National study claims Jacksonville's parks need help

[Metro Jacksonville]

National study claims Jacksonville's parks need help



According to the Trust for Public Land, the City of Jacksonville needs significant improvement in providing park access to its residents. Here's a look at the Trust for Public Land's annual ParkScore ranking of the park systems in America's 50 largest cities.


Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-jun-national-study-claims-jacksonvilles-parks-need-help

[InnerCityPressure]

When I first visited Jacksonville, I made trips to Riverside/Memorial Park, Met Park (with Kids Kampus), and Hanna Park.  I was impressed.  When I considered a move here, I saw the size of the park system and assumed that there would be lots of quality parks.  Then, I moved here...

[vicupstate]

If they had looked at the CONDITION of the parks, Jax probably would have scored even lower.

 

[acme54321]

The best part is that the parks department has convinced themselves that our parks are awesome.

[mbwright]

not surprised.

[Tacachale]

While this looks good for identifying particular areas that need work, consolidation appears to affect our ranking on the overall "park score". The suburban areas appear to be in the highest need, but those areas aren't counted for other cities. The urban core is obviously much better off in this regard than the burbs. Not particularly helpful.

[simms3]

^^^Are we really going to blame this one on consolidation, too?  Jacksonville's park system is attrocious.  There really is not one truly high quality park that is impeccably maintained or generally useful and the Riverwalk is an example of a park that is maintained, but never built to world class standard.  In fact, the park system in NE FL, and probably most FL cities overall, is embarassing to the point where the city's P&R Dept should just never speak (should certainly not TOUT the system!).

Most of those tiny green squares and circles in urban Jax are still pieces of land with unmowed grass, tagged walls, unkempt pathways, no landscaping, rotting benches, etc.  It's PATHETIC.

And this is not even to mention the fact that there is very limited public waterfront access.  Most of Jax parkland is "land" (mitigation?) where nobody lives or goes.  LoL.

See my epic post on how rich people aren't towing the line in Jax in the other parks thread started by Jfman00.

[thelakelander]

I think this is great for identifying areas where more green space is needed. I also agree with Simms that our park system blows.

[JFman00]

I'm so curious if the privatization of the waterfront, as simms3 so eloquently described in the other thread could feasibly be reversed.

[Tacachale]

^^^Are we really going to blame this one on consolidation, too?  Jacksonville's park system is attrocious.  There really is not one truly high quality park that is impeccably maintained or generally useful and the Riverwalk is an example of a park that is maintained, but never built to world class standard.  In fact, the park system in NE FL, and probably most FL cities overall, is embarassing to the point where the city's P&R Dept should just never speak (should certainly not TOUT the system!).

Most of those tiny green squares and circles in urban Jax are still pieces of land with unmowed grass, tagged walls, unkempt pathways, no landscaping, rotting benches, etc.  It's PATHETIC.

And this is not even to mention the fact that there is very limited public waterfront access.  Most of Jax parkland is "land" (mitigation?) where nobody lives or goes.  LoL.

See my epic post on how rich people aren't towing the line in Jax in the other parks thread started by Jfman00.

I'm not "blaming" anything on anything. However, we're being judged by hundreds of square miles of suburban and rural area that isn't included for other cities. Lo and behold, many of the other consolidated and/or large land areas cities are toward the bottom. I wonder if the suburbs of cities with higher scores really hold up.

[CityLife]

I've been fortunate enough to travel quite a bit (I know Simms and Lakelander have as well) and I always make a point to visit each cities key parks and peak my head into small neighborhood parks. I too confirm that our cities park system is atrocious. Though I think there is probably a correlation between a cities density and quality of parks. Everyone in Jacksonville has their own greenspace, which is not the case in most European cities or the most dense North American cities. That said even in our more dense neighborhoods the parks are substandard. Memorial Park and Klutho Park would be immaculate in virtually every other city around. Heck you don't even have to look very far or very big. Look at Forsyth Park in Savannah or Capital Cascades Park (getting built) in Tallahassee.

Question is can Jacksonville even afford to make the necessary capital improvements to bring us up to par?

[Tacachale]

I'm so curious if the privatization of the waterfront, as simms3 so eloquently described in the other thread could feasibly be reversed.

Sure, if the city wanted to buy up a lot of very expensive land. It's hard enough to get it done out in the boonies, and you get a lot more acreage out there.

Question is can Jacksonville even afford to make the necessary capital improvements to bring us up to par?

It's not a matter of "can", it's a matter of "will". We "can" do almost anything, but it's unlikely it will when our leaders won't deal with our budget issues in a meaningful way.

[simms3]

^^True, and also to CityLife's point, people in Jax have their own land and probably don't care as much about public land (though if you ask me it would seem most people don't care so much about their own private land either!).  Though frankly, people in Atlanta also have land, maybe not typically as much (though the rich in Atl have far more land than the rich in Jax), but yards nonetheless, and that's a city with lots of truly great parks and high public and private spending on public land.

I think it partly comes down to attitudes.  Folks in Jax are more "family oriented" and insular than folks in other cities, it would seem.  While folks in many cities may have their own yards, as well, there is a greater propensity to want to share public space (and of course you want the space you use and share with others on a regular basis to be clean, safe and well maintained).

I think this is also evident in Jacksonville's nightlife.  Only recently have bars begun to sprout up around the city, but Jax to me still seems like a "house party" kind of city.

Politics, too.  Liberal people don't mind just throwing it up to the public pot of money, whereas more conservative people want to keep everything and "decide" what to spend their money on regarding public utilities/amenities/services (which as we can all see usually ends up being very little).  I think there's a corellation between liberal cities and spending on things such as parks, social services, etc as well as concentration of bars and propensity to live densely/non-privately and play publicly (fewer families as a result), and then Jax and other consolidated/sunbelt cities would be the exact opposite (and thus attract more families).

[CityLife]

Interesting points Simms... I also think our lack of a quality parks system may have something to do with our natural outdoor settings, along with our auto centric population. People are used to driving everywhere in Jax, so for many its not an issue to drive to the beach or larger parks/preserves. We have miles and miles of beach, the St. Johns, Hanna Park, Huguenot Park, Little and Big Talbot Island, Guana River Preserve, The Arboreteum, Dutton Island Preserve, Baldwin Trail and so on. Some of those places are truly great places to get away to. If we were in a community without so many natural assets and recreational opportunities, I think there would be a lot more political will and outcry to make the necessary capital investments.

[thelakelander]

^^^Are we really going to blame this one on consolidation, too?  Jacksonville's park system is attrocious.  There really is not one truly high quality park that is impeccably maintained or generally useful and the Riverwalk is an example of a park that is maintained, but never built to world class standard.  In fact, the park system in NE FL, and probably most FL cities overall, is embarassing to the point where the city's P&R Dept should just never speak (should certainly not TOUT the system!).

Most of those tiny green squares and circles in urban Jax are still pieces of land with unmowed grass, tagged walls, unkempt pathways, no landscaping, rotting benches, etc.  It's PATHETIC.

And this is not even to mention the fact that there is very limited public waterfront access.  Most of Jax parkland is "land" (mitigation?) where nobody lives or goes.  LoL.

See my epic post on how rich people aren't towing the line in Jax in the other parks thread started by Jfman00.

I'm not "blaming" anything on anything. However, we're being judged by hundreds of square miles of suburban and rural area that isn't included for other cities. Lo and behold, many of the other consolidated and/or large land areas cities are toward the bottom. I wonder if the suburbs of cities with higher scores really hold up.

Here is the ParkScore map with the original 30 square mile city limits overlayed on it.



The preconsolidated city, or urban core, seems to already have decent park coverage.  Now, the maintenance of these spaces is a completely different story.  Areas that lack enough park space appear to be Riverside's Stockton Street corridor, Newtown, College Park, Moncrief and Spring Park. Some of these areas appear to be the result of highways that have cut neighborhoods off from adjacent parks.