Monroe Street Closure On The Brink Of Happening

[exnewsman]

Re-opening Monroe only compounds the foolish mistake of building the courthouse into the sprawling monstrosity that it is rather than going vertical (ala the Federal Courthouse). City government created this mess. Now they want to make it worse by endangering the citizens by have two thoroughfares right next to each other. Who's interests are they looking out for here? Certainly not that of pedestrians. Re-open Monroe and all you have is a danger zone waiting for an accident.

[Lunican]

If keeping Monroe Street open was a top priority, they should not have built a building on it.

[ChriswUfGator]

I think I was the only one to get multiple responses from the council last week.  The problem is apparently I "threatened" them with the fact that I was keeping score and willing to donate to campaigns based on it.  They got back to me in a hurry mostly to tell me how that won't get me anywhere.

I read the response, from Lumb in particular, and was shocked by the apalling sense of entitlement.

Lumb: We gave it to you, we can take it away. Keep pissing people off, watch what happens.

[vicupstate]

^^  People don't respond well to threats.  You hurt your cause more than anything when you do that.  They know that someone that takes the time to right a letter is generally-speaking an involved citizen that very likely to vote.   

[ChriswUfGator]

^^  People don't respond well to threats.  You hurt your cause more than anything when you do that.  They know that someone that takes the time to right a letter is generally-speaking an involved citizen that very likely to vote.   

It's not a threat, it's just political reality. It's a shortsighted decision, and everyone has every right to point out they'll be taking their money and votes elsewhere. And FWIW, the original letter to Lumb was rather tame, his response was rude and high-handed. Which is what I'm disappointed by. As long as you follow through with it, then nobody is hurting their cause by saying the politician risks losing their support by engaging in short-sighted actions.

[exnewsman]

@Lake - can you overlay Monroe back inot the aerial photo. It would be interesting to see just how close Monroe and Adams will really be.

[urbaknight]

I thought this was settled! Didn't they decide to close the damn street?!

First the mobility fee may be dropped, now they may reopen Monore st after all?

This should be the city's slogan:

                           "Jacksonville"
     
                   Pedestrians "NOT" welcome!


We can put this on every single sign on the highways to be seen as you enter the city.

[tufsu1]

^^  People don't respond well to threats.  You hurt your cause more than anything when you do that.  They know that someone that takes the time to right a letter is generally-speaking an involved citizen that very likely to vote.   

It's not a threat, it's just political reality. It's a shortsighted decision, and everyone has every right to point out they'll be taking their money and votes elsewhere. And FWIW, the original letter to Lumb was rather tame, his response was rude and high-handed. Which is what I'm disappointed by. As long as you follow through with it, then nobody is hurting their cause by saying the politician risks losing their support by engaging in short-sighted actions.

here's the deal....these guys just got elected and aren't up for re-election until Spring 2015....so they're not real worried about threats about losing votes or $ right now (figure most will forget)....if this was fall 2014, things might be very different.

[tufsu1]

I thought this was settled! Didn't they decide to close the damn street?!

First the mobility fee may be dropped, now they may reopen Monore st after all?

actually they decided 3+ years ago the street should be reopened...then reaffirmed that decision at the end of Peyton's term....

Groups such as MetroJacksonville and TransForm Jax are trying to get the decision reversed.

[jcjohnpaint]

I thought this was settled! Didn't they decide to close the damn street?!

First the mobility fee may be dropped, now they may reopen Monore st after all?

This should be the city's slogan:

                           "Jacksonville"
     
                   Pedestrians "NOT" welcome!
  or "Jacksonville - Keep Driving"


We can put this on every single sign on the highways to be seen as you enter the city.

[TheProfessor]

I sent an email

[thelakelander]

I thought this was settled! Didn't they decide to close the damn street?!

First the mobility fee may be dropped, now they may reopen Monore st after all?

actually they decided 3+ years ago the street should be reopened...then reaffirmed that decision at the end of Peyton's term....

Groups such as MetroJacksonville and TransForm Jax are trying to get the decision reversed.

If Rover gets ran over by a car and dies, you can't replace him with Spot and assume that Spot is the real Rover.  I'm sorry, but Rover has gone to a better place.

I tend to view this "reopening" street thing as a bad use of semantics.  Reopening implies that the street still exists and that there is minimum expense involved with allowing cars to use it again. 

In reality the street permanently closed when many of the council members crying for reopening, voted to allow a building put slap smack on top of it.  Thus, we're not reopening a street.  We're forcing a new $800k street into a space that isn't suitable for one, either out of spite for the previous administration or for the sake of keeping a "promise" that was violated in 2008 by the approval of the horrible building design sitting on top of the real Monroe Street.

[thelakelander]

Jason Voorhees didn't have it this bad.  Instead of dying and being buried six feet under, we added eight stories of Gate Concrete on top of Mr. Monroe Street's final resting place.  It will take more than a bolt of lighting to bring the real Monroe Street back.

[Ralph W]

Over a period of time the Council members have become used to the term and the reality of "Pocket Parks". A little piece of unusable grass in the middle of crosshatched concrete, maybe sheltered with a few sticks called trees.

Since this was all the rage not so long ago they must be calling upon their institutional memories and not going face to face with reality. Many of this group took a walking tour not so long ago, looked at some nice drawings and went home to forget the experience.

I recommend another walking tour, this time not at the courthouse but along and across a busy divided highway with each of them required to make a couple of mad dashes across all lanes during rush hour traffic. Monroe Street closed, with a peaceful pedestrian mall, will look good after that experience.

[JeffreyS]

+1