The old-time
postcards of Jacksonville's Springfield neighborhood show
streetcar tracks running between two rows of palm trees in the
center of Main Street.
The streetcar isn't coming back.
The trees are.
The city has begun a facelift for Main Street where it runs
through Springfield, a historic part of the city that was
the place to live when it was built after the Great
Fire of 1901. The work will turn Main Street into a landscaped
boulevard from First to 12th streets with large shade trees,
historic-style light fixtures and decorative brick in the
sidewalks.
The first phase will cost $4.8 million, which includes
underground utility work by JEA. It will go from First to
Fourth streets. The second phase, from Fourth to 12th streets,
doesn't yet have a cost but will begin in summer.
It's the latest in a series of multimillion-dollar projects
dressing up the major streets that feed into downtown. The
attention to detail comes at a higher cost. For instance, the
purchase and installation of historic-style lights costs
$5,500 a pole, compared to $2,000 for a regular aluminum
lightpole.
City officials say the expense is worth it because it fits
in with City Hall's goal of promoting downtown development and
reviving neighborhoods around downtown.
"You want to bring an area back that's been neglected for a
period of time, and it's something you've got to chip away
at," Public Works Department Director Lynn Westbrook said.
 |
Above:
Petticoat Contracting Inc. workers dig up Main
Street's median north of Second Street.
- Photo by Isaac
Brown/special
|
Springfield, just north of
downtown, has attracted homebuyers who have opted out of the
usual suburban development and returned to restore decades-old
homes with big front porches. Main Street runs down the center
of Springfield's historic district, so the street affects how
people perceive the neighborhood, said John Wells, a
contractor who does home construction in Springfield.
He said Main Street "just looks blighted and abandoned
right now," but if the Main Street makeover attracts new
stores, Springfield can attract people who don't want to get
in their car for every shopping trip.
"Disney created Main Street USA," he said. "I'd just call
it Jacksonville's Main Street USA."
Three other projects will make similar changes to major
roads that form spokes for downtown's hub.
The Better Jacksonville Plan, which voters approved in 2000
with a half-cent hike in the sales tax, contains $6.5 million
to enhance the streetscape of State and Union streets. By late
2004, a 15-block segment of those streets will have new
sidewalks with brick borders and planting areas for trees,
plus historic-style lighting.
| |
Left: A
1904 postcard of Main Street shows a streetcar track
flanked by trees. The trees will return.
-- Special
|
The Better Jacksonville
Plan also contains $3 million for a 1.5-mile section of
Hendricks Avenue in San Marco where improvements will include
the burial of above-ground utility lines. That work is slated
to start in early 2004 and finish in early 2005, just before
Jacksonville plays host for the Super Bowl.
The state Department of Transportation will make a similar
transformation on a half-mile segment of Riverside Avenue
through the Brooklyn neighborhood. The $9.9 million project
will widen Riverside Avenue to six lanes from the Acosta
Bridge ramps to Forest Street and widen Forest Street to six
lanes up to Park Street. The state will install historic-style
lighting and build decorative sidewalks as part of the
project.
Work on Riverside Avenue could start in March and "the hope
is that by the Super Bowl," the work will be done, said Karen
Consiglio, the state DOT's project manager.
Landscaping won't come until after the Super Bowl, though.
The state has a $710,000 landscaping budget for Riverside
Avenue and Forest Street, including towering palm trees.
Staff writer David Bauerlein can be reached at (904)
359-4581 or via e-mail at dbauerleinjacksonville.com.
