Driving to work and this is what I saw

[riverkeepered]

Each day, I drive to work from my home in Riverside to my office in Arlington.  This journey often takes me right through the heart of downtown Jacksonville.  On most days, I am zoned out thinking about all that I have to do that day, listening to music or NPR, or thinking about my beautiful wife (I had to throw that in, in case she reads this post).

On Tuesday, I just happened to pay close attention to what I saw.  I witnessed two businesses with sprinklers spewing more water on the streets and sidewalks than on the intended non-native landscape vegetation.  I watched a new Suburburan with city tags with one lone occupant weaving in out and out of traffic along Riverside Ave. in an obvious hurry.  Maybe, he had just figured out how to raise more tax revenue by introducing a hybrid tax - the better the gas mileage that your vehicle gets, the more you pay.  Then, he seemed to slow down as if the emergency had subsided (if he can count, he probably noticed that his tax wasn't even going to raise enough $ to fill his tank).

Next, I ventured through the heart of our vibrant city and all of the bombed out buildings, overgrown lots, sediment and trash-choked storm drains, poorly-timed street lights, homeless and disenfranchised, outdated city buses spewing clouds of diesel exhaust, an empty lot that says "Home of the future courthouse", a half-built and abandoned restaurant subsidized with taxpayer $, the "revitalized" Lavilla, and the Skyway Express chugging along with not one passenger on board.

By this time, I was starting to get depressed, so I tried to think about all of the progressive policies and actions that we have taken to encourage economic activity and make this city a leader in sustainable development.  After the shipyard project came to mind and afer looking up to see stacks from the northside generating plant churning out a mercury-laden plume of pollution that stretched for miles, I gave up on this exercise.

Then I saw something that captured my attention and my imagination.  There she is - the mighty St. Johns River.  She certainly is a beauty!  I then reminded myself that she is also unfortunately sick.  I cross over this magnificent body of water thinking about my child who will be born within the next three weeks and the problems that he or she will inherit and have to try and fix one day. 

Despite my rather pessimistic observations and the guilt that was obviously creeping in, I do believe that Jacksonville possesses immense potential and outstanding opportunities to create a vibrant downtown, to be a leader in the "green" movement, to dramatically improve its education system, and in general, to be a more progressive and dynamic city.  I guess I have a good reason on the horizon to remain hopeful that this is indeed so.  Based on the number of people who participate on this forum who are obviously passionate and committed and have vision and frequently offer pragmatic solutions, we are hopefully on the right track.  We just need to make sure that our politicians, powerbrokers, and the guy in the Suburban with the city tag are all listening and are willing to forge a new path for our city that takes us far away from the status quo.