Insights Into A Lively Downtown

[Metro Jacksonville]

Insights Into A Lively Downtown



Kirk Westphal, a recent graduate of the University of Michigan's Master of Urban Planning program, examines what makes a downtown district appealing in this 19-minute documentary.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/486

[thelakelander]

Great video.  Our leaders, task forces, planners, special committees, the JEDC, CVB and DVI should all take a working lunch session, sit down and view this this video, then compare the environments mentioned in this with what exists downtown today.  Thanks for posting.

[Lunican]

It is a great video, and it echoes everything this site has been advocating for the last year and a half.

[thelakelander]

Preserving urban buildings (over making new parking lots), people watching and designing interior building activities to better integrate with the street, etc.  None of this stuff is rocket science, there's no need to push for the one trick pony and most of it isn't cost prohibitive.  If places like Ann Arbor, Orlando, Columbus (OH), and Charleston can figure this out, there's no reason Jacksonville can't. 

[thelakelander]

So, based on the video, what do you think is Jacksonville's "Main Street"?  Main as in being that one spot that you think is the epicenter and place to be seen in the downtown core.  Is it Bay, Adams, Laura or do we even have one at this point?

[avonjax]

Great video.

[copperfiend]

Lakelander, that place in the picture looks very cool! Can you give me directions on how to get there? Will I have to borrow Doc Brown's Delorean?

[comncense]

Seeing that video makes me sad. Somehow it just seems like it will be forever before Jacksonville gets it right for a change.

[thelakelander]

Seeing that video makes me sad. Somehow it just seems like it will be forever before Jacksonville gets it right for a change.

I was in Norfolk/Virigina Beach for about 12 hours yesterday and that place has given me hope on Downtown Jacksonville.  Our demographics are about the same and Downtown Norfolk has made a stunning turn around in only a few short years.  City leaders appeared to concentrate on loading about a 10 block section of the core with a variety of uses, near the waterfront.  The failed Rouse marketplace has been successfully converted into restaurants and bars, a new mall (with restaurants lining the street) was opened a few blocks away, plus a few museums and a community college also set up shop nearby.  The result has created a market for specialty shops, lofts and restaurants opening along Granby (downtown's main street with building fabric) to capitalize on all the cross over traffic.  The place is also loaded with end user friendly directional signage and parking is relatively cheap ($1/hour in the garages).  We definately have the bones, we just need to embrace the magic word....connectivity.