Peyton Struggles: The Big Idea

[Juker777]

There are a lot of good ideas here.  We have at least two years left with Peyton; I want to see what immediate plans he has for development.  We need to be ready to act when the courthouse moves from Bay Street and takes the bail bond type businesses with them. 

[coredumped]

Bay street has so much potential! Jacksonville needs a downtown night life beyond the landing, E. Bay street would be perfect. It's location is ideal; it's right between the landing and the stadium. Imagine people heading to bars along bay street after the jaguars game this Thursday. As it is now, thousands of people head straight home.

Perhaps bars downtown should be allowed to serve alcohol until 3 instead of 2am.

[copperfiend]

Does anybody think it will be any different when Peyton leaves office? Who's next in line for the throne? Davis?

[tufsu1]

the revitalization of the Friendship Fountain area is a very good idea...and the fountain itself does need a lot of work....

Converting it into a large interactive fountain seems like a good idea (ever notice how many kids run through the small fountain @ The Landing....

And here's the thing about the existing Kids Kampus....its an isolated, fenced in area...that makes no sense....so go ahead and move it to the area next to MOSH and the Maritime Musuem...and then design it so its family friendly (and not so prison-like).   

One more thing...removing the ramps from the Main St Bridge and reducing lanes is also a pretty good idea...I think it could work really well as a 3 lane roadway with the middle lane reversing directioons during peak hours....this leaves room for some bike lanes, thereby freeing up the sidewalks for pedestrians only!

[thelakelander]

Some of the individual components of the Big Idea make sense.  Where it falls apart is how it is put together.  Kids Kampus is not even ten years old and it is a popular place.  While it isn't centrally located, its there and spending additional millions to move it does not make sense when we're strapped financially and have more pressing needs. 

No one would disagree with the idea of the Friendship Fountain area needing revitalization.  The problem is the replacing the local icon (it is a local icon) with a kiddie fountain.  If the plan could be modified to save and restore the fountain and add a kiddie interactive fountain elsewhere, the support would be there.  Also instead of going through the trouble of totally wasting the current Kids Kampus investment, additional family friendly components could be added around a restored Friendship Fountain.  We have over 800,000 residents, so our downtown should be able to support two recreational public spaces that are child friendly.

Removing the ramps are a great idea but eliminating a lane off the Main Street Bridge is a waste of resources that could be applied elsewhere.  Instead of reducing capacity on the bridge, add a cantilevered structure if there is really a need (the need should be evaluated against other unfunded municipal projects like Hogans Creek, the Convention Center, etc.).

Again, imo there were some decent components to the plan.  Unfortunately, the Big Idea was put together with a small narrow minded viewpoint.  If we can go back and look at it from a larger scale, it will be much easier to incorporate the good components into an affordable long range plan that also preserves our existing assets.