J Magazine Spring 2018

One of the few places in Downtown where you can enjoy a lush tree canopy — one with towering oak trees providing lots of shade — is in Hemming Park.
said. “It has a lot to do with rhythm and
spacing.”
When trees are in parks, they become a
place of the senses. Think of Central Park in
New York, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco
and Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
But parks don’t have to be big or conventional.
Consider Boston’s Post Office
Square in the financial district. It’s 1.7 acres
of green space on top of an underground
parking garage. The park’s motto: “Park
above, park below.”
Parks work best when they have an
identity, said Erik Aulestia of urban planners
Torti Gallas that developed the Cathedral
District master plan. And, parks can
take on all kinds of identities:
• Playgrounds for children, adults and
dogs
• Activities like ping pong, chess or basketball
• Gardens for native plants, butterflies,
cactus or roses
• Public art and street musicians
• Water features like a splash fountain, a
water wall or a sailboat pond.
Those are the kinds of parks that people
“go to” and where they linger.
The parks of Downtown
Downtown Jacksonville doesn’t really
have any go-to parks.
Hemming Park: The city’s oldest
park long ago was the village green. It was
bricked over in the 1970s when the trees
were removed after an invasion of starlings.
About half the plaza is shaded by
laurel oaks. People use the park — notably
for the monthly Art Walk — but no one
seems very happy with it, except, perhaps
the street people who spend the day there.
Bill Prescott, president of the Friends of
Hemming Park, said they are working to
enhance the greenery in the park, though
it is difficult with the hardscape. Artificial
turf was installed in the Kids’ Zone. And
uplighting has recently been added.
The focus now is making the park “clean
and safe,” that’s code for dealing with the
street people. Downtown Vision is leading
the “clean and safe” campaign with
a corps of orange-shirted ambassadors,
who are tasked with picking up trash,
identifying problems, such as things in
need of repair or suspicious behavior,
and being a friendly, welcoming presence
in Downtown. The new city budget expands
the ambassador corps and adds a
social worker who will help connect street
people with services and optimally move
them out of the public eye.
The Riverwalks: The city is promoting
the walkways on the Northbank
and Southbank as park space, which is a
bit of a stretch. City Councilwoman Lori
Boyer is developing a plan for about a
dozen pocket parks and activity zones at
access points along the Riverwalks. The
goal is to help people connect with transportation,
with the river and the city’s history.
BOB MACK
42
J MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018