Fun for all, all for fun!

This Saturday is the third annual Tangerine Festival, one of Jacksonville's most fun and inclusive events.




















See a pretty thorough list of goings-on here.

Highlights include:

• An Alley Cat bike race. Register at noon.
• Jax Bike Co-op will also be hosting a repair clinic and a bike show and a tall bike joust.
• A local farmer's market and garden swap. Magnolia Farms, Urb Farmers, The Beaches Farmer's Market and others will be out to sell, barter or talk delicious organic and locally grown produce with you.
• A group of UNF artists have put together the Art Station again for this year. Paint and cardboard is provided.
• The St. John's Riverkeeper, The Sierra Club, Wage Peace, Jacksonville's Sustainable Future, and other environmental and activist groups will be out sharing their experiences, knowledge and concerns with all of us.
• etcetera...
  

Food is potluck style, so bring a dish!

I've organized the garden swap/sale, with some proceeds benefiting the Springfield Community Garden, so here are some details. Bring plants, seeds, seedlings, tools or plant-related books fresh veggies and/or photos from your own home garden to inspire everyone else to give it a try. Cash or barter.

Sierra Club features Team Gaia

Tonight at the community-minded Riverside Presbyterian Church (corner of Park and Post Streets) the Sierra Club will be having a climate-change centered meeting. Dr. Todd Sack from the Florida Energy Commission's task force on Climate Change will be presenting the FEC's recent report to the state legislature.

But what I'm really excited about is meeting the students from Team Gaia, who will be presenting their Emmy-nominated film on climate change, and discussing what they do. Click through and scroll down to watch. Team Gaia may be one of the most amazing things happening in Jacksonville right now. High school students, facilitated by two awesome women (the grown-ups), come up on their own with issues of importance, do research, decide how to document and communicate about the issue, and produce short films which are streamed online and broadcast on community access channels in town.

I sat down for dinner with Leni and Kaz, the highly skilled and fascinating grown-ups on the team, last week, and was impressed to the core by their trust in the kids. They don't tell these teenagers what to do or how to do it. They just hold their coats.

I think that anyone who works with youth should find this group and this meeting quite interesting.

The meeting starts at 6:30pm. Remember to bring your own cup to reduce landfill waste.

I encourage you to bike or walk, if you're in the neighborhood. The weather has been lovely!

Neighborhood Watch

Last night at the office I hosted the first meeting of a new neighborhood watch group. It was a very productive meeting. The group is focused mainly on the section of Riverside between Stockton and Cherry, and between Post and Gilmore Streets. The first meeting was mostly to get together, see each others' faces, and brainstorm a bit.

Board member Leon Ross had several wonderful ideas, including organizing a social gathering to help even more neighbors meet one another. He also emphasized the power of keeping properties presentable, and explained how to contact the city to take care of code violations such as trash cans being left on the curb for days at a time. This is a theory in crime prevention, known as "broken windows". The idea is to stop minor violations, and the effect is to prevent major ones from developing. We discussed this, and agreed that it's probably a psychological effect on the potential criminal, but is more related to the presence of the person (i.e. Leon himself), than the absence of garbage.

So we agreed to organize a combination clean-up and cookout sometime in the next few months.

The officer present, Chris Barnhart, gave us some insight as to how various law enforcement processes work, such as long-term investigations into gangs and drug sales, and why calls against these groups can't translate into instant arrests. He also recommended that we go higher up the chain of command, and contact our city council members, the Mayor's office, and zone leaders. He also explained that more officers will be assigned to an area that gets more calls for service, and that we should be vigilant about calling in suspicious activity, even if it's just to log a report. Thankfully, he also explained that law enforcement officers MUST have probable cause before approaching someone.

So we agreed to call in suspicions, be patient, and to contact Councilman Jones specifically about getting new lights in a particularly dark corner of the neighborhood (Ernest and West).

Everyone had the chance to share their stories of crime impacting either themselves or friends in the area. A number of homeowners expressed the desire to stick around and improve the area, but that they were feeling stressed, and considering leaving if things didn't get better soon.

Leon and Chris Carter both responded that the problems faced by this place can't be escaped. Chris told about a relative who lived in almost total isolation in a nearby county, whose cattle were shot by a group of skinheads. Leon reminded us that things were a lot worse twenty years ago, and that neighborhoods go through cycles.

We also agreed to communicate to one another via email whenever a report is made, and distribute contact information and maps to improve our ability to communicate with one another.

If you are reading this and would like to get involved in the group, or have any more specific questions about the things we discussed, please get in touch with me at jmccharen@radocdc.org or 381.0950

The Point.

This will be a busy year for RADO!

In 2007 we will be breaking ground on two new, signature developments: a building of both condos and offices, a set of homes specifically for public school teachers, and a set of ten LEED certified homes, right in the heart of Riverside.

While it's that last development that gets me excited (duh), it's the condos that I want to talk about in this post.

RADO is partnering with the Murtaugh Companies to build The Point. Right now the site is an empty paved lot at the corner of College Street and Willowbranch Avenue, but once we're done it will be two three-story buildings, each holding six townhome-style residential condos and six offices on the first floor.

Here's a photo of the site:














And here's a front elevation of the buildings:







As always, the residences will be available to buyers who earn between 80% and 120% of Duval County's median income (for a 1-person household that's between $33,800 and $50,650 per year). Pre-construction price for a townhome is just under $150,000.

The townhomes will each be 1200 sq. ft., with three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, and they will all be EnergyStar certified.

For more information, visit our website: The Point at Riverside.