Two of the sports fields at the Losco Regional Park on Hood Road South, now renamed in honor of former City Council member Dick Kravitz. | Google
Published on March 14, 2025 at 1:52 pm
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A 21-year-old regional park in the heart of Mandarin will soon be renamed in honor of the former Jacksonville City Council member who made it a reality.
What is now Losco Regional Park at 10931 Hood Road S. will soon become the Richard H. “Dick” Kravitz
Regional Park by unanimous City Council approval, pending the mayor’s signature.
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Kravitz once represented the Mandarin area. His current successor, city council member Michael Boylan, and five co-sponsors filed the name-changing bill, which says Kravitz served the community as council member and state lawmaker for more than two decades “with capability and integrity.”
“(He was) a tireless advocate for bringing much-needed new parkland acquisition, development and improvements to existing parks in the rapidly growing Mandarin area, rectifying past failures to provide adequate recreational resources to meet the city’s…standards as the area’s population exploded,” the legislation said.
Kravitz tells Jacksonville Today he feels honored by the unanimous vote. He remembers how the community he represented in the late ’80s and well into the next decade was in dire need of park space for youth athletics and more.
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“We were very low, and that was one of my priorities because Mandarin grew so fast that they left the infrastructure behind. Roads, everything. It was catch-up. So we wanted to get busy on the athletic fields, did improvements and put lighting on them,” he says. “I am glad the kids now have more opportunity to play.”
Kravitz moved to Jacksonville in 1963 after getting a master’s degree in sports administration from Ohio University. He served as GM for the Jacksonville Suns baseball team, now known as the Jumbo Shrimp. He was appointed in 1979 as executive director of the Jacksonville Sports and Entertainment Commission.
Elected office called in 1987, when Kravitz joined the Jacksonville City Council. He was re-elected without opposition in 1991 and in 1995, serving as council president for the 1995-96 council year. Kravitz served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2000 to 2008.
The city added or substantially improved 17 parks during Kravitz’s city council tenure, including Tommy Hazouri, Sr. Park (formerly Mandarin Regional Park), Palmetto Leaves Regional Park, the Julington Durbin Creek Nature Preserve and Walter Jones Historical Park. And right in the middle of suburban Mandarin off busy San Jose Boulevard, he helped get a former private landfill converted into Rogers Park for youth soccer.
“Back in that time, the kids who were playing soccer in Mandarin had to go to Mills Field in St. Johns County,” Kravitz said. “Their families were paying taxes here.”
The parks also include the 210-acre Losco Regional Park, soon to be his namesake. The city acquired it in 1998 with a $3.8 million state grant and completed it in 2004 with soccer and sports fields. Plans call for a nature center and trails to be added to the future Kravitz Park.
Signage reflecting the new name should be installed at the park by mid-April, city officials say.
