JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The city of Jacksonville gave a presentation Wednesday for updates on dozens of public projects throughout every neighborhood downtown.
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Those projects ranged from improving parks, expanding the Riverwalk, and converting one-way streets into two-way streets.
Click here to see the presentation of all the projects
Laurie Boyer, CEO of the Downtown Investment Authority said she wants to see downtown thrive.
“I want it to be thriving both from a vibrant place for people to enjoy recreation to come to dine for people who live here, to provide enough housing that there’s real opportunities for people to live in downtown, but I also want it to be successful commercially,” Boyer said.
Laura Phillips Edgecombe, Principal of downtown public spaces for the Jesse Ball DuPont Fund said even with a few setbacks, she’s confident in the future of downtown.
“We do believe that what we’re planning now is coming to fruition, there’s so much momentum in downtown. There’s someone I talk to regularly and he says you get that boulder to the top of the hill and once it goes down you cannot stop it, that is what is going on,” Edgecombe said.
City leaders point to the recent reopening of Friendship Fountain as a way to bring people downtown, and even outside of showtimes you can see there are plenty of people visiting the recently renovated fountain.
“There are moms and dads bringing their young children, that’s helping us shape how we’re going to continue growing that space,” Edgecombe said. “We know we need restrooms, restrooms are coming, we need water fountains, shade, basic infrastructure to make these places enjoyable.”
Antoine Mickle and Tamara Pulliam visited Friendship Fountain following a date night on Wednesday. Pulliam said she’d like to have the option to enjoy downtown without always needing a car to get around.
“Anything to do with being outdoors, being able to explore that but also having shops around, being outdoors, walkable areas like access to shops but also walkable exercise areas,” Pulliam said.
Mickle said he likes that efforts are being made to make the city multi-dimensional.
“They’re trying to open the city up and make it multi-dimensional for everybody and I think that’s awesome,” Mickle said.
During the meeting, Mayor Donna Deegan said there’s a sense of urgency to get projects done downtown.
“We want this to be the heartbeat of our city but we also see that it can be a way that we can invest in the rest of our city which is also very important,” Deegan said.
Deegan also said the ‘Stadium of the Future’ negotiations are moving along at the pace the city wants and she hopes to have something to give to council by Spring.