Survey SAYS!

By now Jacksonville City Council's voted on whether to increase local taxes...or not. I had the chance of speaking to a handful of different home owners yesterday and today, all whom are in the same mindset: it's appropriate to raise the taxes to take care of what's necessary.

One question I regularly asked people was how they felt about local officials making the choices of what and who gets money, let alone if they felt voters were represented fairly by their elected officials.

All in all most didn't seem to care. The majority felt they wouldn't see the effects of a tax increase due to mortgages, escrow, and other matters handled seamlessly in the background until the end of the year when surpluses were usually found and realized during tax season.

Which makes me wonder about the naysayers. Is Jacksonville's rant heard by both sides of the fence, homeowners and non-profits alike, over the issues of funding a mere sign of poor financial management for those that opened their mouths the loudest? Would the same people I spoke with have the unplanned need for rv finance information...or had they planned long ago for this?

This isn't to say that those heard the most aren't as valued as any other resident having an interest in this community. But it's a fair point to see that those with more solid safety nets to avoid homelessness simply weren't as interested...as those who are a bit closer to that reality.

Maybe that's why the ones heard...are just that.

Social Profiling: Still goes on no matter what they say

Friday I had the chance of walking along Jacksonville's South bank of the Riverwalk around Friendship Fountain. It was just before people were leaving the high rise offices, the time when you only see people in the area who don't have 'anything better to do'.

I spotted three couples in the area, and one police cruiser driving by one time on the sidewalk in a 20 minute time period. One of the couples I knew someone directly, having been a person of interest to my family for the time period we experienced homelessness.

The officer made it a point of checking the male's identification, as opposed to anyone else he had seen in the area. As he called information through his handheld radio, I approached and engaged the young girl I was acquainted of.

The only reason she related the officer gave as to asking for her friend's identification was he'd never seen them before in the park. Again, this was a young lady I'd known for years and at one time mentored over some issues I'm not able to relate here. Full of hopes, dreams, one day finding that one special guy to be able to send out wedding invitations for...I looked on her as a niece I never had.

The one thing that separated the place she was sitting at as opposed to anyone else not confronted by the officer?

There was a book bag on the picnic table she and her friends sat at talking. Just remember...this could have been your kid on a sunny Jacksonville day as well.

City Hall showup: Tuesday July 28th, 5PM

The cry of the month has been "Fix It Now". Well, it ain't gonna happen kids.

Jacksonville's about to have a vote of whether or not to increase taxes towards homeowners, which in turn will affect later availability of funds for grants and other money doled out to parts of the city to keep it going, whether that means frivolity, spirituality, or necessity.

I spoke with a handful of people on the phone the last few days. People that were afraid. People that didn't know if they would lose their jobs. People that were facing that wall knowing they had only so much in liquid assets before their electricity could be turned off.

And they were employed by non profit agencies providing services to people experiencing homelessness.

Cries for people to email City Hall on their behalf. Cries that the sky was falling. Cries that "we'll sacrifice the children if we don't get our way".

I've had the chance of hearing Mayor Peyton over the last few years, standing in front of cameras, sitting behind tables, belittled and having to be seen as the pivot point in a huge circle jerk: City Hall, residents, businesses, and agencies.

Good old boy routines, City Council members who don't know the bigger picture of things to come. Egos and the ability to leave it all at the office, spare the neighbor calling at home bothering them in their part time position that takes away from their already existing business interests.

It's all about money. Take away the money, and you'll still have homeless families though...won't you? People won't just go...away. Or will they?

The end point for all of this is simple. Take away the funding, and Jacksonville will begin to develop cells of homeless tent cities. In time, these will organize productively; or not; into larger cells. Whether in a year or two, we're about to see history made on the First Coast.

Luckily I kept my cache of camping equipment from three years ago. Just remember though, the food won't be abundant so start taking some weight loss supplements now to make sure you're fit and trim for the New Era. You wanted 'Change'. You got it.

Big Brother's been watching you since 1984. He just didn't follow the script.

Map out your local homeless before they do

With the seasons changing as they do each year, the migration due to weather and job scarcity increases to more temperate areas like Jacksonville.

I had contact with two different families, one coming from Seattle and another from Boston, both having the same issues of inability to find work as well as preparing for another hard winter affecting family members' health problems.

Although the agencies in the area attempt to assist as much as possible, there's the masses still unaccounted for that are off the scale. Meal lines, labor pool lines, medical clinics, all of them are already beginning to see the increases during the hours of operation that otherwise go ignored.

Until someone gets offended at what's outside their front door regularly.

I'd give it another month before more of the uneducated business owners downtown start throwing up the idea of barcode scanner usage on the homeless again, similar to what was proposed to fingerprinting for food five years ago.