Friendship Fountain October 2023 Photo Tour

[Joey Mackey]

Just want to highlight my experience this past Saturday. Wife and I visited the reopened Friendship Fountain and the adjacent play park. I was taken aback by just how many people were enjoying the park, the great weather, and the fantastic sights. Hundreds, maybe even a thousand.

Just a few years ago, I would walk the same exact route along the SouthBank riverwalk on a Saturday to the "under construction" fountain and I would only ever see a handful of people, mostly fellow apartment/condo dwellers and homeless people. Now it is a completely different, and a welcoming, experience. The vibrancy, the activity, is outstanding.

I can't speak to the Riverside Skate Park, as I have only visited that park once. But from my perspective, the redevelopment of the Friendship Fountain has been the biggest success story in downtown Jacksonville regarding vibrancy for a while. From literally no activity, to attracting hundreds of visitors on a Saturday.

Smarter people than me can decipher the lessons to be learned from this project and outcome, and I hope our City's leadership is paying attention to this success.

[Zac T]

Got to check it out yesterday and it looks great. Plenty of people enjoying the spring weather with their families. Excited to see the next phases of the park open up

[Ken_FSU]

Smarter people than me can decipher the lessons to be learned from this project and outcome, and I hope our City's leadership is paying attention to this success.

It's such a simple thing, but one of the things this new administration has really hit out of the park so far is communication and follow-through.

Under the former administration, city government went radio silent on Friendship Fountain for YEARS.

If a reopening date was ever briefly noted, it would come and go without a word.

Contrast that to the new mayor's office.

Early on, they set a reopening date, communicated it to the public, and hit that reopening date.

When the park abruptly closed a few weeks back, I checked online, and easily found information:
a) announcing the closure
b) given a reason why it was inaccessible
c) giving a clear date for when it would reopen

Believe it or not, the park actually reopened as scheduled, and thousands of people got to enjoy it over the weekend, with upgrades.

Things like this go such a long way building the public trust.

Park looks beautiful, btw.

[Tacachale]

Just want to highlight my experience this past Saturday. Wife and I visited the reopened Friendship Fountain and the adjacent play park. I was taken aback by just how many people were enjoying the park, the great weather, and the fantastic sights. Hundreds, maybe even a thousand.

Just a few years ago, I would walk the same exact route along the SouthBank riverwalk on a Saturday to the "under construction" fountain and I would only ever see a handful of people, mostly fellow apartment/condo dwellers and homeless people. Now it is a completely different, and a welcoming, experience. The vibrancy, the activity, is outstanding.

I can't speak to the Riverside Skate Park, as I have only visited that park once. But from my perspective, the redevelopment of the Friendship Fountain has been the biggest success story in downtown Jacksonville regarding vibrancy for a while. From literally no activity, to attracting hundreds of visitors on a Saturday.

Smarter people than me can decipher the lessons to be learned from this project and outcome, and I hope our City's leadership is paying attention to this success.

Got to check it out yesterday and it looks great. Plenty of people enjoying the spring weather with their families. Excited to see the next phases of the park open up

Thank you for this feedback, y’all! To me this success shows Jaxsons are eager to get out and enjoy good public spaces.all we need as a city is to make the investments.

[Jankelope]

I would like to +1 this comment. I took my 2 boys and there probably were a total of close to 1000 people wanting to participate in this. If they nail the restaruant/rooftop bar and botanical gardens it is just going to be such a gem.

That is to say nothing of the development across the bridge which could be just as amazing.

[jaxlongtimer]

Maybe the success of public spaces like this will raise the profile of them and the City begins to prioritize more of this vs. paying developers to swallow up our publicly owned riverfront that any other city would kill to have for green space.

[Jankelope]

I think they will start to learn, assuming we keep someone in the Mayor's office who cares about those things. I think that is part of the equation here. Donna Deegan cares about these things and is willing to spend on them. That's half the battle.