simms3

Lovin it! Gotsta point out that some people were raving about the shiny new glass facade being put on the "tall" hotel in Dubai in another thread and this is made of the same or similar crap, and this is much more solid important project! We should all take a moment to take it in and pay Kuhn his due respect!

Everything seems to be good news about this project, and it's progress is envied by many, including me.

That looks so fine! I love the Carlyle, it looks old and would fit it with Winter Park if it weren't for the NIMBY's that do not want different people encroaching on their neighborhood. Winter Park reminds me of San Marco in Jacksonville...very old/historic, VERY expensive and nice, but without many old families living there, and full of NIMBY's.

You would think that that would help alleviate the traffic down there. In Jax we really have 2 business centers, and any roads that run through them become clogged. Everywhere else is fine though. If everything were evenly distributed, and not too dense, then traffic should not be a problem. It would in a way be like Europe and Asia (but less dense please!)

I'm from Jax and I even felt compelled to vote no. It is division that weakens us and creates conflict. Both Tampa and Orlando are closer related to S Fl than Jax or anything else, should we let them go with S Fl no. Should S Fl secede by itself, no. That's ridiculous. When you think about it, it is diversity that makes FL cool for out of state people. NE Fl has the river and marshes and nature preserves and St. Augustine NW FL has the Gulf beaches and the capital and is laid back Central FL has theme parks and rocket launches S FL has beaches, resorts, and international flair If we divide all this up, it makes it less appealing to come in and visit the state (people have to adapt to change before normalcy returns).

Great idea...very necessary and today I rode the bus for the first time...there were some people talking about how you could go past the OP Mall on a bus, but If everybody collaborates, I'm sure one can go anywhere in the region, and that would be great for a lot of folks that rely on mass transit.

That's pretty funny, is it real?

Well, in response, I have to agree to disagree. Jacksonville is denser than you think...mainly in the inward parts of town where there are thousands willing to ride public transportation. Commuter rail would be on a CSX owned rail line that comes from Amelia down to St. Augustine, a city that has expressed interest in being further connected to town. Even in St. Johns and southern Duval, where it is all sprawl being built, there are limited highway and road choices that will become superclogged as everything gets built, unless every road is widened to Atlanta size (we dont want that), and I would bet that developers know this and would be willing to build transportation hubs. The CSX line that runs from Amelia west to the N-S main line that would be used, I heard only has one or two trains on it a day, so that wqould not be a problem. Given that the city will find a way to deal with CSX (which I have heard cannot be dealt with easily), a nice commuter rail line in Jacksonville with ten to twelve stations should not cost more than $150 million. Far better than riding a "high tech" bus system in twenty years for more than a half BILLION dollars.

I was actually down in Orlando for new year's and got my first glimpse of the Plaza and how massive it is since it was only a few floors last time I saw it. Now that I have seen Kuhn's power and effort and work that will do miracles, I can only be extremely excited for what he will do and is already doing for jacksonville. BTW, I did not realize that the Church Street Station was that brick building being torn down for 55 West, can anyone explain that situation to me so I am no longer confused as to why some condo building is destroying the one entertainment venue in downtown o-town that I have heard and seems to draw crowds (or did)?

Commuter rail seems like the right idea. I do not know hot it works though, if the commuter rail is using the same rail as say CSX, how do the trains coordinate so that there are no crashes, and how would the CSX trains go around the commuter trains when stopped at stations. I've been thinking, maybe commuter rail is more expensive than anyone thinks, because the rail companies own the rail lines and have daily train schedules. They would probably charge the city outrageously to use the rails.