The question that always gets asked on Monday mornings: What am I going to write about this week?
On Monday, the day after another dramatic development in the presidential campaign, I have to admit that it was hard to get excited about writing about the City Council meeting, the next steps for the community benefits portion of the agreement with the Jaguars, the decades-long saga of the Laura Street Trio, the school board election, homelessness, repairs to a burst water main on San Jose Boulevard, zoning issues, and several other items on the local calendar.
How can I write about these things when everyone, myself included, seems to be talking about the presidential election all the time?
But I took the plunge and started my day by listening to WJCT’s First Coast Connect with Ann Schindler, in part to hear what followed after the discussion of the presidential election, and in part to hear District 3 School Board Member Cindy Pearson talk about our schools and the upcoming school board election.
I was hoping to attend the morning press conference at City Hall, where Mayor Donna Deegan announced the city's plan to address homelessness and its response to Florida's HB 1365, the state law that will make sleeping in public illegal starting in October.
I wanted to hear about the mayor's proposed $10 million budget for 2024-25, but I needed to go somewhere else.
So I drove around and listened instead to a livestream of the City Council’s Special Committee meeting on the Future of Downtown, with updates on riverfront development and parks, the Laura Street Trio, and JTA’s autonomous vehicle program.
While I'm cautiously optimistic about the future of the riverfront, I'm still not sure about the future of our historic buildings, and I'm still amazed that we've reached this historical point where the rides remind me of “The Jetsons” as a kid.
I had lunch at Palms Fish Camp with people who have been involved in local parks and conservation for decades. I heard some great stories from the past, but also concerns about what the future holds for some of Florida's natural beauty as our region continues to grow. It was a reminder of how important it is to pay attention to these issues.
On the way back to town we listened to a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Community Benefit Agreements.
You may remember that story: It's been a month since the Jaguars' stadium deal was approved, and it feels much longer considering everything that's happened since then.
Prior to voting on the $1.4 billion stadium deal, the City Council removed most of the city's share of the proposed $300 million Community Benefits Agreement ($150 million from the city and $150 million from the Jaguars). The stadium deal ultimately included the Jaguars contributing approximately $119 million over 30 years and the city contributing $56 million over the next few years for a riverside park.
What's left is another CBA bill that would see the city spend $94 million on workforce development, affordable housing and other issues on the Eastside and nationwide (the Jaguars would add another $31 million or so if the city agrees to it).
This is the most publicly scrutinized part of the stadium contract — and the most politically risky. Monday's meeting was the first in a series that will lead to a vote next month.
School board elections are also scheduled for late August, which is why the Jacksonville Public Education Fund and several partner organizations began hosting a series of candidate forums on Tuesday.
Schools, development, parks, transportation, infrastructure, budgets, housing, homelessness.
I started Monday with this thought: Is anyone interested in anything other than the presidential election that is dominating the news and conversation?
At the end of the day, I was thinking, “I’m not a racist. I Yes, we should. We all should.
This is not to downplay the importance or drama of national politics today. Every presidential election is touted as the most important election of our lifetimes. Most of the time, that's not true. But this time it might be.
But even so, and even if national politics has become a bigger part of local politics (school board elections being a prime example), the old adage about the importance of local issues remains true.
This presidential election has eclipsed all other news, dominating traditional news outlets and flooding social media with memes and breaking news, with people not only paying attention to major news stories like an assassination attempt or the sitting president's decision not to run for reelection, but to every little development in what has become America's reality TV show.
This is not meant to be condemning, I am just as guilty as anyone else.
On Monday I forced myself to pay attention to various local happenings, hoping to find something worthwhile to write about.
In the end, I probably that The column wasn't about anything specific, just the idea that while we're following the presidential election closely, we shouldn't forget that local issues remain important.
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