A.G. Gancarski
Jacksonville faces many issues.
Crumbling infrastructure. Shortfalls in public safety. And yes, a $2.7 trillion unfunded pension liability.
The roads? They aren’t so good either.
City lawn mowing? Even the mayor will tell you there are places in Jacksonville that don’t get cut enough.
And yet, one council member asserts that the next budget, which is going to see cuts in programs like the Jax Journey, and which is seeing requests for enhancements rejected by department after department in the mayor’s office budget review, needs to budget for something new.
Speed bumps in neighborhoods.
An internal city of Jacksonville document explains the rationale.
Councilman Reginald “Reggie” Brown is recommending legislation to be drafted for the city’s budget to include flexibility to cover all enclosed neighborhood cost, related to speed humps. This legislation would prevent the “cut through” traffic and use the speed humps as a way to calm traffic to ensure safety of the community. Councilman Brown is requesting to have speed humps to be installed within all enclosed neighborhoods in need of traffic control.
Jacksonville is no stranger to legislation along these lines.
In 2015, the city council hotly debated whether to ban backing cars into driveways.
The theory then was that code enforcement couldn’t see whether the cars had tags, and that the trunks were storage places for contraband.
After extended debate of this issue, council was finally able to discern drivers may have legitimate reasons for backing into driveways.
Will the addition of speed bumps on side streets be a rare Jacksonville budget enhancement in a lean budget year? That remains to be seen.
