A.G. Gancarski
Adults, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said, are all “nice and political” when they talk with politicians.
However, talking to young men, such as the about 100 graduates of the One City One Jacksonville Leadership Academy Curry spoke with Friday morning in a no-holds-barred Q&A at City Hall, demands more candor and realism.
“You know if someone’s BSing you,” Curry said. “Young folks will call you on it.”
Those comments provided a great snapshot of one of the most meaningful hours so far in the Curry administration.
For Curry, the morning provided an opportunity to put his inauguration speech assertion that “love can transform this city” into action. He talked to the dozens of young men taking part in the Leadership Academy this week, who had visited the State Attorney’s Office, EverBank Field, and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
The mayor, a very careful on-the-record speaker with local media, was considerably less buttoned-up as he addressed the young men.
He spoke of his childhood and blue-collar origins where he wasn’t exposed to much culture but found his way by reading books, including biographies of great men.
“When I was 10, I never imagined I’d be mayor of Jacksonville,” Curry said, describing himself and his parents working together in the family television repair business.
“I wasn’t a bad student, wasn’t a great student,” Curry said. “I really fell in love with football. I thought I was going to the NFL someday.”
Despite having been a fireplug pulling guard and linebacker, at 5-feet 8-inches tall, 230 pounds, he knew he wasn’t cut out for the NFL.
Not that he didn’t dream about it.
“Mike Singletary, one of the best linebackers of all time, was 5-9,” Curry said. “But he was fast.”
Curry, at 230, was not.
“I lived and breathed football and weightlifting. I had no idea I wasn’t built for it,” said Curry, whose peak bench was 375 pounds (he did not say how many reps), said.
However, “what I learned in sports was off-season training.” That allowed Curry to “flip the switch” in college, becoming an accountant, a businessman, and then, eventually, Jacksonville mayor.
“I know some of what you’re experiencing, but not all of it,” Curry said. “Whatever you want to be, you can become.”
The questions came fast and furious from the young men in the room. One of the first: about the bruising campaign to unseat former Mayor Alvin Brown.
“You go through elections, but once the election is over,” the transfer of power begins.
Noting the smooth transition, Curry described Brown as “kind and generous. I think the world of him.”
When asked about governing, Curry spoke of the realities of delegation.
“If you hire the right people,” the Jacksonville mayor mused, “things get done.”
Curry then spoke of the real divisions in Jacksonville.
“Parts of Jacksonville experience what other parts don’t,” Curry observed.
“No child should be worried about stepping out of their home. Right now in Jacksonville, that ain’t the case,” Curry added.
He then spoke to the reality of limited economic opportunity in much of the city.
“If you’re 15 years old, you can’t get a job, and you see someone dealing on the corner,” there is “temptation.”
Curry’s model of leadership: to show that “there’s a better way out there.”
“I’m going to make sure there are jobs for young people,” he said.
He knows the challenges are more than symbolic though.
“There are neighborhoods that have experienced no recovery or job growth,” he said. “I know I can’t solve it by giving a good speech.”
That said, “love will transform our city.” Even though it won’t be overnight.
“I have no idea what you’re going back to, [but] you can fight for your goal every day,” Curry said.
Part of that is to have “someone in life to call and say I’m struggling with this right now.”
A comrade in arms in the effort: Bishop John Guns, whose Operation Save Our Sons has been central to the initiative.
Guns spoke with typical passion about Curry, saying, “The first meeting he had with young men like you, he was adamant that there would be no media.”
“The next four to eight years will be better for you because this man cares,” Guns added.
“You may have to go back to places that aren’t perfect, but you live in a city where the leader cares, and you can’t pay for that.”
“Some people say my heart’s too big,” but in Curry, Guns said, “I think I’ve met my twin.”
In closing, Curry told the group, “What you saw is real. This is only the beginning.”
“We care about you in-di-vid-u-al-ly,” the mayor stressed.
The young men toured council chambers, then the mayor’s office, but what likely will resonate more than a look at offices and men and women on platforms is the executive who got on their level, listened to their concerns, and promised to do what he could to make their lives better.
