A sense of place: The human experience is vital for Downtown's success

You can find your way to Downtown by looking for our striking skyline of tall, grand buildings, even from miles away over the St. Johns or from the interstate. But once you’re there, on the ground, about all you see are the bottoms of those tall, grand buildings and their parking lots. What people are there hustle from car to office and back to car, coming and going on those efficient one-way streets.

It’s not really a concrete jungle, more a concrete mausoleum for the rich urban life that existed there for a century until sprawling suburbs sucked away the people and soulless malls seduced the stores.

The current campaign to revitalize Downtown includes more grand buildings within a master plan and public-private partnerships and the politics of city subsidies and all that, but this time, the builders also need to think about the essential ingredient: people.

After all, the “vital” in revitalization refers to life, having good energy, liveliness or force of personality. So revitalizing Downtown means repeopling it.

Much of that will be residents, as apartments and condos are sprouting or being planned all around Downtown, toward the goal of a critical mass of 10,000 people.

But it also must include people who come Downtown because it’s fun, interesting or comfortable, just to hang out, maybe lingering after their workday before beginning the trudge back out to the suburbs or the beach.

There must be opportunity — and encouragement! — for people to take their kids to play in a riverfront park, watch the boats go by, marvel at the dramatic head-on merger of the Atlantic Ocean and the St. Johns River and hope to see manatees or even dolphins.

Everyone focused on revitalization must understand that what we are after is a Downtown that, rather than just being building-defined, is people-fueled.

Placemaking is a relatively new concept that is the artful blending of physical, social, cultural and artistic forces to create a place, small or large, that is or becomes naturally vital for people.

Without the benefit of new knowledge and thinking, Jacksonville over the years has inadvertently developed or allowed largely lifeless, and even negative, public spaces — but now it faces inspiring opportunities to create vital spaces in a new Downtown.

“Public places are a stage for our public lives,” says the Project for Public Spaces, a non-profit that helps cities create and sustain such spaces to build community.

“They are the parks where celebrations are held, where marathons end, where children learn the skills of a sport, where the seasons are marked and where cultures mix. They are the streets and sidewalks in front of homes and businesses where friends run into each other and where exchanges both social and economic take place.

“They are the ‘front porches’ of our public institutions — city halls, libraries and post offices — where we interact with each other and with government.

“When cities and neighborhoods have thriving public spaces, residents have a strong sense of community; conversely, when they are lacking, they may feel less connected to each other.”

Placemaking can be happenstance or a sort of human engineering that can be used for an entire community or for a piece of a city block. “It’s a spectrum,” said Tony Allegretti, executive director of the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville. “On one end, just throw a chair out, and on the other end, a multi-faceted experience cluster of retail, outdoor dining, etc. I’m more grassroots: It’s not about infrastructure at all, just something that gets the community together.”

Jake Gordon, CEO of Downtown Vision, offers a more structural definition: “To me, placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces. It capitalizes on a local community’s assets, inspiration and potential, with the intention of creating public spaces that promote people’s health, happiness and well-being.”

When 140 Jacksonville leaders went on a fact-finding trip to Toronto in November, they heard Rob Spanier, a partner in an international real estate firm called LiveWorkLearnPlay, talk about creating “iconic and thriving” mixed-use neighborhoods where “people love visiting and wish they could live that life,” college and resort towns, for example.

Spanier’s work, some of it for Tallahassee, focuses on placemaking for entire communities, built around strategizing to attract people and engage community. One approach is to actually compete with malls through innovations like “interactive retail,” pop-up shops and adventure experiences, “things to do, not just buy things.”

“It’s happening everywhere,” he said, and “Jacksonville is perfect.”

The Metropolitan Planning Council of Chicago issued a report saying that placemaking “almost always pays economic dividends back to the community” — attracting corporate relocations, supporting local stores and restaurants by building foot traffic, lifting nearby property values, encouraging tourism and ultimately generating tax income greater than the original investment.

In its work with more than 1,000 public spaces, the Project for Public Spaces has identified four key qualities of successful spaces. They provide a useful way to understand Jacksonville’s past missteps and current opportunities:

ACCESS. People have to easily get to the space and around it, ideally via walking.

USES AND ACTIVITIES. This means ongoing and unique things to do and buy, with a homegrown quality.

COMFORT AND IMAGE. The community knows the space is safe, clean and “sittable.”

SOCIABILITY. People expect to meet their friends and neighbors there — and feel comfortable interacting with strangers.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

Jacksonville’s placemaking stumbles over the years have transgressed one or more of those qualities.

When voters approved the $2.25 billion Better Jacksonville Plan in 2000, it was to build a number of major public buildings such as the main library, the Veterans Memorial Arena and the Courthouse specifically for their obvious functions — but without consideration of how they could become community spaces. Only the library’s facilities have drawn a community — and many people go there largely for free use of restrooms and internet access.

“If you look at the Courthouse,” Gordon of Downtown Vision said, “no matter how great that building is inside, the outside is not interacting with the neighborhood around it. There’s that giant lawn that is not used at all — I always try to walk on it.”

Consider the entire Sports Complex: The Arena, EverBank Field and the Baseball Grounds were conceived individually, to serve the obvious functions of containing large crowds for specific performances, without regard to the potential communities of interest and activity that could develop around and among them.

Unity Plaza was an appealing part of the 220 Riverside apartment development in Brooklyn, with some planned activities and a good image. But it is easily accessible only to the adjacent apartment residents, and that has resulted in the failure of two of the three restaurants and a slow start for the Plaza.

On the Southbank behind the Museum of Science and History, Friendship Fountain is beautiful, in a concrete-park setting, so the city’s description says: “Whether you are looking for a peaceful place for a picnic, or just want to watch the river flow by, Friendship Fountain provides the ideal setting for a sunny afternoon or a romantic evening Downtown.” But then it says: “Amenities: no. Pets: no. Parking: no. Security: no.” You ever been there? There are a few picnic tables under trees nearby, but mostly concrete.

Then there’s The Jacksonville Landing, which temporarily provided some energy and excitement to Downtown when it opened 30 years ago as a “festival marketplace,” similar to those in other cities like Baltimore. But it couldn’t revitalize Downtown by itself in an era when city leaders weren’t as committed as they are today. Retailers began disappearing, and despite a full calendar of activities, the Landing fails the other three qualities. It’s the big orange elephant whose future will be determined in court or, if we’re lucky, sooner, over the negotiating table. (See story, page 18)

LEARNING AND DOING

We have shown we can mount powerful events that build temporary communities: Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005 and One Spark are obvious examples.

And we can do it periodically, as shown by the weekly Riverside Arts Market and monthly Art Walk.

What is different now is that our more enlightened Downtown leadership is finding ways to humanize and warm up Downtown continuously and permanently across a range of ways, starting at the size of a parking space.

Aundra Wallace, CEO of the Downtown Investment Authority, said placemaking as part of Downtown revitalization can be conscious and deliberate or just happen. “For us,” he said, “it’s a little bit of both.”

So we’re seeing different types and scales of placemaking.

One is “spin-off,” Wallace said, for example, as gathering spots cluster around the relatively new but established Elbow entertainment district.

A second could be seen as “fill-in.” While the huge anchors of the Sports Complex are unconnected, they are close together, and now Mayor Lenny Curry and Jaguars owner Shad Khan are talking about developing an entertainment district to create synergy among them. While it might not fit a formal or rarefied definition of “placemaking,” it likely would be one heckuva party.

Another type of placemaking might be considered evolutionary. Hemming Park was created in 1857 and has gone through a long and sometimes painful series of identities and functions as the city’s central park. Until the Friends of Hemming Park took it over three years ago, it had become a rundown gathering spot for transients drinking from paper bags and intimidating passersby.

Using city appropriations and private grants, and despite some fits and starts, the Friends have spiffed up the park and hired private security to enforce park rules and made the place safe and comfortable. Take a look at the Friends of Hemming Park Facebook page to see today’s events and food truck menus.

“I think we’ve made tremendous progress,” said Bill Prescott, CEO of Friends. “People who use the park are abiding by the rules and it’s very welcoming to people. It’s a dramatic change.

People who don’t come Downtown very often may find that hard to believe. Jake, when would you invite them to pop in and see for themselves? “Right now,” he said. “I would invite anyone today to come to the park for lunch. We have food trucks every (week)day. I think they’ll have a great time.

“It’s a great feeling seeing the park being used. This is the heart of the city.”

Wayne Wood, historian and a founder of several Downtown projects, including the Friends, said Hemming doesn’t just need people, it needs to create “synergy that brings people together. You need 10 things around the park for people to do — music, performances, buy a hot dog, have a kids area.

“Hemming Park won’t work unless you have 10 other things to do within a five-minute walk.”

Downtown Vision, the non-profit funded by businesses to improve, maintain and promote Downtown, is trying to create such “places” in other, less obvious places through what CEO Gordon calls a “lighter, quicker, cheaper” approach, or LQC as it’s called in placemaking, he said.

One is the idea of a parklet, a small, semi-permanent public park created by blocking off one or more parallel parking spaces. It could have tables and chairs, a bike rack or shade to allow people to relax and people-watch. The first one is on Adams Street in front of the Ed Ball building.

Now, Downtown Vision is developing its LABS Fund, for “lively and beautiful sidewalks,” to make Downtown more walkable and enjoyable by adding a wide variety of amenities, in addition to parklets, such as sidewalk cafes, holiday decorations, pop-up events, shade canopies and landscaping.

“From our standpoint,” Gordon said, “it’s these little interventions we can do Downtown that can make it more inviting. There’s so much it can be.”

Two other approaches for humanizing Downtown are explored elsewhere in this issue of J. One is the idea, or perhaps only realization, that Downtown lacks, and seriously needs, a place for our youngest citizens to enjoy, a children’s park or playground.

Add those nodes together, add playgrounds and that’s placemaking on a grand scale.

As you read or hear about the many projects and ideas proposed for our Downtown revitalization, look at them through your personal placemaking filter: Is that a place where I, and my family, might hang out, just for fun?

Peter Rummell, the developer and Downtown advocate, interprets placemaking intuitively.“You know how you walk into some people’s living rooms, and you just want to sink into a chair and nurse your glass of wine? It just feels good. You don’t know why, but there is a warmth and comfort that is all too rare.

“You go to other people’s houses, richer or poorer, and you can’t wait to move on. That’s my definition of placemaking ... as much art as science.

“Buildings a certain height or color or finish or design might help, but it’s the mix of all of it that creates that feel. When you like a place and don’t know why, somebody succeeded!”

Since Rummell, with Michael Munz, is developing The District, the former Southbank “Healthy Town,” how does he propose to create a “place” there?

The District defines itself as “an entirely new approach in community living. It is a place where people can get the most out of life, mind, body and soul. Here, residents will have everything they need to live the most healthful of lives — and to feel truly alive. Healthier lives are, indeed, happier lives. And The District is designed from the ground up to provide every essential element for promoting fitness and for living the healthiest of lives.”

Most of the riverfront is devoted to a park (with beach volleyball, bocce and outdoor billiards), and it’s integrated with first-floor retail and food and drink. “The marina is as much for placemaking as it is for boats,” Rummell said.

“We put a bunch of these things together on a scale that makes sense, so there’s a ‘there’ there.”

The Times-Union said in an editorial: “It’s going to be focused on the St. Johns River, not as a backdrop, but as an invitation to the public to come on down.”

This concept of placemaking offers the citizen a different way of evaluating the plethora of projects, public and private, that are being proposed or built as part of the revitalization of Downtown.

Now, some people react to anything with the first questions being: Who’s paying for it? Is it tax money? Who’s making money off it?

A more constructive question might be: What will this do to make our Downtown a real place?

FRANK DENTON, editor of The Florida Times-Union from 2008-2016, is editor of J. He lives in Riverside.

11 PRINCIPLES OF PLACEMAKING

TRANSFORMING PUBLIC SPACES INTO COMMUNITY PLACES

1. THE COMMUNITY IS THE EXPERT

People who use a public space regularly provide the most valuable perspective and insights into how the area functions.

2. YOU ARE CREATING A PLACE, NOT A DESIGN

Providing access and creating active uses, economic opportunities, and programming are often more important than design.

3. YOU CAN’T DO IT ALONE

A good public space requires partners who contribute innovative ideas, financial or political support and help plan activities.

4. THEY’LL ALWAYS SAY, “IT CAN’T BE DONE”

When an idea stretches beyond the reach of an organization and an official says, “It can’t be done,” it usually means: “We’ve never done things that way before.”

5. YOU CAN SEE A LOT JUST BY OBSERVING

People will often go to extraordinary lengths to adapt a place to suit their needs. Observing a space allows you to learn how the space is used.

6. DEVELOP A VISION

A vision for a public space addresses its character, activities, uses and meaning in the community. It should be defined by the people who live or work in or near the space.

7. FORM SUPPORTS FUNCTION

Too often, people think about how they will use a space only after it is built. Keeping in mind active uses when designing or rehabilitating a space can lower costs.

8. TRIANGULATE

The concept of triangulation relates to locating elements next to each other in a way that fosters activity.

9. START WITH THE PETUNIAS

Simple, short-term actions such as planting flowers can be a way of testing ideas and encouraging people their ideas matter.

10. MONEY IS NOT THE ISSUE

Funds for pure public space improvements often are scarce, so it is important to remember the value of the public space itself to potential partners and search for creative solutions.

11. YOU ARE NEVER FINISHED

Because the use of good places changes daily, weekly and seasonally, about 80 percent of the success of any public space can be attributed to its management.

SOURCE: Project for Public Spaces