by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Whether they ride it or not, few will dispute the relative potential of the Skyway — Jacksonville’s 2.5 mile answer to Chicago’s elevated trains and Atlanta’s MARTA. But what remains to be seen is whether or not that potential will ever be realized.
First conceived over 30 years ago, the Skyway opened in small increments beginning in 1989. For many, it has been a perceived waste of money with an operating cost of $4.5 million annually; a mass transit system that goes, quite frankly, nowhere anybody wants to go or, at least, rarely needs to go. For others, albeit dramatically fewer, it is a functional and convenient way to move in, out and around the downtown business district.
Recent reports from the Jacksonville Transportation Authority put daily ridership of the Skyway at a figure leagues lower than originally predicted. Rather than the projected 37,000 riders, the total hovers around a much more modest 2,300 who, at the very least, seem to have few complaints.
Southside resident Vivian Parks is a volunteer at the United States Courthouse, located on the western perimeter of Hemming Plaza. Most mornings she parks her car at the Kings Avenue Station — Parks pays $33.30 a month for a space in the largely unoccupied Kings Avenue Parking Garage — and rides the Skyway over the Acosta Bridge. (Monthly surface parking is also available at Kings Avenue station for $27.98.) When she exits the monorail, Parks stands conveniently in front of her destination.
“I’d say it’s a pretty good system,” she said of the eight-stop Skyway. “I don’t think the wait is too bad, but I do wish it went more places. Maybe it should go further out into the suburbs. I think more people would be open to riding it then.”
Talks of extending the Skyway along Riverside Avenue into the Brooklyn subdistrict — one of the more feasible suggestions floating around — could move forward if, as the Downtown Master Plan reads, “rapid development in the area” becomes a reality.
Parks is not alone on this particular morning. She shares the half-full Skyway car with postal worker and small business specialist Marie Tillman. For the next few weeks, Tillman is working in the newly-opened postal precinct on Hogan Street that is also near Hemming Plaza. She boards the Skyway at San Marco Station.
“It saves me a lot of time,” said Tillman. “The parking downtown isn’t very good if you don’t have a monthly spot. It’s also expensive. I can just park my car right here in the morning and ride over. I like it.”
To date, daily parking for the Skyway is all but nonexistent at most stations with the Kings Avenue stop — a bookend for the system — reserving just 19 spaces, carrying a five-hour limit.
“They’re first come, first serve,” a JTA parking representative explained after initially claiming there wasn’t any daily parking at all.
Another woman, Avril Sherman, is dropped off by her husband before catching the Skyway at the FCCJ Station. She rides it out of downtown to the Southbank. The Prudential employee has ridden it to work everyday for over a year.
“I really think it’s a good idea,” she said. “Why should I pay 75 cents to ride a bus over the bridge when I can ride the Skyway for a little more than half of that? You don’t have to wait very long and I think it’s relaxing.”
As the three women further explain why they like the Skyway, it becomes clear they are really only satisfied for one reason: it takes them almost exactly where they want to go; something that can’t be said for everyone . . . at least for now.
Whether by design or sheer coincidence, Hemming Plaza is quickly resuming its place as the centerpiece of downtown. With City Hall practically rebuilt from the ground up, the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art and the U.S. Courthouse finally open to the public and construction on the new Main Library and Duval County Courthouse progressing, in five years the Skyway may actually be a viable, more readily used, mode of transportation for a larger number of people coming downtown.
“For downtown advocates, Hemming Plaza has always been an area of focus,” said Audrey Moran, Mayor John Delaney’s chief of staff. “It has, and will, continue to be the heart of downtown and it should be. It has great access, not only to the Landing and St. John’s River, but also to the government agencies here. In a few years, I see the public draw continuing to grow with the Skyway definitely benefiting from that. I’m unsure if the JTA planned it that way, but I have to think they had an idea.”
Steve Arrington, head of strategic development for JTA, said although he couldn’t have predicted exactly what would happen around Hemming Plaza, when designs for the Skyway were in the early stages, assumptions were made that it would be a heavily populated section of downtown in one way or another.
“City plans can change and they often do,” said Arrington. “It’s impossible to determine exactly what kind of development will take place in any area, but the timing has been interesting on this particular project. Initially, we thought there would be more retail in Hemming Plaza and that was what we kept in mind. That, obviously, hasn’t really been the case, but it is still active and growing. Now, we’re looking at all that’s going on there and it’s almost like we’re ahead of the development curve.”
Though unsure of the long-term public appeal of the courthouses and City Hall, Arrington thinks the library would be an attraction likely generating repeat trips; a definite coup for the Skyway.
“It can be said that transportation makes a location,” he said. “It serves a lot of people. They need it. I would like to say the Skyway was doing better than it is right now, but it’s still relatively early and we look forward to seeing the synergy between it and the ongoing development all over downtown.”