by ALEXANDRA MCCLAIN
Jax2025 wants to hear your opinion, and all it takes is a simple survey. Community members can log onto Jax2025.org and take a quick and easy questionnaire. With just a little over 12 questions, it gives residents of Jacksonville a chance to discuss what they like, and don’t like, about the city, as well as things they wish to see improved. The survey will be available until January 13, 2013. Once the surveys have been submitted, it’s the first step to change for a better community.
Jax2025 is a community-based project facilitated by Jacksonville Community Council Inc. to help create a better vision for the city over the next few years. The project allows for the community to take the city’s vision into their own hands and to work towards taking action to make a lasting change that they can be proud of.
The project will be spear-headed by a tri-chair council consisting of Oliver Barakat of CBRE Brokerage Services, Ju’Coby Pittman-Peele of Clara White Mission, and Carl Cannon, former publisher of the Florida Times-Union. Mayor Alvin Brown will be an honorary Chairman for the committee.
Jax2025 is molded after San Antonio, Texas’s “SA2020”. San Antonio used the same idea behind Jax2025. Eleven areas were targeted for improvement, and the city launched SA2020 in efforts to make the change happen. Within two years of starting, progress had been made in several areas that included improvements in their education system, building more apartments in their downtown area, as well as installing solar parking meters downtown. This same progress is what Jax2025 hopes to accomplish–continued advancement in the next several years to see the city grow and change for the best.
From now until January 11, 2013 Jax2025 is offering community presentations for the project. On the website you can request a presentation for your business, civic, social, school or community group and to find out more details of the Jax2025 efforts.
Also, community members are encouraged to attend and participate in five community meetings that will be held at the Prime Osborn Center. The first is to be held on January 19, 2013. For the full list of dates for the meetings be sure to check out their website. Volunteering is also another way to get involved, but by far the easiest is just taking the survey.
No tax dollars are being spent on Jax2025. It is privately funded by local sponsors and partners, such as the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Community Foundation in Jacksonville, Clara White Mission, Boys and Girls Club of Northeast Florida, along with many others. The others involved are listed on jax2025.org, as well as how to become a partner or sponsor if you’re interested. Take the survey in order to have a voice in this city’s future.
Follow FOLIO!