In Jacksonville

I'm just gonna be randomly posting things that tick me off, worry me, and just generally drive me nuts...

Today...

The lack of a healthy vision for the future of the city.

Don't get me wrong. Our illustrious Mayor wants the city to prosper. Our City Council wants the city to prosper. Our state government wants our city to prosper (although they don't want local government to determine what happens locally). My fellow citizens want the city to prosper.

Yet...

JTA trumpets the BRT (bus-rapid transit) system;
JEA continues their pollution and destruction of the environment;
City vehicles mostly remain gas-powered instead of shifting to hybrids;
new government buildings are not designed to be green and older ones are rarely (if ever) updated to be green (reduce dependence upon electricity).

What does this mean?

BRT may be coming whether it's good or not. Simply put, I believe that this is the wrong route to go. These buses will run on diesel fuel. Not electrical. The city killed its electric trolley system decades ago, replacing them with diesel buses. This has caused incessant pollution and drives up city bills as prices rise. Will diesel powered faster buses be any different? No. Personally I'm wondering if this drive for the BRT system is in any way related to the fact that one of the most powerful local families is the Peyton family - of which our current Mayor is only the most notable one - owns Gate Petroleum, a large petrochemical firm which owns and operates hundreds of gas stations. I wonder where the city will be purchasing its gas?

Why not build an electrical transportation grid that funnels travelers from outlying areas to those stations where they can hook up with the already extant Skyway?

The JEA is one of the largest polluters of the St. Johns River, if not the largest. This is known to many, yet the EPA and the state have only slapped the JEA on the wrist when it has come to light. The river is being choked with green algae coming from farms and septic tanks, yet JEA's plant emits more mercury into the river and the area than any other plant in the state. One chokes off life in the river, the other kills life, causing birth defects and other problems in general.

When will this monopoly clean up their act? They're even planning on giving ALL of their employees a bonus, when they're raising electrical rates for the entire area TWICE in the coming year. (If you pay attention, they say they're raising rates to expand production for the future in one line while saying that the increase reflects rising fuel costs in the current year.) In addition to the several rate increases in the past five years, the City government wants to add a 3% surcharge to get the CITY more money. JEA has been running a huge profit for the past couple of years, and yet the City is broke and trying to prop itself up on the backs of residents who already struggle.

Most of the City's vehicles remain dependent upon fossil fuels instead of moving to hybrid engines.
Why aren't all COJ vehicles based on alternative fuels, whether electrical or hybrid? The city chooses to raise fees but does not invest in alternative fuels which can reduce the dependence on fuel costs in the future.

Last,

Although the push for greening buildings has been going on for over a decade in many cities around the world, Jacksonville is finally appropriating money to study the feasibility of greening itself.

Just as an example, the Better Jacksonville Plan built six new libraries for the Library system (unlike Peyton's recent presentation which said BJP paid for six libraries AND the Main Library). Not a one was green.

TTFN...