Letters: Jacksonville getting in its own way again with Trio, other downtown development

What if the Laura Street Trio was viewed as important to Jacksonville’s future success and identity as the Jaguars’ stadium renovations? Mayor Donna Deegan hired an experienced, crackerjack team of lawyers to negotiate with the team but all along has said that a successful deal with the Jaguars organization is important to the city. So, it’s going to happen.

As far as the Laura Street Trio, Jacksonville’s history of getting in our own way is repeating itself. Why has our downtown development lagged behind just about every comparable city in Florida, plus a laundry list of others, such as Charlotte, N.C.; Greenville, S.C.; or Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga, Tenn.?

Look no further than the most recent Downtown Investment Authority resolution that was almost successful in ending talks with the developer. Councilman Matt Carlucci kept the conversations on track for now and City Council President Ron Salem announced a new committee to evaluate our strategy.

How about we approach this deal as if it absolutely must happen? Because the Trio is every bit as important to our past, present and future city as a beloved (but average) football team.

The Trio needs a champion just like the stadium. I think we need an independent "downtown czar” with the authority and backing of the mayor. Someone with specific experience with major downtown and park development in comparable cities.

Jacksonville is a top 10 city for growth in people moving here for jobs and quality of life. Let’s capitalize on this momentum. City Council, the DIA reports to you and it’s not going well. Jacksonville has many challenges, but so did other cities who managed to get past them.

Let’s make Downtown Jax and the Riverfront Parks as important as building a new stadium for a billionaire. The excuses have run dry — the City Council must find a way.

Deborah Early, Ortega

Remembering law enforcement heroes

On April 29, four members of the U.S. Marshals Task Force were killed in the line of duty and several others were wounded while attempting to apprehend a fugitive in North Carolina.

Two days before the North Carolina attack, two deputies in Polk County were shot. About two weeks before that attack, a deputy in Hillsborough County was shot at, narrowly escaping serious injury because the bullet hit his service radio.

These attacks are just some examples of how members of law enforcement put their lives on the line each day to protect the people in this community from harm. For that, they deserve our never-ending thanks. For those who made the ultimate sacrifice, we owe so much more. It is important that we remember them and honor them, so their sacrifice is never forgotten.

For each of the officers who made the ultimate sacrifice, law enforcement was not an ordinary job. It was a calling. It was something they did because they were dedicated to protecting and serving the members of the community where they lived. We owe them a debt of gratitude we can never fully repay.

May 12 marked the start of National Police Week. I hope everyone took a moment to show your gratitude and thank the members of law enforcement who serve our community for everything they do to keep us safe. I also hope everyone will remember those officers who were killed, disabled or injured in the line of duty.

We are forever grateful for their selfless acts and courage.

Roger B. Handberg is the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, which includes Jacksonville.

Maybe city needs a new model

All the expense and political tension over the Downtown Investment Authority should cause us to wonder if the whole idea of a centralized, concentrated area to serve a large and dispersed population is viable. Many cities sprawled over miles have developed multiple perfectly useful downtowns.

We have that mercantile madness, St. Johns Town Center, and the Beaches have their own small business centers. There's that huge concentrated area near the airport, one in Orange Park and around the map. With many people working, studying and doing business remotely, there's little reason to flock to these half-empty skyscrapers and inconvenient stores.

What was once downtown is (for most of us) an area you drive through to get somewhere else. But that once viable area does contain the beginnings of a large cultural-entertainment district. We have performance spaces large and small; cultural treasures like the Museum of Science & History, the Cummer Museum, the main library, the Museum of Contemporary Art and Friday Musicale; plus, that gorgeous river.

There are also notable parks and the growing Emerald Trail. There are historic buildings like our City Hall that can be preserved as part of an attractive historic district. Let’s abandon last-century thinking and adopt a new model.

Sharon Scholl, Atlantic Beach

Never too late for swim lessons

There is a hidden problem in our community that isn’t talked about much (though it is often joked about) and that is the physical illiteracy of adults who can’t swim.

As summer gets underway, families will be together in the pool, ocean and lakes. Many adults will be uncomfortable getting in the water with their kids, let alone teaching them. More than half of adults in the U.S. really don’t know how to swim.

When parents weren’t brought up as swimmers because their parents couldn’t swim or they had a traumatic experience, it is a never-ending cycle. Adults who want to be able to enjoy the water still have time in their life to learn to love water and swimming. It is never too early or too late to learn to swim.

Suzi Teitelman, owner, Swim Lesson Suzi, Jacksonville Beach

Who will be missing?

In the May 2 article titled “Florida’s abortion ban takes quick toll on clinics,” it was reported that there were around 84,000 abortions performed in Florida last year.

Just think about how many of those 84,000 might have been future doctors, peacemakers, ministers, nurses, journalists, teachers or just plain moms and dads. The list is endless. Their gifts and talents lost to future generations.

Is that what our society really wants? Who will be missing in your world? Thankfully not my great-granddaughter, born to an unwed mother.

Carole Ginzl, Jacksonville

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Laura Street Trio must be as important as Jaguars' stadium renovations