Friendship Fountain October 2023 Photo Tour

[Joey Mackey]

Just want to highlight my experience this past Saturday. Wife and I visited the reopened Friendship Fountain and the adjacent play park. I was taken aback by just how many people were enjoying the park, the great weather, and the fantastic sights. Hundreds, maybe even a thousand.

Just a few years ago, I would walk the same exact route along the SouthBank riverwalk on a Saturday to the "under construction" fountain and I would only ever see a handful of people, mostly fellow apartment/condo dwellers and homeless people. Now it is a completely different, and a welcoming, experience. The vibrancy, the activity, is outstanding.

I can't speak to the Riverside Skate Park, as I have only visited that park once. But from my perspective, the redevelopment of the Friendship Fountain has been the biggest success story in downtown Jacksonville regarding vibrancy for a while. From literally no activity, to attracting hundreds of visitors on a Saturday.

Smarter people than me can decipher the lessons to be learned from this project and outcome, and I hope our City's leadership is paying attention to this success.

[Zac T]

Got to check it out yesterday and it looks great. Plenty of people enjoying the spring weather with their families. Excited to see the next phases of the park open up

[Ken_FSU]

Smarter people than me can decipher the lessons to be learned from this project and outcome, and I hope our City's leadership is paying attention to this success.

It's such a simple thing, but one of the things this new administration has really hit out of the park so far is communication and follow-through.

Under the former administration, city government went radio silent on Friendship Fountain for YEARS.

If a reopening date was ever briefly noted, it would come and go without a word.

Contrast that to the new mayor's office.

Early on, they set a reopening date, communicated it to the public, and hit that reopening date.

When the park abruptly closed a few weeks back, I checked online, and easily found information:
a) announcing the closure
b) given a reason why it was inaccessible
c) giving a clear date for when it would reopen

Believe it or not, the park actually reopened as scheduled, and thousands of people got to enjoy it over the weekend, with upgrades.

Things like this go such a long way building the public trust.

Park looks beautiful, btw.

[Tacachale]

Just want to highlight my experience this past Saturday. Wife and I visited the reopened Friendship Fountain and the adjacent play park. I was taken aback by just how many people were enjoying the park, the great weather, and the fantastic sights. Hundreds, maybe even a thousand.

Just a few years ago, I would walk the same exact route along the SouthBank riverwalk on a Saturday to the "under construction" fountain and I would only ever see a handful of people, mostly fellow apartment/condo dwellers and homeless people. Now it is a completely different, and a welcoming, experience. The vibrancy, the activity, is outstanding.

I can't speak to the Riverside Skate Park, as I have only visited that park once. But from my perspective, the redevelopment of the Friendship Fountain has been the biggest success story in downtown Jacksonville regarding vibrancy for a while. From literally no activity, to attracting hundreds of visitors on a Saturday.

Smarter people than me can decipher the lessons to be learned from this project and outcome, and I hope our City's leadership is paying attention to this success.

Got to check it out yesterday and it looks great. Plenty of people enjoying the spring weather with their families. Excited to see the next phases of the park open up

Thank you for this feedback, y'all! To me this success shows Jaxsons are eager to get out and enjoy good public spaces.all we need as a city is to make the investments.

[Jankelope]

I would like to +1 this comment. I took my 2 boys and there probably were a total of close to 1000 people wanting to participate in this. If they nail the restaruant/rooftop bar and botanical gardens it is just going to be such a gem.

That is to say nothing of the development across the bridge which could be just as amazing.

[jaxlongtimer]

Maybe the success of public spaces like this will raise the profile of them and the City begins to prioritize more of this vs. paying developers to swallow up our publicly owned riverfront that any other city would kill to have for green space.

[Jankelope]

I think they will start to learn, assuming we keep someone in the Mayor's office who cares about those things. I think that is part of the equation here. Donna Deegan cares about these things and is willing to spend on them. That's half the battle.

[Joey Mackey]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5qKnf7rsAU

"String of attacks at Friendship Fountain"

Having world class Riverfront Parks won't matter if the City can't keep its citizens safe who want to enjoy the public amenities. I've seen private security guards on the Southbank Riverwalk plenty of times, but I don't know what type of authority they really have (e.g. making arrest). The City should at least post some JSO officers at Friendship Fountain for the next month to re-establish the perception of it being a safe park.

[fieldafm]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5qKnf7rsAU

"String of attacks at Friendship Fountain"

Having world class Riverfront Parks won't matter if the City can't keep its citizens safe who want to enjoy the public amenities. I've seen private security guards on the Southbank Riverwalk plenty of times, but I don't know what type of authority they really have (e.g. making arrest). The City should at least post some JSO officers at Friendship Fountain for the next month to re-establish the perception of it being a safe park.

I've had words with that low life at least twice.

I've been Downtown for more than 20 years.  The aggression from bums has gotten noticeably worse since 2020.

There are homeless people in bad situations that have resources available to them, and places like Sulzbacher have plenty of success stories giving people the assistance they need to take care of themselves.

The violent bums are another story. I'm frankly tired of it, and JSO should be getting much more aggressive with the aggressors.

It also REALLY doesnt help that there are less things to do Downtown than there was before 2020.  That just festers an environment where the bums are emboldened. Idiotic COJ policies like tearing down the Landing, having less programming, etc have made things MUCH worse. This weekend, Jazz Fest is being held in a freaking dirt parking lot along Talleyrand. Would sure be a lot less aggressive bums if there were tens of thousands of people walking around Downtown this Memorial Day Weekend instead of creating a traffic jam near the stadium

[tufsu1]

Idiotic COJ policies like tearing down the Landing, having less programming, etc have made things MUCH worse. This weekend, Jazz Fest is being held in a freaking dirt parking lot along Talleyrand. Would sure be a lot less aggressive bums if there were tens of thousands of people walking around Downtown this Memorial Day Weekend instead of creating a traffic jam near the stadium[/b]

Don't forget closing significant parts of the Riverwalk at the same time - I mean the part by the performing arts center was supposed to be finished last year!

As for Jazz Fest - I am so not excited by the location - I may go see Trombone Shorty Saturday night - but that's likely it

[jaxlongtimer]

Hosting the Jazz Fest in a riverfront park would be ideal.  Are any of the park plans currently underway able to provide for that?  Are any of the spaces capable of hosting thousands for such an event? 

This has been my point all along.  Can't have enough public space along the river for such things.  As Jax grows, having 100,000 or more people for an event is likely to be recurring.  Other cities have hundreds of thousands or even over 1 million hosted in their public spaces.  Hosting a few thousand isn't going to get the NFL draft, Super Bowl* or any super sized music or cultural festival that might add thousands of tourists to local attendance.

Such spaces would also enhance activity at an adjacent convention center.

All this, again, takes forward, long term planning and visioning.  We don't see to have it yet.

*Our 2005 Super Bowl used riverfront land on both sides of the river to host 100,000 +/-  people.  That land is mostly being repurposed so how does that work for a second shot?

[marcuscnelson]

^ Riverfront Plaza, Metropolitan Park, the Flex Field, and Shipyards West Park all seem capable of accommodating the Jazz Fest at least in part.

I would really hesitate to add a potentially substantial burden to the city in the form of multiple large event lawns (not just parks, but event lawns) that have to be maintained and especially policed (but apparently can't include any other use in part to help bear the cost of that maintenance or provide more eyes at night) on the speculation that there might eventually be big enough events to justify them, for the same reason that I would really hesitate to spend a billion dollars on a large convention center on the speculation that there might eventually be big enough events to justify it.

[jaxlongtimer]

^ Not talking multiple lawns, just one big "mall", "commons", etc.  Lots of cities have such spaces and find ways to use them frequently without events. The existing spaces hosting "in part" proves my point... we have nothing to handle larger events/crowds.

They could double as playing fields for urban residents, host outdoor movies, feature jogging tracks, music, dance, art and food festivals, car shows, travelling circus, Xtreme events, temporary outdoor ice skate rinks in winter, makers markets, etc. 

The amenity value to attract urban residents, increase in the taxable base, and the economic boost from events hosted should more than pay for mowing the grass.  The investment is a mere fraction of dollars spent on far less useful projects in this City, or given to developers for unnecessary incentives, that are better invested in infrastructure such as this, that promote all interests, not just a few.

Jax's lack of imagination is the issue.

[fsu813]

^ Not talking multiple lawns, just one big "mall", "commons", etc.  Lots of cities have such spaces and find ways to use them frequently without events.

I believe Metro Park will be the closest match to what you describe.