c'mon for a ride around...jacksonville  :mrgreen:

 

 

 

 

arrive

 

 

eat

 

 

 

 

go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

got courthouse?  :-D

 

 

 

 

derp :roll:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

jta skyway

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JTA_Skyway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*** whew! thats jacksonville on a 100+ degree day  :wink2: ***

 

Thanks for the photos.... I lived in Jax for a few years while growing up, and I'll likely be heading back down there next summer for my 20-year high school reunion. Overall it's a pretty bland city, but I have a lot of good memories from there.

who came up with that courthouse? The Consortium of the World's Worst Architects?? The vintage Greyhound sign is nice though.

So, did you hit up Beach Road Chicken?  Nom noms.

That suburban skywalk in that last photo is a doozy!

So, did you hit up Beach Road Chicken?  Nom noms.

 

no we went straight to 13 gypsies:

 

http://www.13gypsies.com/menu.htm

 

^ i saw it on guy fieri's show & a friend rec'd it -

 

two words: roman gnocchi!

 

 

 

 

I had an aunt who lived there.  She could never quite understand why I wasn't impressed with J-ville whenever visited.  Cincinnati has more character in just a few square blocks than all of the nations largest city by land area.

^ weather, water, boats, beach and weather.

 

that can be the only explanation. maybe better taxes?

 

certainly not urban visuals. although it seems they had a historic center, but tore most of it out.

 

Jacksonville actually had a decent architectural pedigree at one point. The entire city -- such as it was at that time -- burned to the ground in 1901, paving the way for innovative new skyscrapers to be built that were similar in character to those being built in Chicago around the same time, which had suffered its own devastating fire a generation earlier. As such, there was once a decent collection of Prairie School buildings in downtown Jacksonville, possibly the best collection outside of Chicago itself. Most had been demolished by the 1980's, but a few gems remain.

 

Unfortunately, the post-war years were not kind to downtown Jacksonville. One big factor was the consolidation between the city and Duvall County, which made Jacksonville the largest American city in terms of land area (it is truly immense, albeit mostly rural), and eliminated any incentive for the city to compete against the "suburbs", since the vast majority of suburban-style development was happening within the city limits anyway. In terms of its tax base, City Hall didn't really care if taxes were coming from downtown or elsewhere, because it was all inside the city.

 

Jacksonville also suffers from having an extremely transient population, as many people who end up in Jacksonville are there because of the military, and are likely to be sent elsewhere on their next tour of duty. As such, there's relatively little in the way of a native-born population that is heavily invested in the city's future. One could argue that Jacksonville -- in terms of its city-county consolidation and highly transient population -- is the polar opposite of a city like Cincinnati.

 

In the 80's and 90's, most of the attention was focused on the waterfront, with the opening of the Riverwalk on the south bank and the Jacksonville Landing festival marketplace on the north bank, and a number of glassy office towers. The older downtown core, situated a couple blocks north of the river, became a cesspool. Fortunately, I understand it has been rediscovered in recent years, and what's left of the city's historic fabric is being preserved and redeveloped. There are also a small handful of residential neighborhoods close to downtown that have their own attractive business districts and historic architecture. They're hard to find amidst the endless sprawl, but Jacksonville isn't without a few interesting bits.

 

Trivia fact: the downtown monorail system was originally a people mover system that used different technology and rolling stock. But you can still ride Jacksonville's old people mover trains at O'Hare Airport in Chicago today.

Ugh...Florida is lucky to have those beaches! From an urban perspective, it's pretty dismal for the most part.

I lived here as well and it is easily one of the worst large cities in America.  You definitely captured the highlights...there are a couple more neighborhoods that are pretty cool though around downtown.

 

That suburban skywalk in that last photo is a doozy!

 

...the top floor betw two high rises! 

 

@@@@

 

As such, there was once a decent collection of Prairie School buildings in downtown Jacksonville, possibly the best collection outside of Chicago itself.

 

I remember reading a book on this years ago (pretty good book, well-illustrated).  I think they were designe by either the same architect or a small group of architects.

 

Jacksonville seems to have more there there than one would expect....actually some of the downtown street shots are not too bad...the modern stuff could be out in some suburban edge city, though.  One wonders about the older neighborhoods.....

 

 

 

Wasn't Jax the largest city in Florida until the rise of Miami & Tampa?

Minor nit, I think Juneau, AK is the nation's largest city by land area.

^ Looks like we're both wrong. The town of Sitka, Alaska (pop. 10,323) is now the largest American city in terms of land area, with 2870 square miles (!). Juneau is #2 at 2702 square miles. Jacksonville has dropped to #5 at 747 square miles, but still has the most land area of any American city outside of Alaska, and the largest land area for any American city with more than 500,000 people.

And OKC is the largest city that is not a consolidated City/County government

uo for the win! thx for all the background ginman n everyone. you can definately see ghosts of jacksonville's former old bones downtown. yes indeed they are reviving any and all of the old stock that is left, but overall downtown is pretty dead and dismal. however, optimistically speaking it looks well suited to handle another boom at any point in the future, i'll give it that.

 

as to that ridiculously massive courthouse, didn't uo once rip that to shreads on an old thread? maybe it was on ssp? cant remember, but i know when it was built it got the commentary it deserved on one of these forums. ha.