TU: Ron Littlepage - There’s reason for local optimism

Florida Times-Union

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/2017-01-03/ron-littlepage-there-s-reason-local-optimism

During the last two weeks of 2016, I relearned some old lessons while on vacation.

For instance, it’s still a long drive to Texas, especially when the shortcut you have taken turns into a traffic jam that costs you an hour.

I also learned some new lessons.

For instance, a visit with a college friend I hadn’t seen in four decades showed real friendships survive time and distance and are easily renewed.

I also learned that planting four pear trees takes the better part of two days by the time you dig the big holes required, drive T-Posts into the hard ground and string the fencing needed to keep meddlesome deer at bay.

Then there was another old lesson relearned: When working with fencing, you always end up about three feet short, and the rolls come in 50-foot lengths.

So 2017 begins.

My first column last year dealt with Mayor Lenny Curry’s announcement of his plan to pass a half-cent sales tax and use the revenue to pay down the city’s crippling $2.8 billion pension debt.

I wrote how critical it was for the city’s finances to relieve that burden.

Curry was successful in convincing voters to approve the sales tax. Now he must hammer out deals with the public employee unions to gain access to that sales tax revenue.

It’s just as critical this year as it was last year to get this deal finally done.

I always try to begin a new year with optimism.

I’m more hopeful than I have been in a long while that we are finally going to integrate the St. Johns River, our creeks and marshes, and our beaches into the very fabric of the city’s life.

The reason for that optimism is that City Council President Lori Boyer is determined to see that this happens, and more than once she has shown she will stick to a goal until it’s accomplished.

This year should also be the year great strides are made downtown.

Good things are in store for the Shipyards property and Metropolitan Park.

Florida State College at Jacksonville is introducing student housing downtown. Jacksonville University and the University of North Florida are also planting flags downtown.

A vibrant downtown needs more young people. The presence of academia there will help with that.

LaVilla and Brooklyn continue to come to life. I’m even optimistic that something will get done this year with the old Barnett Bank building, the Laura Street Trio and the ugly skeleton of the unfinished project next to the Berkman Plaza.

This year could also be the year the city begins fulfilling the promise of consolidation by bringing infrastructure improvements to areas of Jacksonville that have been neglected for too long.

But with the optimism, there is also pessimism.

The number of homicides in the city last year stood at 119 compared to 114 in 2015 despite hiring more police officers and putting more resources into fighting violence.

On it goes. The new year wasn’t even a day old when two more were killed in a shooting.

And as important as the environment is to our quality of life in Florida and our economy, there will be challenges to protect it from further harm, especially with the state government in the hands of politicians who care little about our natural resources.

I will be writing more about those issues in future columns.

I’m also quite certain that another old lesson will be relearned in the new year: Things seldom turn out as predicted.

ron.littlepage@jacksonville.com (904) 359-4284