A.G. Gancarski
On a crisp Friday morning, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry thrilled some onlookers and alarmed others when he took command of a excavator to begin the deconstruction of a blighted, 12-unit apartment complex on Payne Street.
This creative destruction was for a good cause: a prelude to the development of Payne Avenue Walk, a 12-unit affordable single family home complex located in one of the city’s most vulnerable communities.
The old unit, called by Denise Lee – the area’s former city councilwoman and current city director of Blight Initiatives – a nexus for “thug, crime, prostitution, anything you want to name,” had been targeted for redevelopment by Lee in her final term on Council.
Lee, who grew up on nearby 10th Street, is “very familiar with this area” and noted that “blight breeds crime. When you get rid of blight, you get rid of crime.”
On Friday, she summed up the importance of the effort: “This sends a message that we are not playing.”
Sheriff Mike Williams noted that in 1991, when he was a rookie patrolman, he spent a lot of time at this complex in the Durkeeville area of Jacksonville, on “call after call after call.”
“A place like this” with its population density and its design “draws resources.”
Williams noted that the area has improved in the past 15 years or so, and the new construction would allow “people to take ownership,” which is “an important piece of the puzzle” of crime abatement.
Curry, flanked by Williams, Lee, and current Councilmen Jim Love and John Crescimbeni, who served with Lee on Council’s blight committee when these initiatives were launching, termed this “the beginning of a new day” for the Payne Street area, and a signalling of his administration’s commitment to conquering blight “block by block, zip code by zip code.”
“We’ve had so many neighborhoods and zip codes left behind for so many years,” Curry said, and “when we talk about public safety,” blight removal and infrastructure renewal are essential pieces of a puzzle Jacksonville has eternally tried to solve.
Current area Councilwoman Katrina Brown, who attended the nearby Stanton High School for “a couple of years,” said she knew this area very well, crediting Lee’s focus on “this area, this project.”
