Jacksonville's Central Park?

Map of exisiting, proposed, and needed walks and greenways.

A question was asked on the MetroJax message boards about making the Hogan’s Creek parks the “Central Park” of Jacksonville.

This is not a new concept. Many people who have been involved in the parks over the years have mentioned this as a desire. Someone else asked about the size of the parks, and I thought I would compare them to other city’s “marquee” urban parks.

Downtowns Historic Springfield district parks make up about 37 Acres of parkland. This is made up of Confederate Park and playground, H.J. Klutho Park, W.W. Schell Park, and McPherson Park. This does not include any connecting land between Liberty the Northbank Riverwalk, which in an ideal work would complete a Hogan’s Creek Greenway.

By comparison, Boston Common is 48 acres, while New York’s Central Park is an unbelievable 843 Acres. Denver has about 80 acres of urban parks split between Civic Center Park, Sky Line Park, Sunken Gardens, Commons Park, and Confluence Park. Atlanta’s Piedmont Park is about 185 Acres, but includes the Botanical Gardens and 50 acres of undeveloped parkland. Charlottes Freedom Park comes in at 107 acres, but it well outside of the urban core.

In Florida, Miami’s Bayfront and Bicentennial parks are about 50 acres. And Orlando’s Lake Eola and Ivanhoe parks combine for 31 acres, not including the water.

Keep in mind also, if our historic districts parks were to be "redeveloped", they could be even larger because the south side of the creek is mostly undeveloped city property.

In all, if the Hogan’s Creek and McCoys Creek Greenways were to be completed and tied into the Riverwalk system, it would give Jacksonville over 8 miles of nearly contiguous access to the river and urban greenspaces. They would also be tied into other river front parks like the Kids Kampus, Metro Park, and Memorial Park when the Northbank Riverwalk is extended. You could walk from Shands to 5points, or from Cummer to the Stadium with minimal interaction with traffic.

If we do this right, we may not have the largest urban park system, but we will have one of the most unique urban parks in the US.