Jax

A.G. GancarskiMarch 16, 2018

On Thursday, a Jacksonville City Council panel again delved into the relative merits of selling JEA, the local utility. As has been the case throughout this discussion, flashpoints of tension abounded, kicked off by a familiar antagonist of the Mayor’s Office. The tension led to not one but two witnesses refusing to testify, given the committee […]

A.G. GancarskiMarch 15, 2018

Jacksonville City Councilman Bill Gulliford cut a solitary figure at the front of the Lynwood Roberts Room, as a few dozen stakeholders and interested parties convened to discuss the city’s continual struggle with affordable housing. Gulliford, not for the first time, described “neighborhoods in serious decline” locally, as spotlighted by the Block by Block study. And […]

A.G. GancarskiMarch 15, 2018

A Jacksonville City Council special committee on parks continued its inquiry into the system Thursday. Council President Anna Brosche, when she took over the gavel last July, identified parks as a priority; the committee continues to explore ways to restore Jacksonville’s massive though unevenly maintained system of 400 parks, one that ranks among the worst in […]

A.G. GancarskiMarch 15, 2018

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry and Sheriff Mike Williams both showed quiet February fundraising for their re-election bids. Curry, who filed this month for re-election, did not report fundraising yet for his campaign account. The same holds true for the local “Jacksonville on the Rise” committee set up to support the re-election (though with a six-figure ad buy, […]

A.G. GancarskiMarch 15, 2018

Does “implicit bias” affect law enforcement? The justice system at large? On Thursday evening at Edward Waters College, a five-person panel of local experts (Chief Judge Mark H. Mahon, State Attorney Melissa Nelson, Public Defender Charlie Cofer, Sheriff Mike Williams, Senior District Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr. and A. Wellington Barlow, Esq.) will explore the […]

Staff ReportsMarch 15, 2018

The 2018 Legislative Session finally wrapped. Now, in front of us, the madcap dash to the 2018 primaries in August is about to hit full stride. For Jacksonville area voters, especially Democrats, these are exciting times. From competitive races for Congress to state Senate and state House, there are choices on the ballot. And narratives. […]

A.G. GancarskiMarch 14, 2018

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry made a trip to Washington D.C. earlier this week, and has been the case before, he met with members of the Donald Trump administration. The subject, as it so often has been, was infrastructure — both the Talleyrand Connector project that the city seeks $25 million for in infrastructure money via the Department of […]

A.G. GancarskiMarch 14, 2018

Wednesday saw a Jacksonville City Council committee delve deeper into the concept of using local inmate work crews to clean up city streets. The concept is not a new one. A Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office undersheriff noted just last year that there were plenty of inmates, but a surfeit of supervisors in the budget. At the […]

A.G. GancarskiMarch 14, 2018

Wednesday saw the first meeting of Jacksonville’s new “civil rights history task force,” a 28-person group that seeks to affirm — or more correctly, to promote and monetize — the city’s place in civil rights history. The genesis of the task force was earlier this year, when locals were irked by the city not being […]

A.G. GancarskiMarch 14, 2018

Jacksonville’s biggest priority in the 2018 state budget came through in the form of $12.5 million for the Talleyrand Connector. The money, which is a full 25 percent of that needed for a project that would include tearing down Hart Bridge offramps to both route traffic onto Bay Street and facilitate truck traffic to the […]

Jax

Jacksonville City Council panel to subpoena JEA CEO Paul McElroy

Jacksonville affordable housing crisis continues, outside of media spotlight

Jacksonville City Council panel wrestles with park security, vandalism woes

Quiet February fundraising for Mike Williams, Lenny Curry

Jacksonville panelists to talk ‘implicit bias’ in justice system

Jacksonville Bold for 3.16.18 — Bottom line

Positive signs for Talleyrand Connector money from Lenny Curry’s latest D.C. trip

Jacksonville Council panel seeks inmates to beautify neighborhoods

Jacksonville moves to market, monetize its civil rights history

Rick Scott non-committal on whether he’ll veto Jacksonville Talleyrand Connector funds