PerspectivesSherry Magill Jacksonville Today Contributor
Featured image for “OPINION | Green acres: A master plan for Jacksonville’s park system”
Metropolitan Park as seen on Sept. 24, 2024 | Jessica Palombo, Jacksonville Today
September 26, 2024

OPINION | Green acres: A master plan for Jacksonville’s park system

Jacksonville’s Parks Department expects to unveil an updated Parks Master Plan in winter 2025. Here’s what’s in it, and what’s…

Featured image for “OPINION | Don’t stop believing in Jacksonville’s historic Downtown rebirth”
What can be if the Laura Street Trio are transformed
September 19, 2024

OPINION | Don’t stop believing in Jacksonville’s historic Downtown rebirth

While we can never prove it and whether anyone admits it, citizen voices in large measure shape how elected officials…

Featured image for “OPINION | Much ado about historic Downtown Jacksonville and its Northbank riverfront”
The corner of Laura and Monroe streets in Downtown Jacksonville, as seen in July 2024. | Jessica Palombo
September 12, 2024

OPINION | Much ado about historic Downtown Jacksonville and its Northbank riverfront

Public financing to help restore a trio of historic Downtown buildings and develop three Northbank public parks came under specific…

Featured image for “OPINION | Right under our noses”
September 5, 2024

OPINION | Right under our noses

JEA’s HQ sale is a reminder that we need a master plan to restore and repurpose Jacksonville’s Downtown.…

Featured image for “OPINION | Jax’s DIA, Parks, and Public Works have ‘some ‘splainin’ to do’”
Construction will begin soon on a cafe at Riverfront Plaza — but not yet on a separate waterfront restaurant there. | City of Jacksonville
August 29, 2024

OPINION | Jax’s DIA, Parks, and Public Works have ‘some ‘splainin’ to do’

The finance committee has an enormous opportunity to simplify the former Landing site park’s problems, maybe save some public money,…

Featured image for “OPINION | Feelings about the franchise and Jacksonville voters”
August 22, 2024

OPINION | Feelings about the franchise and Jacksonville voters

Jacksonville voters vote less frequently in local elections than in presidential elections.…

Featured image for “OPINION | Deegan’s affordable housing loans should be restored in city budget”
Mayor Donna Deegan speaks at a groundbreaking Monday, May 13, 2024, for the Village at Cedar Hills. At left is Shannon Nazworth, president and CEO of Ability Housing. | Ability Housing
August 15, 2024

OPINION | Deegan’s affordable housing loans should be restored in city budget

The Jacksonville City Council needs to get on board and restore affordable housing funding proposed by Mayor Deegan.…

Featured image for “OPINION | Don’t Blow It: Jacksonville’s Special Committee on the Future of Downtown”
August 8, 2024

OPINION | Don’t Blow It: Jacksonville’s Special Committee on the Future of Downtown

Let’s rethink our understanding of and approach to reinvigorating Jacksonville’s historic Downtown urban core.…

Featured image for “OPINION | Jacksonville’s disheartening Downtown development discourse”
August 1, 2024

OPINION | Jacksonville’s disheartening Downtown development discourse

Just when we thought the former Landing site development puzzle couldn’t get more complicated, along comes site number 2.…

Featured image for “OPINION | ‘Go outside and play’ -Every Boomer’s mother”
The "after" photo from a green schoolyard makeover at a Colorado elementary school. | Children & Nature Network, "Green Schoolyards" report
July 25, 2024

OPINION | ‘Go outside and play’ -Every Boomer’s mother

Green schoolyards is a movement to turn public school playgrounds into “outdoor classrooms,” with plant and vegetable gardens, trails, trees,…

Featured image for “OPINION | Summer in the city: Hotter than a match head in Downtown Jax”
ZIP code 32202 is among the nation's hottest | screenshot from USPS.com
July 11, 2024

OPINION | Summer in the city: Hotter than a match head in Downtown Jax

Jacksonville’s Downtown and its surrounding neighborhoods are in the nations top 2% for heat.…

Featured image for “OPINION | An alternative vision for historic Downtown Jacksonville”
Downtown Jacksonville | Jessica Palombo, Jacksonville Today
June 27, 2024

OPINION | An alternative vision for historic Downtown Jacksonville

Our path to a more welcoming, vibrant, and distinctive historic Downtown Jacksonville offers an alternative vision to the city’s prevailing wisdom, guided…

Featured image for “OPINION | Gubernatorial myopia: DeSantis pencils out girls”
A girl reads a book after school. | Kristina Barke, for Kaiser Health News
June 20, 2024

OPINION | Gubernatorial myopia: DeSantis pencils out girls

One of the governor’s strike-throughs will have an outsized effect on Duval county’s vulnerable girls.…

Featured image for “OPINION | ‘Multimedia stimulation’ at Riverfront Plaza?”
June 13, 2024

OPINION | ‘Multimedia stimulation’ at Riverfront Plaza?

Apparently projecting images onto outdoor surfaces is all the rage the world over.…

Featured image for “OPINION | Like a bad penny”
June 6, 2024

OPINION | Like a bad penny

Incoming City Council President Randy White blames pension changes for Jacksonville’s inability to compete for police officers, fire fighters and…

Featured image for “OPINION | It’s half past tree time at the former Jacksonville Landing”
May 30, 2024

OPINION | It’s half past tree time at the former Jacksonville Landing

Despite a Parks Department promise of 308 trees at the former Landing site, don’t hold your breath unless tower development…

Featured image for “OPINION | Author’s Saturday talk should be a hotter topic”
May 16, 2024

OPINION | Author’s Saturday talk should be a hotter topic

Author Jeff Goodell will speak Saturday at Jacksonville’s main library about his book, The Heat Will Kill You First.…

Featured image for “OPINION | Riverfront Plaza’s false choice”
Riverfront Plaza, as seen from the top of the VyStar Credit Union headquarters on May 2, 2024. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
May 9, 2024

OPINION | Riverfront Plaza’s false choice

If we want Riverfront Plaza finished any time soon, we need to free Park East from the insanity of “Pad…

Featured image for “OPINION | Don’t stop believing, even after Southbank storage approval”
Screenshot of the San Marco Neighborhood Action Plan 2016
May 2, 2024

OPINION | Don’t stop believing, even after Southbank storage approval

The public engagement on this issue by San Marco residents is something of a victory. And a chance to affect…

Featured image for “OPINION | Metro Park redesign is déjà vu all over again”
Metropolitan Park as seen in April 2024 | Dan Scanlan
April 25, 2024

OPINION | Metro Park redesign is déjà vu all over again

If you missed the open house, it’s not too late to participate. Citizens may complete a survey about our revitalization…

Featured image for “OPINION | Riverfront Plaza’s dizzying complications”
April 18, 2024

OPINION | Riverfront Plaza’s dizzying complications

Redeveloping the former Landing site is overly complicated, defies common sense, is too costly, and is taking too long.…

Featured image for “OPINION | If at first you don’t succeed”
The Laura Street Trio at Forsyth and Laura streets Downtown.
April 11, 2024

OPINION | If at first you don’t succeed

It’s tiresome for sure, this yearslong Laura Street Trio restoration project conversation.…

Featured image for “OPINION | A pocketful of miracles: Are parks central to Northbank plan?”
April 4, 2024

OPINION | A pocketful of miracles: Are parks central to Northbank plan?

Are parks central to plans for Downtown Jacksonville’s Northbank? Or are they an after-thought?…

Featured image for “OPINION | The citizens who stopped, exposed the JEA scheme”
March 28, 2024

OPINION | The citizens who stopped, exposed the JEA scheme

Before we close the book on the JEA scandal, let’s celebrate those who stopped the behind-the-scenes sale effort and revealed…