. The downside of the vision is the city's track record with keeping up with parks.

Jacksonville doesn't have the money .  Urban parks cost millions to build and one the size of the Landing property would be in the $35-50 million dollar range. And then when it was done it would still be over-run with homeless people.  Until Jax fixes the homeless problem downtown will never be more than what it is today.

While I tend to agree with the homeless situation, I think it is easily fixable.  Instead of squandering millions of dollars on questionable "crime fighting aids" like "shot-spotter", and giving big bucks to groups that claim to fight crime, have some good ole flatfoots (police) walking or even riding in golf carts in the area.  That's a crime deterrent. Also consider giving tickets to those who hand out money to bums.  Call it aiding and abetting vagrancy and loitering.

[vicupstate]

I certainly hope the demo contractor, D.H. Griffin, has been told to leave the foundation concrete in place with lots of pock marks and holes and such. Otherwise, it just wouldn't fit in with the rest of the vacant lots in DT Jacksonville. 

[Ken_FSU]

I travel a lot for work, and the more cities that I visit, the tamer Jacksonville's "homeless problem" seems. It really isn't that bad, and it certainly isn't unique. I've been working downtown for a couple of years now, walking the streets in the morning, afternoon, and evening, and I can count on one hand the numbers of times that I've been asked for money, and can count on less than one finger the number of times I've ever felt threatened or in danger. Yes, there are homeless people around ("bums" implies lack of ambition, when mental illness seems equally common), but a relatively minor homeless population is the least of downtown's worries, and certainly isn't the singular thing holding our urban core back.

[Tacachale]

I travel a lot for work, and the more cities that I visit, the tamer Jacksonville's "homeless problem" seems. It really isn't that bad, and it certainly isn't unique. I've been working downtown for a couple of years now, walking the streets in the morning, afternoon, and evening, and I can count on one hand the numbers of times that I've been asked for money, and can count on less than one finger the number of times I've ever felt threatened or in danger. Yes, there are homeless people around ("bums" implies lack of ambition, when mental illness seems equally common), but a relatively minor homeless population is the least of downtown's worries, and certainly isn't the singular thing holding our urban core back.

Right? I'm sure it's a big change for suburbanites but it's definitely not unique among other cities, especially those with warm weather and good social services. The main difference is that in Jax there aren't as many people downtown in general so the homeless stand out more. As far as panhandling goes, I've been panhandled much more in Riverside recently than Downtown.

[Steve]

I travel a lot for work, and the more cities that I visit, the tamer Jacksonville's "homeless problem" seems. It really isn't that bad, and it certainly isn't unique. I've been working downtown for a couple of years now, walking the streets in the morning, afternoon, and evening, and I can count on one hand the numbers of times that I've been asked for money, and can count on less than one finger the number of times I've ever felt threatened or in danger. Yes, there are homeless people around ("bums" implies lack of ambition, when mental illness seems equally common), but a relatively minor homeless population is the least of downtown's worries, and certainly isn't the singular thing holding our urban core back.

I've always felt the number of homeless isn't the issue. The issue is the percentage of total people downtown that the homeless represent.

[Ken_FSU]

^It's funny Bill, I almost mentioned this in my post. Downtown may have more homeless, but Riverside has a much bigger panhandling problem. Way more asks. Way more aggressive. And even then, I wouldn't call Riverside in any way atypical compared to other cities.

100% agree on the second point. The biggest problem isn't that there are too many homeless, but rather there are too few non-homeless. William Whyte had the best quote ever, "the best way to deal with the problem of undesirables is to make a place desirable for everyone else." As downtown continues to come along, the homeless issue should start to take care of itself. Look at Hemming Park pre-FHOP vs. current day. There are still "undesirables" (hate this word) in the park, but you barely notice them and you certainly don't feel threatened because there are so many other office workers, and families, and staff, and police in the park as well.

Would also argue, in addition to the presence of social services, the "homeless problem" downtown is greatly exacerbated by the overall condition of downtown Jacksonville. Broken window theory suggests that physical blight begets human blight. Buildings like the Laura Street Trio, Ambassador, old JEA Tower, Jones Furniture, Berkman II, and the dozens of other vacant, unkempt, graffiti-covered buildings surrounded by chain link fence and razor wire give the impression of lawlessness, causing people to behave accordingly in terms of panhandling and crime.

As more and more of these projects come on line and are completed, I think we'll see many of these (already overstated) problems with crime (read: public urination and drug use, not violent murder and rape) start to disappear.

[Josh]

^^^ Pretty much. Never been panhandled in over a decade of walking through Hemming Park/Plaza, but I get panhandled in 5 Points regularly.

[Fallen Buckeye]

There's actually a good bit of homeless in suburban Jax, too. I was just panhandled the other day at my office just off of JTB. I get panhandled at the Chaffee Rd. library from time to time, and I saw 2-3 homeless people hanging out in the Barnes and Noble in Mandarin the other day. The homeless are not a good excuse not to do good things for our city. Honestly, we should consider dropping a few million to help the homeless problem and invest in our public spaces as well.

[Florida Power And Light]

Landing area future open space likely would not be a haven for homeless when the immediate surrounding area becomes peopled and vibrant.

[TimmyB]

We only lived in Jax for nine months but this saddens me greatly to see this waste.  We were in DT the 2nd week of November and had no idea this was even happening.  The Landing was one of the first things we saw in DT when we first visited Jacksonville in 2009 and we thought it was such a cool looking structure with a great view of the river. 

Reading the other posts, I completely agree that this will become just another vacant spot.  The one thing we disliked about Jacksonville was the fact that DT had no life whatsoever.  We love to ride bikes and run and in most every big city we visit, there are gobs of people doing this, right in the heart of their DT area.  At 5 pm, everyone gets out of work and heads home and...crickets.  This could be fixed, but when you tear down a building like this and replace it with more grass, ain't happening.

I hope that we are all wrong, that this will work out but based on this city's track record, no one is holding their breath, I'm sure.

[Florida Power And Light]

So many apparently fail to imagine or grasp that Landing area conversion to public waterfront open space could be a superb anchor for the immediate area, " destination ".
Perhaps some would prefer residential on the property. I say public waterfront is too valuable for residential.

Jacksonville's Gracious Front Porch.......with a View!

[thelakelander]

You're failing to consider our reality. There's no money dedicated to the dream you're selling. $25 million for a grass lot is what we're getting for the foreseeable future. That grass lot is likely to be just as popular as the grass lot a few blocks away where the old courthouse and city hall annex used to stand.

[itsfantastic1]

So many apparently fail to imagine or grasp that Landing area conversion to public waterfront open space could be a superb anchor for the immediate area, " destination ".
Perhaps some would prefer residential on the property. I say public waterfront is too valuable for residential.

Jacksonville's Gracious Front Porch.......with a View!

You're right. No residential. Instead, lets put some shops for people to spend their money and go there. Also, lets make sure we have restaurants right on the water for that fine riverfront dining experience. For public space, we can create a nice big courtyard facing the river unobstructed. Might have to curve the building to maximize the site space. It'd be perfect for the Christmas tree from Hemming. Our front porch though should be iconic, something easily recognizable from far away...maybe an orange roof perhaps?