JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 \ufeffResidents in Jacksonville\u2019s historic Black neighborhoods say they do not want a new Duval County jail built in their community without their input \u2014 and they made that clear during a packed public meeting at City Hall on Friday. <\/p>\n
Jacksonville City Councilmember Jimmy Peluso is pushing a new resolution that would officially block those neighborhoods from even being considered as potential locations.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n With the search underway for a site to replace Jacksonville\u2019s aging jail, longtime residents say they\u2019re bracing for d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu \u2014 fearing the city could place another major project in their backyard without their input.<\/p>\n That concern stems from the Brentwood neighborhood, where residents woke up to find construction underway on a new Medical Examiner\u2019s Office, despite months of pushback.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want what happened in Brentwood where we woke up one day and the coroner was there. We don\u2019t want that with the new jail,\u201d resident Larry Henderson said.<\/p>\n RELATED: Jacksonville councilmember seeks commitment new jail won\u2019t end up in disenfranchised neighborhoods<\/a><\/p>\n Peluso said his approach is intentional, using decades-old red-lining boundaries to protect communities that have historically been overlooked or overburdened.<\/p>\n \u201cThe map we have is based on what the city looked like from 1934, so it\u2019s changed quite a bit,\u201d Peluso said. \u201cWe already passed a resolution based on red-lining. This is the second part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n Residents and city leaders also weighed in on what the process for selecting the jail\u2019s future site may look like. Chief Administrative Officer Mike Weinstein said the city expects consultants to come back soon with multiple options.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u201cProbably in a month we\u2019ll have an agreement with the company to help us start,\u201d Weinstein said. \u201cAnd they have the obligation to deliver to us three sites \u2014 size wise, transportation wise \u2014 and deal with community issues.\u201d<\/p>\n But one of the most consistent messages from the audience was frustration \u2014 and skepticism \u2014 over whether public feedback will truly influence the outcome.<\/p>\n \u201cHas anyone on City Council given an opinion on where the jail should be located? I take that as a no,\u201d Joseph George, president of the North Florida Central Labor Council, said.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Peluso reiterated that his priority is to protect historic, predominantly Black neighborhoods and ensure they are not considered for the new jail \u2014 a stance that other council members echoed.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody deserves dignity,\u201d Councilwoman Ju\u2019Coby Pittman said. \u201cThe community deserves to have input to empower them to be part of a big process.\u201d<\/p>\n Peluso told Action News Jax he expects to formally file his resolution after the new year.<\/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 \ufeffResidents in Jacksonville\u2019s historic Black neighborhoods say they do not want a new Duval County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,19602,23732,45645,22138,45644,116,118,117,18639,634],"class_list":{"0":"post-82149","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action_news","9":"tag-brentwood","10":"tag-city_hall","11":"tag-fiona_govino","12":"tag-hall","13":"tag-jackiona_gvino","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","16":"tag-jacksonville-news","17":"tag-jimmy_peluso","18":"tag-local"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82149","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=82149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}