A.G. Gancarski
Laveranues Coles was a legendary wide receiver by Jacksonville standards. After his high school career at Ribault, Coles went on to Florida State University, where, after he took the fall for shoplifting with Peter Warrick (an incident which earned FSU the Steve Spurrier sobriquet “Free Shoes University”), he vowed never to return.
Despite the abrupt end to his college days, Coles went on to a solid professional career. Yet, after stints with the Redskins and the Jets, Coles found his way back to Duval County, where he became an entrepreneur.
A recent attempted entrepreneurial function has met with resistance. On August 20, the Planning Commission rejected his attempt to get approval for a “dancing entertainment establishment or facility which includes the retail sale and service of all alcoholic beverages including liquor, beer or wine on property located at 5800 Philips Highway” in District 5, in the District of Council Vice-President Lori Boyer.
Boyer is Land Use and Zoning Vice Chair
So Coles, represented by local lobbyist extraordinaire Paul Harden, is attempting to do what anyone with means, connections, and the will to open a “dancing entertainment establishment” would do.
He is appealing the ruling, by going to City Council, where he is certain to have at least one vote on a bill introduced this week: that of Councilman Reggie Gaffney, whose Executive Council Assistant is Coles’ mother, Sirretta Williams.
Williams, a pastor, is best known to #jaxpol followers for what the Times-Union’s Christopher Hong called a “profanity-laced squabble” with her opponent in the District 7 first election in 2015, Pastor Kimberly Daniels.
