Urban Jacksonville

Listen to the part at the very begining about funding of legal defense of Senator Ted Stevens, AK. He takes a pounding and sits through it on public radio. While the rest of the callers rip through him on other ethics issues think about the City of Jacksonville.

The VTP can’t say when, but the media is going to be reborn in Jacksonville on the backs of the bizarre and careless corruption. Those who are unlucky and take the fall won’t know what hit them. If your not corrupt, hey, great city.

And if you do go down for something you can always make a comeback and really kill it.

Please no quotes without permission. Will trade for tips. Send more tips vontinypaige@gmail.com

Tags: von tiny paige

Yeah! It’s good to be back, and there’s no better day to return than your birthday. Yes, today is my birthday. No gifts please, just swing by Mark’s tonight to see me and Biggie Tea. I promise, no birthday songs. I will be playing an all Funk set, thanks to Ian Ranne who inspired me to search out some old school funk.

There was a blog birthday while I was out. Congrats Urban Core on 3 years of Mark’s and Art Walk posts.

I’m going to ease back into this bloggin thang by announcing a sweet-ass Obama fundraiser I’m involved with. If you saw Obama speak at the DNC last week then you’re probably pretty excited about the presidential race right now.

Harness that energy by attending Return of the City a fundraiser, art show, DJ party with food and drink. It’s only $100.00 per person and all money goes directly to the Barack Obama campaign.

This party will feature the art of Steve Forster and live DJs Biggie Tea, Owen Holmes of The Black Kids and yours truly, DJ Joe E Fresh. The party is at a house in Avondale on September 16th, 2008 from 6:30pm to 9:00pm.

Eat, Drink, Change. The hosts of this art opening and fundraiser hope to celebrate the excellent quality of life in our progressive, diverse, walkable, and beautiful urban neighborhoods. We encourage you to patronize the taverns and eateries of the Shoppes of Avondale before and after the opening. Hosted by John Mills & Tony Allegretti at 1852 Talbot Avenue in the Heart of Avondale.

There is limited space for this event so an RSVP is required. You can RSVP by emailing BOBAMA@APPELLATE-FIRM.COM

If you can’t make it to the fundraiser there will be an after party at Mark’s starting around 9:30. Biggie Tea and I will be DJing at the after party too.

Tags: barack obama, fundraiser, the black kids

credit: threecee

Come to Mark’s tonight and hear me, DJ Roof Cave In, and Biggie Tea play music that doesn’t suck. I can guarantee you I’ll play a whole Barack Obama set, it’s time for a change!

Tonight is 100% Fay free and as an added bonus we have free gifts for everyone who wears their “I Voted” sticker.

$1 PBR Tallboys, $2 Drafts and $3 Jagers
Mark’s in Downtown Jacksonville
315 East Bay Street

Note from the Editor: This is the third installment of what (apparently) will be a recurring column. Peyton knows there’s more than enough dirt going on in this City to fill three weekly columns. But I digress. Under no amount of torture, threat of litigation or tickling will I reveal the identity of Von Tiny Paige, because I have no idea who he/she is. Please enjoy.

FROM VON and the well meaning people at Tiny Paige

Note: none of this will seem funny to you if you are suffering from property damage from your faycation.

The answer? We guess about 100 plus a dozen or so city trucks, lots of fossil fuels, city workers, prisoners?, and some of the best quotes EVAH!

Honorable Congresswoman Brown:
My roof cave in!
I been here 16 years!
I had to call and call like anybody else.
Fair to pay for it?
They some fumes back there. Some biological spillz. On my back. You go take a look at it. Its a mess.

From CHIEF OF STAFF HOLLINGSWORTH:
She is a single woman.
Anybody, um, might have done the same thing.
I heard the panic in her voice.

From CITY COUNCILMEMBER LEE:
I didn’t call anybody. I don’t want free sand bags and I don’t need free sand bags. Or labor. Or the fuel that it costs to get all those trucks to my house for no good reason. But you know what is good? Cinnabons at the airport. TASTEE!

From JaxOutLoud.com:
The people of Jacksonville are outraged, and this is an issue that needs to be addressed and action taken on behalf of the administration! Hollingsworth should not get away with this!

From Metrojacksonville.com:
A 62 year old woman who got sandbags in a flood is A OK with me.

With the story now on Drudge, Von is fairly certain we will have a thorough accounting on how much this humanitarian effort costs us flooded out taxpayers and a breakdown on how these victims of Hollingsworth’s human-ess will pay us all back. Von loves me some Duval. This crap writes itself.

Shout out to the LOCAL STATION for even asking the tough questions! When we get pictures of the caved in roof and biological spillz somebody check the freezers! WINK WINK!

THE VTP
Send tips on abuses of power. abuses? Von’s been here 3 weeks! 3 weeks! vontinypaige@gmail.com

Tags: adam hollingsworth, corrine brown, sand bags

Unfortunately it was not like this. Credit: farlane

On Monday I asked the Times Union to please send someone to cover the Land Use Map meeting. While the didn’t officially send someone, the TU did represent at the meeting. Jonathan Bennett, the person behind the TU Twitter user @Jaxdotcom and concerned Riverside resident, attended and sent this writeup.

The meeting this evening was surprisingly informative, if sparsely attended.

Besides myself, there were 8 or 9 other people there, mostly RADO/RAP people, and Matt, the editor of Bike Jax (nice guy).

In short, this meeting was a way for COJ to learn about Riverside, Avondale, and what their residents want from future land use changes. If people want to really get involved with how their communities will look, work and feel in the near future, this seems to be the opportunity.

One thing to make a note of - land use changes (as they are being defined here) are more general ideas about a community and how development, or the lack thereof, would best serve the existing community. Zoning issues, which are separate issues, are the details of land use - the height of buildings, number of buildings per block, etc.) Essentially, what the COJ is talking about here are large, general ideas about a community - not specific how wide the sidewalks should be.

A couple of things that stood out to me - the COJ team handed out surveys, and Shariff mentioned that the surveys would be used as scientific evidence in their land use change plans, not merely anecdotal suggestions from residents. That is, residents who become involved and fill out the surveys are directly affecting future land use plans. If it really works like that, it’s a cool approach.

Also, Shariff stressed the need for the COJ, JTA, FDOT, MPO and other local acronyms to work together. While I certainly don’t know the details, there seems to be a disconnect between those organizations and how they all approach Jacksonville’s needs. It seems like Shariff and Co. will be working on fixing those disparities as well.

The COJ team has hosted and will continue to host these open-to-the-community discussions around Jacksonville as they work on the plan. From what I heard tonight and read in the TU lately, they have held a series of similar meetings across the area to encourage input. Once they have gathered enough information, they will formalize their land use changes to the city and state governments.

From the COJ side of things, Shakeeb Shariff led the discussion and fielded questions. He’s a relatively young guy and I was impressed with his willingness to sit down with a community and take the heat for other people’s poor urban development plans. Shariff and Co. seemed genuinely concerned with hearing from the communities - he has led at least one other community meeting, down in Mandarin a few weeks ago. Shariff said he is willing to set up the same presentation for other people/groups. His information is sshariff@coj.net and 904.630.7221.

Hope that helps. To get involved, people can visit these sites:
COJ Community Planning
COJ Community Planning (future land-use map)

or E-mail “questions, comments or concerns” here: communityplanning@coj.net

Oh, and there’s supposed to be a comment blog for vision plan updates here: http://www.zyscovich.com. But I can’t find anything useful on that site.

Tags: land use

photo credit: farlane

Hello Times Union, I won’t be able to attend the Land Use Map meeting, so I’d like to respectfully request you send one of your journalists to report on the happenings.

The Planning and Development Department is updating the City’s Comprehensive Plan, including the Future Land Use Map. This map helps to guide growth and development in the City.

Land Use is a general vision for the way residents would like to see their city develop. Decisions about Land Use should consider such questions as:

• What type of community do you want to live in?
• What type of amenities, such as transit, or park space, do you want near your home?
• Is your neighborhood urban, mixed-use and pedestrian oriented or rural?
• How do you fight rampant development?
• How do you make sure your voice is heard when big decisions affecting your environment are made at the city level?
• Do you want to see better public transit and improved environmental protection?

Read more about why you should go:
Land Use Map meeting - Monday night - be there or be disenfranchised/confused (RADO)
Growth Management. Starts from within (Urban Core)

Tags: growth management, land use

Note from the Editor: This is the first installment of what (we hope) will be a recurring column. Peyton knows there’s more than enough dirt going on in this City to fill three weekly columns. But I digress. Under no amount of torture, threat of litigation or tickling will I reveal the identity of Von Tiny Paige, because I have no idea who he/she is. Please enjoy.

FROM VON and the well meaning people at Tiny Paige

This is the first of a series of columns from the VTP. This opinion column is copyright free however, if quoted, any pieces of the content of any column must be linked to the entire column. Von, like Ron, has access to inside information without owing power people anything for that info.

If you know something about the Jacksonville political and power scene but don’t want to lose your job, your contract, your husband, etc. send us an email at vontinypaige@gmail.com. Your tip may or may not be mentioned. We will never ever mention or give up your email. Use a fake email if you are paranoid.

Your tip should be reasonably reliable, however we do not guarantee anything in our column. Not even our opinion, which can change on a dime. Think of it as local politics for entertainment purposes. Or if you are a subject of a snip, tell us about all these LIES in the comments where they are posted! We will correct all proven mistakes!

So here is what we’ve heard lately

Angela Corey or someone who really likes her has spent a lot of time on as a troll on one of the local message boards. Of course she will probably win in a landslide but the committment to squash any counter balance to her “kill em all let Rutherford sort them out” campaign may lead to more academy awards. Only this overbearing troll has us totally hearting Plotkin. If it wasn’t for her annoying superior attitude we probably wouldn’t even vote for this office.

snip

Ron Barton of the soon to be defunct JEDC is missing in action. Since the northbank riverwalk was reopened in May. What is going on with economic development downtown? Miles Development in Brooklyn? Is that a development or an understatement as to how far we are from anything happening? They should change the name to Miles and Miles. Ron, call home.

snip

The Fellas in the planning office have been told to not go to jags games with Paul Harden any more. Bye bye club seats. Hello loneliness. Don’t worry the private sector will always be there for you after a few “math errors”.

snip

Jacksonville, you used to be easy to figure on the national political scene. Except I heard Obama won the hob nob poll. And had almost 20,000 votes more than McSame in the primary. Winds of change? We need visual clues! Show me your yard signs! Has it already been four years since Jacksonville was one big black W sticker? Since then, they have all gone the way of sub prime mortgages. We don’t blame you for not putting out those McBush signs but we think you should put em up high like gas prices. Design-wise they are an improvement. But where is the pride? Don’t forget if you do or do not put out a sign NO ONE will know you voted for a half black American!

snip

We’ve got some juicy port stories coming in to our port. Tell us what you know about the port, Mayport, what the business climate is like in the Bahamas or any old thing that we need to know. If its interesting, involves power and politics and needs to be told we will make some room. Just drop a tip at vontinypaige@gmail.com.

See you next week!

Tags: Angela Corey, Miles Development, Paul Harden, Ron Barton, von tiny page