by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
A full agenda greeted the Downtown Action Committee Monday morning at City Hall. A variety of topics were discussed, but the conversation eventually focused on parking and Downtown safety.
Officer A. J. Brown from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office detailed the police presence Downtown and said that in a 24-hour period, there are 25 officers and five supervisors including officers on bicycles and the mounted unit.
Brown also said that there is a problem with people breaking into cars Downtown and showed a surveillance video showing a man climbing a fence at the CSX Building to attempt to break into a car, then trying to hide from police.
Brown pointed out that while the vehicle in the video was locked and not broken into by the time officers arrived on the scene, “You would not believe how many cars are unlocked. Please lock your car and put your valuables in the trunk.”
Officer Wally Butler gave details about the JSO’s “High Intensity Trespass System” that allows the sheriff’s office to work with Downtown property owners to reduce and control the homeless population. The system allows officers to go on to private property to enforce trespassing laws.
“We’re interrupting the infrastructure criminals need and protecting property owners,” said Butler. “And we’re getting some bad guys off the streets.”
Butler also pointed out that Jacksonville has developed a national reputation as a good place to be homeless due to the large number of aid and social-service organizations and programs available.
“Other cities are cutting back on services and word is out to come to Jacksonville,” he said.
He said that many people living on the streets are criminals who hope to “become invisible” and many have substance-abuse problems. By providing so many feeding programs, addicts have money to spend on illegal drugs.
“The most cruel thing we can do as a society is to continue to feed them and watch them go lower and lower,” said Butler.
He recommended that regulations be put in place to require agencies providing benefits to properly identify recipients as a way to improve accountability.
City Council member and DAC chair Suzanne Jenkins said she’d like to set up a meeting with the JSO and social service providers to better control the situation.
“We don’t want to turn into the ‘mean streets’ for the homeless,” she said, adding that she believes that agencies and services can, “Get better organized to fill needs rather than add to the problems.”
Parking Downtown is also a big issue facing the committee. Mark Rimmer from Realistic Transportation Alternatives, Inc. presented the results of a survey he conducted at four lots over a three-day period to determine how long people who come Downtown like to stay in a parking place.
He said that the average parking time during business hours at the Landing lot was two hours or less for 64 percent of visitors and 71 percent for two hours or less at the County Courthouse lot.
Rimmer said that in his opinion, Downtown needs short-term parking at meters on the street and that garages are intended for long-term needs. He also said he thinks that if maximum meter time was extended to three hours people who work Downtown, “Will absorb the spaces, adding to the problem, not solving it.”
Rimmer thinks the parking space inventory Downtown is, “Very deceptive,” and that while there may be lots of parking places, they are not in the right locations to fit the needs of consumers, he said.
He added that Downtown’s situation is not unique and that many urban areas have also faced parking issues for years.
“Since it’s not unique, we have a lot of options to look at that might work,” said committee member Ennis Davis.