Why City Council Matters
SPEAKER_01
0:00
When people think about city government, they often think about headlines. The mayor, big projects, major announcements, maybe even arguments. But over the years, I found myself sitting inside Jacksonville City Hall for very different reasons. I've been there seeking approvals. I've stood before council regarding projects. I've watched zoning conversations unfold. I've witnessed public notices, public comments, and people standing at a podium with three minutes and a whole lot riding on those three minutes. And what struck me was this you realize very quickly that cities don't just happen. Someone decides where roads go, someone decides whether a community gets investment, someone decides if a neighborhood gets hurt. Someone decides whether growth happens responsibly or simply happens fast. Council isn't always glamorous. Most people probably aren't binge watching city council meetings with popcorn on a Tuesday night. But council is one of the most important checks and balances we have because development without accountability creates problems. Growth without community creates resentment and passion without process creates chaos. The role of council is to ask difficult questions, to say, wait a minute, to challenge ideas, to advocate, to balance competing interests, to protect neighborhoods while also making room for possibility. Because every decision eventually becomes somebody's street, somebody's business, somebody's school, somebody's home. And today we're talking with someone who spent the last few years sitting in one of those seats where every vote carries consequences. And that's what we're going to tackle
Jimmy Peluso’s Path To Office
SPEAKER_01
1:31
today. Hi, I'm Zooz bringing you a dose of culture, values, and global citizenship with just enough hoodsba to ask the questions others may avoid. Today's guest is Jimmy Peluso. Jimmy is a Jacksonville City Council member representing District 7, a district as diverse as Jacksonville itself, spanning portions of the urban core and neighborhoods that each bring their own opportunities, challenges, identities, and priorities. Before public service, Jimmy served our country in the Navy, later worked in governmental affairs, and has brought that background in service and public policy into local leadership. He has developed a reputation for engaging in conversations around growth, neighborhood investment, parks, downtown development, and community issues that directly affect how people experience Jacksonville every day. Now he's taking another step and pursuing an at-large seat, expanding the conversation from district representation to a citywide vision. Jimmy, welcome to Schmooz with Seuss.
SPEAKER_02
2:27
Thank you for having me. This is great.
SPEAKER_01
2:28
Thanks for being here. Of course. If young Jimmy were to look at you today, do you think he would be surprised, or he'd be like, yeah, this makes total sense?
SPEAKER_02
2:36
So young Jimmy uh was always interested in politics, um, because he loves history. I still I mean, I still love history. Uh so I think there was probably a sense of like, okay, he was gonna run for something. The fact that I won is probably something young Jimmy might have been a little bit surprised by. Um, but uh, but you know, and I also don't know if city council was what I was thinking when I was 17 years old, right? So I think everyone always thinks of Congress and that's where the big decisions are made. No, no, no. The older you get, the more mature you get, you realize the big decisions are at the local level. Grassroots. Yeah, it impacts everyone the most at the local level and state level.
SPEAKER_01
3:11
It's interesting that you say that because when I think of politics, like you just said, it was the bigger picture, it was the larger purpose that I think we're trained to focus on because that's what the media talks about. And then as an adult, as a parent, as a community servant, I realize that most of what impacts me, my family, my community is happening in the rooms that I sit in that I can actually drive my car to and walk my way into.
Navy Leadership And Learning Fast
SPEAKER_01
3:39
So you served in the Navy before entering public service. What lessons from military life influence your leadership today?
SPEAKER_02
3:46
Uh almost everything. The the time in the military really kind of um kind of built not only my confidence, but my ability to manage uh people and objectives, right? So so my time as a and I was a naval officer, so I immediately graduated from college and uh got commissioned as an ensign. So, and I I served on ships, I was a service warfare guy. And one of the big things about serving on ships, different than being a nuclear officer or a pilot, is they get to go to school. They get to learn their trade for years before they ever get to a submarine or a squadron. When you're on ships, they just kind of like here you go. And my degree was history and political science. And so I show up on the ship that was an old steamship. The steam steam system was antiquated. And uh and they were like, hey, your degree's in some kind of social science, we should put you in engineering. So so I was in engineering, and I, you know, I had to learn how to turn a wrench. I had to learn how the engineering systems worked, and I had to learn how to get the respect of the sailors and the other officers who were in the engineering field and had been for years and decades, and like not only learn from them, but then like kind of kind of get guidance from them and eventually get their respect. And so once you do stuff like that, once you find yourself in an uncomfortable situation and you have to learn, it's really sink or swim to throw a pun out there for the Navy. Um, but like I learned and I made it, I I challenged myself to learn more about engineering concepts that I never would have expected to learn when I was in college or high school. Like, you gotta understand, my math scores were abysmal.
SPEAKER_01
5:21
I understand completely. I was strong into history and literature and the social sciences.
SPEAKER_02
5:30
Yeah, so it was it was to to trade in, you know, books for a pair of overalls with stains all over them. Like you you gotta learn to do the hard work and and to kind of learn these new things. And in doing so and building my own confidence, you become a better leader, uh, I thought. And then the other thing that was great in the military in particular and in the Navy is you have to get qualified on a bunch of stuff. So you have to do a lot of training and you do a lot of hands-on on-the-job training. As soon as you get qualified, your job is to train the next person.
SPEAKER_00
5:58
Oh wow.
SPEAKER_02
5:58
So, like you immediately get pushed into at a very young time, right? Hey, you just learned how to be the officer of the deck, which is basically you run the whole ship. Well, all right, you got you got qualified last week. Your job now is to qualify the new ensign, the new guy who just showed up. And so it really forces you to become proficient at your job and then teach other people. And what's the best way to learn? To teach, I think. So, like as soon as I started teaching, I learned even more about what I was qualified in. And I'm like, how the hell did I even get qualified?
SPEAKER_01
6:29
That's not surprising. Do you find that for people who maybe are uh nervous about that, that the math and sciences that you learned in a textbook in school translated differently into real experience?
SPEAKER_02
6:41
Oh yeah. Like I know we're going a little bit in the weeds here. Like I didn't take a trigonometry course at all. And as soon as you get on the ship, you have to learn like basically trig concepts. And it took me a long time. And then eventually it clicked. Then I got really good at it. And what did I do? I trained other people. And like all of a sudden I'm like, wow, how the how I would have never been able to tell 17-year-old Jimmy this. He would have been he would have told me I was insane if I was gonna explain to him, like, oh, you're gonna you're gonna learn pretty decent trigonometry stuff. Uh also you're gonna learn the engineering system of a ship, of a 60-year-old ship. Um He would have been he would have said no to him. He would have laughed a little bit at all. He would have laughed at me.
SPEAKER_01
7:20
Well, speaking back to that 17-year-old who knew one day that they wanted to affect change or be involved.
Losing An Election Then Doubling Down
SPEAKER_01
7:28
Tell me a little bit about the moment or the time or an experience where you said, I don't just want to care about the problems, I want to seat at the table where the decisions get made.
SPEAKER_02
7:37
Aaron Powell Yeah, no, I mean that's a great question. And I think the quick answer was I I it took me a minute to to figure that out. I thought, you know, oh, I'll just run for office. I ran in 2019, I ran for city council then and I lost. And it was a great learning experience. Losing is awesome sometimes because uh if you very similar to the military, like I could have been bitter and been like, ah, whatever, I I'm just I'm I I don't care anymore, I'm gonna walk away from this. Because whenever you see people running for office, they're always like, I care so much, and I want to see this and I want to see that and I want to be a champion for X, Y, and Z. And then when they lose, they disappear. And nothing was more like upsetting and almost offensive to me. And so and by the way, I I moved back home to Jacksonville in 2015 after living in several different cities. So I saw what other places were looking like, and I'm like, Jacksonville can be this and more and better.
SPEAKER_01
8:26
I mean, you know you're it's a 30-year overnight success story.
SPEAKER_02
8:29
Absolutely. And so so when I lost in 2019, I doubled down and getting really invested in Riverside Avondale Preservation, um, which is the historic district that I that I lived in for many years. And then, you know, I got on boards and commissions, I got more involved in I'm a Democrat and the Democratic Party and trying to make sure other good candidates got elected to stuff. So like I started putting in that work so that my reputation wasn't just, oh, he was the guy that ran that one time and claimed he cared um and then just didn't show up afterward. No, I showed up more and more afterward. Um and I think that kind of built a lot of respect and credibility. And when you when you do that stuff, you learn more about the problems that are going on in the city. And it it it instead of just putting it on a placard or a or a you know a palm card, it's what we hand out to people you know when you're knocking on doors, instead of it just being, oh, I care about parks, no, now I knew exactly how to help parks. By the way, I was on the Memorial Park Board, right? So like I knew what this park needed. And that's one of our oldest, most pristine parks. And you really get to see like that politics is guided by people and community groups. And so when you have really strong community groups with really, you know, really good leadership, they help guide the policymaker, the politician, and then they help make those things get get done. So you also see why certain communities in certain areas get the investment that they do. It's because of that grassroot effort.
Representing Many Neighborhoods Fairly
SPEAKER_01
9:50
So District 7 isn't one neighborhood, it's many communities with very different and diverse needs. How do you avoid hearing only the loudest voices?
SPEAKER_02
9:58
Oh God. That is a that's another great question because there are a lot of loud voices. District 7 is essentially like the old city limits of Jacksonville. It's probably about 70 to 80 percent of the old city limits. So there's a lot of communities that have been around for well over a hundred years.
SPEAKER_01
10:12
Legacy neighborhoods.
SPEAKER_02
10:13
Absolutely. And many of which that have had folks who look like me walk in them and say, Don't worry, I know what's best for you. Don't worry, guys, we're not gonna, you know, bulldoze your neighborhood. And then what do we do? We bulldozed, you know, La Villa and Brooklyn and and much of the east side to build the stadium. And it's like, okay, how do we make sure that that the people don't get you know so loud that they don't listen to me and listen to the guidance that I'm trying to provide? And so the answer is you show up a lot. You show up a lot, you try to build those those real relationships. And when I won, my district was created by a federal judge. Um, so some of the communities that were in my district when I was running beforehand, so I was running for for what was known as district 14, federal judge changed it to district seven. So now there were new neighborhoods that I had to run in. So those neighborhoods didn't know me, right? So like now I really, on day one, July of 23, I had to go in these communities and start talking to people. I had to go into Durkeyville and understand more about Derkeyville, had to go to Newtown, had to go on King's Road and talk to people, had to figure out why College Gardens is um, you know, not seeing the investment that it should. And then go out east. And by the way, in out east, like we were in the throes of the stadium deal. And the number one thing people were talking about was community benefit agreements.
SPEAKER_00
11:27
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02
11:27
So as I'm like sitting with our brand new mayor, I'm telling her, like, this thing is a no-go unless without a CBA. And she said, I know. And so we we could we couldn't promise that under different leadership. And we got it done. And so I think that kind of built some early credibility, but you got to keep showing up. If you think showing up once a quarter is gonna do it, it ain't. And and so that's really about it. I answer, I answer emails, I take phone calls, I get my phone out pretty frequently. Those voice there's always gonna be a loud voice or two. People people like to live um in a place that makes them feel comfortable. And sometimes that means they they want to be mad and and and angry about stuff all the time, because if they're not seeing some some impact immediately, they're gonna think, oh, he didn't do enough. When meanwhile, there could be state reasons why, or federal reasons why, or other massive reasons why something didn't get done. But I I promise you, if I tell someone I'm working on something, I am, and I try not to overpromise. Um, because I know what that means to a lot of these communities that have heard those promises before.
SPEAKER_01
12:25
Yeah, I mean when I moved here, people would say this is where red rings come to die.
SPEAKER_02
12:29
Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01
12:30
And I, as a native New York City girl who worked in development and the um redevelopment of downtown Brooklyn three decades ago. I was here and I shared with you that when my husband got his gig, I was like, I don't do Villes or Burg, so this is not for me. But then I went downtown and I saw the three bridges and I was like, this feels very familiar, this Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This is so, so obvious. Like I could see the progress that could potentially happen. And here we are, 11 years later.
Wins On Parks Drainage And Homelessness
SPEAKER_01
13:01
Looking back at your tenure, what are some successes that you're incredibly proud of?
SPEAKER_02
13:05
Ah, so um the CBA was a big one, right? So, you know, getting that done to make sure that we were investing in the Trevor Burrus, and that was a bipartisan. It was. It was. It was you know, the community benefit agreement was tied to the stadium deal. So it's an NFL approved deal, by the way. So like if anyone tries to back out, like the NFL can can send their attorneys down here and tell us, like, nope, you're going outside of the bounds of this agreement that you made with us. So we got $40 million over the next um seven years going to the East Side community and with a minimum of $4 million a year. That was meant to ensure that we're putting dollars in early and often to help offset what will potentially be um, you know, a lot of encro- I mean, if the stadium gets built up in the in the time that we think it will, and then there's gonna be, you know, a whole bunch of uh new product that they're gonna build, new housing and stuff like that, we want to make sure they don't encrouch on the east side. We want to make sure A. Philip Randolph is is in a good state and where ownership is local and everything else. Like we don't want to see, you know, corporate landlords kind of kind of diving in and stealing everything. That's the big concern there. So these dollars need to get in early. Um parks is a big issue for me, right? I mean, we we've been investing more in parks on our tenure uh in the past several years. I passed a bill to ensure that drainage projects can get done without going through this bureaucratic process of the project. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01
14:21
I know my friends thank you for that.
SPEAKER_02
14:23
Yes. It was so dumb. Like if a project was over I don't know, like a hundred thousand dollars, which is most projects for drainage. For drainage. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
14:30
Like it would have to go through an entire infrastructure is a lot of money and a lot of exposure. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02
14:35
And you want to make sure this project gets done as soon as possible. Expeditiously. Yeah. So our public works department is like, yeah, it's going to take an extra six months because we've got to go through this process uh through city council. And it's like, well, that's dumb. So we got rid of that. And so now projects are are getting more funded than we have in the past. And me and Joe Carlucci actually worked on that. So that was very bipartisan. He's got the South Bank, so there's plenty of flooding there. Um Yeah, I mean, like we, you know, I I passed a redlining bill to show that the city of Jacksonville acknowledges um what we did with redlining back in the 30s. Um I put more investment into uh Shell Suite Center, which is over by EWU campus, right in the College Gardens area. So we've been working with Marie Heath and that group. They've got a senior center and a clinic. Um we worked heavily on getting food deserts uh uh settled. So I've been working with re with local partners, church groups, everything else to try to make sure that we can like find a way to build whether it be a co-op or some other like type of grosser model that Jacksonville really hasn't seen before that we see in other cities that are more you know kind of kind of local. Like if we're relying on a Publix or a Wendix or an Aldi or whatever else to build in a private area, like the rent may go up later on and now they have to move. Like, wouldn't it be great if we could find a church that has a ton of land and maybe build a small grocer there? Doesn't need to be huge. The dev store on the east side is only 2,500 square feet. You know, it's a small one. And by the way, I lived in Philly. I lived right above a uh a little bodega. It had a deli in there, you got boar's head meats in there, which is my cup of tea, and you have fresh fruits and vegetables, and it was maybe, I don't know, half the maybe double the size of this room we're in right now. You know, it's not very big. Like other places have done this. So so to be able to kind of kind of pursue those issues is big. Um, five points, I created a business improvement district, which is a special district, the first special district that we've seen in Jacksonville in decades. And basically what it's gonna do was help provide more resources to make sure that Five Points um is safer, cleaner, um, and has you know kind of more of what it needs to help improve the businesses. And so, you know, that's kind of critical because it's a major component of um of kind of our local economy. You know, Five Points is kind of the cool, funky place, we want to keep it that way. And then the other thing was the Homelessness Initiatives Commission. That was a priority early on to make sure that we had a commission specifically dealing with homelessness. We funded it, we've given them some money. I want to give them more money. I want us to put a lot more into homelessness services because housing is you know, housing is a right, and I think there's no larger impediment to Jacksonville's success than if we just continue to kick the can on um helping people get on their feet. Uh I know a lot of people go downtown and they say, like, oh, you know, it's it's so unsightly. Well, we can fix that. Um and now we've created the HIC to help be the conduit for that. So those are some those are some issues. I got a few more if you want.
SPEAKER_01
17:29
You're touching on all of my sweet spots affordable housing, food and security, mental health services. And as someone who is the director of homeless services in New York City for a decade, um I remember back then social workers would tell the people in New York City, if you want to be homeless, go to Florida. It's much easier. And I remember people saying, we will get a Greyhound ticket, and the first stop in Florida is Jacksonville. And when I moved here, I thought it came true, everyone is here. So now we're also looking at the largest city in terms of size in the contiguous United States. Uh we're also talking about one of the fastest growing cities in the United States currently. Which is very exciting in terms of development, which can bring excitement, jobs, and revitalization. Let's talk a little bit about how we ensure that longtime residents also feel like stakeholders in that success rather than feeling displaced
Tenant Rights Landlord Data And Accountability
SPEAKER_01
18:23
by it. You touch it on the east side and the legacy neighborhoods are places that I have a soft spot. Um I want to shake up the concept of affordable housing as something that's more than just a tagline because it's experiencing one of the biggest growths and development in its history, Jacksonville, right now. How do we it make sure that growth creates opportunity for people who already call it home and not just from those investing from outside of this community? When we talk about building a stronger city, how can we ensure that residents are the first priority as opposed to absentee landlords or management companies that are buying in bulk?
SPEAKER_02
19:04
Well, I I've got a few answers for that. And the first thing I'll say is if you like go on Instagram right now or look up, you know, Jacksonville, you're gonna see articles that say like Jacksonville is the most affordable city in America, and you can go and build, you can go buy there, you can go down there.
SPEAKER_01
19:16
Yeah, we wouldn't have that many eviction diversion programs running, and the United Way would not have to teach us about Alice every month.
SPEAKER_02
19:22
And that's that's the kind of the the irony, right? Like you see those articles and like, yeah, sure, if you're if you're living in Chicago or New York, like sure if you sell a two million dollar house, cost of living and quality of life is phenomenal.
SPEAKER_01
19:34
So what if you're in Jacksonville right now?
SPEAKER_02
19:36
That's what I'm saying. So so the point I'm trying to make is like people might see that on TV, but that's not the story that we're hearing here. And I think you and I know that better than anyone. So one of the things that I've been pushing this past year is to do for one, I want to create a housing uh uh office within our okay. We de we do have a housing department, or we have a housing division within the uh neighborhoods department in the city of Jacksonville. But I wanted an office of tenants' rights. That was my that was my big push. And so, you know, I got a little pushback on that, but I believe the administration is going to fund that position. We're gonna call it an ombudsman. And they're basically gonna be like a one-stop shop. So, yep.
SPEAKER_01
20:13
So ambassadorship.
SPEAKER_02
20:14
Pretty much. Yeah. And so like they'll be up. So I I've got an issue. Yep. And also help guide you to where services are needed. Like, if you need assistance with utility payments, um, which department in the city of Jacksonville do you think you call it? Utilities? Right. Maybe you call J E A or whatever.
SPEAKER_01
20:33
But like I don't call J E A at all.
SPEAKER_02
20:37
Listen, no comment there. My husband does. Point being is park parks, rec, and social services is where you call if you need help for like rental assistance or um utility assistance. So parks and rec like who would think.
SPEAKER_01
20:52
I would never think that.
SPEAKER_02
20:54
Exactly. You would think the housing department, perhaps, or the neighborhoods department. Yeah. So so this position is gonna be, you know, front page on the COJ website, and uh you're gonna be able to call it. That person's gonna be able to help guide you to the resources you need and create a case file. Boom. City of Jacksonville now will have somebody you can call. That to me is huge. Uh JALLA, Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, which you know, I hope you would get Jim Kowalski in here um to talk about the other piece, is we're gonna create uh something called a um uh uh uh oh God. It it's a uh a landlord registry. Yes. And so technically landlord registries are really difficult to pull off because the state of Florida has done a really good job of not helping tenants. But if we do it outside the city of Jacksonville with JALLA and we just partner with them, um the goal is, yep. I'm surprised you haven't heard this stuff yet.
SPEAKER_01
21:41
I've heard bits and pieces and I'll tell you why in a second, finish this.
SPEAKER_02
21:44
Okay. So so JALLA's now going to have this running list of properties. Um it's gonna be volunte not voluntary. They're going to have to actively find these properties. So we're not gonna make it compulsory for a private landlord to give their information, but this list will be pretty.
SPEAKER_01
21:59
Can't you find it for the Tax records?
SPEAKER_02
22:00
Yeah, pretty much. That's what I'm saying. It's like we'll have to they'll have to do that.
SPEAKER_01
22:06
Awesome. Yeah, let me know.
SPEAKER_02
22:07
Get Jim on here and get on board with that. But the point is we've got code compliance that are providing them different violations that they're seeing on these properties. That way I, as a uh somebody moving to Jacksonville or living in Jacksonville, can look up an address and be like, hey, let's see if there was any code compliance issues in the past three years. Oh, look at that, there was mold. Oh, look at that, there was rodents. Um and did they fix it within a week or do they fix it in 17 months? Like it gives you it gives you the the future tenant a little bit more power and knowledge about what they're stepping into, which I think is incredibly valuable. Um, you know, laws here in Florida are still a little tough on tenants, but this is a good first step here in Jacksonville. And then I am going to file legislation to get an annual report on housing, the city of Jacksonville, to help make sure that we can determine, based on census tract, how many homes are owned by corporations, how many homes are uh owned by people, what the median sales price is to help make sure that other council members um get a good sense of like, oh wow, if I'm the if I'm the Arlington council member, you want to know what the median sale price is in your in your communities. Like in East Arlington, it's like $580,000. Um it's a lot. So like there's no there's if you're if you're a 28-year-old person trying to buy a home, I was gonna say if you're a teacher, a nurse, or a young family. Exactly. Or police officer, firefighter, anyone who's who's trying to make sure they're getting out of who wants to own land, right? I mean, like it's it's you know, we we've made it such a uh uh part of the American dream, the Americana, like you know, own property. I'm not saying people have to do that, but if you're going to rent, um it shouldn't be taking up more than 33% of your income. And so that's supposed to provide some knowledge as power uh uh uh uh stuff. Now the other thing is I um, you know, I would love to see uh uh Jose Javier Rodriguez, who is running for attorney general, um, win that seat because he can do antitrust lawsuits against different landlords who own maybe 40% of a neighborhood. And uh so if you are, you know, some some corporate entity that owns all this land and you are all these properties and you are manipulating the rental market, um that'd be a really good way to make sure that we have um, you know, people who are standing up for for those who are just trying to live in this city uh get a little bit more get a little bit more uh of a leg up. Yeah. So so like I I when I you know he's running, he's running on the Democratic ticket. Uh when I met with him, I specifically said, I will not support you unless you can you can commit to uh being able to do this kind of stuff. And he's like, Yep, that's exactly what's one of the reasons why I'm running. So so I think that's incredibly important and needed because if we're just if it's up to these counties and cities, we really don't have too many tools in the cool toolkit. Like again, I have to use JALLA to basically provide people with information so they don't walk into a bad environment.
SPEAKER_01
24:54
And um, and they're already overwhelmed and they already have years of work that they're in the process of doing. So when we talk about building a stronger city, you're creating pathways where residents can move from being renters to homeowners and build that generational stability. Absolutely. And you're talking about in these legacy neighborhoods, for example, where opportunity that may not have been witnessed by children from their parents is now something that's a reality that they can aspire to.
SPEAKER_02
25:23
Absolutely.
TIF Districts Home Repair And Infill
SPEAKER_02
25:24
And I um I could I can tell you that as I'm running for for an Atlarge, one of the things that I'm campaigning on is to create something called TIFF districts, tax increment financing districts. So it's very similar to, are you familiar with these? So, all right. So so basically, um, you know, Brentwood Community is a great example, uh, Robinson's Edition is a great example, College Gardens a great example. We could put a giant boundary um around, you know, to create a new tax district in some of these areas. And it would not increase taxes, but it would keep the taxes within that boundary um to to stay in that boundary. And my goal is to use those dollars on home repair programs um for for legacy residents that have been there for a very long time. You know, home repair is something that um I think a lot of people b you know want to see. Like whenever you drive through these neighborhoods, that's one of the things I think most people will say is like, man, things have run down. And imagine being the residents who live there as long as they do.
SPEAKER_01
26:17
Imagine you're an elderly resident who lives there, which is one of our largest demographics of the community that's impacted by those repairs that are necessary. Yep. We talk about how that could lead to a whole cycle of being evicted or losing your home because of the cost of a roof repair. Yep. Tell me more.
SPEAKER_02
26:35
No, but like senior homelessness is something that Jacksonville is experiencing, and I'm told that it's a hidden crisis. Like when you talk to Solzbacher and Cindy Funkhauser, she's like, it is it is the big crisis that we're not talking about. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_01
26:45
The missing middle. Yep. We're talking about affordable housing that can sustain the young families. It used to be that the average age to be a home time, uh a first-time homebuyer was in your 20s. Now it's not until your 40s. And if you're lucky because you've been left some kind of something from your parents that you can now pay yourself into.
SPEAKER_02
27:03
And admittedly, there are some communities that have actually kind of fought some housing projects that are good. And I think it's because of the um the overall sense that, like, oh, we don't we don't love the idea of somebody coming in and building an apartment complex in an area that has single family housing. But it's like, okay, if that apartment complex brings a lot of young families and also children that are going to go to the local school, not only are you making sure that local school remains open, which neighborhood schools are always in constant risk of being closed. So there's a major educational piece and making sure that a community is ready for certain things. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_01
27:34
And you need both parts. You need those absolutely taxpayers who are not draining from that school district. It's a balance that you need to have. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02
27:44
And and it's just like you need to educating, you need council members and leaders that are strong enough to kind of get through that noise and say, guys, here's here's the things that we want to solve for. Um what I don't want, and I think what you were alluding to in your intro, is I don't necessarily want us to sprawl outward, outward, outward, outward, outward. We have a lot of infill opportunities. We have a lot of places that we could build, especially within the 295 uh uh uh beltway. Um we have so many, you know, if we want to make sure that we are solving for, hey, why are our commercial corridors slowly dying? Hey, why don't we have you know more pharmacies or grocers? It's because a lot of these neighborhoods are not getting the the new influx of of young people that we need. And then to the point I made earlier, like, you know, we're gonna see more school closures. Obviously, the state has terrible laws when it comes to education, schools, and we can go into that all day long. So so they're siphoning money to go to go to a bunch of other institutions, and that's its own thing. But like there are ways to solve these problems. It just takes good planning and good leadership. And, you know, I'm grateful that we have a mayor that I think is ready to do some of this stuff. I just need a city council that helps me get there too. And for many of them who have like a ton of HOAs and gated communities in their districts, they don't really see the issues that I do. They don't see the issues that are in the in the old urban core. Because if you're if you're off of Bay Meadows or if you're off of, you know, if you're in Jack's golf and country, like all that stuff is pristine and in great condition because those HOA fees go into it. So when they drive out of their neighborhoods, they don't see any of the stuff that we see. And and if we want to invest, um, if we want to get people's heads wrapped around it, I think TIFF districts and kind of going in that model is a good way to help make sure that we're not, you know, increasing taxes and that we're putting dollars back where they belong.
SPEAKER_01
29:31
So you're talking about balancing development, neighborhood preservation, and economic realities.
SPEAKER_02
29:36
Yeah, I think so.
SPEAKER_01
29:37
So it sounds to me like, and here's what's interesting, when people think about government, they think top-down. But it sounds to me like you're a ground-up person in terms of how you view the information that you're taking in. And I say this to say that decades ago, how Jacksonville, before my husband and the gig and me saying, I don't do bills, my dad, who the legendary Mensch, who was a um real estate investor, uh first started off by providing services, homeless services to people that were suffering from HIV and AIDS. And beyond that, he would then become an investor in um multifamily properties. And when I was working with him, he pulled up LoopNet, which is a commercial and residential real estate website, and we looked at Jacksonville, and he used Jacksonville as an example, and this is decades ago, and he said, Okay, I want you to look at Jacksonville, and I want you to tell me why we're never gonna invest in Jacksonville, and this is decades ago. And I didn't understand because it looked like people were making a lot of money here, right? All the landlords were making so much money. We used to call it the rent roll. How many times the rent roll can you profit? And he said to me, When you can see somebody who's profiting twelve, fifteen times the rent roll, that means they're putting zero money back into the property and they're burning and churning through their tenancy. They're keeping the security deposits, they're not making the repairs. This is not what we do. We're not slum lords. And I never forgot that.
The Neighborhood Mix That Actually Works
SPEAKER_01
31:06
And now decades later, I'm here in Jacksonville, and that was one of those things that I you describe it as the laws, they were very pro-landlord, which now feels anti-tenant. How do you get out of that struggle if you're constantly think about the cost of having to move into a place? It's first month's, last month's rent, and your security deposit and a pet security fee. What's the goal if you had your drrothers, if you could make a wish, what would be the ideal neighborhood?
SPEAKER_02
31:37
The ideal neighborhood that we're seeing today. Um I mean, what when I look at Riverside, which is where I moved into when I came back home, um, you know, and again, I lived in San Diego, North Virginia, DC, and Philadelphia. So I kind of they're all small little towns, also vills, if you will.
SPEAKER_01
31:55
So much that you can take from those experiences and bring back here and say, I see potential opportunity, and this is how other people do it. Let's not reinvent the wheel.
SPEAKER_02
32:05
And so as you're in Riverside, which is a historic district, there are tons of duplexes, quadplexes, apartment complexes. Who lives there? The the nine to five hourly wage workers who work in Shops Vavondale, King Street at the bars and restaurants that are over there, or over in Five Points, right? Those are your daily workers. And then you've got some nice single-family homes that are smaller, they're starter homes. Who's there? You know, your nurses, your doctors, the people that are working at St. Vincent's and downtown at UF. Then you got kind of the much larger homes, and that's kind of your more people that are more established. And then you got your mansions right on the water. Like you have everything in a small area. And what does it provide? It provides really good grocery stores, um, really good local shops and restaurants. Um, we had an incredible movie theater, and I'm very sad that Sunray is no longer with us. But now we still have a great music venue that like people still go to and do great stuff in. And so, you know, you've got cults, culture, arts, and um basic necessities all in walking distance. Like that to me is perfect. And and it's all done in an area where um you've got diversity of jobs, educational opportunity, um, race, age, orientation. And by the way, I gotta say, the fact that your father did that stuff um at a time where I know the AIDS epidemic was really ravaging a lot of communities. I have to thank you and your family for that so much. I'm sorry to kind of segue, but yeah, thank you for your service. It's because it's you know, in that community, um, that's where people felt safe. You know, there's a lot of LGBTQ plus um members who still live there. And um and and I'm very grateful that this mayor has created an LGBTQ plus advisory body because having that voice matters. You know, this city took a long time to get to a place where we acknowledged uh, I think, the humanity of some people. And now um as I get to represent them, you know, I try to be a huge voice for for any marginalized community, but just everyone in general. And uh and and so you know that's another reason why Riverside is so special, because it's welcoming to everyone and all. Um but you can live there, and these are local landlords who own most of these properties, and it it's not gonna I'm not saying it's cheap, but it's it's certainly more affordable, and now you're close to everything, right? If you find a relatively cheap rental property, but it's way down Normandy Boulevard where you must have a car, or if you use JTA buses, it's gonna take you 50 minutes to get to where you need to. Like, is that you feeling a sense of community in your state?
SPEAKER_01
34:27
No, it's pre preparing you for barriers to entry from potential jobs or schools or opportunities or even the free parks and recreation that we have available to us out of your purview.
SPEAKER_02
34:39
Yep. So if you're in Riverside, you can walk to Memorial Park, you can walk to Cummer, uh, which have which are both free. Um, you know, Cummer has several free days you can go to. That's arts and culture. You get on the riverwalk from there. And you could see the whole city. And by the way, if ever you feel down um or upset in this very crazy world we live in, go on the riverwalk. Walk on the riverwalk. You'll you'll feel better. You'll see so many people and so many smiling faces, and you'll feel a sense of community. I mean, when you go there, like all walks of life are on the riverwalk. It's great. And you also get to be a part of the you know, next to the river, which is negative ions create positive attitude.
SPEAKER_01
35:14
You see the dolphins.
SPEAKER_02
35:16
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
35:16
You don't have to necessarily swim in the brackish river.
SPEAKER_02
35:18
Yeah, I wouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_01
35:19
But unless you're doing the Iron Man.
SPEAKER_02
35:21
I'm I'm shocked.
SPEAKER_01
35:22
I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it.
SPEAKER_02
35:25
Yep.
SPEAKER_01
35:26
So we're encouraging investment without unintentionally creating environments where speculative practices outweigh community well-being. That's the goal. And if Jacksonville gets this right over the next 10 years, you're describing stronger neighborhoods, stable rents, small business growth. Yep. Now you're moving from district representation to pursuing an at-large seat. Yep. How does that thinking change?
Running At Large And Staying Grounded
SPEAKER_02
35:50
So I the the conversation on neighborhoods should never change, right? If anything else, well, now I've got more neighborhoods that I would be representing. So if anything else, people should see like, oh wow, this guy cared so much about the ones that he represented, he's gonna care about mine too. And I haven't heard, you know, from from council members in the past. And and by the way, that's that's something that I kind of get a little bit of uh joy out of when I do walk in certain communities and they say, I've never seen a council member before. Or if they call my office and I pick up, I'm like, hey, it's Jimmy, and I'll be like, who? And I'll be like, I'm council member Palooza, and they'll be like, you're the council member? What are you doing picking up the phone? And it it that always gives me a smile and a chuckle because um it's local government, right? Like people you should kind of there's no pedestal that you should be on. Um I I I'm I'm lucky enough to be to represent um my favorite people, the people of Jacksonville, and I represent them, and then when I'm done, I go right back to being just like everyone else. And that's that's how it should be. So so point being is you know, I I think that I'm a good representative for I think the rest of the city, being in this district, being as diverse as it is as it is. I've got Ortiga, the rich one of the richest you know, precincts and communities in the city, and then you've got you know College Gardens, Durkeyville and Eastside, which are these marginalized communities that have been harmed by government. And so how do I kind of bridge that together? By the way, I've also got downtown, I've got Springfield, another historic district, which is incredible. It was the first suburb. I've got Murray Hill, I've got Riverside Avondale, I've got Fairfax, I've got these incredible communities and and parts of our city that I think are so representative of the rest of the city. So I think that I'm kind of well positioned from that perspective.
SPEAKER_01
37:29
Um you have your finger on the pulse.
SPEAKER_02
37:31
I believe that I do. And and we'll see. Like I I I feel good about it. I I probably shouldn't, um, because running for office is scary. And running for an at-large is much scarier because my district is a really safe Democratic seat. Um and now I'm going into kind of the wilderness. But I believe I'm doing it not only for the right reasons, but with a with an intention to talk to everyone. You know, um, tonight I'm gonna go to a meeting in in uh uh Springfield, which is a part of my district now. Tomorrow uh this week I'm gonna go in San Marco, right outside of San Marco near St. St. Nicholas, which is not a part of my district to talk to folks. Um next week I'm gonna be in Mandarin, right? And that's you know, some might say, you know, my lord, Mandarin is as red as it gets. Well, guess what? People there still want leadership and they still want answers to stuff. And if you can get over somebody's political preference um and you just accept, like, okay, you've got good ideas. Like I might not agree on, you know, your your ideas on federal government, but listen, I understand what you're doing in our city, and I think that's good. If people can get over that stuff, I think that's important. Um because we really shouldn't care about party at the local level. I actually hate that we have it. Um most cities don't. Actually, pretty much all cities don't. Um so we kind of we kind of screwed ourselves back in the 60s when we did it. But I think that my ideas and what what I'm what I've been pursuing over the past three years is something that people will resonate with.
Missing Middle Backlash And Better Design
SPEAKER_01
38:53
What issues have you changed your mind on after having listened to people? Was there something you were sure you were right?
SPEAKER_00
38:59
Oh wow.
SPEAKER_01
39:00
And then you thought you were doing the right thing and still became a villain in someone else's story, took the opportunity to listen and said, okay, I can see where you're coming from. Let's recalibrate.
SPEAKER_02
39:13
So we tried to work on a missing middle bill. And honestly, if I'm gonna go down a certain road on this, uh, it was supposed to be a bill that I was gonna carry and really kind of get more community engagement and talk about holistically and get my colleagues a little bit more okay with it. Because many of them didn't really know what missing middle was, right?
SPEAKER_01
39:33
Define missing middle for our audience that may not know what it is.
SPEAKER_02
39:36
Your missing middle stuff is your either your starter homes, your bungalow homes, or your duplexes, your quadplexes, your your kind of those uh places where you can live, whether it be for sale or for rent, um that that help add density, but not extreme density, to an area and that could be you know much more affordable peop affordable for people to live in. By the way, affordability is not a word people should be concerned about. Because if you have someone that now has more dollars in their pocket, what do you think they're gonna do with those dollars? They're gonna spend them. Right? We're a consumer economy now.
SPEAKER_01
40:07
Or we invest them into the community.
SPEAKER_02
40:09
Which I think means like if you that means you're gonna go to your local, you know, you're gonna go to your local 7-Eleven, your local theater, your local um grocery store. You're gonna you're gonna buy things in the community and it's gonna help create those commercial corridors that we need. So I think missing metal is incredibly important, on top of the fact that we, whether it be just being in Florida or in Jacksonville, need to make sure that we are keeping young people here. We need to bring in as many um kind of that, you know, 18 to 25, 28-year-old demographic um who's, you know, at that part of their life that they want to start a family and and start getting income. We want them to move here and stay here. You know, I don't want high school graduates to leave Jacksonville unless they go to high school or college and come back. Right. So, like, you need to make sure that they have a place to live to do that.
SPEAKER_01
40:55
You're describing how we lose some of our best talent. No quality. They go to other cities for college and they say Jacksonville could never provide me this, so why bother to come back?
SPEAKER_02
41:04
Quality of life.
SPEAKER_01
41:05
But now we're talking about an investment into our communities. So share more.
SPEAKER_02
41:10
And so, you know, we had a missing middle bill. Rory Diamond took it and tried to try to ram it through City Council, and it really kind of upset a lot of communities who I hadn't really heard from because they were outside my district. Um, and even some people within my district and in some of the old urban core, some people were really concerned about oh, there's just a bunch of single-family homes in my area. Now I'm gonna have some big developer come in and build some god-awful looking, you know, duplexes or triplexes, add um, you know, with maybe limited parking minimums.
SPEAKER_01
41:41
They're imagining like military housing, probably.
SPEAKER_02
41:44
Maybe or ugly stuff. And by the way, people let's be honest, some people build ugly stuff. They'll build the cheapest, crummiest product um to save a couple bucks. So it's it's not like it's it's a it's a fantasy notion. Um, however, if we could if we as a city in our planning department can say, hey, here's um pre-approved housing schematics. Um you don't have to spend a dime, you know, builder on any sort of architectural design. If you use one of these three, four, or five uh designs that we have here, hey, here you go. Um your permit will take only two days. Right. Right.
SPEAKER_01
42:17
And like you're saving time, you're saving money, you're saving effort.
SPEAKER_02
42:20
Yep. So if we can do things like that to encourage, because we can't we can't necessarily mandate things in the state of Florida, haha. Um but but if we can but if we can highly encourage, it may it may make it a little bit easier. And we just have to like do better explaining. But the point is I had I had folks who have neighborhoods that I feel like are starting to um get older, get to a place where we need more housing, and they were pretty against this early on and very loud. And I was like, man, how I thought this was a naturally good thing. You know, shouldn't everyone believe this? Because in Riverside and in Avondale and in Ortiga, by the way, there's plenty of apartments in Ortega and duplexes and townhomes and quads, and those communities would, you know, love them.
SPEAKER_01
43:03
Right. There's no vacancies. Yes. They're beautiful, they're beautiful to walk, like you described them, going to coffee in the morning. Yes. I tell my husband all the time I would happily leave our home and move to a two-bedroom apartment because I am a city girl.
SPEAKER_02
43:17
I was about to say you and I are different, though. I totally agree with you.
SPEAKER_01
43:20
Yeah, and I, you know, don't mind having all the amenities in one of those mixed use that they're now developing in New Jersey or in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn and New York, not the Brooklyn Here. But the Brooklyn in New York. But also the Brooklyn Here, yeah. That's right. I told you 30-year overnight success story. I saw it happen.
SPEAKER_02
43:38
No question. I uh so my sister lived in Hoboken in the early 2000s. Oh, wait. And it was the same thing. Like when I remember moving her in, I was like seven years old. And my dad, who's a very prim and proper, you know, Wall Street guy, he like looked around the apartment and he's like, You sure you want to live here? And you look at you look at Hoboken. Yeah, you look at Hoboken. In the years that they were living there, on top of the they bought a condo apartment up there. And uh maybe they got it for two hundred thousand. Who the hell knows? And today it's got to be five million bucks, right? You know what I mean? Like they uh uh uh but it started somewhere of course it didn't I looked here and people would tell me we're gonna be the next Manhattan I thought to myself why would you want to be the next be the next hobo kid yeah be the next Jersey city yeah what are you trying to be Manhattan yeah we don't need that I agree and I mean Manhattan's not doing so hot these days either well you know and I I think San Diego is a good example I lived in San Diego for a while very similar vibe to Jacksonville similar footprint for their downtown and it built up really really well and developed really really well and responsibly and I well when I was living there yes I haven't been there in a while so I lived there in in 09 and to 11 and uh
Light Rail Vision And Long Term Planning
SPEAKER_02
44:45
and I lived right downtown super walkable you had kind of a a a neighborhood called Little right next door which I think would be similar to our Brooklyn or San Marco like it's just it developed so well and had also had reliable public transportation which is something else we could talk about all day long. I think me and your husband really aligns on some stuff with that when it comes to JTA.
SPEAKER_01
45:05
Oh yeah public transportation is one of my pet peeves you and me both.
SPEAKER_02
45:09
But I wouldn't do for a light rail I oh yeah because by the way there's no better way to connect one with the largest contiguous city and to do it now by the way you build and when the moment we tell people I'm really geeking out the moment we tell people like where these uh rail lines are going to go, developers are going to see that. And what are they going to do? They're gonna want to build medium density stuff with mixed use and it's just gonna develop things so much better rather than the piecemeal crap we're doing. You look at Charlotte I mean we are such a good we are so similar to Mecklenburg County. You know if you took if you take Duval County which is essentially city of Jacksonville and you take Mecklenburg County which is the county that has Charlotte it's almost it was very similar in terms of population size for many many years. Now Charlotte's gotten larger like the county's gotten larger um but not by too much. But when they built their light rail system they had fewer people living in it than Jacksonville does now and we could we could learn so many lessons from it and we just don't want to uh because the claim is like oh it'll be too expensive. Well it'll be far more expensive in 25 years when we actually are taking it seriously and we could get ahead of um you know bad planning now by by saying where these rails are going to go. Also to buy the right of way right now would be cheaper. There's just a million things that we should be doing Oh it sounds like we need to do a part two of this episode. Let's say ah we could do we can do a whole monthly segment if you want.
SPEAKER_01
46:29
Oh my gosh. When your council service eventually ends what do you hope people will say about Jimmy Peluso um that he
Legacy Listening Lightning Round And Closing
SPEAKER_01
46:36
listened that he listened.
SPEAKER_02
46:38
And and I really don't I always say this to people who like think they're really important. Most people don't know who I am and that's fine. Like you shouldn't be doing this job because you like the title and you like walking around having people you know you know kiss your ring. Half the people who call me now you know whether it be the Jaguars or big lobbyists or whatever else they'll never call me again when I'm done and I have to remember that. And I hope that other people remember that too. So I just hope that like the constituents who I really care about who live in my community say, oh Jimmy was good he listened. Yeah he listened. Like that's the big thing. But I still I hope so I mean I hope so.
SPEAKER_01
47:14
What drives you more impact service solving problems or leaving a legacy?
SPEAKER_02
47:18
Oh solving problems. I love that I I think the the legacy portion I don't want it to be oh this is a Jimmy Peluso thing but I do want it to be maybe we build light rail you know downtown development goes to a new level things like that like oh our parks are great but I I don't need people to say like the parks are great because of Jimmy Peluso. I don't need that I don't need that I need the the legacy to extend so the solving the solving problems thing I think is a big one.
SPEAKER_01
47:42
Are you ready for a lightning round? Let's do it you're gonna say the first thing that comes to mind coffee or tea?
SPEAKER_02
47:47
Coffee.
SPEAKER_01
47:48
Downtown sunrise or beach sunset? Downtown sunrise Navy lesson in one sentence Navy lesson in one sentence learn and teach. Favorite local hidden gem shantytown pub one thing Jacksonville needs more of compassion one thing Jacksonville needs less of corporate landlords podcast you recommend Oh I'm gonna give a weird one.
SPEAKER_02
48:20
It's one called 1865 it's about the um right after Lincoln was shot and killed and it's all a um it's like a serial about um Edward Stanton who uh was the then Secretary of War um basically trying to find John Walk's booth and then leading the nation in the post um Civil War era fighting against oh it's actually really interesting it sounds very cool but no it's you gotta be a total nerd to be into it and I listened to it during COVID. It's me and my sister still talk about it. It's super fascinating. If not public service what would you be doing um I think working for a nonprofit um doing you know raising money for a good cause stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01
49:06
Well I want to thank you for being here and being so authentic and open. I uh usually don't ask hard questions but you hit all of my important topics with compassion and eloquence. Cities are fascinating because they're really just giant collections of people trying to coexist people with different priorities, different neighborhoods, politics, fears, dreams and somewhere in the middle sits local government not perfect, not glamorous, but necessary because while national politics often grab the headlines local government determines the roads we drive on, the parks our kids play in the businesses that open nearby and whether communities feel forgotten or invested in. Today's conversation wasn't really just about one council member. It was about service and showing up about asking difficult questions and understanding what people need, meeting them where they're at and listening. Every vote eventually becomes someone's event reality because long before policies become headlines, they become people.
SPEAKER_02
50:05
And maybe that's where good leadership begins seeing and hearing people first thank you Jimmy No thank you I'm I'm very very grateful you asked me to come and this was a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_01
50:15
I appreciate it. Now it's time for our honorable mention.
Honorable Mention On Rental Housing Crisis
SPEAKER_01
50:19
Mensch is the Yiddish word for someone who shows up with integrity, responsibility and heart. Today's honorable mensch goes to two people David Jaffe and Katie Renzi for their groundbreaking work on the financialization of human shelter the rental housing crisis in a sunbuilt city. There are certain phrases that stop you in your tracks the first time you hear them the financialization of human shelter is the one that stopped me because home is supposed to mean safety, stability dignity the place where children do homework at the kitchen table where families recover from illness where someone takes their last breath where somebody finally exhales after the hardest day of their life. And yet somewhere along the way shelter became portfolio strategy. David and Katie had the courage to put language to something so many working families in Jacksonville have been feeling but could not fully articulate. They examined how corporate ownership private equity and profit driven housing systems are reshaping communities and pushing people further away from civility and security but what makes them honorable men is not simply the research. It's the humanity behind it because they're not talking about housing as numbers on a spreadsheet. They're talking about the people the single mother trying to stay in her child school district the senior terrified of another rent increase or mold the young professional working full time and still unable to afford a safe apartment the family one unexpected emergency away from losing everything. Dr. Jaffe's work through the JAX Rental Housing Project and tenant advocacy efforts has consistently centered the voices of renters and working families in Jacksonville. And in a world where so many people profit from the crises David and Katie chose to study it, expose it and challenge us to think more deeply about what kind of community we actually want to build so that people like Jimmy Peluso can help us get there. Because housing should never become so financialized that we forget the human beings living inside the walls. And that my friends are what honorable men should look like.
SPEAKER_02
52:10
And they are certainly that was a good one.
SPEAKER_01
52:13
That will do
Final Thoughts And Share The Conversation
SPEAKER_01
52:14
it for us today. Thank you for joining me for another episode of Shmooze with Suze if this conversation made you think feel or see something a little differently share it. Because these conversations matter follow along on Instagram Facebook and YouTube for your daily dose of chutzbah. I'm Suze your well informed smart ass reminding you what's an envelope if not for pushing. Stay inspired and inspiring.
SPEAKER_02
52:36
Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01
52:37
Thank you.
