J Magazine Winter 2019
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A few bright spots:<br />
• Forsyth Street in front of the 11 E. Forsyth<br />
St. is well lit.<br />
• Some areas of Bay Street are well lit, but<br />
not the block near Jefferson Street.<br />
• The sidewalk in front of Farah & Farah<br />
on Forsyth Street has lights attached to the<br />
side of the building, which avoids the tree<br />
canopy problem. In addition, decorative<br />
lights in the trees creates a lived-in effect.<br />
Readers sound off<br />
I asked members of the Times-Union’s<br />
Email Group for their evaluations of lighting<br />
Downtown.<br />
Businessman Robert Frary wrote that he<br />
often runs Downtown before sunrise, watching<br />
the city transition from dark to dawn to<br />
daylight.<br />
Before daylight he sticks to the riverwalks,<br />
then Water, Bay, Forsyth, Broad and<br />
Liberty streets. He avoids the Hemming Park<br />
area. With poor lighting, it didn’t seem “a<br />
happy place,” he wrote.<br />
By the way, he almost never sees a police<br />
cruiser on his sunrise runs.<br />
He said the new grassy area along the<br />
riverfront on Bay Street, where the old city<br />
hall and courthouse used to be, is dimly lit.<br />
If this is going to be an Innovation Corridor,<br />
the city can start by turning on the lights.<br />
Fern Malowitz wrote that if Downtown<br />
is a real neighborhood, then lighting is vital.<br />
“If we have adequate street lighting we<br />
might feel more confident to stroll around<br />
our neighborhood. I am often up quite<br />
early in the mornings. I’d rather walk in my<br />
neighborhood than drive to the gym, but if I<br />
cannot see the road why take the risk?”<br />
Bonnie Hayflick wrote that there can’t be<br />
too much lighting Downtown. The sidewalk<br />
along Bay Street near Maxwell House is<br />
uncomfortably dark, she wrote.<br />
Solutions<br />
The city and JEA have been replacing old<br />
lights with new LED versions and adding<br />
new lights. A JEA spokeswoman said the<br />
new lights will last longer and are brighter,<br />
but you will be hard-pressed to see the<br />
difference.<br />
In early 2016, JEA began converting all<br />
existing streetlights Downtown to LEDs. At<br />
last count in September, 8,584 streetlights<br />
had been converted, and there are 2,009 left.<br />
This project should be completed by April,<br />
2020.<br />
Also, 176 new streetlights have been installed<br />
(169 decorative acorn lights and seven<br />
cobra head lights). There are 22 locations<br />
remaining. This project should be complete<br />
by the end of this calendar year.<br />
Downtown Vision has a major lighting<br />
project along Laura Street for the holidays<br />
that will continue year-round. Trees are lit<br />
with lights that both illuminate and decorate,<br />
said Jake Gordon, CEO of Downtown<br />
Vision. That project will cost more than<br />
$90,000 annually.<br />
Retail nodes Downtown — Laura-Hogan<br />
and the Elbow — need to be well lit all the<br />
way to major parking areas.<br />
Lighting design needs to be improved.<br />
Teardrop lights that focus downward do a<br />
better job for walkers and bicyclists.<br />
Where there are trees, lights need to be<br />
placed low enough that the limbs don’t<br />
block them.<br />
Lights placed along the sides of buildings<br />
or even near the pavement are ideal.<br />
It’s really just common sense. You don’t<br />
need to be a lighting engineer to tell if it’s<br />
dark or not.<br />
Until Downtown has good lighting, it will<br />
continue to feel unsafe.<br />
MIKE CLARK is Editorial Page Editor of<br />
The Florida Times-Union and Editor of J. He has<br />
been a reporter and editor for the Jacksonville<br />
newspapers since 1973. He lives in Nocatee.<br />
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J MAGAZINE | WINTER <strong>2019</strong><br />
JV-0003234869-01