{"id":119048,"date":"2026-01-15T11:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T11:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/119048\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T11:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T11:02:18","slug":"jacksonville-city-councilman-raul-arias-issues-public-apology-over-go-somewhere-else-remark-104-5-wokv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/119048\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville City Councilman Raul Arias issues public apology over \u2018Go somewhere else\u2019 remark \u2013 104.5 WOKV"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Jacksonville City Council member has issued a public apology following backlash over comments he made<\/a> about residents opposing a high-density housing development in Northeast Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

Councilman Raul Arias apologized during Tuesday night\u2019s City Council meeting, addressing remarks he made a week earlier during a Land Use and Zoning Committee discussion.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI misspoke and I am a human being, and I said something that I should not have said the way I said it,\u201d Arias said.<\/p>\n

The controversy began when Arias, who represents District 11 on Jacksonville\u2019s Southside, expressed frustration with community opposition to a rezoning proposal and said residents who oppose density should \u201cgo somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments were tied to a proposal to rezone about 11 acres of land for a 47-home development along Cedar Bay Road, between Main Street North and Cedar Branch Road, in the San Mateo area.<\/p>\n

The remarks drew sharp criticism from District 2 Councilman Mike Gay, whose constituents would be directly affected by the development.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy community does not deserve that type of treatment where they are told to be quiet, sit down, shut up or get out,\u201d Gay said. \u201cNo, that\u2019s not going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Arias has argued that his district has carried a disproportionate share of Jacksonville\u2019s housing growth, while other areas have resisted new development. <\/p>\n

According to 2024 data from the Duval County Property Appraiser\u2019s Office, District 11 recorded 806 housing starts, the third highest in the city, compared to 164 in District 2, which ranked among the lowest.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy frustration is that we need more houses in Jacksonville,\u201d Arias said as he doubled down. \u201cA lot of people are building houses on the Southside and in other parts of town.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Despite Gay\u2019s opposition to the development, the City Council approved the rezoning measure by a 13\u20134 vote.<\/p>\n

Some residents initially opposed to the Cedar Bay Road development have since softened their stance after the developer agreed to contribute $45,000 each to the Cedar Bay neighborhood for a new playground and to Bay Harbor for dock improvements.<\/p>\n

The proposal previously passed the Land Use and Zoning Committee unanimously, 6\u20130<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Jacksonville City Council member has issued a public apology following backlash over comments he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[34901,34902,34903,116,118,117],"class_list":["post-119048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-1-28-22","tag-alex-arias","tag-alex-p","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}