{"id":225179,"date":"2026-04-09T18:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T18:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/225179\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T18:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T18:41:08","slug":"northside-pride-celebrates-one-year-of-transforming-image-of-citys-most-stigmatized-neighborhood-free-press-of-jacksonville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/225179\/","title":{"rendered":"Northside Pride Celebrates One Year of Transforming Image of City\u2019s Most Stigmatized Neighborhood \u2013 Free Press of Jacksonville"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/maule1northsside-pride-thank-you-678x381.jpeg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Northside Pride\"\/><br \/>\nShown at the signing (L-R) author Teresa Nicole, Latarsha Stallworth, Samantha Tate, Shajuan Edwards and Felicia Mallet<\/p>\n<p>Celebrating its first anniversary, the local nonprofit Northside Pride of Jacksonville honored community leaders who helped put Jacksonville\u2019s Northside on the map. Dana Maule, Founder and Executive Director, hosted the one-year awards ceremony at Jacksonville\u2019s oldest pizzeria, Joseph\u2019s Pizza (established 1956), in Panama Park \u2013 a Northside neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p>Awards were given to recognize donors, media partners, and volunteers. This one-year award ceremony was the community\u2019s way to recognize major victories Northside Pride achieved to shift perceptions about Jacksonville\u2019s Northside and rebrand it as a desirable neighborhood where people can eat, shop, and explore.<\/p>\n<p>In the past year the organization navigated legislation through the City of Jacksonville requiring the Florida Department of Transpor-tation to install signage designating the entrance of Durkee Gardens, a Northside neighborhood listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. Another victory includes investing $5,000 into small Northside businesses during the government shutdown in November 2025. In addition, Northside Pride invested in cultural infrastructure along Myrtle Avenue by installing a mural at Families of Slain Children Inc. and the nonprofit hosted over 230 visitors at Emmett Reed Park for Walking Tours in Historic Durkeeville. The walking tours include what is now the first landmark on the Civil Rights Trail \u2013 Mt. Ararat Baptist Church.<\/p>\n<p>Donors who gave between $2,000 \u2013 $6,000 were recognized with the Fiscal Impact award: LISC Jacksonville, Visit Jacksonville, St. Johns Riverkeeper and Jimmy &amp; Genoa Crain-Orth; Media allies were awarded the Neighborhood News Champion Award: Lynn Jones of the Jacksonville Free Press, Amanda DeVoe of WJXT News4Jax and Jasmine Monroe of WTLV First Coast News; Local community leaders who volunteered for one year were recognized with the Northside Neighbor Award: Shelby Reed, Alexis Cummings, Sabrina Richard, Vic Alexander and Ali Simmons.<\/p>\n<p>Northside Pride is a 501c3 grassroots organization focused on civic engagement, economic development, and tourism on Jacksonville\u2019s Northside. Maule says she launched the organization after she learned that the local Destination Marketing Office, Visit Jacksonville, repeatedly excluded Northside businesses and historic landmarks from its visitors guide. In 2025 The Jacksonville Daily Record reported that 8.2 million visitors spent $4.1 billion in the River City. Maule believes that leaving Northside neighborhoods out of tourism marketing campaigns continues the cycle of divestment and neglect of Jacksonville\u2019s Northside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shown at the signing (L-R) author Teresa Nicole, Latarsha Stallworth, Samantha Tate, Shajuan Edwards and Felicia Mallet Celebrating&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-225179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225179","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=225179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}