Springfield Parks

[uptowngirl]

The problem with the existing parks is use. The dog park is great but the parked trucks, old crappy playground equipment (kids can not even climb on the swings by themselves they are so high!) and no water need improvement.

Confederate Park main is nice, but those geese make everything gross, you wouldn't want to go sit in there with all the goose poop and they swarm you if you are trying to eat anything, the benches are horrible too, but it is nice to walk or bike through it.

Klutho Park is nice, but if there is no game going on what do you do there? Other than the bleachers where do you sit? Some of that land could be better used for an educational neighborhood garden or something.... at least some picnic tables! And the infamous Liberty Park... nice toys, but the fence is DESTROYED, half the time it is filled with trash, kids smoking pot or bums drinking, and last time I was there a hooker was meeting her Johns there in broad daylight!

Then we have the whole thread of parks off of BLVD, I know there are some plans for a skate park over there which would be awesome, but right now it is pretty much unusable, except for the basketball court or the tennis court which is barely used. There is tons of green space, but no landscaping... the little park at the corner of 8th and Blvd is really an outdoor beer garden without the cute girls in the short skirts (unless you count the tranny hookers after 2AM...)

We have parks.... I question how "usable" in their current condition they are though.

What say you?

[downtownparks]

The Dog parks is being completely redone with playground equipment and a bunch of others stuff. Im not sure of all the ins and outs, but SACAC should be able to answer any questions. The city has been the hold up. The money has been i place for more than a year thanks to the Womans Club and Sacarc.

[jbm32206]

We need to pressure the city about getting the work done...and yes, we raised our share of the money, and the city needs to complete their end

[soxfan]

The Liberty St. park is a mess. DTP and I have been there several times to clean it and the next day it's right back to the condition it was when we started. The drug dealers and thugs that hang out there make it a scary place for Moms and their kids to visit. Not to mention having to disinfect the slides before letting the kids use them. The human trash that hangs out there is very brazen and bold. They do not stop their activities just because there is someone there. We have tried to run them out but they just come right back. The fence is crap and can be bent by hand, it's just aluminum. I remember when we had the May Day event there. Parents and kids started going there regularly, but when the thugs came back, the families were too uncomfortable to return and use the park so they go elsewhere. It's a shame, because the city has put a ton of money into that place...

[thelakelander]

It sounds like the Liberty St. park needs security personnel.

The chain of parks lining Hogans Creek were Jacksonville's "Central Park" or "Commons" originally.  They are the key to merging Springfield and Downtown together to create a large vibrant sustainable urban core.  They are the force that can help FCCJ fit in with the surrounding community and make crossing State & Union on foot a decent option.  Where's the charette for the inner city's largest park system?  The chain of parks lining Hogans Creek are more important to the community than creating flex space next to Metropolitan Park, replacing Friendship Fountain with Kids Kampus or sticking pocket parks in places they don't need to go.

[downtownparks]

I dont think its a funding issue. To be honest, I am not sure what the hold up is. I went to a meeting with Lynn last Dec, and they expected completion by March at that time.

The Playground is coming from a CBD grant which was funded starting last winter, and last I heard, will go in next to the basketball courts, and take over the area you are talking about where the trucks are. The playground and basketball court will be fenced separate from the dog park portion of it. The dog portion will have two main areas. A small dog area where the swingset currently is, and a larger dog area in the rest of it. The funding for the fences and landscaping was a grant that the womans club got from the state (FDOT?)

I will email Lynn today and ask if this is still the plan.

[downtownparks]

Lake, its worth noting. The same reason that people dont use liberty, is the same reason they wont use some of the retail options out there. If people dont feel safe, they simply wont go there.

[uptowngirl]

This is true, and when you are talking "playground" you are talking children, small children who you do not need to be exposed to the elements hanging out in this park. This is not a "rich" or "poor" thing, I have not spoken to one mother that would use that park whether rich or poor, black or white that feels "safe" in that park with their small children. No one wants a torn up park but the punks who are tearing it up.

Someone could also talk to the Baptist Church that drops off van loads of kids there every afternoon too. The church is not even in our neighborhood and the kids are not being watched by anyone...they pull up, open the doors unload, come back a few hours later, pull up, open the doors and load them back up!

It is a shame because when it opened it was a fantastic park.

[strider]

When I have been to these parks, I have seen only a few homeless, so the issue becomes one of the criminal element again, which should fall back on JSO, should it not?  Also, are not a couple of the parks locked up at night still?  I know some are not because they can't be, but I would think that, like many urban parks, they are pretty safe during the day, it's at night that one has to worry.  The geese? They add to the park, and I am not talking about just fertilizer.  If the other issues were not there, would people still complain about the geese?

The idea that they are the connection between Springfield and Downtown only seems to work if there are people downtown that would use those parks.  Are there?  Or are the residential developments too far away for the parks to be used by them? If it is just the visual connection that is important, that seems like it will work whether people really use them or not.

[nvrenuf]

Dog Park - Lynn & Karen have met several times with Darryl since last December. As of last week's meeting we are finally at a point where we will see action. This has been a long process of approvals and bids and Lynn & Karen have been on top of them but gov't works at its own pace. Within 10 working days of last Friday we should see activity. That probably makes it 1st week of December with the Thanksgiving holiday. First things to happen are shade structures and water. The current playground will be the fenced small dog area, the current COJ truck lot will be the new playground. Both the playground & basketball courts will be fenced off from the dog park and will have separate entry. The new fencing will probably take the longest due to obtaining supply. I don't want to misquote so my understanding is that there will also be a large lighting structure in the middle of the park. The new fencing will be placed just inside the existing fencing so that there is no disruption of use of the park.

[thelakelander]

The idea that they are the connection between Springfield and Downtown only seems to work if there are people downtown that would use those parks.  Are there?  Or are the residential developments too far away for the parks to be used by them? If it is just the visual connection that is important, that seems like it will work whether people really use them or not.

If it were the place it was right after Klutho's improvements, it would be loaded with people and adjacent development would not be turning its back to it.

I'm not aware of any basketball courts, tennis courts, playgrounds, continuous acres of green space available in downtown to the degree of what exists along Hogans Creek.  For whatever reason, we've forgotten about the park's importance in the area's early growth.  Improvements like the greenway (if it ever happens) offer the city the ability to bring it back to prominence. 

But people won't show up unless there's a reason to be there.  This means adding things to the space that attract a diverse amount of continued use by the community.  This also includes making sure private sector plans (FCCJ, Bethel, JTA TAD, JEA, etc.) are well integrated with the space.  Unfortunately, its hard to get elected officials and community as a whole to understand that we can't continue to plan in a vacuum.

[FinnegansWake]

Then we have the whole thread of parks off of BLVD, I know there are some plans for a skate park over there which would be awesome, but right now it is pretty much unusable, except for the basketball court or the tennis court which is barely used. There is tons of green space, but no landscaping...

First fundraiser for the Skateplaza of Springfield (SoS) [ www.skatesos.org ] to be held in early December.

And actually the basketball courts nearbye are used a whole lot. Derek and I have talked to some of the people who play there and mentioned we are going try to get COJ to upgrade.

And the tennis courts are used by families with skateboards and Razors and tricycles until the self-proclaimed Tennis Court Czar calls the cops.

Phil

[thelakelander]

Who is the Tennis Court Czar?

[uptowngirl]

This is awesome news ... About the Dog park and the Skate Park these are both HUGE improvements to our neighborhood and downtown.

I am glad to hear the city is finally moving on the dog park, and Finn.. can't wait to start raising some moeny for the Skate Park!

I agree the basketball court is used heavily (and it shows) so good to know an improvement is being looked at there too.

We have all the pieces for a great park system, but it is misisng cohesiveness (hopefully that is coming) and we need some additions such as seating, picnic benches and landscaping to really make it usable.

[FinnegansWake]

Who is the Tennis Court Czar?

Can't remember his name. He showed up one day with no shirt and a bandana and sagging jeans and unshaven and at first I got between him and my son because my spider-sense was going off, and there was an old stained sheet in the corner and I thought it belonged to him and he was coming to claim it. And then he started talking about how he was put in charge of the tennis courts by the COJ and we couldn't use them for anything besides tennis and the whole time the look on my face was, 'you can't be serious....' . And then he called the cops. And of course the cops have to go by the "Court Rules" which plainly states: No Skateboarding Because Skateboarders Are Bad.

He lives across the street from the tennis courts.

Phil