Downtown Turnaround

The Jacksonville "Downtown Turnaround" celebrated the return of the downtown square. Like many small towns, we received a federal grant in the 1970s to modernize the old downtown shopping district. Urban Renewal took away the rotary traffic pattern, added new facades to many of the old building, constructed plastic awnings over the walkways and added ugly square brick quadrant buildings on the four corners of the central park. In effect, this killed off the downtown which was already starting the downhill slide as the bigger stores moved to the new shopping mall. For many years, citizens have bemoaned the demise of the downtown. Many of us remember the glory days when the stores stayed open until late on Friday evening and the teenagers drove around and around the rotary - sometimes pulling into park and visit before heading to one of the two downtown movie theaters or to get a giant hamburger and milkshake at one of the local drive-up restaurants.
For the past several years, several dedicated citizens have headed up a renewal project for the downtown. This past year, the counterclockwise "rotary" pattern around the square was opened up and there is once again downtown parking in front of businesses. Central Park was cleaned up and is now "green" again - with the quadrant buildings gone. The past weekend celebration featured area businesses, food, drinks, and entertainment including the largest of the Eli Bridge ferris wheels - which was made in Jacksonville. It was wonderful to see so many people having fun downtown.