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<\/p>\nJacksonville residents urged officials to block any new jail from neighborhoods with a history of redlining. Some Council members said it’s too early to rule out.<\/p>\n
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A contentious debate over where a new jail could be built in Jacksonville drew a packed crowd to City Hall this week, as residents urged leaders to keep the facility out of historically Black neighborhoods shaped by decades of redlining.<\/p>\n
Redlining is the discriminatory practice of denying or limiting loans, insurance and other services to people in certain neighborhoods, often based on race or ethnicity.<\/p>\n
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Community members and local activists filled council chambers, voicing concerns that a new jail could be placed in areas that have long faced disinvestment.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou as a president can say that this is something that we\u2019re not going to do,\u201d Pastor Gundy told council members.<\/p>\n
Isaiah Rumlin, president of the NAACP\u2019s Jacksonville branch, questioned whether leaders would accept such a facility in their own neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cWould you want this in your community?\u201d Rumlin asked. \u201cIt will not be placed in a predominant African American community.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to those concerns, Councilmember Jimmy Peluso introduced a resolution this month that would have prohibited any portion of a new jail from being built in historically redlined communities. The proposal aimed to put protections in writing following years of inequitable development patterns, he said.<\/p>\n
The measure was initially rejected in council committees but returned for a full City Council vote Tuesday night, where it ultimately failed 5-12.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Residents who supported the resolution said the issue goes beyond the location of a single facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis resolution is deeper than the location of a jail,\u201d said community member Katie Hathaway. \u201cIt is about trust, equity, and whether we are willing to say that every neighborhood in Jacksonville deserves dignity, opportunity and investment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others pointed to what they describe as a pattern of placing large or undesirable facilities in predominantly Black neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re tired. Brentwood is the dumping ground for Jacksonville. And we deserve better,\u201d said Lydia Bell, who also cited previous developments in her community, including a forensic lab and morgue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Peluso echoed those concerns, saying similar promises have been made to communities in the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen this a lot in this city,\u201d Peluso said. \u201cWe\u2019ve said to these communities before, \u2018Don\u2019t worry.\u2019 Why would it? And then it does.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some council members supported the measure, arguing it would establish clear boundaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to support this because we do need some guardrails in place,\u201d Councilmember Reggie Gaffney Jr. said.<\/p>\n
But the majority of council members said the proposal was premature, noting that potential jail sites have not yet been identified.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis legislation does nothing to protect the community. It\u2019s premature,\u201d Councilmember Ken Amaro said.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Ron Salem said it was inappropriate to make a decision before reviewing potential locations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s appropriate to make these decisions until we have those three sites,\u201d Salem said.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Rory Diamond criticized the resolution as symbolic but said he also opposes placing a jail in historically Black neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is performative \u2026 but I\u2019m not supporting this going into a historically Black neighborhood either,\u201d Diamond said.<\/p>\n
Despite the vote, many residents said they plan to remain engaged as the process moves forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s meet collectively to come up with a collective and positive outcome,\u201d Pastor Gundy said.<\/p>\n
City leaders expect a consultant report early next year outlining potential jail sites and say community input will be part of the decision-making process. The mayor\u2019s office said the jail is unlikely to be built in historically redlined neighborhoods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacksonville residents urged officials to block any new jail from neighborhoods with a history of redlining. Some Council…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-285660","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\/285660","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=285660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}