Downtown Parks: Bay and Ocean Pocket Park

[Metro Jacksonville]

Downtown Parks: Bay and Ocean Pocket Park



In last month's Downtown Design Review Board Meeting, plans were unveiled for another Downtown Jacksonville Pocket Park, this one at Bay and Ocean. With the construction of the second phase of the Bay Street Town Center initiative, the traffic signals will be changed at this intersection, eliminating the need for one of the roads from Independent Drive to Ocean Street.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-aug-downtown-parks-bay-and-ocean-pocket-park

[aaapolito]

You left me hanging.  What's MJ's take on this project? 

[thelakelander]

I don't think MJ has a unified opinion on this project at this point.  Personally, I'd like to see how it fits within the overall vision for the Northbank.  However, I would like to see that with all downtown projects. 

Its really nothing more than a sidewalk that will better connect Bay Street to the Landing and the waterfront.  I do like that they are using the lights they plan to replace on Laura Street.

[tpot]

Looks like another place for the homeless to camp out.

[heights unknown]

We need another pocket park like we need a hole in our heads.  Forget about the homeless using it after its built, at least they will make good use of it, but guaranteed, the public (minus the beloved homeless) will not make any use of it and it will sit either as an eyesore or not used at all, or misused (and not by the homeless).  Oh well, poor vision, focus, and quagmire setting of goals by our leadership.

Height Unknown

[zoo]

"so as to develop a pocket park that will be designed as a passive park."

It is clear they have learned from the Main Street pocket park implementation. tpot's prediction is iminent...

[hightowerlover]

why dont we just make bay street into a culdesac

[hanjin1]

so are the taking away this ramp?



That would suck because that is the way I use to get to Springfield when I go down by the Landing, other wise you have to keep going to the Hyatt and turn there.

[Deuce]

The only good thing I can see from this (if I have interpreted it correct) is improving connectivity between bay street and the landing. With the burgeoning entertainment strip along Bay, connecting it to the restaurants of the landing would begin to create a true entertainment district.

[TPC]

Really? Lets call these panhandle parks, or pocket change parks. The only people who will use this park will be the transients.

[hightowerlover]

why dont they just open some pocket businesses instead?

[hanjin1]

They're not smart enough to do that

[Overstreet]

That ramp was often confusing to many motorists coming off the Main Street Bridge. It looks like they are already doing some work in that area. I don't see any barricades closing the road. I trust they closed it before placing the hay bale silt barrier across the road.

It looks like they are really eliminating expanding an existing landscape area. I guess a pocket park is politically correct landscape areas. ............. er.....green space. "Passive" pocket park must mean you are not supposed to have picnics there or take the kids to the playground equipment.

I suspect too that caliper inches of trees planted in pocket parks enters into the calculations of areas the city clears and removes trees. So this program covers sins at another location.

[GatorShane]

You guys are a bunch of crybabies. It is what it is, a small passive park. I dont think of it as any sort of gathering place, but I do think it will give people a better way to navigate between the Landing and Bay Street.

[Jason]

Honestly, I don't have a problem with it.  Its simple and practical and provides a nice greenway connection for pedestrians making their way from the Bay Street club district to the Landing.