Superintendent willing to consider school board building move
Envisioning the stretch of riverfront from the Main Street Bridge to the new The District – Life Well Lived – Jacksonville site is similar to playing the childhood game, “One of These Things is Not Like the Other.” Dotting the landscape are high-rise apartment and condominium buildings, hotels and restaurants, with more to follow once […]
Southbank to explode with new growth in 2016
Redeveloping the Southbank is all about “placemaking,” Downtown Investment Authority CEO Aundra Wallace likes to say. With several new developments on the cusp of becoming reality, major stakeholders from the residential, medical and central business districts met in late November to have a “conversation” in order to begin “pulling the pieces together” as several key […]
JTA Board votes to keep Skyway
The Jacksonville Skyway, a monorail transit system managed by the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, will live to see another day and possibly be expanded. During its Dec. 10 meeting, the JTA Board of Directors voted unanimously to accept the Skyway subcommittee’s recommendation to continue operating the downtown connector while having staff develop a Skyway Modernization Program, […]
North Florida Land Trust makes biggest purchase in nonprofit’s history
Another agreement awaits raising of funds The North Florida Land Trust ended 2015 on a high note with the purchase of its largest land acquisition in its 16-year history. Located in Riverside, the conservation nonprofit closed on 2,551 acres along the Nassau River in late December. This was the largest piece of unprotected land in […]
TPO moves to new state-of-the-art center
It was with great fanfare Nov. 12 that the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization officially opened the doors of its new Regional Transportation Management Center (RTMC) at 980 N. Jefferson St. The North Florida TPO, which formerly had its headquarters on the Southbank in a JTA-owned building on Prudential Drive, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for […]
Trained for terrorism, K9 dogs “married” to trainers
For dogs trained to help combat terrorist attacks, the bond with their trainers is similar to a marriage, said TSA K9 trainer Donald “Bubba” Deason. “When you are working with a dog you are working with an individual that can’t communicate with you. They know only what you teach them,” said Deason. “Your dog reads […]
Remnants of Oriental Gardens removed
Former tourist attraction filled in for development Oriental Gardens Road, just off San Jose Boulevard in San Marco, was once home to Jacksonville’s darling of botanical bliss – its namesake, Oriental Gardens. In operation from 1937 until the land was sold in 1954 and platted for 33 new homes, all that remained until recently were […]
City’s tree canopy exists today thanks to charter amendment
New tree planting initiative unveiled The gathering early on the morning of Nov. 4 at The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens included a Who’s Who of arboreal preservation. Celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Tree Charter Amendment, Scenic Jacksonville Inc. and Greenscape of Jacksonville, Inc. threw a party and also launched a year-long tree-planting […]
Young men’s social club built future leaders
Hi-Y reunion planned Mack Crenshaw remembers that his Hi-Y club at Robert E. Lee High School met at 7:30 on Monday evenings, that Jimmy Terrell kept humorous minutes, and that he often dashed from basketball practice to make it on time. Jack Milne remembers that those meetings ended with a friendship circle, devotional and the […]
