About Metro Jacksonville

Founded by a small group of young professionals in March of 2006, the mission of Metro Jacksonville is to educate and provide an avenue for discussing the important issues facing our city. We strive to be a reliable source of information and to increase public awareness about the urban core and promote continued urban and pedestrian oriented growth in the Jacksonville metropolitan area.

Metro Jacksonville publishes original content every weekday.

Issues


Metro Jacksonville’s influence has been felt on a number of local issues, including:

Mayor Peyton’s Big Idea
In February 2006, Metro Jacksonville’s public backing and exposure of realistic urban oriented solutions helped put a screeching halt to Mayor Peyton’s Big Idea plan, which included potentially demolishing the Jacksonville Landing for additional public green space. The end result of this debate was the successful conclusion of the city’s 20 year neglected obligation to provide parking for the Jacksonville Landing, which is critical to attract first tier retailers to the downtown entertainment center.

Public Email Access
In an effort to stem the increased public exposure, due to the explosion of local blogs, the Mayor’s Office announced plans to eliminated public web access to city hall. After a few weeks of increased heat, the city eventually backs off and public web access still remains available today.

First Timothy Baptist Church
In April 2006, Metro Jacksonville teams with other local citizens to forcefully overturn the Mayor, City Council, and the Office of the General Counsel’s approval to give a local church over $1 million in public tax dollars.

Downtown Action Plan Committee
April 2006 also saw the inclusion of four Metro Jacksonville members on Councilwoman Suzanne Jenkins’ Downtown Improvements Implementations Committee. Group members used this opportunity to revise the archaic downtown parking ordinance, which penalized customers with aggressive ticketing schemes. Although these tactics are still going on, they have been tamed.

Snyder Memorial Church Give-a-way
In September 2006, through several emails and publicly exposing the subject, Metro Jacksonville prevents City Hall from simply giving away the historic church building to the Police & Fire Pension Fund.

JTA's Bus Rapid Transit Plan
In July 2006, after months of background research, Metro Jacksonville begins its public crusade of exposing JTA’s proposed +$1 billion Bus Rapid Transit system as one of the largest public boondoggles in Jacksonville history.

While exposing the flaws of the BRT proposal, the group suggests taking advantage of existing rail lines and new technology to implement urban commuter rail as a cheaper alternative. Today the fight continues with BRT, but JTA is now in the midst of a commuter rail study. If deemed feasible, commuter rail could be up and running within ten years.

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