Demographics show candidates face many Jacksonville constituencies

[thelakelander]

Slow recovery impacts quality of life as city face huge issues


In the Brooklyn neighborhood near downtown Jacksonville, modern apartments and high-end shopping are going in, and older homes, where low-income residents live, are being torn down.

By Nate Monroe, Steve Paterson

Facing down a Southern city he found plagued by entrenched divides in wealth and crime, former State Attorney Harry Shorstein made perhaps his most memorable — if not wholly original — public pronouncement: Jacksonville is a "tale of two cities."
Eight years later, the city remains, in many respects, locked in the clutches of that Dickensian disparity.

In a flood of city elections this year, nearly 70 politicians will pitch themselves as champions for all of Jacksonville. But figures on income and employment, economic data and interviews suggest just how different the lives of voters are in the largest city by area in the continental United States.

While Jacksonville — like many large U.S. cities — shakes off the national economic downturn, a recent survey concluded local improvements in employment and poverty "are not substantial" and make it clear "the slow recovery is impacting our quality of life."

Consider, for example, that unemployment rates that have improved nearly everywhere have remained more than twice as high for blacks — topping out at 21 percent in 2011 — as for whites in Duval County.

Another troubling local trend: Only 25 percent of voters believe they can exert "moderate" or "great" influence on local government.

Full article: http://jacksonville.com/news/politics/2015-02-08/story/demographics-show-canidates-face-many-jacksonville-consitutuencies