The Preservation Project'' is a massive recreation proposal stretching from watery wilderness to spike-scuffed sandlot. It is a town forest in the air, a hidden garden of the heart. Such dreams have been enduring, if often ephemeral, desires throughout local history. A preoccupation with a place to play and relax has characterized Jacksonville since whittling was high sport. Yet bucolic lust has never quite crashed to the fore of other pressing concerns.
Fresh air is nice, but so is the smell of money.
City founder Isaiah Hart set aside a blackjack hammock for a public square. Not the choicest lot, but adequate. The City Commission pondered making a parking lot in '50s. In the '70s it was bricked over and now reposes in the shade of the Skyway Express. Proper and penurious Bostonian John Murray Forbes saved the heart of Riverside for sweethearts and swans, a great place to abbreviate with an expressway.