A.G. Gancarski
The first meeting of the Lenny Curry transition team’s Blight Committee, chaired by E. Denise Lee, carried on the work that the city council’s ad hoc Blight Committee has done for the past couple of years. The people in the room, by and large, had not been to a meeting of Lee’s council committee. The influx of new people, at least in theory, will allow for an influx of new ideas.
The first part of the meeting largely recapitulated the work that has been done on the blight issue, which, as Councilwoman Lee put it, should “sensitize the community” to relevant issues in order to improve “quality of life for all people.”
Lee described blight as “like cancer,” and told how the deterioration of public streets can lead to what she controversially describes as “human blight.”
“Human blight to me is when people stand on the corner, break into homes, shoot at police, and create social ills that take away quality of life,” she said.
Some have said that the term is pejorative. Lee, however, has said she doesn’t care all that much about how the term is taken. She sees her role as addressing the real issue.
She also discussed how zoning can address blight issues, such as bootleg car washes that “pop up” with “10 or 12 people standing around all day.”
Legislation also has its role, such as addressing outmoded laws that were passed when Jacksonville was a much smaller city. One issue lawmakers deal with on the civic level is that of foreclosure creating “many abandoned or vacant properties.”
Unmown medians, abandoned buildings, bus stops teeming with illegal cash-only transactions: Those are the hallmarks of blight. Most assembled on the committee had very little first-hand experience with such occurrences, but they brought their own perspectives to the mix.
Certain neighborhoods were mentioned. Like Brooklyn, where the Corner Bakery that Alvin Brown waxed so poetically about during his last campaign is just two blocks away from shotgun houses with sagging roofs. And New Town and the East Side, where the older residents stay housebound because of the street crime and related issues.
As committee member and former Councilwoman Suzanne Jenkins said, in these neighborhoods “dominoes start to fall.”
The question is how to solve these issues.
Tripp Gulliford, the son of the councilman, talked of an observation an out-of-state business associate made when traveling through Jacksonville.
“He said that Jacksonville was the shabbiest city he’s ever been in,” Gulliford said. “We look like the house where windows are broken and paint is peeling.”
The term “blight” has a certain connotation. Yet blight is a real thing. Going forward, the committee will spend the month of June addressing various issues, hearing presentations from governmental stakeholders, and so on, with a goal being to make recommendations in July.
