Hi Doug, Chang's Chinese is still around and has expanded to 3
locations. Jacksonville and surrounding area has quintupled in size
since the 80's and the population topped the million mark in '96.

There is a "new" mall at the intersection of Southside Blvd. and
Phillips Hwy. (US1) in which opened a Bouca De Beppo, Italian
restaurant. Mighty tasty food. The city government passed a vote "The
Better Jacksonville Plan" and is re-building older infrastructure, and
adding a great deal of new stuff.
The old Veteran's Memorial Coliseum has been torn down and the new 12,00
seat "Jacksonville Arena" has been built in its place. It opens in a few
days with an Elton John concert. The memorial wall was saved and is a
permanent fixture of the sports/entertainment complex.
New parks and boat launching ramps are under construction all over the
city. You will recall the nightmare trip into Mayport Naval station if
you had to make a north turn from Atlantic blvd. This has been remedied
with a dedicated overpass which flies from Atlantic to Mayport Rd. There
is also a new expressway "Wonderwood expressway" which will connect into
Mayport Road from north of Regency Square. Most of it is a long bridge.
295 is now a loop around both sides of the city, the southern/eastern
portion designated 9A. It sports an impressive bridge (Dame Point
Bridge) and more than 75 overpasses. I can now go from Mandarin to the
Beaches in less then 20 minuets. A trip which once took over an hour and
was 20 miles longer.

I have some live rivercams on my website if you wish to have a look.

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~aartworks/stjohns.html

Regards,
Capt. Frank

DSK wrote:

"Capt. Frank Hopkins" wrote:


Unfortunately, the chinese restaurant is gone, and replaced by a rather
large shopping center. But, others have opened. I went to Wasabi's for
sushi tonight. It was great.

You would not believe the changes in the last 5 or 6 years. A growth
rate of 600%!


My last duty station in the late '80s was a ship out of Mayport, and lived in the
Jax area for several years after. My favorite place was Chang's Mongolian BBQ down
at Jax Beach, but there were a lot of good restaurants. THe area was growing
incredibly fast then and traffic & crowding was getting intolerable. I'm not sorry
I moved away (for one thing, I met my wife here) but it is sad to see this
happening to so many nice areas (including here).

Regards
Doug King