Scottdale, PA- the Historic Home of the H.C. Frick Coke Company sitting on the edge of the Laurel Highlands

The area witnessed an influx of Scotch-Irish immigrants in the late 1770s but it wasn’t until the construction of several branch lines through the community in the early 1870s that the settlement took off. The community was incorporated as Scottdale Borough in 1874 and by 1880 it had 1275 residents. The economy quickly transitioned from agriculture to manufacturing and mining and became the center of Henry Clay Frick’s coke interest where The H. C. Frick Coke Company was headquartered. But like many other rustbelt boomtowns in the area, Scottdale quickly declined starting in the 1930s when it reached a peak of 6700 residents. Scottdale now sits at 4,400 residents and the only major factory that remains is Duraloy Technologies.

From an urban perspective Scottdale still retains a solid 2-block historic business district on Pittsburgh along with a semi-urban biz district running several blocks of Broadway. Even with its steep population decline Scottdale doesn’t have widespread vacancy and retains many attractive historic homes. The community is also safe and served well by many parks and decent retail amenities. Median household wealth runs about 55K, higher than many other rustbelt cities in the area. I don’t see Scottdale urbanizing/densifying anytime soon unless the Borough encounters a major influx of immigrants. At best it can hope to remain course, which apparently there are signs it is succeeded at as the population was flat between 2010 and 2020.

Click here to view my Scottdale Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Sidewalk infrastructure is so so with about 1/3 of streets without sidewalks and about half of all intersections with ADA curb cuts.
* Public transit is pretty limited.
* 45 min drive to Dwtn Pitt (no transit access) and 25 min drive to Dwtn Greensburg, which is a small county seat job center. 40 minute transit trip.
* Good connectivity.
* Bike infrastructure in the City but nice recreational trail connecting the City to Mt. Pleasant (Coal & Coke Trail).
* Rental listings (at least listings) are very limited.
* Housing is very affordable but not a ton of variety. Larger 4 & 5 bedrooms top out at around 300K.
* Not much modern in-fill and what exist is generally autocentric crud along Broadway.
* Streetscape along Broadway and Pittsburgh is functional but warn and outdated.
* Some cultural amenities including several restaurants & bars, a couple cafes, a performing arts theater, a couple historic sites,

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Mount Pleasant- a Pittsburgh Satellite suburb on the foothills of the Laural Highlands and Childhood Home to Henry Clay Frick

I only evaluated the core of Mount Pleasant as the residential streets towards the outskirts of the Borough start to become low density and often without sidewalk infrastructure. This is the area generally between Broad St to the north and Warden/Walnut Street to the south. I also didn’t include the eastern edge of Mt. Pleasant east of the railroad tracks.

Sparse settlement came to Mt. Pleasant around the American Revolutionary War. By the early 19th century Mt. Pleasant became a small village and grew into a borough in 1828. By the 1850s Mt. Pleasant had 500 residents. Glass manufacturing became the foundation of the local economy in the mid 19th century quickly followed by coke production thanks to the discovered of coal deposits in the area. Henry Frick, the town’s most famous resident, was born in a small village a couple miles outside of the Mt. Pleasant and spent many years working for his grandfather’s shop in the town (the building still exists today). At a young age Frick began buying up coal land in the area in the 1870s and it was here that Frick began to build his coke business empire. Fueled by growing coke production and coal mining, Mt Pleasant blossomed to 5K by 1900. The Borough peaked at 6K residents in 1960 but has since been gradually declining and sits at 4K residents today. Many other steel towns in Westmoreland County have lost much more of their peak population and Mt. Pleasant fortunately remains very intact.

Mt. Pleasant has a mediocre urban center with a relatively in-tact main street with a good amount of remaining shops (especially furniture and antiques). Much of the historic 19th century architecture remains including lots of early-mid 1800 buildings and the town is served well by several parks and a pretty walkable fabric. But this is essentially a country town that still finds itself in the larger Pittsburgh Metro. Mt. Pleasant is an aging City with few immigrants and limited cultural amenities. Unless Mt. Pleasant somehow sees a major influx of immigrants, I don’t see it altering its slow declining course.

Click here to view my Mount Pleasant Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Good connectivity and gridded fabric.
* Best historic architecture is main street with some mid 19th century architecture mixed in but some good residential homes too.
* Good street connectivity.
* Overall a pretty safe community.
* Decent park amenities including the central Frick park and the more extensive Willow part on the edge of the core city. Also a couple cemeteries as well.
* Better retail amenities including a Shop n Save, and smaller locally owner grocer, couple drug stores, a couple antique and boutiques, a larger Levin Furniture Store, a couple florist, a public library, a couple dessert joints and gyms, post office, plenty of churches, and a hospital just located south of the core city.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* About 70% of the streets in this evaluation area have sidewalks but often very narrow and 1/2 of them have modern ADA curb cuts.
* 45 min drive to Dwtn Pitt (no transit access) and 20 min drive to Dwtn Greensburg, which is a small county seat job center. 35 minute transit trip.
Not much urban in-fill other than some autocentric crud.
* No bike infrastructure to speak of.
* Very low urban density
* Decent number of families but a very aging population. Median age is 52.
* Only the elementary school is located in the City core. High school is on the outskirts of town.
* Cultural amenities limited to a handful of restaurants & bars, a couple cafes, the Helltown Brewery, and a couple of historic homes & sites.
* Housing is very affordable but not a ton of variety. Larger 4 & 5 bedrooms top out at around 300K.
* Rental options (at least listed) are very limited as well but very affordable.

Pittsburgh’s Hill District- the Historic Home of the City’s Black Community and Major American Jazz Mecca

The Hill District sits the east of Downtown stretching to Oakland and arguable contains Pittsburgh most traumatic story of urban renewal. The larger Hill District contains several smaller City designated neighborhoods (i.e. Lower Hill, Crawford-Roberts, Middle Hill, Bedford Dwellings, & Terrace Village). The Hill District was first settled in the 19th century by a small middle-class free black community. By the turn of the 20th century the neighborhood was booming as the Black population expanded from 10K to 37K between 1890-1920 as part of the Great Migration. Immigrants from Italy, the Middle Eastern, and Eastern European Jews were also pouring into the neighborhood. The influx of so many new residents resulted in a housing shortage which was exacerbated by the rigid system of segregation that limited potential dwellings for blacks almost entirely to the Hill District. By the 1920s the “the Hill” was the cultural center of Black life in the City and a major center of jazz helping to propel Pittsburgh as one of the best City’s for jazz historically. In the summer of 1956, some 1,300 structures were razed, displacing 1,500 families (more than 8000 residents). But, the affects of urban renewal didn’t stop at the Lower Hill District as it severed the Hill District from surrounding neighborhoods, resulting in its dramatic economic decline. Jobs in Pittsburgh also were disappearing due to industrial restructuring, and numerous middle-class residents moved out to newer suburban housing. Between 1950 and 1990, the Hill lost 71% of its residents (more than 38,000 individuals) and about 400 businesses. Many people displaced from the Hill moved into the East Liberty and Homewood-Brushton neighborhoods creating a ripple effect, where mostly white middle-class families left these areas and moved to newer suburban housing. The Hill district also saw numerous project housing developments demolish other parts of the neighborhood, which also lead to major concentrations of poverty. In the present day about 1/3 of all Hill Residents live in poverty.

But even with all this disinvestment, the Hill District still retains decent urbanity and urban form, almost enough in its present form to be considered a viable neighborhood. It’s mazing to think that a neighborhood that used to host 50K now only has 10K. Urban strengths of the Hill District include excellent public transit service, convenient access to Pittsburgh’s largest job concentrations (Dwtn & Oakland), several walkable schools, relatively affordable housing, excellent park access, good sidewalk infrastructure, and good remaining historic architecture. There have been several revitalization efforts in the Hill District starting with the suburban homes built in the 70s, the more urban Crawford Square development in the early 2000s, and present day efforts including the Granada Theater redevelopment, several small-medium scale projects, and the slow moving but massive Lower Hill Redevelopment. The issue is that redevelopment efforts have moved much slower than the pace of neglect and abandonment and each decade the neighborhood looses more buildings and homes than it gains. There still remains so much potential to create an outstanding urban community in the Hill District. Hopefully the Lower Hill Development sparks more comprehensive efforts to repopulate the neighborhood.

Click here to view my Hill District Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Lots of households with Children living here along with college students in the Upper Hill section of the neighborhood.
Solid public transit access with lots of bus lines running through the neighborhood.
Several decent elementary schools within the Hill District and several others in neighborhood Oakland including an Excellent Science & Technology School, a poorly rated public hsg and a couple Catholic elementary schools.
A decent # of rentals and generally affordable. 1-beds lease btwn 800-1.3K, 2-beds lease in the low 1Ks, 3-beds lease anywhere from 1K-3K with higher rents in the Upper Hill. Lots of affordable housing rentals across several large projects.
Good park amenities including several small, medium parks well distributed throughout the neighborhood. The Francie Pace Park is a new additional covering the crosstown high and Kennard Playground is an extensive park with lots of sports fields. Also a YMCA.
Still a lot of quality historic architecture remain in the Hill.
Sidewalks are pretty consistent in the Hill and ADA standard curb cuts are on about half of the intersections.”

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* No dedicated bike lanes in the Hill District but several bike share stations.
* Largely an African American neighborhood (~70-75%) but some diversity especially in the Upper hill closest to Oakland with a large Asian population. Whites and Hispanics are slowly moving here as well.
* Very high poverty rate with 1/3 of residents living in it. Some income diversity but most households here are low-moderate income.
* For sale is pretty limited with a major divided between the bottom and top of the market of new and renovated homes. Most hsg is concentrated in Crawford Roberts and the Upper Hill. 2-bed sells btwn 40K-300K with renovation product starting the push the market a bit. 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 50K-500K.
* Cultural amenities are limited to a couple restaurants, a cafe, a local performing arts center, small dance company, an art gallery, a couple bars, the August Wilson House & Tennie Harris Center and decent access to all cultural amenities of Dwtn & Oakland.
* Retail amenities are pretty limited too but there is a supermarket, a public library, post office, a community drug store, a couple boutiques, several salons, a couple banks, tons of churches, a couple medical offices, and several hospitals surround the Hill District in adjacent communities.
* The Hill District is safer than it used to be but still has some crime issues and lot of remaining blight.
* Much of the in-fill is ugly suburban in-fill but more recent projects are pretty high quality urban projects.
* What remains of the Centre avenue business district generally has good urban form but lots of missing pieces. Streetscaping is pretty good.
* Wylie Ave was a secondary biz district but this is always all wiped away.

Brooklyn and LaVilla- Historic Jacksonville Neighborhoods slowly emerging from devastating Urban Renewal & Redlining policies of the past

In this evaluation I combined LaVilla and the Brooklyn neighborhoods as they are both neighborhoods with major urban renewal pasts sitting on the edge of Dwtn. In 1887 Brooklyn and LaVilla were annexed by Jacksonville. Brooklyn remained primarily residential into the 20th century, but it eventually developed into a commercial and industrial area with the increasing use of the railway. The neighborhood had a thriving African American community but it was LA Villa that during its height was considered the mecca for African American culture and heritage especially the part of LaVilla north of Adams Street. The area also became a transportation hub with rail service developed by Henry Flagler.

By In the 1950s, Interstate 95 was intentionally chosen to cut through the heart of these African American communities. In Brooklyn suburban office buildings surrounded by surfacing parking lots and strip malls lining Riverside Ave replaced the neighborhood’s waterfront properties The more interior part of the neighborhood was encouraged to fall blight and decay through redlining practices and neglect. In La Villa after the 1960s, the neighborhood entered a period of precipitous decline as the railroad industry restructured, I-95 chopped up the neighborhood, and active neglect by the City. During the 1980s the crack cocaine epidemic hit hard among struggling residents of LaVilla, resulting in an increase in crime and furthering the decline. By the 1990s the City finally turned its attention to reinvesting in LaVilla through blight removal and helping to renovate historical structures, such as the Ritz Theatre. More recently new urban in-fill projects are emerging helping the neighborhoods to reurbanize as a neighborhood just south of Dwtn should. But an immerse amount of vacant and underutilized space remain in both communities demonstrating the long road ahead to rebuilding these communities.

Given their great proximity to dwtn, great public transit access, in-tact urban grid, and access to the St. John’s river both neighborhoods are poised to return. I just hope that the redevelopment strategies are well throughout for how to bring back the neighborhood as a whole and deal with the wounds of intentional urban renewal that so harmed countless of African American families in the past.

Click here to view my Brooklyn and LaVilla Albums on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Excellent public transit and access to Dwtn. Even decent bike infrastructure to dwtn although the lines are very skinny and unprotected.
Generally good sidewalk and ADA infrastructure.
Good rental amenities with studios and 1-beds leasing in the low-mid 1Ks, 2-beds lease btwn the mid 1Ks to low 2Ks. Only a handful of 3-beds available.
Decent parks including the unity plaza set around a ponk, a boardwalk and recreational trail along the river, and couple other small parks.
Neighborhood is generally safe but is pretty empty is spots encouraging homeless to set up shop.
Lots of dead space and autocentric arterial roads running through the neighborhood. The newer in-fill is starting to rectify this issue but it is still a long road ahead to urbanizing Brooklyn and LaVilla.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Extremely low density for an urban district.
* An excellent middle school for the arts in LaVilla, not much else other than a couple small private schools dwtn.
* For sale housing product is very limited in the neighborhood. Only a handful of older homes and new townhomes that have sold.
* Tree canopy isn’t great.
* Cultural amenities are a bit limited including a handful of restaurants, bars, and cafes, the Ritz Theater, the Friday Music hall, a live music venue, a night club and good access to the cultural amenities in neighboring Dwtn and Riverside.
* Retail amenities are also pretty limited including a supermarket, several banks, a couple boutiques & salons, an ice cream shop, a couple gyms, and several doctor’s offices.

San Marco- a 1920s Mediterranean Revial Inspired Urban Community in South Jacksonville

The South Jacksonville community emerged after the American Civil War and was incorporated in 1907 With the opening of the St. John’s River Bridge in 1921, linking the neighborhood to Dwtn, development in San Marco exploded. Telfair Stockton developed 80 acres of the neighborhood as a planned Mediterranean inspired community strongly influenced by the City beautiful movement using more winding streets, planted mediums, and intentionally reserving space for parks. The development was centered on San Marco square, which was inspired by its namesake in Venice. In 1932, the municipality of South Jacksonville was annexation into Jacksonville. The portion of San Marco north of I-95 was increasingly integrated into Downtown Jacksonville’s urban fabric and in the 1980s officially was designated part of the Central Business District. The neighborhood began to decline under the pressure of suburban sprawl but the residents fought back by embarking with a major historic preservation movement in the 70s, revitalizing the San Marco Square commercial district, building a new public library and park complex, and converting the former South Jacksonville City Hall into a Police headquarters. San Marco is now one of urban Jacksonville’s most expensive and desired communities.

This and Riverside are arguable Jacksonville’s best urban neighborhoods. But there are still major improvements needed before I would considered this to be a premiere urban district starting with densifying the neighborhood so it can become more walkable and amenity rich. The San Marco commercial districts could be upzoned and single family zoning could easily be abolished throughout most of the neighborhood. I’d also like to see more affordable housing options and walkable schools.

Click here to view my San Marco album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Excellent access to Dwtn across all modes of transit even including a bike lane. 30 min bus ride and 10 min drive to Dwtn.
Decent public transit access and better than most inner city Jacksonville neighborhoods
Overall a very safe community with limited blight.
For sale housing is on the pricy side but still pretty good diversity. Few 1-bed condos however. 2-beds sell between 100K-650. 3&4 beds sell btwn 175K-1.5 M. Some larger mansions even sell for more.
Excellent park amenities with several small-medium sized parks well distributed throughout the neighborhood. Also a Community Center, which functions as a mini-recreation center and a town square in the heart of the commercial district.
About 70% of all San Marco streets have sidewalks and most of those that have sidewalks have modern ADA curb cuts.
Great historic architecture especially the 1920s Spanish Renaissance biz district.
Decent urban-infill which generally has pretty good urban form. Not wild about the architecture style itself of the in-fill.
Several urban commercial districts in San Marco the best being the San Marco Square. Further towards dwtn along San Marco is a decent multiple commercial district and Henricks Street is semi-urban for several blocks. Atlantic St is the emerging biz district center on the public Shoppes East San Marco but this feels like a poor attempt at new urbanism as its not mixed-use and has too much surface parking. Kings Ave is a highway but has been tamed recently with a bus only lane.
Good cultural amenities including lots of restaurants, bars, cafes and breweries, a couple live music venues& art galleries, a community theater, several events centers, and night clubs.
Excellent retail amenities including a supermarket, several drug stores, lots of boutiques/gift shops, several antiques & home good stores, plenty of banks, a book & toy store, tons of dessert joints & gyms, a hospital, public library and some churches.”

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Low density for an urban district but on par with other inner-city Jacksonville neighborhoods.
* Racial diversity is pretty limited as this is a 3/4s Caucasian community.
* A well rated public middle school and small Montessori school are the only schools within San Marco but several quality schools on the edges of the neighborhood.
* Decent # of rentals but pretty pricey. 1-beds lease btwn 1K- the low2Ks. 2-beds btwn the mid 1Ks-2Ks. Some 3-bed product too that lease in the 2Ks & 3Ks.

Springfield- Jacksonville’s Historically Elite Neighborhood

Established in 1869, Springfield experienced its greatest growth from the early 1880s through the 1920s. It became Jacksonville’s first inner city neighborhood and its growth was fueled by the great Jacksonville fire of the early 20th century. The neighborhood also became a place for many of the City’s elite to settle with the majority of the houses built in wood frame vernacular structures. Springfield, like so many other inner city neighborhoods in Jacksonville declined in the Post WWII area thanks to suburbanization and it being surrounded by predominately African American and red-lined neighborhoods. The result of its decline was the removal of much of the historic commercial fabric along Main Street (Jacksonville longest historic main street) and 8th Street. Fortunately most of the grand historic homes survived and Springfield has been revitalizing since the 2000s.

The most intact portion of Springfield is south of 10th Street and generally closer to Main St. Although neighborhood streets north of 10th street are generally not bombed out, just more distressed and with more missing teeth. There are also efforts to create Jacksonville’s own version of Miami’s Wynwood with the Phoenix Arts District centered at 14th and Liberty Avenue where there are many underutilized or abandonded warehouses located. This is still in the nascent stages, but hopefully it takes off. Springfield also has solid public transit access, convenient access to dwtn, good housing diversity with a lot of affordability remaining, decent park and walkable school access, and lots of food & beverage amenities. Retail amenities are also pretty good but the neighborhood lacks a supermarket and other key amenities. As with other Jacksonville neighborhoods, Springfield needs more density to become a top-tier urban district. This starts with upzoning Main Street and 8th turning these corridors into true mixed-use districts. The neighborhood also needs better bike infrastructure and more park amenities in its northern half where they are non-existent.

Click here to view my Springfield album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Excellent sidewalk and ADA infrastructure across nearly all of Springfield.
* Solid tree canopy throughout most of Springfield.
* Other than Downtown and Brooklyn, Springfield has the best public transit access in the City.
* Excellent access to Dwtn. Only a 5 minute drive and 10-15 transit trip. Sadly not bike paths connecting directly to Dwtn although there is a nice dedicated bike lanes going east-west on 8th St.
* Excellent connectivity as well with one of the City’s best neighborhood grid networks.
* Good racial diversity. breaking down to around 30% Black, 50% White, and 9% Hispanic.
* Poverty is still a bit high, but excellent economic diversity.
* Two quality public schools (elementary & middle school) sit within the neighborhood. A couple well rated high schools sit on the edges of Springfield and are walkable to some residents.
* Excellent historic housing stock containing Jacksonville’s best collection of late 19th century styles.
* Good for sale diversity (other than 1-beds) 2-beds sell anywhere from 50K-400K. 3 & 4 beds sell anywhere btwn 75K-600K. Still affordable product available on the edges of Springfield.
* Decent rental availability and some affordable options. 1-beds lease btwn $600-low1Ks, 2-beds btwn $800- high 1Ks, and go array of 3-bed rentals ranging btwn 1K-3K.
* Good park amenities mainly due to Henry J. Klutho Park running several blocks along a creek hosting lots of diversity amenities. Also a public pool and couple other parks.
* Solid food & bev amenities, a couple night clubs, a couple local museums and convenient access to arts amenities dwtn.
* Decent retail amenities including a couple drug stores, accouple groceries, some boutiques & gift shops, a couple banks, a handful of gyms and dessert joints, a major hospital, a skateboard shop, a music store, plenty of churches, and a post office.
* Good recent streetscaping projects along Main and to a less extend, 8th Street.

URBAN WEAKESSES:

* Median age of a Springfield resident is pretty old (around 45) but a decent number of kids live here.
* urban In-fill is pretty limited here.
* Limited one-bed for sale product. Price point is in the 100KS.
* Limited park access in the northern half of Springfield.
* Missing some key retail amenities including a supermarket, post office and hardware store. Also not a ton of boutiques or creative stores.
* Safety has certainly improved recently in Springfield but a decent amount of it still occurs especially on the edges of Springfield. Still a good amount of blight as well.
* Main Street is the longest historic commercial street in Jacksonville much of it has sadly been demolished. South of 8th Street is the most in-tact with many new business filling vacancies. North of 8th St has mostly been replaced with autocentric buildings.
*E 8th Street is also a historic biz district but most of it has been demolished.
* Pedestrian activity was pretty limited.
* Density is pretty low for an urban district.

Murray Hill- An attractive historically working class Jacksonville urban district

I essentially only included the northern half of Murray Hill with the more urban portion north of Kingsbury Street. The areas south of here are completely devoid of sidewalk infrastructure and far from the relatively walkable business district that runs along Edgewood Ave.

Murray Hill (Heights), in Jacksonville took the name of a neighborhood in Manhattan. The Heights part of the original name may be due to its relatively elevated location compared to Dwtn. Development in Murray Hill was sparked by the Great Fire of 1901 which lead to a great expansion of the City to the west and south of Dwtn. The neighborhood got another boost in 1914 with the construction of streetcar line giving Murray Hill convenient access to Dwtn. The neighborhood was annexed into the City of Jacksonville in 1925. Murray Hill has always been a haven for modest working class families and hosts an attractive mix of brick, wood, stucco, concrete, bungalows and cottage style homes. Like much of inner-city Jacksonville the neighborhood began to decline in the 1970s thanks to white flight and the construction of suburban malls. But Murray Hill was less affected than neighborhoods north and east of Dwtn as it was not completely red-lined like those community. Fortunately most of the neighborhood remained in tact by the 2000s and revitalization efforts began to take root by the turn of the 21st century, due to its centralized location, attractive but modest historic housing, quality parks, and relatively walkable commercial district along Edgewater Ave. More recently families desiring urban living but unable to afford neighboring Avondale of Riverside are moving here.

Murray Hill also offers a lot of rental options and at pretty modest prices. It has an excellent tree canopy and good array of walkable retail and cultural amenities concentrated on the Edgewood Ave corridor. For Murray Hill to bevome a great urban district it simply needs more density. This can start with upzoning along Edgewood avenue incentivizing mixed-use infill to built on this already successful business district. Cassat Avenue needs a complete redesign as its a very ugly autocentric road. Better sidewalk and biking infrastructure is also needed along with more walkable schools and some key retail amenities such as a supermarket. But Murray Hill seems to be headed in the right direction however.

Click here to view my Murray Hill album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Good access to dwtn thanks to the short driving commute.
Solid urban street grid and good connectivity.
Much more working class neighborhood than neighboring Riverside but higher than ideal poverty rates. Also much higher Black and Hispanic households here than Riverside.
Good for sale housing diversity and very reasonably priced compared to neighboring Riverside and Avondale. This includes several 1-bed condo options generally selling in the 100Ks. Lots of 2-bed options selling anywhere from 75K to the low 300Ks. 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 90K-500K.
Decent # of rentals and pretty moderately priced. 1-beds rent for $900- 1.5K, 2-beds in the low1Ks-mid1Ks, and even a good # of 3-beds leasing between the 1.5Ks to mid 2Ks.
Good array of small and medium sized parks well distributed across Murray Hill.
Excellent tree canopy.
*Edgewood Ave contains the bulk of retail and cultural amenities in Murray Hill. Good array of restaurants, bars, and cafes, a quality community art center, a live music space in the historic Murray Hill Theater, and couple breweries & night clubs.
Decent retail amenities including a couple grocerias, a drug store, a couple banks, a Goodwill’s, several boutiques and vintage stores, a bookstore, a couple antique stores, several dessert joints & gyms, plenty of churches, and a public library branch. There is also a suburban Lowes a block from Murray Hill’s western edge.
The inner half of Edgewood Avenue until the Murray Hill Theater is pretty pedestrian friendly but the outer half starts to feel more like a Stroad.
Murray Hill is a neighborhood on an upward trajectory but still some lingering crime issues. Cassat Ave is pretty rough on the western edge but the residential street near it are nice. The residential area just north of Edgewood is historically pretty working class. Some rougher looking homes but not widespread blight and abandonment.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Only a small dedicated bike lane in Murray Hill and along Cassat Ave. Other than that no bike infrastructure.
Below average density for an urban district but decent for Jacksonville.
About 50% of residential streets have sidewalks and many of those don’t have modern ADA curbs. The business district along Edgewater generally has good sidewalks and ADA infrastructure.
Really only one school in the neighborhood, a well rated elementary. A handful of schools on the edge of Murray Hill with mixed ratings.
Missing some key retail amenities including a supermarket, post office, and medical offices.
*Cassat Avenue along the western edge of Murray Hill is a pretty ugly autocentric street. Some hope as a bike lane was recently installed here. But it really needs a complete resign to be more walkable and safe.”

Fairfax- A quasi-urban neighborhood located on the St. John’s River

“Fairfax sits just south of Avondale and was mostly developed between the 1920 and 1960s. The northern edge of the district is where the best urbanity lies with older homes and the Hershel commercial district which has a couple blocks of decent urban form. The rest of the neighborhood, while on a good grid, is mostly single family homes where sidewalks are optional. Highway 117 is the other Fairfax commercial district creating the district’s western boundary and is a classic American Stroad lined with lots of strip malls and autocentric uses.

Fairfax has the typical suburban strengths of good safety, full tree canopy, decent retail amenities (albeit often car centric) and a lots of for sale housing diversity. While I don’t consider Fairfax a quality urban district yet, there is hope that it could transition into a more urban neighborhood thanks to its existing urban grid and semi-urban biz district along Hershel Street. A good place to start this transition is to upzone the Hershel Street corridor allowing mixed use infill. Fairfax also needs bike infrastructure, walkable schools, better public transit, and more consistent sidewalks to be a functional urban district.”

Click here to view my Fairfax album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

*Convenient access to Dwtn by car, along a 15 min drive. Takes about 45 minutes by bus and no protected bike paths to Dwtn.
* Solid grid and good block connectivity.
* Decent For sale options but no 1-beds available. 2-bed for sale homes sell anywhere btwn 100K-450K. 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 180K-700K with a handful of mansions selling over 1 M.
* Overall a pretty safe community.
* Great tree canopy.
* Decent retail amenities but half of them are located in a suburban shopping mall. The neighborhood has a supermarket, a department store, a couple drug stores, a hardware store, several banks, a book store, a couple boutiques and antique stores, several salons, a couple gyms and dessert joints, and a couple churches.
* Decent historic homes much of the commercial infill is in suburban shopping malls.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Public transit is so so and bike infrastructure non-existent here.
Poor density for an urban district.
Good sidewalk and ADA along the main arteries of Fairfax. But sidewalks only existing on about 1/3 of all residential streets.
Pretty Caucasian neighborhood with limited racial diversity. Better economic diversity.
No schools within the Fairfax boundaries but a quality elementary school just north of the neighborhood and several small schools to the west.
Rentals are very limited in Fairfax.
Pedestrian activity is pretty limited
Parks are concentrated in the southeast corner of the neighborhood. Stinson Park is very nice along the riverfront and a couple parklettes nearby.
Cultural amenities are limited to a handful of restaurants & bars, a lively night club, a coffee house, and a couple art galleries.
Hershel Street has some urbanity and semblance of a business district esp. near St. Johns Ave but still several small shopping malls. As a 6 lane road Highway 117 is a lost cause has host the bulk of Fairfax’s strip malls.”

Avondale-a well planned early 20th Century Jacksonville Community with a great Urban Business District

Avondale was developed a couple decades after Riverside mostly between the 1910s-1950s. It was developed as an exclusive upscale subdivision by a development group out of Cincinnati which is why it was named after a high-end Cincinnati neighborhood of the time… Avondale. Sadly Avondale has a legacy of segregation as blacks were excluded from this extensively planned community. Fortunately the neighborhood has obtained a fair level of diversity in its present state by far less than it could have been. Avondale excels at having an intentionally designed 3 block business district along St. John Ave also referred to as the “”Shops of Avondale””. The neighborhood also developed with parks and parklettes being included intentionally to provide more residents with easy access to their own walkable park. Avondale also features well signed homes from the 1910s-1940s often in the Mediterranean Revival style and has good access to Dwtn and a thick tree canopy.

But due to its design corresponding with the rise of autocentric neighborhoods, Avondale is pretty low density, lacks the rental diversity of Riverside to the northside, lacks economic diversity, and has many residential streets without sidewalks. Retail amenities are also very concentrated at the shops of Avondale effectively making many parts of the neighborhood unwalkable to retail and cultural amenities. The neighborhood also needs bike infrastructure, more walkable schools and several key retail amenities (i.e. grocery store, drug store, etc.) to truly be a walkable urban neighborhood.

Click here to view my Avondale album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Good connectivity here.
Only a 10-15 min drive to Dwtn but no dedicated bike access and Public transit takes 40-45 mins.
Very attractive historic homes especially along Edgewood Ave and near the riverfront. Post WWII housing is generally urban including many of the commercial buildings along St. John’s and some newer condos near Big Fishwier Creek.
Decent for sale diversity but less one-bed options than Riverside. Similar price point.
Overall a very safe community with limited blight issues.
Excellent tree canopy.
A major state college sites on the western edge of Avondale.
Great set of parks including medium sized ones, sports facilities, playgrounds, riverfront parks, and several parklettes spread throughout the neighborhood.
Lots of food & beverage amenities concentrated along the St. John’s business district, a couple art galleries, a couple live music venues but not much else culturally.
Retail amenities concentrated in the St. Johns biz district including lots of boutiques, gift shops, several dessert joints, gyms, antiques, and home good stores and several churches.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Almost no bike infrastructure here. Mediocre Public transit access.
Pretty low density for an urban area.
About 40% of residential streets have sidewalks and many of those don’t have modern ADA curbs. The business district along St. John’s however has excellent sidewalks and ADA infrastructure.
Some rentals options but much less than Riverside to the north. Price points are similar to Riverside.
Decent but not great access to walkable schools. Two well rated elementaries and a below average high school in the neighborhood.
Missing several key neighborhood amenities including a supermarket, drug store, hardware store, hospital/medical offices, and local post office and public library.”

Riverside- Neighborhood with Jacksonville’s best preserved Historic Architecture

“Riverside and Brooklyn (neighborhood just to the north) saw modest growth until 1887, when the city of Jacksonville annexed them and established a streetcar line. The neighborhood really exploded between the Great Fire of 1901 and Florida’s real estate bust in the 1920s. This was a great period to develop architecturally as some many different revival styles were in vogue. Riverside probably contains the best diversity of historic home styles in all of Florida. Riverside and Avondale helped to preserve their architectural legacy by creating one of the City’s largest historic districts in 1974. Riverside also became a cultural center for Jacksonville’s LGBTQ population and is now one of the City’s most in-tact urban districts.

In additional to preserving many of its historic homes, Riverside all has three commercial districts making it one of Jacksonville’s most walkable neighborhoods. These districts include several blocks of King St. and the Five Points commercial district centered on Park St. and a more limited biz district along Stockton St. The neighborhood also has typical suburban amenities including good schools, safety, solid park space, and extensive tree canopy. The neighborhood excels at providing a diversity of for sale and rental options and price points and has solid cultural and retail amenities. Riverside escaped, for the most part, the post WWII disinvestment of many parts of the City except for the north edge of the neighborhood along I-10 where many homes are dilapidated or demolished. Not surprisingly this was the part for the neighborhood with the highest concentration of African Americans historically. This area is slowly rebounding but lacks sidewalk and ADA infrastructure. For Riverside to become a premiere urban district it needs additional density to drive better walkability and amenities. I’d also like to see more bike infrastructure and more park amenities in the north edge of the district.

Click here to view my Riverside and here to view my Five Points Albums on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

Pretty good grid and connectivity.
Go access to Dwtn across all modes of transit. Decent bike connection to Dwtn and pretty good transit service. Only a 10 M drive to Dwtn.
ADA infrastructure is pretty good sidewalks exist on about 80% of streets (less so in the more blighted areas along I-10) and ADA standard curb cuts existing on about 40% of intersections with better consistency in the biz districts.
Pretty good schools with several well rated elementary schools and a high school, albeit not rated well.
Good for sale diversity including a good # of 1-bed condos that sell btwn 150K-330K, 2-beds sell btwn 100K-500K (some more expensive) with lots of diversity and 3 & 4 beds sell anywhere btwn 150K-1 M with some price mansions & bay front condos.
Good amount of rental product and decent amount is moderately priced. 1-beds lease anywhere btwn $850-2K, 2-beds btwn $900-2.5K and a good # of 3-beds homes for a bit more.
Overall very safe but some blighted areas remain around 1-10.
Several quality parks but I’d like to see several more in the Northern edge of the district where none exist.
solid tree canopy across most of the neighborhood.
Lots of attractive historic homes throughout. Modern in-fill is pretty good but a decent amount of autocentric commercial uses.
Excellent food & beverage amenities, several breweries, several art galleries, the Cummer Art Museum, a couple historic homes and several night clubs.
Good retail amenities including a couple supermarkets, a farmers market, several drug stores, plenty of boutiques & gift shops, a couple book stores, banks, plenty of dessert shops, a couple gyms, several antique & home good stores, a public library, a major hospital, plenty of medical offices & churches.

URBAN STRENGTHS:

No bike share stations in the neighborhood or across Jacksonville.
So so density for an urban area.
Some economic and racial diversity but the district is majority white and affluent with the exception of the low income parts near I-10. Neighborhood is also pretty old on average with limited family households.”