Jacksonville: The Consolidation Story, From Civil Rights to the Jaguars.Jacksonville: The Consolidation Story, From Civil Rights to the Jaguars. By James B. Crooks. (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, c. 2004. Pp. xx, 274. $27.95, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 0-8130-2708-X.) Casting his eyes about Jacksonville, Florida, and greater Duval County in the immediate post--World War II era, W. Haydon Burns William Haydon Burns (March 17, 1912 – November 22, 1987) was the thirty-fifth governor of Florida from 1965 to 1967. He was also mayor of the city of Jacksonville from 1949 to 1965. , future mayor of the city, did not like what he saw. Jacksonville's downtown region was decrepit de·crep·it adj. Weakened, worn out, impaired, or broken down by old age, illness, or hard use. See Synonyms at weak. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin d , waterfront warehouses and wharves Structures erected on the margin of Navigable Waters where vessels can stop to load and unload cargo. Cities located on lakes, rivers, and oceans usually have at least one wharf, where ships can deliver and pick up passengers and load and unload various types of goods. had become rat-infested and dilapidated, the public school system was underfunded un·der·fund tr.v. un·der·fund·ed, un·der·fund·ing, un·der·funds To provide insufficient funding for. underfunded adj → infradotado (económicamente) and in disarray, and the city suffered from horrendous traffic jams. Worst of all, Jacksonville smelled. Bad. A "pervasive rotten cabbage" odor that emanated from the region's pulp mills and chemical plants assaulted residents and threatened to earn Jacksonville the distinction of the stinkiest city in the Southeast (p. 15). During his tenure (1949-1965), Burns vigorously attacked these urban problems and could boast some remarkable accomplishments. Still, Jacksonville's progress by 1965 was merely a thin veneer masking more complex urban problems, including a cumbersome and expensive city government. In this readable and engaging study of Florida's First Coast city, James B. Crooks examines how Jacksonville's consolidation with surrounding Duval County transformed and ultimately saved the city. Jacksonville's mayors played a leading role in consolidation, and the star of the story is Mayor Hans G. Tanzler Jr. The election of the "forty-year-old criminal court judge" and former University of Florida University of Florida is the third-largest university in the United States, with 50,912 students (as of Fall 2006) and has the eighth-largest budget (nearly $1.9 billion per year). UF is home to 16 colleges and more than 150 research centers and institutes. basketball star in 1967 over a popular incumbent illustrated residents' desire for governmental reform (p. 50). Tanzler led a broad-based coalition that successfully overcame voters' fears of higher taxes, potential job losses (from the elimination of duplicate city and county services), and (for black voters) the dilution of black political power to replace an inefficient two-tiered government structure with one government to serve the metropolitan area. Led by a dynamic and aggressive city leadership and an engaged citizenry, for the next three decades Jacksonville addressed (although it did not always entirely overcome) the recurring and interrelated in·ter·re·late tr. & intr.v. in·ter·re·lat·ed, in·ter·re·lat·ing, in·ter·re·lates To place in or come into mutual relationship. in problems of urban renewal, racial discrimination, environmental degradation, and business growth at a time when other cities erupted in violence or collapsed from neglect. An accomplished scholar and resident of Jacksonville, Crooks capitalized on his position as historian-in-residence in city hall during the late 1980s and early 1990s and on his discovery of decades of filthy and moldering mayoral records that had been abandoned in the city's old parking garage. His study is particularly useful for its examination of how blacks viewed their prospects in this "Bold New City" and how civil rights activists pressed their claims within the new consolidated government. Finally, despite his nominal "insider" status, Crooks avoids the pitfalls of parochialism by placing Jacksonville's experience in a statewide and national context. This finely crafted volume is a welcome addition to southern urban history and a primer for those concerned about southern growth in the twenty-first century. KARI KARI Kenya Agricultural Research Institute KARI Korea Aerospace Research Institute KARI Kawanda Agricultural Research Institute (Uganda) FREDERICKSON University of Alabama The University of Alabama (also known as Alabama, UA or colloquially as 'Bama) is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA. Founded in 1831, UA is the flagship campus of the University of Alabama System. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion