Last week I posted about Doyle Conner Blvd. essentially an extension of East and West Park Avenue that originates in Downtown Tallahassee. This week we take the Way Back Machine and take a look at what might have been:
Hindsight is 20/20
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| East and West Park Ave. Downtown Tallahassee, FL |
East and West Park Avenue had
its beginnings in the heart of Tallahassee. This uniquely beautiful road lived
up to it’s name. It was and is an urban street with a wide boulevard shaded by
stately Live Oaks with Spanish Moss swaying in the breeze. Six blocks of beauty and the park setting is
perfect for festivals and markets.
The hindsight question is;
what happened? Why only six blocks?
Someone had vision when they platted those six blocks of Park Avenue. A shaded street a community gathering place a welcome respite from the humidity that hangs over the city in the summer (well in the spring and fall too, its Florida).
Why not create a park like
boulevard that runs east and west from the city center to… Well a logical terminus and/or wherever the city ends?
In a way, that is what the current design did. Doyle Conner has a landscaped boulevard and a long right hand curve connects this road to Apalachee Parkway and a traffic signal. As you sit at this signal you are facing south toward a large greenfield.
Future development???
Future road extension???
But, at this point the road would no longer be an east/west corridor.
Hindsight lets us imagine a shaded roadway
where Live Oak give way to Magnolia, then to Bald Cypress as the road crosses
waterways; next some Cherry Laural mixed with other Oak and Red Bud and even
Sycamore (a little messy, but very shady). I am not an arborist or L.A. I just
looked these up at: http://www.floridagardener.com/misc/shade.htm
Now consider this pattern as
an alternative to Conner Blvd. Is the prison still there? Yes. It is not within
the power of this blog to prevent people from being bad. So we work with it.
Does it have to be as it is? Not in a hindsight scenario.
In hindsight Park Avenue
would have a logical termination at Lake Lafayette.
It would be a boulevard, but
not one that Mario Andretti and high school students love to drive fast on.
Instead it would become the focal point for accessing Tom Brown Park and the
regional park facilities that exist within. A couple traffic circles can be
used to add interest and visual cues to the roadway. A series of collector
streets, one being named Conner Doyle, would link major land use areas between
Park Avenue and Aplalachee Parkway. The result is blocks of land that can be
developed with street orientation (eyes on the street) school buildings that
are integrated into the residential areas, opportunities for shared use
athletic fields between the park and the schools and traffic that is calm,
relaxed and enjoying the ride.
The yellow lines reflect a
variation on the hindsight scenario where the road bends a bit more but at the
same time the boulevard widens creating the opportunity to mimic the downtown
Park Ave design as it enters Tom Brown Park.
Oh, see the red star? If hind
sight is 20/20 foresight has to be 50/50 right? So why not think out another 50
years and link a commuter rail station into the park and neighborhood
development? The collector street that links the terminus of Park Avenue to
Apalachee Parkway might incorporate higher density residential development
(maybe multi-story brownstones?) and some neighborhood service commercial.
That is my hindsight vision. Park Avenue East, a boulevard
starting at Adams Street in the center of downtown Tallahassee and continuing
east to as a shaded park like setting until it terminates at Virgil Road on the
outer edge of the city. Along the way this boulevard establishes a pattern of
land development that protects natural habitats, enhances regional park access
and integrates schools, neighborhoods and neighborhood services into a workable,
walk-able community.
Another thing, think about how easy it would be to provide
bus service for employees at the State Agricultural facility. Think about how the schools could have been designed into the neighborhoods. Maybe the big pedestrian bridge would not be needed? Think about other amenities that could have been included to serve the residents and part visitors. By creating development blocks, bringing buildings closer to
the street and designing for transit we can create safer neighborhoods and reduce
the amount of travel we do in our automobiles.
Next Week, I begin looking at what might be done…
