JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The city of Jacksonville just finished an $11 million project along Park Street in the Brooklyn neighborhood to allow fewer cars and more people along the road.
The work was done between Forest and Water Streets, which covers about half a mile of Park Street. The city says the road now has two lanes, instead of four, with more sidewalk space along the side of the street.
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It is also now serving as the link between the Brooklyn, LaVilla, and Five Points neighborhoods as part of the city’s 30+ mile Emerald Trail project.
“This street now invites families to stroll, kids to ride bikes, and businesses to thrive, and it has the added benefit of keeping everybody safer,” said Mayor Donna Deegan, who announced the reopening of Park Street on Monday morning.
The development of the Emerald Trail comes about two weeks after Action News Jax told you $147 million in funding for the project, through a federal grant, was cut. Groundworks Jacksonville, the company behind the Emerald Trail, told us, at the time, that the slashing of the funds had caused the project’s timeline to become unclear.
Mayor Deegan told Action News Jax the project will still be completed, despite the loss of funds.
“While we don’t have that whole pot of money sitting there right now for that project, we’re just going to continue to go after the completion of each link of this trail,” Mayor Deegan said, “our representatives in Congress are all in. They want to help us do that, and we’ll just keep moving.”
The city says the work on Park Street was also done, in part, to keep people safer while walking and biking along the road. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has reported 54 people hit and killed by cars in Duval County since the start of 2024.
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“I want to go out and have a fun time with my friends without worrying about somebody getting hit by a car or getting killed,” said Tanner Pletzke, part of the Jacksonville Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee.
Pletzke told Action News Jax that one of his coworkers and friends was recently seriously hurt in a hit-and-run while he was riding his bike. He believes the work on Park Street is a good step toward making sure other people aren’t hurt.
“I think it’s a common sense thing that everyone deserves,” Pletzke said, “as taxpaying residents of a city, we expect some kind of walkability and safety from our city.”
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