Reconnecting communities

Originally the Haines Street Expressway, Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway was designed to cut the historic Black Eastside community off from its St. Johns River waterfront and the neighboring community of Fairfield.

The Commodore Point Expressway slices through Jacksonville’s Eastside neighborhood to connect Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway with the Hart Bridge Expressway.

Originally the 20th Street Expressway, Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway was designed to limit the access through historic Black neighborhoods like Moncrief and Durkeeville, and served to allow white suburbanites to bypass the Urban Core during their commutes.

The infrastructure bill could be an opportunity to reconnect Jacksonville neighborhoods intentionally split by highways. The infrastructure bill includes $1 billion to reconnect communities through the Reconnecting Communities Initiative. This program aims to provide funding to cities and states seeking to rectify the damage caused by highways that were intentionally ripped through minority neighborhoods across the country during the mid 20th century. In essence, road construction should be more than laying down asphalt on virgin soil for new exurban sprawl and development. It can also be about placemaking, enhancing resiliency, and righting systemic government-controlled wrongs of yesteryear to encourage resiliency and new inclusive economic prosperity in neighborhoods long ignored.

In 1955, the Florida Legislature established JTA’s predecessor, the Jacksonville Expressway Authority, as an independent entity that built, owned and maintained highways and bridges throughout Duval County. Not surprisingly, this Jim Crow-era authority quickly built a series of expressways through minority neighborhoods, displacing thousands of residents, destroying communities and forming new racial demarcation lines throughout the city’s Urban Core and elsewhere. These include the Union Street Expressway, Roosevelt Expressway, Arlington Expressway and Martin Luther King, Jr. Parkway, all of which separated Black neighborhoods from Downtown Jacksonville and white residential areas. Today, aging highways built in the 1950s and 60s continue to divide, choke off economic development and strangle quality of life in many Urban Core neighborhoods.

While the subject has not been seriously discussed by public officials and local civic leaders, the Reconnecting Communities Initiative is an opportunity to fund the planning, design, demolition and reconstruction of street grids, parks and other infrastructure through Jacksonville’s Urban Core.

Core to Coast Trail (East Coast Greenway)

A map illustrating the proposed Core to Coast Trail Loop. The Core to Coast project is anticipated to connect the Emerald Trail system and Jacksonville’s urban core with the East Coast Greenway. (City of Jacksonville)

The bill calls for $11 billion of federal funding to be spent nationally on bike-based infrastructure, including protected bike lanes, trails, and multi-use paths. This is a 60% increase in funding for the Transportation Alternatives Program out of the gate, with further increases coming annually. This means a lot more money for the largest federal source of funding for bike and pedestrian infrastructure. The bill also includes $11 billion for transportation safety. Jacksonville, which has seen an increase in pedestrians killed on local roads, could benefit tremendously from this investment.

One such project is the ambitious Core to Coast Loop, a plan to link the bike and pedestrian network of Jacksonville’s Urban Core with the East Coast Greenway, a 3,000-mile bike trail connecting communities in 15 states. The Core to Coast Loop is proposed to be a 50-mile loop that joins the Greenway’s spine route to Downtown Jacksonville. The trail is expected to improve developments on both banks of the St. Johns River and connect major business centers, residential neighborhoods and industrial areas. Considering that the East Coast Greenway is already a success, with 1000 miles already being off-road, this would be a major boost to one of Jacksonville’s most ambitious public works projects.

Public transit

Courthouse Station, one of JTA’s First Coast Flyer stops.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill commits an unprecedented level of funding to public transit, with a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by repairing, upgrading and modernizing the country’s transit infrastructure. Nationally, $66 billion is committed to transit, with Florida getting $2.6 billion. Florida has traditionally lagged in investment in public infrastructure, and Jacksonville is no exception. As other Florida cities like Miami, Tampa and Orlando make strides in this area, it’s high time for Jacksonville to step up.

The Jaxson has been critical of JTA’s major transit project, the U2C, which aims to replace Downtown’s Skyway monorail system with a series of small autonomous vehicles. Currently, JTA is getting $247 million in local gas tax funding for the U2C project, as well as money from other pots. Meanwhile, other transit needs in the city have taken a back burner.

The infrastructure bill could help Jacksonville immensely by investing in JTA’s bus service in neighborhoods that already rely on it, including Durkeeville, New Town, Moncrief and other parts of Northwest Jacksonville. People of color are twice as likely to take public transportation and often lack sufficient public transit options. While the U2C may be nice for shuffling the white collar crowd between rooftop bars, an improved bus system would have a far greater impact on the community. In addition to helping provide more reliable transit options for citizens, it could have economic benefits by reconnecting communities, expanding access to employment centers and sparking investment. Additionally, JTA has an opportunity to leverage public transit funds toward a future commuter rail system, which would piggyback off the coming Amtrak investment and would benefit not only Duval residents but people in the traffic-choked suburban counties.

Restoration of Hogans Creek

Hogans Creek flooding during Tropical Storm Fay in 2008 (Daniel Herbin)

Biden touts the infrastructure deal as “the largest investment in the resilience of physical and natural systems in American history.” Jaxsons are well versed in the negative impacts of climate change, both during and outside hurricane season. Nationally, the infrastructure bill commits $50 billion to protect against extreme weather. As a low-lying coastal city located along a massive river with many tributaries, Jacksonville’s experience with the impact of climate change and extreme weather is considerable.

One project that could offer a major boost to resiliency in the Downtown Northbank, the Stadium District, Springfield, Eastside and Brentwood is the restoration of Hogans Creek. This 2.6-mile long tidal and freshwater creek rises in Brentwood north of UF Health Jacksonville and flows out to the St. Johns River, and has suffered from years of pollution, silting and general neglect. During heavy rains, the creek frequently floods streets and parks all along its course. The once scenic Klutho Park promenade and “grand canal” built by Henry Klutho and engineer Charles Imeson in 1929 is now an eyesore.

Groundwork Jacksonville has been working on restoring the creek as part of the Emerald Trail, a planned 30-mile network of bike and pedestrian paths linking various Jacksonville neighborhoods and institutions. The Emerald Trail Master Plan includes improvements to Hogans Creek that improve the crossing conditions along existing Hogans Creek greenway and enhances the overall quality of the greenway to match the established design standard for the entire trail system. It includes investments to improve water quality, reduce flooding, and restore wildlife habitat, in addition to enhancing recreational and transportation opportunities for residents. This process is an extensive undertaking on the part of the City of Jacksonville and Groundwork, but it’s the perfect match for the intent of this element of the infrastructure bill. While seizing the opportunity would require considerable work and leadership by the City of Jacksonville, it’s one project that would pay incredible dividends in the future.

Editorial by Ennis Davis, AICP, Bill Delaney and Mike Field. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com, Bill at wdelaney@moderncities.com and Mike at mfield@moderncities.com

Bill Delaney’s new book Secret Jacksonville, a Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure is out. Order a signed copy at thejaxsonmag.com/books.