Blighted Jacksonville: 1970s Style

[Metro Jacksonville]

Blighted Jacksonville: 1970s Style



The 1970s weren't the best era for America's cities and the scene in Jacksonville was not an exception. Outside of downtown, unpaved streets, industrial blight, overgrown lots, unchecked sprawl and declining established neighborhoods were quite the norm. Here's a look at the not-so-glamourous side of Jacksonville's past.

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2015-apr-blighted-jacksonville-1970s-style

[Jaxson]

Is that a Burger Chef that I see in picture #48? 

[Jax Friend]

 believe #17 is the Springfield Plastics Building at the corner of 10th and Pearl.

[urbanlibertarian]

Thanks.  This brings back memories of my teen years.

[Jumpinjack]

The answer to this obvious blight was eminent domain and demolition preferably by highway construction. Lots of small homes (probably what we could call historic) and communities went under at that time. Thanks for the photos.

[thelakelander]

^Yes. Most of Hansontown was replaced by FSCJ's downtown campus. Expansions of the highway system took out large sections of neighborhoods like LaVilla, Brooklyn, and Sugar Hill. Then what those things did not remove, we demolished for failed urban renewal developments, causing a huge drop off in population density, which ultimately negatively impacted downtown's retail environment. When this report was developed, it mentioned there were 78k people working in the North and Southbanks. However, what was considered downtown then, was much smaller than the borders the DIA goes by today.

[strider]

believe #17 is the Springfield Plastics Building at the corner of 10th and Pearl.

Yes, it is.  Nice to see a picture with the balconies intact. So far, MCCD has been held at bay on this building so perhaps someday it will be returned to it's original appearance.

[finehoe]

A good quarter of these don't show "blight" at all; it was just a different era.  Reproducing them in a fake sepia tone gives them an old-timey look that doesn't really reflect the times.

[thelakelander]

believe #17 is the Springfield Plastics Building at the corner of 10th and Pearl.

Yes, it is.  Nice to see a picture with the balconies intact. So far, MCCD has been held at bay on this building so perhaps someday it will be returned to it's original appearance.

Pretty cool. I had no idea of where that building in #17 was.

[thelakelander]

A good quarter of these don't show "blight" at all; it was just a different era.  Reproducing them in a fake sepia tone gives them an old-timey look that doesn't really reflect the times.

The report I pulled the images from was a Jax Area Planning Board study on fixing blight. Two of the things the suburban areas were identified for, were limited sidewalk connectivity and bad signage. Urban concerns included residential and heavy industrial not having adequate buffering, poorly maintained street ROW, unpaved roads, and overgrown private lots. The fake sepia tone was the tone in the 1970s report. My guess, is that the color quality of the original print reproduction is declining after 40 years of collecting dust.

[fsujax]

Nice pic of the Burger King on Beach Blvd....was that the original one?

[Mr. Charleston]

Most of these photos are not blight, they're just 50 years old.

[thelakelander]

In 1970, they labeled them as blight.

For example, this isn't "blight" in how we define it today. It was listed because there's no fence between an active mainline railroad track and an elementary school...



Today, we'd call this a safety issue moreso than blight. In the Durkeeville below, this is a regular scene in Riverside. However in 1970, they were concerned about the visual appeal of people parking their cars in the grass between the street and the sidewalk.



The text defining the problem in this shot was the lack of sidewalks on a road with ditches...


In the document, each image had something listed that the planning board felt needed to improved upon to make Jax a first class community. What I do find interesting is that many of the things they felt needed improvement are accepted as status quo in Jax today.

[finehoe]

In the document, each image had something listed that the planning board felt needed to improved upon to make Jax a first class community.

Seems like they were being rather expansive with their definition of blight.  Needing improvement and nice-to-haves do not equal a deteriorated condition, which is what most people think of when they hear the word.

[Know Growth]

Nice pic of the Burger King on Beach Blvd....was that the original one?

One of the very first BK,if not the first in The Land Of Flowers,was 7th Avenue,North Miami. My native childhood neighborhood. Prelude to Decline.