{"id":142554,"date":"2026-02-03T22:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T22:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/142554\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T22:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T22:41:07","slug":"mayor-donna-deegan-hologram-removed-from-jacksonville-international-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/142554\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Donna Deegan ‘hologram’ removed from Jacksonville International Airport"},"content":{"rendered":"

The life-like “Holo-Donna” drew criticism from city and state officials for its price tag, which turned out to be far more than the initial estimate.<\/p>\n

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The “hologram”<\/a> of Mayor Donna Deegan that has greeted travelers at the Jacksonville International Airport for more than a year has been removed.<\/p>\n

The large interactive machine from U.S. startup Proto\u00a0<\/a>plays messages from a life-like, 3D Mayor Deegan, with the ability to be heard in multiple languages. The mayor’s office said it was one of the first times a city has used this kind of holographic technology in public spaces and showcased the city’s commitment to “investing in cutting-edge technology.”<\/p>\n

It drew criticism from members of the city council\u00a0<\/a>and Florida’s CFO for the price tag, which turned out to be around $66,000 paid for by the city\u2019s technology solutions department.<\/p>\n

In a recently released summary of Florida DOGE’s Jacksonville audit<\/a>, the “Holo-Donna” was listed as an example of what it called overspending by the city. “Originally advertised as a $30,000 purchase, the price tag was closer to $75,000,” the report states.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the mayor\u2019s office says the installation was never meant to be there forever, and the city’s temporary agreement for its placement at the airport just ended.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It was always a pilot project for the proto box to be placed at the airport while we tested and debuted the hologram technology. Our six-month agreement with JIA ended on February 1. The proto box has been returned to the City while we explore additional public education projects for the Public Works Department,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson added it was unfair to subject the airport to constant “hyper-partisan attacks.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The life-like “Holo-Donna” drew criticism from city and state officials for its price tag, which turned out to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-142554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-jacksonville","9":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","10":"tag-jacksonville-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142554","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=142554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}