Featured image for “#AskJAXTDY: Why doesn’t Florida have rent control?”
May 24, 2022

#AskJAXTDY: Why doesn’t Florida have rent control?

The Jacksonville Today team is answering your housing questions, as rents in the region have climbed by more than twice the rate of inflation during the COVID pandemic. We’ve looked at how much rent went up by neighborhood and laid out some potential solutions to Jacksonville’s housing crisis. This week a Jacksonville Today reader asks: “Why is there no rent

Read More
Featured image for “What Duval Schools is cutting from its LGBTQ+ Support Guide”
May 17, 2022

What Duval Schools is cutting from its LGBTQ+ Support Guide

In response to Florida’s new, critic-dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” law, Duval County Public Schools plans to slash the district’s decade-old 37-page LGBTQ+ Support Guide down to an 8-page section of a larger student support manual and strip out almost all sentences that explicitly protect transgender students’ rights. Under the proposal, the district would also adopt a new parental notification policy

Read More
Featured image for “Some Black groups say they were left out of Jacksonville’s bicentennial, so they’re holding their own events instead”
May 17, 2022

Some Black groups say they were left out of Jacksonville’s bicentennial, so they’re holding their own events instead

Celebrating the city’s two centuries of history – warts and all – was the challenge the Jacksonville Historical Society was tasked with ahead of Jacksonville’s official bicentennial celebration next month.  The society’s work has not been universally applauded. Leaders from a handful of Black organizations, who say they were left out of the bicentennial planning process, are holding historical commemorations

Read More
Featured image for “‘It all boils down to one paragraph.’ Duval Schools could change its LGBTQ support guide Tuesday”
May 16, 2022

‘It all boils down to one paragraph.’ Duval Schools could change its LGBTQ support guide Tuesday

The Duval County School Board is set to meet Tuesday morning to discuss an update to its LGBTQ support guide, which district attorneys have been revising to comply with Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, which critics call “Don’t Say Gay.” Support guides like Duval’s, which are in effect in districts across the state, were a large part of what spawned House

Read More
Featured image for “EXPLORE: How much did rent go up in your neighborhood?”
May 12, 2022

EXPLORE: How much did rent go up in your neighborhood?

Rent prices  in the Jacksonville metro area have increased by more than 30% since the start of the pandemic — more than twice the rate of inflation. In some neighborhoods, including San Jose and Arlington, rent prices have gone up by close to 40% over the past two years. Today, Jacksonville is the 13th most overpriced rental city in the

Read More
Featured image for “Hello, I’m Jacksonville Today Reporter Will Brown”
May 11, 2022

Hello, I’m Jacksonville Today Reporter Will Brown

The first time I truly understood the power, the potential and grace of journalism was when I screwed up. I was 16 years old and nervous. My high school football team was playing on statewide television. I managed to make a pair of mistakes that many in my small town believed cost us victory. The next morning – back when

Read More
Featured image for “Independent Florida water providers are shutting down. American Beach’s doesn’t want to be next.  ”
May 1, 2022

Independent Florida water providers are shutting down. American Beach’s doesn’t want to be next.  

Construction will begin soon on a new water and sewer system in American Beach, the historically African American community in Nassau County. The Florida Legislature committed about $1.8 million toward the project this year, an investment that eliminates the need for most of the controversial $9,000 property tax assessments sent to American Beach homeowners last fall.  County commissioners had threatened

Read More
Featured image for “Climbing costs leave Jacksonville families struggling for food”
April 10, 2022

Climbing costs leave Jacksonville families struggling for food

Jacksonville mom Krista Jones is buying beans instead of meat for protein. It’s one of the creative steps she’s had to take to deal with rising food costs and the end of pandemic aid programs. “It has literally meant for me as a single mom on a single income to reevaluate how we eat, what we eat,” Jones said. Across

Read More
Featured image for “EXPLORE: Is your voting precinct one of Jax’s highest-turnout? Or the lowest?”
February 27, 2022

EXPLORE: Is your voting precinct one of Jax’s highest-turnout? Or the lowest?

Plus, 5 takeaways from the City Council election Republican Nick Howland will be sworn in on Jacksonville’s City Council Wednesday, after receiving 51.7% of the vote in Jacksonville’s special election last week. His opponent, Democrat Tracye Polson, got 48.3% of the vote. About 1-in-5 registered Duval voters cast a ballot in the race. Below, see how your precinct voted in

Read More
Featured image for “QUIZ: How well do you know Jacksonville’s  at-large group 3 candidates?”
February 15, 2022

QUIZ: How well do you know Jacksonville’s at-large group 3 candidates?

Early voting is underway in the race to fill the Jacksonville at-large city council seat vacated by the late Tommy Hazouri. A special election in December narrowed the field to two candidates: Republican Nick Howland and Democrat Tracye Polson. Up until Feb. 20, voters can cast a ballot at any of the 14 libraries, community centers and churches operating as early voting

Read More