In the 1950s and '60s Jacksonville faced daunting problems. Critics
described city government as boss-ridden, expensive, and corrupt.
African Americans challenged racial segregation, and public high
schools were disaccredited. The St. Johns River and its tributaries
were heavily polluted. Downtown development had succumbed to
suburban sprawl.Consolidation, endorsed by an almost two-to-one
majority in 1967, became the catalyst for change. The city's
decision to consolidate with surrounding Duval County began the
transformation of this conservative, Deep South, backwater city
into a prosperous, mainstream metropolis. James B. Crooks
introduces readers to preconsolidation Jacksonville and then
focuses on three major issues that confronted the expanded city:
racial relations, environmental pollution, and the revitalization
of downtown. He shows the successes and setbacks of four
mayors-Hans G. Tanzler, Jake Godbold, Tommy Hazouri, and Ed
Austin-in responding to these issues. He also compares
Jacksonville's experience with that of another Florida metropolis,
Tampa, which in 1967 decided against consolidation with surrounding
Hillsborough County. Consolidation has not been a panacea for all
the city's ills, Crooks concludes. Yet the city emerges in the 21st
century with increased support for art and education, new economic
initiatives, substantial achievements in downtown renewal, and
laudable efforts to improve race relations and address
environmental problems. Readers familiar with Jacksonville over the
last 40 years will recognize events like the St. Johns River
cleanup, the building of the Jacksonville Landing, the ending of
odor pollution, and the arrival of the Jaguars NFL franchise.
During the administration of Mayor Hazouri from 1987 to 1991,
Crooks was Jacksonville historian-in-residence at City Hall.
Combining observations from this period with extensive interviews
and documents (including a cache of files from the mezzanine of the
old City Hall parking garage that contained 44 cabinets of letters,
memos, and reports), he has written an urban history that will
fascinate scholars of politics and governmental reform as well as
residents of the First Coast city.
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