Walk it out: Jacksonville pols set up dueling racial reconciliation events

Jax Mayor Lenny Curry and Councilman Garrett Dennis talk water safety

Jacksonville politicians are so committed to healing the city’s racial divides that they’ve set up multiple walks to bring awareness to the matter.

On Friday, Mayor Lenny Curry teased an event he will take part in soon.

“I will participate in a walk next week with our community. I will also announce policy initiatives and actions I will take to bring our city together and address racial inequality,” Curry asserted.

City Councilman Garrett Dennis, a Democrat with whom Curry has a less than productive dynamic, suggested that the Mayor was looking to undermine his own Sunday event.

“Hearing the Lenny Curry administration is working my colleagues over and encouraging them to not join Sunday’s solidarity walk. Many of them are backing out,” Dennis decried.

On behalf of Curry, senior staffer Jordan Elsbury was dismayed by the implication.

“Mr. Dennis continues to lie and value division of our City over solutions of unity. Not a single member of the City Council has been discouraged by this administration from engaging in any demonstrations, in fact, the Mayor has encouraged individuals to express their 1st amendment liberties and will be expressing his next week,” Elsbury contended.

The Councilman proposed the Mayor join him on a walk downtown on Sunday to show solidarity, but that was a non-starter for Curry.

For Jacksonville, the breach between the two politicians drives (depending on who you believe) a necessary choice for members of the Council, an often-vacillating group loath to take sides.

The Mayor controls the capital budget, while Dennis is routinely diminished by Council members, with successive Council presidents disrespecting him on the dais.

For Jacksonville, the dualistic choice continues a tradition.

Jacksonville has two dueling breakfast events honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King III keynoted the non-city event.

Meanwhile, while there is broad agreement that Jacksonville needs money for school capital reconstruction, and that a half-cent sales tax increase is the way to go. The dysfunction is such that there are dueling political committees for that as well.

One City, One Jacksonville … or a tale of two cities? On that one, people diverge sharply also.