Councilman Carlucci proposes urban core spending boost

[thelakelander]

Councilman Matt Carlucci proposes an infrastructure spending boost in the pre-consolidated city of Jacksonville. Councilman Randy White proposes a plan to demolish more buildings in Jacksonville's underrepresented neighborhoods.

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/councilman-carlucci-proposes-urban-core-spending-boost/

[Charles Hunter]

I like Carlucci's plan, long past time to start living up to the promises of Consolidation.
I don't like White's plan.  I am sure a lot of those houses could be rehabbed.  Heck, half (it seems) of the programming on HGTV is about people who buy distressed houses, rehab them, and sell them. Some talk about buying the houses from their city (e.g. Indianapolis).  I know the COJ has a terrible record as a property owner, but that seems something that can be fixed with the right people - perhaps someone with a real estate background, not engineering or code compliance.

[thelakelander]

White's proposal is one that leads to more blight, erases underrepresented history and lacks authentic community engagement and public involvement. I can see him meaning well but it exacerbates the struggles of these neighborhoods. By now, we should know better. We need to use funds to repopulate and economically stabilize these areas. Not erase cultural sites important to neighborhood history and create more overgrown vacant lots that inhabitants of these areas will never get financing to build anything new on them.

[vicupstate]

Yes, if there is anything Jacksonville does not need, it is more city-owned vacant lots with overgrown weeds producing no taxes and not even being considered for redevelopment as soon as someone sees who owns it.   

[Steve]

I do think using the old city limits makes sense. Those were the people that voted for consolidation with the promise of infrastructure. Yes, some of that money would go south of the river, and that's okay - those folks had a vote in consolidation too.

Side note - I pulled the district map to see how much it overlapped: https://www.coj.net/city-council/docs/maps/2015districtmap.aspx

Crazy to see some of those district boundaries - Amazing that District 9 contains both Edward Waters College and I-295/Collins Road

I would be interested to see how much of a +/- this is compared to today.

[thelakelander]

I don't think the old city limits make sense for NW Jax. Not all disenfranchised lived in city limits during Jim Crow. For example, when I-95 was constructed, Hansontown, Sugar Hill, etc. were initially being targeted for urban renewal, many displaced residents ended up north of the CSX railroad line, which was the northwest city boundary. So historically redlined communities like Royal Terrace (Avenue B), Magnolia Gardens (Raines High School), etc. fall outside that preconsolidated boundary while Ortega, Avondale and San Marco fall within it. To really pinpoint the areas where investment is needed most, we'll need to dig deeper into local history, economics and demographics of specific neighborhoods. Nevertheless, the pre-consolidated limits are a good starting point for this discussion though.

[fieldafm]

I don't think the old city limits make sense for NW Jax. Not all disenfranchised lived in city limits during Jim Crow. For example, when I-95 was constructed, Hansontown, Sugar Hill, etc. were initially being targeted for urban renewal, many displaced residents ended up north of the CSX railroad line, which was the northwest city boundary. So historically redlined communities like Royal Terrace (Avenue B), Magnolia Gardens (Raines High School), etc. fall outside that preconsolidated boundary while Ortega, Avondale and San Marco fall within it. To really pinpoint the areas where investment is needed most, we'll need to dig deeper into local history, economics and demographics of specific neighborhoods. Nevertheless, the pre-consolidated limits are a good starting point for this discussion though.

Narrowly defining pre-consolidated limits would exclude Royal Terrace, Magnolia Gardens, Sherwood Forest and Ribault... on the flip side the King/Soutel CRA touches many neighborhoods West of Edgewood- which have a lower density/more rural development-like pattern, and whose needs may be different than the more medium density/more transitional developments to their North and East (almost like Lakeshore which was developed in that tweener timeframe that blended walkable/auto-oriented patterns). 

Agree that it is, at the very least, a good starting point for discussion.

[Steve]

I don't think the old city limits make sense for NW Jax. Not all disenfranchised lived in city limits during Jim Crow. For example, when I-95 was constructed, Hansontown, Sugar Hill, etc. were initially being targeted for urban renewal, many displaced residents ended up north of the CSX railroad line, which was the northwest city boundary. So historically redlined communities like Royal Terrace (Avenue B), Magnolia Gardens (Raines High School), etc. fall outside that preconsolidated boundary while Ortega, Avondale and San Marco fall within it. To really pinpoint the areas where investment is needed most, we'll need to dig deeper into local history, economics and demographics of specific neighborhoods. Nevertheless, the pre-consolidated limits are a good starting point for this discussion though.

Good points. I didn't know about the history of some of those areas and missed that Raines was outside those limits. Now with that said, while San Marco certainly hasn't been forgotten like areas of NW Jax there were infrastructure promises made in some of those neighborhoods that also are unfulfilled. I've not done a ton of research, but it's pretty obvious that the City of South Jacksonville didn't have the tax base that Jacksonville has, and it shows in things like drainage, sidewalks, etc. Now, because of (I believe) racial inequality over the decades, San Marco is in much better shape than NW Jax as a whole.

I do agree this one will be tough as the district boundaries don't really make sense to me either. District 7 includes Springfield and Brentwood, but also the airport and borders the Nassau River. Like I pointed out 9 includes areas that certainly should be included, but also areas that probably should not. Similar arguments could be made for 8 and 10.

But here's the question: Will Jacksonville get it right? Meaning, there's two questions that should be answered:

- What should the boundaries be - based on all the things you mentioned?
- How does that shift funding compared to today?

[Bill Hoff]

  While the committee has no money to spend on special projects, Councilman Reggie Gaffney said at the last meeting he was working on moving some money from his District's Community Redevelopment Agency to instead work on needs throughout the entire community.

I wasn't aware District 7 had resolved it's backlog of infrastructure needs, and had extra cash to pass out to other areas.

[thelakelander]

But here's the question: Will Jacksonville get it right? Meaning, there's two questions that should be answered:

Unfortunately, it will be no if there is no inclusive public engagement and analysis. In other words, things rarely turn out well when council and/or the mayor's office make unilateral decisions in areas of urban planning where politicians may mean well but lack the professional knowledge on how their decisions can ultimately impact the community.

- What should the boundaries be - based on all the things you mentioned?

Instead of a specific boundary, I'd hope that there is a list of deferred infrastructure needs and projects. Assuming there is, some sort of project prioritization list should be weighted to allow the deferred projects in these historically disenfranchised areas to be implemented. As for selection criteria, some items that should possibly be considered include if the community was redlined, household income, historical racial percentage (in Jax specifically, if a neighborhood is a historically Black one that dates back before consolidation, you can bet your bottom dollar that it has been systemically screwed over locally). What we might end up with is something that identifies pockets of need all over the county that don't align with the preconsolidated limits or council districts. By the nature of our systemic discriminatory public policies, investments and practices over the last century, most of NW Jax would still bubble up to the top, without omitting other areas of town that are also in need.

- How does that shift funding compared to today?

To me, it's like writing a contract or a planning study scope of services. The more detailed the scope is, the better off you'll end up with a good deliverable that doesn't end up blowing the budget. So the more detailed effort we put into identifying systemic practices and their historic relationships to the development of the city that we see today, the better off we'll be with targeting the areas that need the most help and the projects that deliver the most for the community. However, to accomplish this, our local politicians are going to have to lean on qualified people and staff to assist in preparing them for the decisions they'll ultimately have to make.

[thelakelander]

While the committee has no money to spend on special projects, Councilman Reggie Gaffney said at the last meeting he was working on moving some money from his District's Community Redevelopment Agency to instead work on needs throughout the entire community.

I wasn't aware District 7 had resolved it's backlog of infrastructure needs, and had extra cash to pass out to other areas.

Interesting. The older areas of Gaffney's district need more money, not less.

[bl8jaxnative]

I know the COJ has a terrible record as a property owner, but that seems something that can be fixed with the right people

Expecting an organization that has for generations behaved in XYZ way to suddenly get right and sharply execute with the change of a few people is foolish.   Organizations just don't change like that.  Even if they did, they don't have any real skin in the game; no real incentive to change nor to do an outstanding job. 


Not everything can be nor is worth saving.  Hell, we don't have the resources to save things that seem pretty obvious - like the old buffalo soldier house in Brooklyn.   How about y'll pick 1 or 2 key historical places / rows ( note, maybe not just a building; importance could be becasue of a group of building ) and focus on that?

There's a lot of abandoned houses & flat out junk that needs to get cleaned up.   Just because people don't have a lot of money for housing doesn't mean they should have to live  with abandoned homes, flophouses and other blight.

[thelakelander]

Perhaps we should seek the opinion of residents who live in the targeted communities and identify what's important and worth saving to them. It's pretty elitist to tell someone their history or buildings aren't worth saving and reusing, if that's a desire they want to see. Yet, we do it all the time with the decisions we make, the policies we enforce and the lack of providing inclusive opportunities for public engagement.

[vicupstate]

There's a lot of abandoned houses & flat out junk that needs to get cleaned up.   Just because people don't have a lot of money for housing doesn't mean they should have to live  with abandoned homes, flophouses and other blight.

Demolishing a building that could be rehabbed only to have a publicly owned but completely unmaintained vacant lot is not an improvement.   

[marcuscnelson]

Not everything can be nor is worth saving.  Hell, we don't have the resources to save things that seem pretty obvious - like the old buffalo soldier house in Brooklyn.   How about y'll pick 1 or 2 key historical places / rows ( note, maybe not just a building; importance could be becasue of a group of building ) and focus on that?

There's a lot of abandoned houses & flat out junk that needs to get cleaned up.   Just because people don't have a lot of money for housing doesn't mean they should have to live  with abandoned homes, flophouses and other blight.

I'm pretty sure this exact line of reasoning is why most of Lavilla is covered in grass.