Is downtown Jax as pretty as it seems?

[David in JAX]

Originally Posted by riveree

I had read - I think it was on metrojacksonville, so take that for what it's worth - that the estimated Downtown homeless population is appx 200 individuals........which, if true, is a very low number compared to many cities.

200? Not possible. There are over 1500 beds for homeless people downtown that I know of (not transitional people or families, but homeless only) and several hundred more don't make it in each night or choose to stay outside. I would put the number at just under 2000. If you include Springfield, I would estimate the number at around 3000.

The sad thing is that many cities that had homeless problems much worse than Jacksonville have cleaned up their downtown areas. I don't really know why the City of Jacksonville is so clueless, but they refuse to do anything about the problem. And I don't understand how they expect to bring in additional convention business when they haven't even started to fix the problems that need to be corrected before businesses will even consider this area as a convention destination.

[backtofla]

jax has a long way to go if it wants to look like the downtowns of charlotte nc or greenville sc.

[riveree]

Originally Posted by David in JAX

200? Not possible. There are over 1500 beds for homeless people downtown that I know of (not transitional people or families, but homeless only) and several hundred more don't make it in each night or choose to stay outside. I would put the number at just under 2000. If you include Springfield, I would estimate the number at around 3000.

The sad thing is that many cities that had homeless problems much worse than Jacksonville have cleaned up their downtown areas. I don't really know why the City of Jacksonville is so clueless, but they refuse to do anything about the problem. And I don't understand how they expect to bring in additional convention business when they haven't even started to fix the problems that need to be corrected before businesses will even consider this area as a convention destination.

As I understood it, the shelters kick everyone out each morning at some ungodly hour, so they have nowhere else to start their day than right there on the street . If you're there early in the morning, then you probably are seeing more of them. I've rarely been downtown any earlier than 7am, so I guess by that time many have scattered so I have not seen any large number of them. When I'd be in Heming Plaza mid-day, there were homeless hanging out in the park, but I'd expect that in any city so I see no issue there (they go about their business as I go about mine).