by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
City Council member Elaine Brown doesn’t claim to have the powers of Miss Cleo, the infamous infomercial queen with crystal ball and tarot card reading abilities. But Brown may be a visionary when it comes to getting around downtown.
Brown is currently sponsoring a resolution requesting a comprehensive downtown traffic pattern/mobility/pedestrian accommodation study that would take into account many things including the sports complex, the new main library and several downtown residential projects that are in every stage of development. However, it’s the new $211 million Duval County Courthouse that has been the impetus for Brown’s resolution.
“I am so excited about this,” said Brown. “Instead of being reactionary, we can prepare before the construction on the new courthouse starts. We can go ahead and evaluate what kind of changes need to be made as a result of the footprint of the new courthouse.”
Brown also points to The Shipyards development and Berkman Plaza as catalysts for downtown revitalization and her desire to assure downtown Jacksonville is as easy to navigate as possible. Brown’s worry is that there will be no forethought regarding how traffic and pedestrians will get around in a newly developed area — in this case, a revitalized and growing downtown.
In other words, make logical, necessary changes in the near future or pay dearly down the road in the form of traffic jams, unsynchronized traffic lights resulting in poor traffic flow and crowded, improperly lit sidewalks.
“I want to combine those things with technology to determine the best way to move traffic,” said Brown, who is chair of the Council’s Transportation, Environment & Energy Committee. “And, it’s time to look at our one-way streets.”
According to the design of the new county courthouse, Monroe Street, which is one-way west to east, will dead end into the west side of the six-block courthouse complex. Combine that with the four parking garages that will accompany the courthouse and it’s easy to understand why Brown’s concern with downtown traffic starts with the courthouse. And, with a completion date of sometime in 2005, Brown sees “now” as the perfect time to address the entire downtown area.
“We need to take a comprehensive look at what’s coming,” she said. “We need to determine the best way to get people in and out during peak hours and then how to get them around when downtown Jacksonville is a 24-hour city. In a few years, we are going to have a whole different downtown than we’ve had in the last 25 years.”
Brown hopes to persuade Council to engage in a comprehensive study that will determine the feasibility of her ideas. She said that study can be done either in-house or by an outside consulting firm. She also said her mobility plan will tie in nicely with a mobility plan that Jacksonville Transportation Authority executive director Mike Blaylock has been working on for several months.
“I have talked with Jeannie Fewell of the Planning Department and Al Battle [managing director of the Downtown Development Authority]. I have met with them and Fred Kyle [traffic engineer for the City],” said Brown. “I have also included Mike Blaylock, who has already started a comprehensive study which will blend beautifully with this. He’s in and the Florida Department of Transportation is in.”
Brown believes one of the first objectives needs to be evaluating downtown’s one-way streets and determine their effectiveness. Once a portion of Monroe Street is closed, motorists will have to find an alternative route as they travel eastbound. There are other problems, too.
“I think too many one-way streets take drivers too far out of the way, making it hard to get around,” said Brown, adding she’s not sure how to solve the problem and indicated that would be one of the charges given to the consultant.
More than anything, Brown sees the study as an opportunity to address downtown mobility issues before they become a problem.
“This is really a chance for Jacksonville to be a model for the whole country,” said Brown. “If we know that within three years we are going to have a new courthouse and four parking garages, then we need to look at how we are going to get people in and out of the west side of downtown. Let’s look at it now.”