FAMU Way: It will bring that southside strategy to life
Tallahassee Democrat –By Mary Ann Lindley
June 27, 2010
Extending FAMU Way into what city officials promise will be one of the most beautiful streets in Tallahassee is worth celebrating for two reasons.
Helping the southern part of the city look, feel and be as economically robust and aesthetically cheerful as much of the rest of Tallahassee has long been discussed by city and county officials. Lately political candidates have joined the chorus of lifting the southside out of its industrial image.
Yet little has been done in terms of infrastructure or economic incentives to enliven the area or spur investment.
Florida A&M University has pretty much shouldered the burden of this, with the arts community of Railroad Square having FAMU’s back.
The second thing notable about launching the FAMU Way project is that it is testimony of the power of conversation.
When in 2008 the city introduced the concept of putting a road through what is now a mix of homes, empty lots and some commercial property for the purpose of connecting Lake Bradford Road with South Monroe, residents said “go away.”
City officials countered, asking “can’t we at least talk?” Many staffers and others went home to home talking to residents to see what the issues were, both financial and sentimental among some families living in the area for decades.
They showed plans and architectural renderings and asked for feedback. They got it — along with stories about why old homes that grandparents had built weren’t easily given up; about who they recall working in the old pecan factory on Lake Bradford Road, about mulberry trees in the yards that enticed kids to devour so many berries that their mouths turned purple — and before grandmas could bake mulberry pies.
FAMU officials were more willing to look at the plans, liking the idea especially of safer, more attractive concourse between FAMU and FSU where many students are dual-enrolled.
But the university wanted the roadway moved closer to Gaines, which is now under renovation and construction itself — set to become the traffic-moving east-west partner to FAMU Way.
The city agreed that was a workable and wise idea and the route was shifted.
Then retired FAMU professor and historian C.U. Smith persuaded the city to extend the name of FAMU Way — once called Canal Street until Smith got that changed — all the way to South Monroe. This change will apply to the few blocks now called “Oakland” that run past the Shell Oyster Bar.
Talks continued and residents began to get intrigued. They said they wanted what is now a ditch — on maps it’s known as the St. Augustine Branch — channeled underground so the children in the area wouldn’t end up playing in unclean stormwater runoff.
The city agreed to forget its “babbling brook” concept and conceding the residents’ point about safety.
Including the Gaines Street revitalization and the Blueprint 2000 Cascades Park projects, this roughly $45 million project that should be finished in total by 2014.
It means the southside will have a really fantastic holistic transportation and recreation corridor, with underground systems to contain stormwater.
Paralleling Gaines Street, FAMU Way will look like this: first comes a parking lane, then a five-foot wide bicycle lane, then one lane for traffic, a wide landscaped median, another driving lane heading the other direction, another bike lane, another parking lane. And running alongside will be a linear park with winding trails and spaces wide enough in places for playing soccer.
Property owners and homeowners will get the best of the Blueprint model of property acquisition, using incentives to avoid costly eminent domain proceedings. Some 50 parcels are in play, a few owner-occupied, some long-time renters, plus commercial, rented-out or vacant properties.
Assistant to the City Manager Michelle Bono says “we’ll work with homeowners, maybe helping to move a home to another location,” or maybe even helping them relocate architectural features of a home with historic or sentimental meaning.
The city has succeeded in moving forward with what may be the most significant addition to the southside strategy by a process of what Bono calls “informed consent.”
It’s an approach that translates well in almost any arena, from over the family dinner table, to business dealings, to public projects such as this widening and beautification of FAMU Way.
Not everyone will necessary love every feature of a plan, but if everyone is listened to, their opinions respected and honestly considered, good things happen. This is almost certain to be one of those good things in our town.