J Magazine Winter 2019
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most got run down by a careless motorist<br />
after attending a concert one night. I think<br />
of other cities I’ve visited that have taken the<br />
lesson, both here and abroad: Oklahoma<br />
City, Durham N.C., Charlottesville Va., Copenhagen,<br />
and Glasgow are all nice examples,<br />
most of which had to create features<br />
already present in Jacksonville.<br />
“In particular, Jacksonville is blessed<br />
with a natural pathway from Hemming Park<br />
down to the Landing area, Laura Street. It<br />
already has a few attractive night spots, and<br />
even a people mover to bring people in<br />
from parking at the terminus between State<br />
and Union streets. So why not take the next<br />
step? Make Laura Street a pedestrian mall,<br />
use some of the tax incentives the city keeps<br />
throwing around to attract appropriate business<br />
for a walking street, add landscaping<br />
leading to a waterfront park with a bandstand,<br />
etc. It doesn’t take that much imagination<br />
to see it working.<br />
Linda Willson of the Southside imagines<br />
a more walkable Downtown. “I would very<br />
much like to walk around the Downtown<br />
area and find a bench under a wide spreading<br />
tree where I could rest for a while in the<br />
shade and buy something frosty at a food<br />
truck only a few steps away. I would then<br />
continue my stroll visiting art galleries, specialty<br />
bookstores, garden shops and a boutique<br />
selling Bohemian clothes.<br />
“Finding an upscale cafe, I would stop for<br />
lunch and order something I had never eaten<br />
before while sitting at a small table outdoors<br />
under a group of trees decorated with<br />
fairy lights that will turn on at dusk.<br />
“Having finished my delicious lunch, I<br />
find the nearby Emerald Trail and walk at<br />
least a mile on paths twisting through thick<br />
foliage and pots filled with blooming flowers.<br />
When at last I tire, I leave the Emerald<br />
Trail and flag the free trolley which drops me<br />
off at my waiting car.<br />
“A delicious day well spent.”<br />
POND consultants of Jacksonville<br />
brought several other consulting firms to develop<br />
the road diet plans for Brooklyn. It will<br />
dramatically change that booming area into<br />
something more like Riverside-Avondale.<br />
Renderings of the Riverplace Boulevard “road diet”<br />
show wider sidewalks for pedestrians making the<br />
area more suitable for boutiques and cafes.<br />
“Brooklyn is a dynamic neighborhood<br />
with several different incarnations through<br />
its history,” the consultants said. “Brooklyn<br />
has a chance to be a self-contained neighborhood<br />
where people can live, work and<br />
play without traveling long distances.”<br />
That means people will actually be able<br />
to walk from home to work and play in this<br />
Downtown neighborhood.<br />
“Currently, many of Brooklyn’s primary<br />
thoroughfares are designed for high-volume<br />
traffic that encourages traffic at high speeds<br />
through the neighborhood,” the consultants<br />
said.<br />
Park Street should be designed for cars<br />
traveling 25 mph, and speed limits for Forest<br />
and Riverside streets should be 35 mph.<br />
That’s a joke now as drivers prepare to enter<br />
the Acosta Bridge at high speeds.<br />
Reducing Riverside Avenue from six<br />
lanes to four lanes and Park Street from four<br />
GAI CONSULTANTS<br />
52<br />
J MAGAZINE | WINTER <strong>2019</strong>
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