A.G. Gancarski
Jacksonville’s Eastside faces challenges on par with any area in Jacksonville.
One census tract has 51.2 percent of its residents below the poverty line, an 18 percent unemployment rate, and a $23,158 median household income.
Another nearby tract is even worse.
65.3 percent of residents fall below the poverty line, and 60.3 percent are unemployed. Median household income is below $11,000. Housing prices in these tracts are around $65K on average.
Health outcomes in the Eastside are just as bad.
The Eastside is part of Health Zone 1, the worst in the city, where half of all children live in poverty. Two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese. Less than a sixth of the population has post-secondary education.
And as one would expect, violent crime is also an issue. From the police shooting of Vernell Bing, Jr. to the drive by shooting of toddler Aiden McClendon, the Eastside is wracked with outcomes closer to the Third World than the First World.
This, despite city money going into EverBank Field, the Jacksonville Veterans’ Memorial Arena, and the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.
These projects, expected to bring economic benefit to the neighborhoods that house them, have yet to.
Despite the Eastside’s seemingly perennial struggles, there may be hope for a turnaround in the next few years, if an ambitious redevelopment plan gets traction and buy-in from civic leaders.
LISC Jacksonville – the Local Initiatives Support Corporation – presented the mayor’s office with as “Eastside Initiative” plan on Thursday.
Billed by Executive Director Janet Owens as a “redevelopment strategy that incorporates the rich heritage and culture of this neighborhood,” Owens expects detailed discussions with senior staff for Mayor Lenny Curry in the coming weeks.
The Eastside Initiative has five areas of focus: the Business Association/District; coordinated rehabilitation and infill development; “strategic site acquisitions”; multi-family development; and jobs/workforce development.
The plan currently calls for 285 multi-family rental units and “36,000 square feet of commercial/training space for workforce development,” via a training/education center on Albert Street.
The expectation: that the plan would “catalyze” additional housing projects “leading to the preservation and/or creation of 700-800 additional units of housing.”
All of this, however, is contingent on the city “acquiring, assembling, and transferring strategic parcels” in the area on and around A. Philip Randolph Blvd.
Development would impact both Springfield and the Eastside both.
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Broadly speaking, the plan has three initial development phases.
The first: redevelopment of the lower part of A. Philip Randolph Blvd. This includes “large scale, mixed income multi-family development” and rehabilitation and redevelopment of vacant lots and extant housing stock.
The northern part of A. Philip Randolph is next, including revitalization of existing green space, adaptive reuse of a vacant warehouse site, and single-family and multi-family infill.
From there, more in-fill housing on arterial streets would follow.
The first part of 2016 would be devoted to site assessment and environmental testing, project design, and community engagement.
If all goes as planned, total capital investment in the project would reach $21.705 million by the end of 2020.
To put this number in perspective, the city plans to invest $6.8 million for a Lower Eastside drainage project, remedying a long-term infrastructural problem.
And the city’s big ask this legislative session: $50 million to remove the Hart Bridge offramps by the stadium, routing traffic instead onto the underutilized Bay Street to service the sports complex and expected development at Metropolitan Park and the Shipyards.
If all these plans come together, the Eastside may look different when Lenny Curry leaves office than when he took control of City Hall’s fourth floor.
2 comments
Stanley Scott
December 17, 2016 at 4:36 am
First, there is no economic plan just conversations for future growth on the Eastside by residents that matters. Second, Janet Owens of LISC has no community development skills, understand collective engagement methodology or have any empathy the residents. Third, Jacksonville leadership since Consolidation (with the approval of misguided AA leadership) has been fleecing the NorthBank community tax base for infrastructure improvements in more affluence high-income communities, Riverside, South Bank, Cecil Field, and the despicable Courthouse.
Today, more than ever Leadership is required in the African American
community. For more than 50 plus years the African American
Leadership has betrayed the African American community. No longer can the African American community allowed leadership folly, religion fanaticism, and politic cronyism to misdirect our resolve.
The African-American community collectively is suffering not because of racism, poverty, or crime the primary reason is self-inflicted
ignorance. Decreasing the pathology in North Jacksonville cannot be achieved by the present African American leadership especially the Faith-based. I respect the African American faith-based leadership but hold them accountable overall for the blighted economic condition in the urban core.
The African American Economic Recovery Think Tank has developed a
holistic economic roadmap impacting the Quality of Life in the urban
core throughout Jacksonville North Bank. The AAERTT understand the methodology needed to impact these communities. The AAERTT knows how to build a competent goal-driven team to achieve that strategy.
AAERTT has 4 implementation components needed to increase the Quality of Life index by 20 to 30 percent within 3 years in North Jacksonville.
1. Family Infrastructure
2. Education based on the Arts and History
3. Healthcare Prevention
4. Community Development and Ownership
The violent crime increase is a direct correlation of misguided leadership failure to understand and implement Community Engagement 101. The only way to improve the blighted conditions of so many in the Urban Core requires new leadership. Open minded cohesive leadership, who are readers, live in the community and totally commit to our resolve.
Stanley “Doc” Scott
Tia
December 19, 2016 at 3:25 pm
AG, did you really have to refer to the Eastside as ‘Third World’? Come on, even the non residents take advantage of our walkable, pleasant community, and surely wouldn’t ride through if they felt their life was at stake. Eastside does suffer from the economic disinvestment that has happened on this side of the river over several decades, so, we shall see if LISC can strengthen existing grassroot efforts. There are several residents who want to see change
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