Council President Richard Clark believes roads will revitalize downtown?

[Ocklawaha]

One can find good roads in North Korea, but it sure as hell hasn't helped them while their leadership appears to be insane.

Now here we are in Jacksonville, wishing we could duplicate the urbanism of other cities, while our own City Council president appears to be insane.

Jacksonville, apocalypse redefined.

OCKLAWAHA

[mtraininjax]

One way streets make navigating downtown into a logistical nightmare, sometimes forcing people to drive more than 12 blocks out of their way in order to travel two blocks

Stephen - Sorry, you are on the wrong side here, you get out and try and fix the one ways, I'll be on the other side of you, may the best person win. No way can you fix all the one-ways to appease all the people interested, so leave them alone. Sure some are disfunctional, but do we, the taxpayers really need to spend money on one way streets right now? Nope.

A.Philip randolph downtown? Maybe from Bay to the fairgrounds, but north of the fairgrounds, those are part of springfield.

[thelakelander]

It doesn't matter if A. Philip Randolph was in Mandarin or on top of the Landing.  Its an example of a road project that did not spur revitalization.  There are many more out there all over town.  New roads spur sprawl where there is virgin land but they don't do much for inner city redevelopment.  As for the one-way streets downtown, the city already plans to two-way a number of them.  Perhaps this is what Clark was referring to?

[Ocklawaha]

Again we agree Lake. Having toured Randolph from end to end, hearing a history and talking to the citizens, all it would need is Streetcar or Skyway to set it off like a wild fire. I walked away from that street with a new favorite place in Jacksonville. Their could hardly be another 8-10 blocks in the whole city with that much rich historic fabric. The street is like a virgin canvas, waiting for the artist.

OCKLAWAHA

[JeffreyS]

The new street scape project on Randolph looks great.  If a project like that where going to spur development this where it would have happened.

[downtownparks]

At no point is A Phillip Randolph in Springfield. Formerly Florida Ave, it starts in what used to be East Jacksonville (now the sports complex, which is decidedly downtown) and goes north into the neighborhood of Oakland, and ends at the Lockett-Felder monument at 1st, which is at this point still Oakland.

[Ocklawaha]

FYI, anyone that wonders how A. Phillip Randolph could blossom into Jacksonville's version of downtown Portland, Oregon, just look under the asphalt... JACKSONVILLE TRACTION COMPANY streetcar "Florida Avenue Line". The streetcar ran from 8Th to Bay.

OCKLAWAHA

[ChriswUfGator]

One way streets make navigating downtown into a logistical nightmare, sometimes forcing people to drive more than 12 blocks out of their way in order to travel two blocks

Stephen - Sorry, you are on the wrong side here, you get out and try and fix the one ways, I'll be on the other side of you, may the best person win. No way can you fix all the one-ways to appease all the people interested, so leave them alone. Sure some are disfunctional, but do we, the taxpayers really need to spend money on one way streets right now? Nope.

A.Philip randolph downtown? Maybe from Bay to the fairgrounds, but north of the fairgrounds, those are part of springfield.

The single and sole justification for one-way grid of streets is to handle more traffic. That's it. Traffic that downtown doesn't even have. So what's the point exactly? All it does is get people lost, make them drive 12 blocks out of their way to get anywhere, and this all in turn creates a negative mental impression, and hurts downtown businesses. Why keep them? Why not just make every street except the only two that have much traffic (Union and State) a two-way street? It would help things significantly.

And ditto with the stupid parking meters. It's a silly tax on anyone trying to frequent downtown businesses. And all this stuff about the meters being free at night, so what? Nothing is open down there at night, daytime is the only time there's anything to do there, which is when you're pestered by expensive meters and a an ever-growing flock of meter maids waiting to write you a $25 ticket if the time is 60-seconds expired.