by David Chapman
Staff Writer
Jacksonville Community Council Inc. released its 23rd annual Quality of Life progress report Wednesday with results showing several gold star ratings to go along with numerous red flags, indicating concerns on a variety of issues in Duval County.
The 79-page report highlights different topics in several areas of local interest. Those topics include the states of education, the economy, the environment, social well-being, arts and culture, health, responsive government, transportation and public safety.
Gold stars were merited on topics the committee identified as moving in a positive direction. Red flags indicated negative direction on a topic and represent a priority for action. Each indicator also came with an improvement target for the year 2010.
Of the 108 indicators that composed the eight studied categories for Duval County, nine were given gold stars while 23 were red flagged.
“We found some good areas as well as some concerns,” said Ron Autrey, chairman of the progress report review committee and chair of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Red flagged indicators included 10th graders at grade level in reading and math, students absent for more than 21 days, water level in the Florida Aquifer, locally-perceived and experienced racism, infant mortality rates, voter turnout and perception in high quality of elected leadership in both local government and the school board.
Though red flags outnumbered gold stars, Duval County did grade out well in some areas.
Gold star indicators included the unemployment rate, average monthly water consumption, volunteer numbers, teen births, public park acreage, library circulation and active number of neighborhood organizations.
The red-flagged indicators in the education category concerned Autrey.
“Improving education is important because these children are our future workforce,” he said during his summary of the report.
Autrey also noted that every red-flagged indicator has been or will be addressed in the future by local government and organizations.
Mayor John Peyton was in attendance and also had a chance to speak about the report.
“We’ve got to be honest about the challenges before us,” he said. “None of these things are being ignored. They’re all being addressed.”
Peyton stressed the importance of getting the community involved and united and noted that “the biggest threat is not ourselves but external forces in Tallahassee.”
He praised JCCI’s work in conducting the report and said others and he will regroup, have discussions and tackle the tough issues within the report.
“You have to know what you have before you can find out where to go,” he said.
A page of the report, “a snapshot of the quality of life in Jacksonville,” shows one indicator for each studied category.