The Park That Got Away

[Metro Jacksonville]

The Park That Got Away



Ever wonder why urban Jacksonville does not have the grand public parks that help define the character of some of the largest cities in the country?  Here is a story of one that got away.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2011-dec-the-park-that-got-away

[Noone]

WOW! Wisha, Shoulda, Coulda. Now we are just one city council cycle from the Historic Promised 680' Downtown Public Pier making the FIND list.

[vicupstate]

Wow.  Unbelieveable.

The long list of missed opportunities in Jax throughout history is truly sad.  University of Florida, the loss of the movie industry  and now this.  There was opposition to the Preservation Project too, or at least sections of it. Much of that money was from outside sources too.

The inferiority complex that holds the city back is evident in these lost opportunities.

[Elwood]

The number of "missed" opportunities for this city are truely unbelievable.

[Intuition Ale Works]

C'mon Really?

There are so many awesome things going on in this City right now and we are going to harp on something that happened almost 80 years ago?

Maybe if those damn Huguenots had not let the Spanish massacre them, we'd have bistros all over downtown Jax and that certain "je ne sais quoi" that Downtown is lacking.

Damn cheese eating surrender monkeys...

We must stop beating ourselves up over the past and work toward a future the makes Jax as great as it can and should be.

[fsujax]

^^agreed. Besides if that park had been built, it would probably have ended up in the same condition as Hogans Creek.

[thelakelander]

Just for clarity, I didn't write the article to beat up on Jax.  I wrote it to expose more lost and forgotten history.  I'm all for the future but without knowing your history your community will remain lost.

[Jameson]

I am glad that this park didn't get built because the neighborhood where my Parents met would not have existed and therefore I wouldn't exist to write this post.

[Ocklawaha]

I am glad that this park didn't get built because the neighborhood where my Parents met would not have existed and therefore I wouldn't exist to write this post.

FSUJAX may be onto something. We DID let the WPA/CCC build parks and facilities in the city during that era.

May Mann Jennings Park is located in north Jacksonville, southeast of Evergreen Cemetery, which was established in 1880. The City acquired most of the property in 1921-22, and it originally comprised part of Long Branch Park. Following extensive work by the Works Progress Administration, a lovely new park opened in 1940, named for May Mann Jennings (1873-1963), the wife of former Florida governor William S. Jennings. After moving to Jacksonville in 1905, she devoted the remainder of her life to local and state activism, becoming one of Florida’s most influential women. She worked tirelessly for the conservation of public lands in the state, headed the Florida Federation of Women’s Clubs, was co-founder of the Florida League of Women Voters, and much more. In recent years, the park grounds have been returned to a natural, undeveloped state.

This is the understatement of the century, 'returned to a primitive, antediluvian, Jurassic like, hobo jungle,' would be more honest. The greatest shame of all is that the CCC didn't build 'junk', most of the National Parks from the Smokey Mountains to Yosemite had their infrastructure developed this way. With a strange lack of photographs, we can only imagine how beautiful this park might have been back when the city gave a damn!

OCKLAWAHA

 

 

[finehoe]

City leaders did not see the value

Some things never change.

I wrote it to expose more lost and forgotten history. 

And thank you for that.  I'd never heard of this before; I found it fascinating.

[avonjax]

I'm amazed that the members of the city council have lived so long. Oh that's right they haven't, it's just their long list of missed opportunities that have.

[cityimrov]

I'd say this city has one big problem.  It becomes very lazy as soon as it achieves something.  The laziness achieved by Jacksonville as soon as it achieves something big is unmatched by nearly every other big city out there.

[Captain Zissou]

^^agreed. Besides if that park had been built, it would probably have ended up in the same condition as Hogans Creek.

I hate that I am agreeing with this, but it's true.

Hogan's Creek runs right through the middle of downtown and it is still somehow ignored by the city.  This could be our city's most iconic asset, and yet it is a liability for our core instead.  I imagine our city would care about this greenway even less.

This park would have been great, but I am not sure that it would still be around today even if we let it get built.  What we can do is make sure that Hogan's Creek and all of it's surrounding parks are utilized and developed in the best ways possible.  We could have a connected park system from Memorial Park in Riverside to Klutho Park in Springfield.  Let's make that happen.

[duvaldude08]

^^agreed. Besides if that park had been built, it would probably have ended up in the same condition as Hogans Creek.

I hat that I am agreeing with this, but it's true.

Hogan's Creek runs right through the middle of downtown and it is still somehow ignored by the city.  This could be our city's most iconic asset, and yet it is a liability for our core instead. 

This park would have been great, but I am not sure that it would still be around today even if we let it get built.  What we can do is make sure that Hogan's Creek and all of it's surrounding parks are utilized and developed in the best ways possible.  We could have a connected park system from Memorial Park in Riverside to Klutho Park in Springfield.  Let's make that happen.

Another thing that a good friend of mine said was very true. Why is it that none of the church's downtown, invest in downtown? They already dont pay property taxes, so why not give back? For example, hogans creek run's right past Bethel Baptist. It amazes me that the church has never raised a concern about the condition of the creek, nor offer any financial assistance to get it cleaned up. Its time out for just going to service and going home. I feel that if you are going to reside downtown, invest in downtown. buying up property is fine, but when you are paying no property taxes its really not helping anything.

[urbaknight]

This happened (or should I say, this didn't happen) just before the city got rid of streetcars and modern transit in general. I guess it was decided as far back as the 30's to destroy the urban fabric, it just took them 40 years to do it. And now we're left with crap!

 But I believe that JAX is on it's way back up, albeit very slowly. We still have lots of dead wood in council that needs to be chopped and cleared away in order to make room for young, fresh vibrant ideas to take hold and grow.