Thinking Anew about Monroe Street and the Courthouse

[Metro Jacksonville]

Thinking Anew about Monroe Street and the Courthouse



This Presidents' Day, I have been thinking about the issue of Monroe Street and the new Duval County Courthouse and meditating on the sentiments expressed in Abraham Lincoln's address to Congress in 1862.  As President Lincoln so aptly said, "As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew."  (emphasis added)  

       With respect to the interrelated problems of Monroe Street and the new courthouse, we are, at the most basic level, being called upon to completely rethink many of the original design objectives of the River City Renaissance plan, if not some elements of the existing plan for the Downtown itself.  This is in no way a bad thing, but rather an opportunity to come to a better consensus about what our goals and objectives for Jacksonville's urban core really are, and how we might better achieve them.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2011-feb-thinking-anew-about-monroe-street-and-the-courthouse

[dougskiles]

Milt, I am honored that you used my sketch in your article.

You bring up a great point about master planning.  As I have talked to various people around town, the common frustration is that we are often creating great vision/master plans but nothing materializes.  I used to be of the opinion that for once, we need to just follow the plan.  I have heard others lament this as well.  However, as I have investigated more into this and observed the pockets of town that are experiencing a resurgance, it has become evident to me that the problem may not be with the implementation, but with the original plan itself.

• Perhaps our plans have been too restrictive and not permitted organic growth to occur.
• The plans may have been so grand that we could never bite it off in one chunk and so we never took the first step.
• The plans may have not allowed the market to determine what was going to be most successful at any given time.
• Lastly, and most importantly, the plans were made under the false assumption that the generation making the plans knew what was going to be best for the future generations.

I am currently involved in a master planning effort in San Marco and am working hard to make sure we don't repeat these mistakes.  For master plans to work, the vision needs to be clear and well-communicated, but the implementation needs to be flexible enough to allow the market to work its magic.  It is not the planners who make the plans successful, it is the businesses and residents who decide to live and work there.

And we always need to be asking ourselves if we are on the right track.  Too many times we make decisions based on previous decisions that would possibly have been made differently had we known then, what we know today.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

I haven't seen it mentioned yet, but with Monroe St. being such a "Grand Entrance" and all, why doesn't it have access from 95 southbound?  Just sayin'.

[iloveionia]

Excellent article.

Questions:
Currently there is an exit off I95 to Monore that would drop in front of the courthouse?  And Monroe Street is where LaVilla used to be?
The current plan is to close Monroe and it's I95 exit?
LaVilla was demolished to build this big honking fugly courthouse?
When was LaVilla demolished?

Thanks for the clarification.
 
Also, any pros/cons to Monroe Street would be appreciated.
I would like to understand better.

[simms3]

I enjoyed the essay quite a bit.  Thanks!

Linear parks can work great when there is a good master plan and enough growth happening whereby the park doesn't subsequently cut off the two sides of an area and create a wasteland.  I think a new master plan for LaVilla needs to be created and perhaps this linear park incorporated, but development needs to be spurred in that area with incentives in the form of tax increment financing (which surprisingly is almost non-existent in Jacksonville, a city that needs it and can benefit from it more than any other).

The park and developments on either side should be constructed simultaneously.  A quick look through history indicates that linear parks came about in master plans where growth was happening fast and the park and surrounding mixed-use/higher density (and in a couple case RSFHs) simultaneously.  I'm thinking of examples in Boston, Atlanta, New York, all over CA, Dallas, etc.

S Dallas


San MAteo, CA


Atlanta


Atlanta

[dougskiles]

development needs to be spurred in that area with incentives in the form of tax increment financing (which surprisingly is almost non-existent in Jacksonville, a city that needs it and can benefit from it more than any other).

I hear about tif's often, but don't know exactly how they work.  Would you mind someday posting some detailed information and examples?  It seems like this is going to be a great avenue for some of the infrastructure projects we are trying to start.

[sheclown]

@ Nicole:

LaVilla was demolished for social reasons.  Sound familiar?  

The area north of Duval Street was one of Florida’s first black urban  neighborhoods. In the 1920s Ashley Street became the “Great Black Way”. A street  lined with entertainment establishments that played host to famed jazz & blues  greats such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Billie Holliday. Former  residents of LaVilla include Ray Charles and James Weldon Johnson

Like many historic neighborhoods, for various reasons LaVilla fell on hard  times. However, unlike Springfield, it wasn’t given a chance to revitalize  itself. In the early 1990s the city demolished most structures along with the  heart and soul of Florida’s first African-American city with an ill-fated urban  renewal project that has resulted in the empty lots and non-pedestrian friendly  stucco office structures that exist today.

more info:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2006-aug-lavilla-jacksonvilles-first-incorporated-suburb

The loss of LaVilla is immeasurable, criminal.

LaVilla is a primarily African-American neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida, that was considered "the mecca for African American culture and heritage" in Florida

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaVilla

[brainstormer]

Simms, I love it!  The plan for Monroe to be a straight shot from 95 to the Hart Expressway has already been killed.  Imagine a beautiful, lush green, winding park similar to your photos linking the Prime Osborn (converted to Jacksonville Terminal of course) to Hemming Plaza.  Set up TIF along the edges, make the streets curved in this area, ditch BRT and watch the revival of LaVilla.  What a grand entrance this could be to our city!  One of the graphic guys on here should draw this up.  We need new thinking in our downtown revival.

[ricker]

Think I heard correctly?
I caught the tail end of a blurb on NPR.
Council voted to keep Monroe Street OPEN!?

What does this mean for the hope of a grand court yard?

[thelakelander]

It means we'll have a grand courtyard split by a one-way arterial street or a large lifeless two block irregular median between two one-way streets.

[wsansewjs]

Like many historic neighborhoods, for various reasons LaVilla fell on hard  times. However, unlike Springfield, it wasn’t given a chance to revitalize  itself. In the early 1990s the city demolished most structures along with the  heart and soul of Florida’s first African-American city with an ill-fated urban  renewal project that has resulted in the empty lots and non-pedestrian friendly  stucco office structures that exist today.

Ring ring! DANGER AHEAD, SPRINGFIELD DANGER!

-Josh

[Ocklawaha]

'Hello, room service? Send up a room, and if you can't spare a room, send up a hall, or a complete building'
Groucho

Ever wonder why the stop lights in Green Cove Springs are all set on timers so that whatever hour and whatever direction one is traveling you'll have to stop.  TRUTH! Making people stop and turn their vehicles will help small business not harm it.

OCKLAWAHA

[Dashing Dan]

Back in the Seventies, a lot of downtown streets across the country were re-designated for use by pedestrians only.  I'm not saying this would be a good idea for Monroe Street, but it wouldn't be as bad as rebuilding it for cars to use.

Another idea would be to rename the existing pieces of Broad Adams and Pearl Streets that go around the south side of the new courthouse, so that you could go all the way across downtown on "Monroe Street,"  without laying down any new asphalt.

[Tacachale]

This is unfortunate, but it's far from the worst thing that's been done downtown.

[thelakelander]

Building that proposed curved stretch of Monroe Street as a multiuse path for cyclist and pedestrians would not be a bad idea.  By the same token, restripping an existing lane of Monroe all the way through downtown for bicycle use wouldn't be too bad either.  Unfortunately, we've reached the point where we don't believe we can "maintain a grid" by not fully accommodating automobile movement at the expense of other modes of mobility.