To reflect on the news of the day, Jacksonville Today seeks to include a diverse set of perspectives. These opinion columnists are independent contractors who are paid for their contributions and are not involved in news decisions.
Featured image for “OPINION | Why Amtrak should be on Jacksonville’s radar”
October 26, 2021

OPINION | Why Amtrak should be on Jacksonville’s radar

Jacksonville stands to be a major beneficiary over the next 15 years as Amtrak plans to add service across the country. In March, the intercity passenger rail provider released its 2035 Vision plan, including more than 30 new routes and improved service on more than 20 existing routes. The plan identifies more than 15 states that would see an increase

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October 25, 2021

OPINION | Who’s policing the police?

My son is 6,
He likes to run,
I encourage him to go the distance

Jury selection is underway in the murder trial of the three men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery in Glynn County, Georgia, about an hour’s drive north of Jacksonville. The murder trial quite possibly would never have happened if the video of Arbery being stalked, cornered, and gunned down by racist vigilantes while on an afternoon run had not been leaked and released.

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Featured image for “OPINION | 2023 mayoral hopefuls flex fundraising muscles”
October 24, 2021

OPINION | 2023 mayoral hopefuls flex fundraising muscles

Time was when a candidate could run for mayor or whatever they wanted in Duval County, armed with nothing more than a vat of Brylcreem, one of those old-style Jacksonville twangy accents that have all but disappeared, and an endorsement from the big Baptist church Downtown. Times have changed.  The good ol’ boy system has begun its long goodbye. Politics

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Featured image for “OPINION | One Riverside and how to activate an urban sidewalk”
October 20, 2021

OPINION | One Riverside and how to activate an urban sidewalk

One Riverside Avenue, the development planned to replace the former Florida Times-Union headquarters, will likely be up for final site plan approval by the Downtown Development Review Board in November. Here are four simple, common sense ways to activate the pedestrian experience throughout the development – without significant changes or expense. One Riverside moves forward One Riverside, the development planned

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October 19, 2021

OPINION | Take ‘Em Down

“I’m never living in the South again.”  This is what my mother says to me often. A New Orleans native who fled the muggy bayou for Chicago at the tail end of The Great Migration in 1970 has no desire to return to the soil that birthed her. Neither to live in New Orleans or to move permanently to Florida

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Featured image for “OPINION | At least the politicians are still recyclable”
October 18, 2021

OPINION | At least the politicians are still recyclable

Problems are plaguing the city of Jacksonville’s recycling drop sites, and Mayor Lenny Curry’s Chief Administrative Officer Brian Hughes got an earful about it at the last City Council meeting. In response to the grilling from Council members, Hughes pointed out that the mayor’s office did not foresee people taking trash to the recycling drop sites.  He also told them

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October 14, 2021

OPINION | Are Jax Democrats’ fears of taking risks holding them back?

For those who wondered about how their City Council districts were drawn, the ongoing redistricting process shows that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Politics in 2029 in Duval County will, at least on the City Council level, look like they did in 2019 or 2009. You’re going to see Republican domination. That’s despite Democrats’ holding

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Featured image for “OPINION | The future of Bay Street depends on ‘clustering’”
October 12, 2021

OPINION | The future of Bay Street depends on ‘clustering’

In city planning, clustering is part of what we at The Jaxson like to call the “Three C’s”: the clustering of complementing uses in compact, walkable settings — and it’s helped guide successful urban revivals in communities of all sizes across the world. 

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