 But first, it's Friday. I always love this day because we get to discuss all the great news that's been going on. And we welcome Jacksonville Today Enterprise reporter, Claire Heddles. Good morning, Claire. We were joking. I've never had to say Claire's last name, but- You got it right. You got it right. Okay, good, good. Good start to the morning. Also joining us, Mark Woods of the Florida Times Union. Good morning, Mark. Good morning. And joining us as well by phone, is your attorney, Jack Webb. Good morning. How are you? Doing well. So grateful to have you with us. And also joining us is writer Shelton Hall. I call him Mr. Jacksonville himself because he always is everywhere and knows everything going on. Good morning, Shelton. Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Friday to you as well. Okay, so lots to get to. I want to remind everybody of the phone number, 549-2937. You can also send us an email at firstcoastconnectatwjct.org. Make sure you leave us a comment on our Facebook page. You can also tweet at WJCT news. All right, so our top story, the Jags Stadium Survey. Now, the results from that survey asked fans about the Stadium of the Future. Now that survey was released on Tuesday and obviously it has a lot of information about what the fans want. 81% surveyed said that they wanted shade coverage as the number one item on the renovation wish list. And that was right behind improved airflow. And I feel like this is a little obvious, coverage from the rain. That makes sense to me. So obviously games in Florida have notoriously been difficult to sit through and temperatures consistently in the mid to high 80s for September home games. There's little to no relief from the sun and obviously the shade makes a lot of sense. So let's get right to it. I wanna start with Claire. What are your thoughts about this? You know what I thought was interesting and I'll say this, obviously important information but it'll be interesting to see what comes up, what comes out of this survey and who's gonna be paying for it as well. Right, I mean, of course the heat is rough especially if the team is losing and I think 51% of respondents were saying that the reason that they, respondents who didn't renew season passes said it was over the shade issue. But of course, we take this with a grain of salt that the Jaguars issued this survey and they're actively campaigning to figure out a financing plan from the city if the city wants to keep the team here past 2029 when the contract expires. So of course people want shade, people want these things but the real question is who's gonna pay for it and that really hasn't been answered yet. And when you look at the construction of stadiums and the cost, Mark, it's not cheap nowadays. I mean, a stadium could easily cost a billion dollars. So it'll be interesting to see how all this plays out. Right, Buffalo recently announced it's a building I think it's a 1.4 billion new stadium with more than half of it from taxpayers. I would envision and this would fit in will end up going the path of Miami. I mean, I used to, before I came here, I covered the dolphins and that was, they did a massive renovation to their stadium and one of the major things they did was create shade, a lot of more cosmetic things. But that makes sense and in Florida, it's kind of crazy that we don't have that. I grew up near Green Bay and I always said, people talk about how tough Packers fans out there in the frozen tundra. I'd rather sit through one of those cold games than be what Jaguar fans go through in September is brutal. I mean, so yeah, I think it's understandable. Yeah, I think they probably want two things, shade and victories. So. Yeah, we just got a comment from Tom who says the number one thing Jaguar's fans want in their stadium is a winning team, ouch. I just want to say Tom said that, not Jamie. So you don't have to tweet any negative things to me. Mark, let me ask you about this. Having that experience, how did the situation play out with the Marlins? Cause I know that they were in a situation where they wanted a lot of money to do what they needed to do to keep the team there. You know, a lot of people have an issue with taxpayer money going to pay and a large sum of that to pay for a lot of these sports teams. Right, and then there's been less willingness that used to be the state of Florida would do more of that. There's been less of that now, more pushback. And I think there will be, you know, with the Jaguars I think there's some people who, you know, will say do whatever it takes to keep them. We have to, you know, lot J, a lot of us felt like was a bad deal and said, you know, they won't leave if that falls through and then there's others who say, you know, don't give them a dime. I think there's probably a middle ground in figuring out what this city and taxpayers are comfortable with. That's why I think it's, you know, there's no way, I don't think on earth it's a, it's a brand new 1.5 billion dollar stadium like Buffalo. But there probably will be a pretty massive renovation that will be, you know, hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. And we want to remind everyone, we want you to be a part of the conversation. You can give us a call at 5492937. Let's go to Ryan in Jacksonville. Good morning, Ryan. Good morning. And what do you have to say on this topic? Well, I'm a citizen of Jacksonville, but not necessarily a Jaguar span. And I think that improving the stadium, especially for shade and air flow makes a lot of sense. You know, we have heat stroke and things like that that impact our emergency rooms. We as taxpayers end up putting money into anyways. And so it makes sense for us to improve it. But as a person who's not a Jags fan and a person who has struggles with the taxes being used for the stadium, unless the Jaguars are going to actually kick back to the city, I mean, it's hard to say, let's keep supporting them. We put money into the team all the time and they tell us that it helps our economy, but they don't put any money back into the city. All right, thank you. Ryan from Jacksonville, Shelton, your thoughts. Well, gosh, I mean, everything else about this franchise is shady. So the stadium might as well be shady too. You know, maybe spend a little more money to put more chlorine in the pools as well. As far as the stadium goes, you know, it's a minor, minor renovations are needed to bring it up to the standards that fans want. Every NFL team, every NFL city around the league has been raked over the coals and gas lit with the whole kick in X amount of money for stadium improvements or to build a new stadium or else we're going to leave. And a bunch of those teams end up leaving anyway. I think as it stands right now, our stadium is known to have one of the best, in aesthetic terms, one of the best experiences of any stadium in the country, if not the world. As things stand right now, the main thing the Jaguars should be thinking of is winning. Right now it's the time of chaos and instability in the AFC South, even more so than usual. Two of the four teams like had four wins or less last year, including our team. If the Jaguars really want to get stuff done, they really want the city and the taxpayers to get behind them on stadium improvements, lot J and whatever else. Right now this season is a good time to make a playoff run. I mean, heaven forbid if the Jaguars ever won the Super Bowl, we would let them do anything they wanted without question. We already let them do almost everything. So just win some games. It's easy. And again, we want to invite our listeners to join the conversation, 5492937. That's 5492937. Let's go to Mark on the west side. Good morning, Mark. Good morning. I think that I saw that survey of a friend of mine this season, Ticket Holder. And he showed me the survey because I'm interested. But that survey seems like to me it should have also come with the caveat from the desk of Shad Khan. I don't think we should, over the years, 20, 25 years, however long we've had this stadium, we pumped hundreds of probably half a billion dollars into this thing, new TV screens, new seats, a swimming pool, all that stuff. And it's almost extortion to me that he's, Shad Khan is holding this, hey, if you don't do this, I'm out of here. Shad Khan is one of the few people in the entire world and certainly among NFL team owners that could write a check for all this. It's his team, they're the only ones that play there. They're probably the only ones that use that stadium on a regular basis. He could write a check for this. And we would, if it's such a great idea, Shad, it was such a good idea, you pay for it. You keep saying you're bringing business and you're good for business. Well, of course you are. We're funding all your infrastructure. So, and if he leaves, he was never a part of the city anyway. So let him leave. Again, you can't prove that they are bringing $1 billion into the city. And now they wanna take a billion dollars out of there. Leave, Shad, just, yeah, this is ridiculous. We've got trouble. We had to pass a special bond issue for schools and then for teacher raises. And we're gonna, a billion dollars for taxpayer money, he's just shameless, I think. All right, Mark, on the West side, thank you for sharing that, Jack, your thoughts. Hey, you know, after that call, I appreciate his position on it, but it's one of, I thank God every day. I'm no longer on the Jacksonville City Council to have to deal with these type of issues. And the reality is that I think Shelton nailed it. You know, if Jaguar start winning, then I think the taxpayers will be more inclined to get off their wallet on this thing. As far as the financing goes, it's gonna have to be a split deal somehow. Iguana Development is the force behind this first downtown organization that did the survey. Iguana Investments is the master developer for the riverfront. So I don't think Conn is, I think this is the stadium renovation issue, it's just part and parcel of the entire project. So I don't think Mr. Conn, I think Conn is holding a gun to anybody's head. I mean, I think it's just part of the reality that we face. If we wanna, you know, if we wanna swim, if we wanna play with the big dogs, and this is what's gonna, this is what it's gonna be. I mean, whether it's Buffalo, I just got back from Las Vegas on the client out there. And what they did, what the NFL did for the Raiders out there is unbelievable. I'm not saying that we have to match that here, but I applaud the Jaguars in a sense for getting out in front of this thing to address the issues now so that, again, we're not forced to sip water from a fire hose when this lease is coming up for renewal or expiration. Let's go to Denise in Nassau County. Good morning, Denise. Yeah, I wanted to make a comment about the great stadium experience. It may be if you have club or box or fancy seats, it's a great stadium experience. But those of us who are occasional attendees or have the cheap seats, it is a horrible experience. It is freaking hot sitting in the sun. So some type of coverage is needed. And I think a split deal is a great idea, but it is not a great stadium experience for most of us. Especially those who are there, win or lose. Thank you. Absolutely, thank you so much, Denise, for being a part of the conversation. And that's the thing, it seems like the die-hard fans, it doesn't matter what's going on, whether lies or what the experiences they want to be there. But I think a lot of points that we're hearing make a lot of sense. I mean, I think when we talk about the quality of how the team has played for several seasons now, if they were able to turn that around, they, I think it would be a much easier sell to residents and to taxpayers. Charles says, Jags losing is common to anyone who has been here and in capital letters a while. Martin says the stadium needs to be enclosed so that it can be air conditioned. That needs to be the owner's expense, not the city. If Shad threatens to move the team, then so be it. Shelton, your thoughts. Well, I think the idea of the Jaguar is moving. I don't think it's, I think that's sort of much to do about nothing. I'd be surprised if the team ever left here. I would, frankly, I'd be surprised if any other city would roll out the red carpet for shotgun the way we have, especially the way things played out here. It's been stated before that if you go back over the last 50 years, out of everyone that's owned any sports franchise for 10 years or more, shotgun has the lowest winning percentage of any sports franchise owner in any major sport in the world in the last 50 years. And again, he could write a check for all this. Putting out shade for the cheap seat experience as the lady mentioned is a really good idea. I've been to games in all different parts of the stadium. You get there, you get that direct sunlight overhead. You're definitely gonna be feeling it. You'll be sweaty, maybe a little bit dizzy. The drinks are really good. So you're gonna be even more sweaty, even more woozy. And again, I think we're all on the same page as far as just the team needs to win football games. The fact that they've done so well and monetized this franchise so well with the record they have is remarkable. But I always say to people, if you've got a family and you wanna really have a good sporting experience or really positive, affordable experience, try the Jacksonville jumbo shrimp. If you haven't been to a jumbo shrimp game, they're playing this season. Go there, guaranteed good time. And we had a great time. There was a WJCT day there and despite the long lines and they ran out of hot dogs, I was not happy camp about that. It was still a lot of fun. Jack Webb, I wanna ask you about that because a lot of people are making the point again that there's this cost associated with it. When we see all the development right here near us at WJCT, across the street, all of the riverfront development that's going on, I mean, is it a real possibility that the Jags would leave if they did not get taxpayers to foot some of the bill? Well, yeah, it's a great question. The taxpayers are gonna put part of the bill. I mean, that's just the reality because the reality is taxpayers own stadium, okay? Khan owns the team, the city owns the stadium and the other venues down in the entertainment district. So we do have some responsibility to maintain it, to upgrade it and to make our tenant happy. But that said, again, what Mr. Lamping and Khan have been doing over the last few years reportedly is diversifying the revenue stream to make the Jaguar entity organization profitable. They've been very successful in that. So they're gonna embed themselves in the riverfront redevelopment, okay? So I don't think they're going anywhere. And I think what they're doing is trying to avoid the inevitable or the possibility that the stadium in five years is a donut hole in their grandiose plans of redevelopment down there. And they're getting ahead of the game. But so as far as the taxpayer funding though, it's not gonna be a direct check from the city of Jacksonville General Revenue. Most likely it's going to be some sort of formulaic approach, you know, taking debt tax money, money that can be bonded, that is dedicated for these types of purposes. Question for the finance committee, for the mayor's office is, how much debt tax revenue do we have? What's out there? What are the revenue sources? Let's start figuring this thing out. And so again, so we're not, you know, we're not reacting and making debt decisions at the 11th hour. All right, let's go to the phones. Linda in Mandarin. Good morning, Linda. Welcome to the conversation. Good morning. I understand what Mr. Webb is saying as a former city council person. And Mr. Khan, like any businessman can diversify his revenue stream. We all hear about diversified portfolios. But maybe if he spent less time coming up with a lot J, coming up with a fourth season, that the fourth season hasn't committed to yet on paper that I know of. We have money for the stadium. You know, he's a businessman. So maybe if he took his money and did his business development for the magical hotel, for the whatever, then we could put those resources toward a stadium. But you know, every year, let's say what it is, corporate welfare comes out when we have to, every year, the city of Jacksonville, when they were gonna do a lot J, we're gonna have to go borrow $300 million to give to a billionaire. You don't have to be a math major, which I am. But that doesn't add up. We don't have an advocate for us on city council or in the mayor's office. Mr. Khan said, I need this. And they said, where can we find the money? Tax, let's do a bond issue. You know, make him pony up more than 50% as he has done in other cities. He takes advantage of us because we have weak leadership in the city. Thank you. All right, thank you, Linda and Mandarin. And quite a few people share that same frustration that Linda shared. And we're gonna go to Gary now in Jacksonville. Gary, good morning and welcome to the conversation. Good morning. I think that the answer's fairly simple. A lot of the incentives that we give Khan are in the form of tax revenues on land. We're not collecting tax revenue on anyway. And it's a way for the city to help to direct development. But whatever concessions that we make, that we decide they're in the city's best interest, we should have a pay for performance plan that for every game that the Jaguars lose, the taxes go up, they repay us and just let them have some more skin in the game. All right, thank you so much, Gary and Jacksonville. Claire, you wanna finish us up on that topic? Sure, I think the callers have made great points. There's a caller a few minutes ago that was talking about the school tax and other taxes. And there's, I think, things that people care more about or that are more pressing when it comes to where they want their taxpayer money to go, especially when we have a billionaire owner of the football team. I know that the Jags president, my lamping has said that most teams when they decide to move, it's about the stadium, not about wins or losses, but it probably will come down to having a winning team for people to want to have tax incentives go towards them and towards the stadium. Absolutely, and especially when Die Hard fans are willing to sit through the harsh elements in order to enjoy a game. Absolutely, what we're gonna switch top is, we're gonna talk about pedestrian deaths. And I want to hear from you, 549-2937. That's 549-2937. Jacksonville today, Jacksonville did a amazing article talking about this. And if you have not subscribed to really a great way to start your morning, check out Jack's today. You can learn more by heading to wjct.org and you can subscribe to the newsletter every morning. Jacksonville was named one of the most dangerous cities in America for pedestrians. I actually, I cycle, even though I'm a Husky guy, I cycle, I ride my bike. And I can't tell you how many numerous times daily that I almost get hit, I almost got hit because someone wasn't paying attention to the walking sign, which was green. And so it's very interesting that the Jacksonville metro area ranked sixth most deadly from 2016 to 2020 with six other Florida cities. And the death rate was in the top 20. So Daytona Beach was actually the most dangerous in the US for people on foot. Mark, I want to start with you because you actually walked through Jacksonville a couple of years ago. Your thoughts on us being named one of the most dangerous cities for pedestrians. Yeah, that's why I did that project was we have the largest city by land mass and one of the most, it was at that time one of the most dangerous to walk in. So I'm gonna walk all the way across it. And so this is nothing new. We consistently rank in the top 10. We were, at one point, we were third or fourth. I think last year we were 10th, this year we're six. So it fluctuates slightly, but we're again and again in the top 10. And I think the name of the study is called, it's dangerous by design. So the point being, this isn't an accident that the cities that rank this way, rank this way consistently. And you visit places that do not rank this way and you look at the way they're laid out and what they have the infrastructure, it's not an accident that they have much fewer deaths. We're making progress. We have things that give us reasons to be, talk about walking the Emerald Trail, the path that's going across the Fuller Wharne. There's the last mayoral budget presentation included some pretty dramatic things. So there is reason for hope, but we have a long, long way to go. And so that's kind of my thoughts on it. 549-2937, that's 549-2937. And to be fair, the city did add safer pedestrian crossings in 2020. They allocated $300,000 more for crosswalk improvements last year. What's interesting is that more than 50 pedestrians died in accidents both years. And I think it is worth mentioning how people drive. I mean, let's be honest, there's a lot of recklessness on the roads. I mean, it's scary. And so like I shared my experience and that was just this week. Claire, what are your thoughts? I did some reporting on pedestrian deaths last year too when there was also a high number of deaths. And I saw that in 2018, pedestrian deaths in Jacksonville had actually fallen. That was the year after the city had issued its pedestrian bicycle master plan and had addressed some of the most dangerous crosswalks that they had marked in the city. So I think when there is the political will, as Mark was saying, there are some opportunities to improve this, but some of the pedestrian advocates that I also talked to when I reported on this previously were saying that there's really not a lot of pedestrians representing people on city council, not a lot of people walking that are voting for our city council. And so really the interests of people that are riding buses and walking between buses and on these dangerous crosswalks aren't represented that heavily on in our political leadership in the city. And it's very interesting because especially with a lot of the construction around our building here, I from time to time will bike into work. And it is, when I tell you a nightmare, it's a nightmare because it's not, the sidewalk isn't even complete in certain sections. So I have to literally get off my bike, walk through, or there is no sidewalk whatsoever. And I have to walk through the construction. And I'm just a normal person trying to get to work, but I see people constantly walking along different roads in town or where there's a lot of construction. And it seems that there's not a whole lot of thought and consideration for those that have to walk. And I think you bring up a good point, Claire. I think there's a lot of folks who are in leadership who do not have to go through this. They don't have to walk to work. They don't have to walk to the bus station. So it's hard to empathize with the people that do. Shelton, what are your thoughts? Well, I'll tell you, I walk all the time. I'm not in the studio today, but normally if I was at the studio, I would leave the studio and take Bay Street all the way down towards a water street by where the landing used to be and take that all the way down to Lee Street and then cross over into Riverside and then take Riverside down towards Five Points where I live. And just taking that route, you've got a number of like little blind spots, little, I've been hit a number of times. Of course, usually on purpose, but it's still a thing to be aware of. If you look at the cities that are having these issues, particularly in Florida, some of the commonalities are you've got a rapidly expanding populations. You've got rapid development. It's a lot of service industry people, as we know in St. Augustine, which has had a number of unfortunate incidents. The cities that aren't having a lot of these problems are cities with highly developed mass transit. In a city like this, as we've developed the development, whether it's developments themselves or the roads, are not necessarily harmonious with each other. So this creates a lot of blind spots, a lot of choke points. Places where you see a lot of these accidents are places where in other cities, those people would be using some form of mass transit to get through like say, you know, beach in St. John's Bluff or whatever. The bicycle community has really led the way a lot on this because for a long time, it was hard getting city officials to really talk about this because no one really knew how to explain the problem. But over the last five years or so, I'd say that every segment of the community and every part of town has been affected by this. We've all, you know, we all have like notable cases of pedestrians or bicyclists in our community that were run down or knocked over, killed through no fault or their own. And I think now we're starting to get critical mass, but each city has to address these questions in a very specific way, particularly here in Florida. Join the conversation. Give us a call at 549-2937. You can also reach out to me on the Twitter at JamieRadioNews, J-A-M-I-E Radio News. Let's go to Joe in Atlantic Beach. Good morning, Joe, and welcome to the conversation. Oh, thank you. Thanks for a great discussion. We really love WJCT, great conversations. I want to mention that I almost got run over on the Union and Laura Street downtown. I go there to leaflet for the vegan outreach, sometimes on the weekends. And people do not yield to the pedestrians, as you were mentioning before. And I actually also attended the city council meeting one time at the city hall to increase the timing for the walk lights for the pedestrians. And there was not much support there for that. So it was very frustrating. Thank you so much and a great show. Thank you so much, Joe. You know, that is a good point. There's also a lot of construction near Baptist Hospital. And I was driving through there the other day and people would not stop for nurses and doctors trying to cross the street. They would not yield to the pedestrians there. Stephanie and Murray Hill, welcome to the conversation. Thanks, Jamie. I just wanted to thank you for bringing this topic up. I live in Murray Hill and I chose to live in the urban core because there are so many great businesses and destinations, parks that are bikeable from my house. I ride an e-bike with my two daughters, my five-year-old and my two-year-old. And we have so much fun with it. We go all over the place. We can even bike downtown. But we need much more safe protected bike infrastructure. Bike lanes are really not sufficient. They don't actually protect you with a physical barrier. And so protected bike lanes have become more in vogue that actually create some sort of physical barrier between the cyclist and the road. And I think this is really good for our city overall, whether you cycle or not, because as we continue to grow, we don't want more traffic. Nobody wants more trouble looking for parking. And so the more people who are willing to make trips on foot and on a bike are actually helping the entire city. So Matt Foll at the City of Jacksonville is doing a great job. He's a bike-ped coordinator. And I'm really excited about the Emerald Trail as infrastructure and I would really love to see us create more protected bike lanes, especially in our dense neighborhoods where business and residential are mixed together. There are so many car trips that we take in Jacksonville that could easily be taken on a bike. Thank you. Thank you so much, Stephanie. Jack Webb, your thoughts. Yeah, Jamie, you're preaching to the choir when you bring this topic up with me because I ride my bicycle every morning as well. And I live in Mandarin. Mandarin, as you know, I live right off, you know, not far from the speedway that we call San Jose Boulevard. And with all the traffic shooting across from St. John's County. And, you know, a couple of points that you made are dead on. I mean, like new construction, for example. Why doesn't private developer get the right to shut down an entire block of a sidewalk? What happens to those people who were walking down the sidewalk to the mothers who were out there with their strollers? What are they supposed to do? Walk and say, Boulevard? I mean, come on. That said, on a personal level, I have a friend of mine who was actually stuck by a car in San Jose Boulevard about probably two months ago. Thank God he lived, he was okay. But, you know what? The person was speeding, we hit him. And he got a ticket because he was not crossing at the proper spot. But the problem is crossing at the proper spot is even more dangerous than where he had come to the cross and any of that. But that said, one of the, I think, I think Mark nailed it as well. I mean, we're a big city. We're a big city. These issues, I guess this is an issue that needs to be addressed neighborhood by neighborhood. And Mander and I would just say, don't walk near San Jose Boulevard. People slow down, be considerate. It's dangerous out there, like you say. Every morning, I don't want to say I take my life in my hands because I don't want to be that dramatic. But people do not pay attention. People do not pay attention. They're shooting down San Jose. They're shooting down Blanding. They're shooting down beach. They're on their way downtown. They're on their way to work. They're looking at cell phones. They're combing their hair. They're doing whatever they are. And they're not paying attention to people who are in the crosswalk or not the crosswalk. And they're not paying attention to cyclists as well. All right, let's go to Joe in Fleming Island. Joe, welcome to the conversation. Hey, thanks. Great conversation here. Boy, I have so many stories. But what I wanted to really say is this, that without an increased police presence that would really go after these aggressive drivers, nothing's really going to change. I'm down in Fleming Island. I moved from Jackson. I watched a person get killed on a bicycle when I first moved to Jacksonville in 1986. What a nightmare. I had a beautiful 12-speed bike. I hung it up and I never went back since. And that lady who called before from Murray Hill, great idea with the protected pathways. My son and I eat special needs. We bike all the time, but we never go into Jacksonville because it's so unprotected and it gives him the willies. So I think if they want more of a biking community, they're gonna have to cough up some dollars and increase police presence. And I read one of the laws, I believe aggressive driving starts at a $250 ticket. And I think the police could easily issue those citations. And if the people don't want to pay it, well, then we impound their cars, I guess. I don't know what the solution is, but I've been to lots of cities where that were a lot more bike friendly. Anyway, thanks for running with me. Thank you, Joe. Appreciate it. All right, take care. Mark, final thoughts? Well, I was thinking about, I watched the tour de France the other day and the opening stage was in Copenhagen and they talked about how when they build a mile of road, it's mandated they build a mile of bike pedestrian path. And that's just a different culture there. And we're probably never gonna have that, but the protected bike lanes is something and bike ped is something we can do. I went to New York a few months ago, first time in a few years. And it's always been a great walking city with Central Park and other places, but they've carved out parts of their roads for protected spaces. And you know how valuable every inch of pavement is there for, and they have so many vehicles and cars, but they've said this is important and it makes it, it changes the feel of streets and neighborhoods. Those are the kind of things we can do. So I think they're, you know, we talked about enforcement, but I think it's more, yes, the design of how we design roads, how we design, make a place more walkable and bikeable. And the city of Jacksonville just recently posted online, their plan for on-street bike ways and shared use path and trails and a network. And altogether, right now the city's bike ways and trails consist of 887 miles of existing funded and planned bike lanes and bike buffers. And so the city's trying to be aware of it, but I think also there's a responsibility on all of us as drivers, right? To make sure that we're being mindful when we're driving, that we're paying attention, we're not on our phones, we're not doing all the things that you mentioned, Mark. It comes down to really making sure that we're thinking about others and putting others first as we're driving, because I have seen it multiple times where someone will even in the crosswalk will pull right into the crosswalk at a stoplight because they were looking at their phone and wasn't paying attention. So just be safe out there, folks. All right, we're gonna talk schools now. Give us a call, 5492937, school grades. I had actually just a story earlier this week outlining how Duval County's grades came in and I know that it was much relief for Dr. Green because there were several schools that were really teetering, that have been turned around and a lot of others that completely turned around, but still a lot more improvement needed. Shelton, I wanna start with you on these school grades, not just for Duval, but we saw them for all the states or all the schools in the state, but Duval, St. John's, we saw a lot of interesting data come out of that. Oh, absolutely. The grades that we get, the grades that are given to schools are kind of like the grades that are given to students themselves and that they're only kind of an indicator of progress. I'd be reluctant to read too much into it one way or another, but one thing we can say for sure is that the teachers and students and parents here in Duval County and around the state and around the country have done a really good job, an exceptional job of holding up under very difficult circumstances. I went to a senior awards ceremony out at PAX in a few weeks ago and I was thinking about it, for those kids that were those graduating seniors, they've known nothing but chaos the whole time that they were going through high school. You know, this is probably, well, this most recent school year was the third year of the pandemic, if you wanna look at it. A lot of people have really been forced to kind of adjust and find new ways of doing things as we all have. We deserve to take a moment now to just kind of say thanks to the kids for putting up with us because the problems they're having, it's not their fault. Adults on both sides of the aisle, whether it's the teachers unions, whether it's the governor, whether it's the different city officials up and down the state have used these kids and their livelihoods as political pawns for years. And the kids have had very little oversight, very little veto power on like the various bad ideas and disastrous decisions that have been forced on them, including like just the matter of public safety. If, you know, I always joke about it, but it's not really a joke. If you fired most elected officials in the state of Florida and replaced them with the smartest high school senior in their district, things would immediately be going much better. And I think that's not even debatable at this point. Yeah, yeah, interesting, interesting. We wanna hear from our listeners as well. Give us a call, 549-2937. That's 549-2937. What are your thoughts on the state of local schools after these grades recently came out? Claire, your response to this news coming out this week. Well, I think one of the most interesting data in the school grades this week was really seeing that my enlarged charters didn't weather COVID as well as traditional schools did in Duval County. We saw, Mark Woods had a great column about this in the Times Union this week that, you know, charters make up only about 20% of schools, but we're almost half of the DNF schools. And three years ago, you know, all of the charter or all of the non-charter schools that got Ds in 2019 managed to bring those up by this year to be their Cs, but all of the charter schools that got Ds in 2019, none of them brought them up, all of them, you know, again got Ds or one got an incomplete. And what Diana Green was saying to the school board this week during the school board meeting on Monday is that the consequences for charter schools that have Ds two years in a row really aren't clear like they are for traditional schools. Traditional schools go into an official state turnaround program, whereas if a charter school is derated for multiple years, it can just remain that way. And there's no formal process to turning that around. And Mark, I want to go to you next because, you know, when we think of the thought behind charter schools, it's that you have a better experience than traditional schools or a more involved experience than traditional schools, particularly when you look at the black community, there's a lot of thinking that, well, if my kid can get to a charter school, maybe they'll have a better experience than they would have in the traditional classroom setting. And we've seen a huge increase in the number of charter schools in Duval County, especially. How does, you know, and Claire just mentioned a lot of this, how does all of that come into play when it comes to the sustainability, the success and whether or not these charter schools are gonna be able to continue on this path, especially when the kids in the end suffer because they're not getting what they need. Right, yeah, when I wrote this, you know, first of all, I wrote the comment, I kind of wanted to echo what Shelton said, kind of applaud everybody for making it through the last few years. And no matter what school you're teaching in, if you're homeschooling, if you're, I mean, yeah, to the kids, the teachers, anybody who's still teaching, I give them credit. But yeah, there's been this long, kind of ongoing narrative to vilify public schools and that, you know, look at these grades, we need to, three years ago, the state was literally talking about taking over some Duval County schools and handing them to charter operators that that was the solution. So this wasn't necessarily to vilify charters, I feel like there's a place for them, there are good charters. But that idea that this is the answer, I mean, if you look at the grades now that, again, to echo that stat, they make up about 20% of the schools and that's growing substantially, it's continuing to grow, but they were nearly half of the failing schools. That's the kind of data that three years ago, our state and local leaders would have been pounding their fists on the table about and saying something has to change and now there's not much said about that. Yeah, yeah, it's very interesting, very interesting. Let's go to Dennis and Ponna Viedra. Dennis, good morning and welcome to the conversation. Hey, how are you guys today? I would just like to comment, I'm from California, my mom was a single mom, raised three kids on a teacher's salary and I was just shocked to find the disparity in what teachers are paid, especially in Duval County. And I know many teachers that are struggling to live on the waves they get. So I would just like to point to that, that sort of signals the end of civilization when teachers can't afford to live. But to tie in your last segment a little, if Sean Kahn wanted to endear himself to the people of Jacksonville, he would maybe take on this issue and just do something symbolically to help with teacher salaries in the town. All right, that's all I have. Thank you, Dennis, that's very interesting. And yeah, there's more than one way to try to get improvements or a new stadium, right? Very interesting indeed. Let's go to Stephen in Atlantic Beach on the phone. Good morning, Stephen and welcome to the conversation. Hi, I appreciate Dennis's comments too. I go back to Mark's column this past week on schools and the grades, how they have risen. Someone made a comment saying that if you fired all the elected officials, we'd have better government. Well, don't fire our school board. They are excellent. They've done a great job getting us through this whole pandemic. The grades are rising and this push for charter schools, which has been coming out of the state government and the past commissioner of education, Corcoran. Nate Monroe had a good column on where the money, the school tax money has been going and there's no accountability at the charter school level. And the people in the school board were saying the other night, well, we get complaints saying that grades need to come up faster, but when we have the drag of the charter school grades, we have no say over those. Interesting. Thank you so much, Stephen in Atlantic Beach. Claire, final thoughts. Right, exactly. When I was listening to the school board meeting on Monday night as well, that's what they were saying, is that, you know, Duval schools maintained to be this year. They were happy about it. They, especially weathering the pandemic, but that was brought down by DNF charter schools and they made very clear during the school board meeting they were trying to communicate to the public that really this is out of our hands. We aren't the governing body over these charter schools that aren't up to par. All right. Well, I wanna thank our media round table this morning, Jacksonville Today, enterprise reporter, Claire Heddles. Thank you, Claire. Thanks, Jamie. Mark Woods of the Florida Times Union. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. And if you didn't get a chance to read Mark's article, go ahead and Google it because it is definitely worth the read. We wanna thank attorney Jack Webb. Jack, thank you so much. And of course, as always, my pledge buddy, pledge in as far as NPR pledge buddy, Shelton Hall. As always Shelton, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you.