A.G. Gancarski
When Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry arrived at city hall a few minutes after 6 for Wednesday night’s open house, the media awaited at the front steps for a promised “availability.”
As he walked from his white SUV a bluegrass band played Me and Bobby McGee in Hemming Park about 100 yards away.
Then a funny thing happened.
Before the news media (Florida Politics, David Bauerlein and a TV guy from First Coast News) could talk to him, Curry was besieged by young people, who wanted to meet the mayor, and in at least one case, get an autograph.
The reporters can wait when youngsters have their requests. That’s also true of the mayor in his private life, where he puts his children above all else. That’s also true of Mayor Curry’s public persona. He spoke of reaching out to at-risk kids in his inaugural address on Wednesday, of “getting in the trenches,” and it was clear that for Curry, who coaches his son’s Pop Warner team, there’s something life-affirming about the hopeful energy and complete honesty that children have.
It wasn’t just kids who came up to Curry. Old and young, men and women, they came around. Soon enough, he was able to talk to the media; he quipped to Times-Union columnist Ron Littlepage, wearing his trademark straw chapeau: “Can I get one of those hats?”
Asked whether he was ready for such reaction from crowds the next four years, he emphatically said yes. A follow-up question asked whether there was an express intent to scheduling the city hall open house on the first day of his administration, one that coincided with the First Wednesday Art Walk.
Curry called it a “natural fit,” a signal of his commitment to downtown, the community, arts, and the people of Jacksonville. Before he knew that the dates coincided, he said, he wanted to open city hall to the people.
It is, after all, the people’s house.
There was a kismet in that convergence, reminiscent of another such convergence: Shad Khan and the Jacksonville Jaguars getting a “very special thank you” in the back of the inauguration program. Recall that Khan backed Alvin Brown in the election, emphatically, saying that he was going to be a player in local politics going forward.
Khan and Curry are developing a relationship, Curry said. They’ve met and had numerous conversations, “both formal and informal,” the mayor said.
“Shad is a tremendous asset,” Curry said.
Curry took his son to a training camp practice at the Jaguars’ compound. The mayor said his son throws a tight spiral.
Curry was asked about building bridges to African-American pastors, such as Fred Newbill and John Guns, both integral to his transition committees, and both speakers at the joint inauguration of Curry and Sheriff Mike Williams.
Curry spoke of that as an example of “listening and connecting,” necessary to build bridges in this “big, diverse city.”
Beyond that, he talked to reporters about his desire for “fiscal sanity,” citing that a billion dollar budget is enough for the city’s needs, as well as reiterating his commitment to getting more police on the street, although the full 147 he pledged on the campaign trail cannot be fulfilled immediately.
Curry also discussed, as he did in the inaugural speech, the need to invest resources in at-risk youth.
It’s more than just money and programs, though. These kids, from broken homes, subject to severe poverty and all that goes along with it, have to know people care.
“It’s important tonight, and important in the years ahead,” Curry said.
Of course, there will be time to discuss policy in the days to come. This night was about connecting with the community, and for Curry and Williams both, that’s clearly a big deal.
The new sheriff said he and his wife had come to Art Walk “a lot during the campaign,” citing Sweet Pete’s, the iconic candy shop and café across the street from city hall, as a favorite spot of his family.
