Sharon Bensing Photo Essay: "Pedestrian Unfriendly"

[Metro Jacksonville]

Sharon Bensing Photo Essay:  "Pedestrian Unfriendly"



MetroJacksonville.com is working with Ana Kamiar, MFA, of the Art Institute of Jacksonville to create a series of student created photo essays that highlight the people, environment, culture and thoughts of the metro Jacksonville region.

This is their response.

Images by Sharon Bensing. Photo Editor Ana Kamiar, MFA


Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2012-jun-sharon-bensing-photo-essay-pedestrian-unfriendly

[Garden guy]

Noone should be suprised...this city has no plan..no standards...thats what you get with years and years of allowing developers and city good ole boys do what they want without tought of public access..again an example of a conservative anti-public republican city...welcome.

[Adam W]

Noone should be suprised...this city has no plan..no standards...thats what you get with years and years of allowing developers and city good ole boys do what they want without tought of public access..again an example of a conservative anti-public republican city...welcome.

It's not just a Republican thing.

[simms3]

As a moderate Democrat I am happy my Republican governor is spearheading our own Transportation Initiative Referendum and personally taking on the task of building public support for express busses and the Beltline.  I love how the Republican cities of Houston and Salt Lake City are building and expanding transit systems.

Now back to the photos, the last one was definitely most powerful.  It's hard to make suburban areas anywhere pedestrian friendly, but at the least you would want the local workers to have a slightly easier commute time on the busses they need to get back home.

[Adam W]

As a moderate Democrat I am happy my Republican governor is spearheading our own Transportation Initiative Referendum and personally taking on the task of building public support for express busses and the Beltline.  I love how the Republican cities of Houston and Salt Lake City are building and expanding transit systems.

Now back to the photos, the last one was definitely most powerful.  It's hard to make suburban areas anywhere pedestrian friendly, but at the least you would want the local workers to have a slightly easier commute time on the busses they need to get back home.

I thought the first and last ones were the best as illustrations of how anti-pedestrian Jacksonville is. But as a photo essay or art, I thought the photos were quite poor, generally.

[simms3]

^^Agreed.  The photos appear to all have been shot within 15 minutes on the same street corner and of friends rather than natural scenes.  (You said it first!!)

[Adam W]

^^Agreed.  The photos appear to all have been shot within 15 minutes on the same street corner and of friends rather than natural scenes.  (You said it first!!)

I feel bad. But the first shot, assuming it was candid, was fairly compelling. There are lots of great photo opportunities around Jacksonville for this subject.

[fsujax]

Baymeadows was not built to accomodate pedestrians, bikes or transit. Retrofitting these mistakes is going to be costly. Simms you are correct there are Republican cities like Houston, Dallas, SLC, Charlotte who have made great strides in transit. It can be done with the right Republican leadership.

[Adam W]

Baymeadows was not built to accomodate pedestrians, bikes or transit. Retrofitting these mistakes is going to be costly. Simms you are correct there are Republican cities like Houston, Dallas, SLC, Charlotte who have made great strides in transit. It can be done with the right Republican leadership.

There are plenty of things Republicans and Democrats (and others) have in common: sidewalks or safer streets are not the province of any one party.

[Captain Zissou]

I agree that this wasn't necessarily a 'photo essay', but it's a great first attempt. Next time either specify that this is targeting baymeadows, or use more locations and over a greater period of time.  The same 4 people don't have time to write all of the articles and post all the pictures that metrojax needs, especially considering they all have day jobs. Educating people on what to look for and how to capture urban issues is a great way to build up content for the site. I look forward to what this group produces in the future.

[Adam W]

I agree that this wasn't necessarily a 'photo essay', but it's a great first attempt. Next time either specify that this is targeting baymeadows, or use more locations and over a greater period of time.  The same 4 people don't have time to write all of the articles and post all the pictures that metrojax needs, especially considering they all have day jobs. Educating people on what to look for and how to capture urban issues is a great way to build ether content for the site. I look forward to what this group produces in the future.

Absolutely. Those are great points.

[CityLife]

The Art Institute is located off Baymeadows Rd (poor location for that btw), so I suppose that is why Baymeadows was used for this... I think a better photo essay would be comparing how pedestrian unfriendly the suburbs are in Jacksonville compared to the urban neighborhoods and beaches.

[JeffreyS]

Great idea but poor execution on the photo essay.  Clearly not much effort put into it.

[kells904]

Yeah, I agree with CityLife.  I don't know the ins and outs of why an office park in the middle of a traffic insanity was chosen in the first place, but that is a dumb place to put a school.  I've heard that putting a school downtown is a bigger ball-ache than it should be, though.  But certainly, none of that matters to the students who did this photo essay, since it's merely highlighting that they're playing live-action Frogger every day.  And I'm guessing this area was picked for a photo essay because it was easily accessible for a student assignment, that also benefit the MJ "agenda" (for lack of a better word). 

AI doesn't have that many students right now, but long term, they really should relocate.  The Bentley Green apt complex behind that bus stop is what they're using as dorms, but I've never seen a B7 bus come through there; the only one I ever see is headed for...SOUTEL.

[CityLife]

Art Institute like its neighbor Florida Coastal is a for-profit school. Simply put, it was cheaper/more profitable to open in a suburban office park vs. Downtown.

However, both schools are doing a disservice to their students by being located in Baymeadows and not in or near Downtown. Coastal students would gain a lot by being closer to the Courthouses, clerkships, internships, politics, etc. Art Institute students would gain a lot by being closer to the best artists, chefs, etc in the city, not to mention all the cultural institutions. There is a synergy created by being around other like minded people and students of both schools miss out on that.