Published on March 6, 2023 at 8:48 pm
Jacksonville Today seeks to include a diverse set of perspectives that add context or unique insight to the news of the day. Regular opinion columnists are independent contractors who are not involved in news decisions. Want to submit your own column on a matter of public interest? Email pitches to jessica@jaxtoday.org.
Early voting is underway for city elections, and of course the mayoral race has dominated the headlines. But just like the national general election every four years is about so much more than who will hold the office of president of the United States, the 2023 unitary elections are about so much more than who will run the city of Jacksonville.
Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of giving a keynote address for a voter information seminar held by the Democratic Women’s Information Network. Following my address there was a panel of speakers who addressed the myriad of current crises facing our city, from the lack of affordable housing and the abuses tenants face from landlords to the persistently high rate of infant mortality and low life expectancy for adults.
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One speaker’s message was simple.“Vote like your life depends on it . . . because it does.”
Much like the presidential election, the mayoral election has an outsized influence on driving people to the polls. And it’s great that you care about the names at the top of the ticket. But the devil is in the details. The real change lies in who’s elected to the down ballot races. The races where the candidates aren’t going head to head in a political grudge match in every other commercial you see broadcast on local news.
We have 19 seats on our City Council, five of them at-large, and of those 19 seats, only four incumbents are running unopposed or against a write-in candidate, guaranteeing their return to the Council. Like Congress, the City Council is where work is supposed to get done. Action on Confederate monuments, a tenant bill of rights, and so much more has stalled in the Council year after year for one reason or another. Whether it’s studying the issue, visiting another city to understand how they handled the complex clash between race, class, history and dignity, or hosting community conversations, the delays are damning because instead of serving at the pleasure of the people the Council has mostly chosen only to pass what is politically expedient instead of what is necessary.
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It matters who serves as the property appraiser as much as it mattered in November who would become sheriff or look after the conservation of our soil and water.
Our lives are more directly impacted by those elected to the positions we don’t hear a lot or enough about more than they are impacted by the marquee roles at the helm of city government.
It’s been 55 years since the consolidation of the city and county government. A vote for a governing system that could not have been implemented without the support and backing of the city’s Black electorate. Yet, in those 55 years it has been the city’s Black electorate who has borne the brunt of the injustice, indignity, and lack of compassion by the lack of action and vision from the Council, the mayor, the sheriff and so many more who hold positions of power to beef up their resumes rather than create substantial and sustainable change.
This election, like every election, be it city, state, or national, is an opportunity to make change. To do something different by voting into office those candidates whose plan for our city moves away from the cycle of do nothing, say nothing, get nothing into one that works for all of our lives.
Government at any level should be one that is representative of its people. Consolidation and redistricting may have suppressed representation but it has not stripped voters of all power. This election is an opportunity to exercise that power and shape the future so that our lives in the city of Jacksonville are not only about surviving under the boot of inequality but thriving in the fulfillment of the will of the people.
P.S. For those wondering about who my son ended up depicting for his school project, he portrayed Bernard A. Harris, Jr., the first Black man to walk in space.
Nikesha Elise Williams is an Emmy-winning TV producer, award-winning novelist (Beyond Bourbon Street and Four Women) and the host/producer of the Black & Published podcast. Her bylines include The Washington Post, ESSENCE, and Vox. She lives in Jacksonville with her family.
