Section 8 Housing In Jax and St. Johns

I first heard of Section 8 housing when I saw a news story about St. Johns County. That story said St. Johns had some kind of law against Section 8 housing, which resulted in fewer options to house the homeless contingent in St. Augustine. I never looked up Section 8 at the time, though I did wonder how St. Johns could ban Section 8 while Duval can't. I'm still not all that sure about how or why, but I do know most of us don't want Section 8 in our back yards. In fact, I just discussed something similar to Section 8 with my kids, as we drove past the Dunes Apartments next to Ed Austin Park. I said the apartments looked so bad that it might make sense to pull them down and build some smaller single-family homes, which might result in some of the people who no one really wants hanging out in a park being forced to move away. But then one of my kids asked me where they'd go, and that's what makes it complicated. I'd like to say, "St. Johns County," but I can't. And so that means that those of us in Duval who live too close to Section 8 housing will eventually move to where that type of housing can't exist.

My Guides to Jacksonville

I've met several people thinking of relocating to Jacksonville, and I often tell them to check out my website for my guide to the city. Except I did just that myself and realized it's not that easy to find, so here's a guide to my guides. 

Also, if you're thinking of moving here and want to hire an actual guide, that can be arranged. Use the contact form to work out the details. Or ask your realtor to take you everywhere...they love doing that.

Sawgrass Village Shopping Center Road Rage

I guess folks with expendable income show up in their Mercedeses and Lexuses (Mercedes and Lexi?) to the Sawgrass Village Shopping Center on Valentine's Day. At 1:15 on Valentine's Day, it was if there was a senior citizen convention at the shopping center. One of them nearly made a citizen's arrest on me, just before another one nearly crashed into another patron of the NY strip mall. Overall, there were too many mini and mega SUVs vying for the same parking spots, presumably occupied by shoppers looking for that perfect gift to curb the whining before it even happens.

Guide to Running a Hurricane Newscast

Before I begin this article, I want to state that I am grateful that Hurricane Dorian missed Jacksonville, and I am also very aware that the storm's destruction was catastrophic for some. This article is not about trivializing a hurricane. It's more about trying to fill air time when the hurricane shows up and is just a wind storm in your area.

The only torture worse than waiting for a hurricane to hit is watching hours of news leading up to the event. And then hours of news people trying to make a small, off-shore hurricane seem like something else in order to keep viewers tuned in. The news channels know a lot of people are watching, so the show must go on, and on, and on. The stars are the weather people, but you need the anchors to provide words such as "devastating" to describe storm potential, as well as general assignment reporters stationed at important spots in order to monitor that which needs no actual monitoring.

Jeff Glauser's New Website

Jeff Glauser is a local consultant, writer, trainer, branding expert, and virtual COO. I met him at a local business group, and we hit it off because we have some similar interests and abilities. At first, you might think that another freelancer with similar abilities would be intimidating, but we both saw it as an opportunity to employ each other's talents in a meaningful way. He'd never totally built his own website, and I'd never been paid much for all my consulting, writing, and training that I'd done as part of my website building. Plus, I wanted to learn more about what it takes to be a branding expert and virtual COO.

Rental Bikes Aren't Exactly For The Homeless

Local news was down in St. Augustine covering the newly-proposed use of some kind of bike-share rental system. Since it's standard operating procedure, a homeless man was interviewed about the program. He said something to the effect that it would be good to have options for someone like him who can't afford a bike. FYI local news and homeless people: bike rental programs are not really created for the homeless.

Retiree Guide to JAX

Jacksonville just made the Top 10 in some list of places to retire. The only problem is that the city isn't really in the Top 1000 for people who are actually looking to retire, so maybe it's time New Jax Witty works on putting together a local guide for folks who no longer have to work.

The $5,000 St. Augustine Trash Bin

St. Augustine wants to replace garbage cans with garbage/recycling cans. In theory, I like the idea, since I did the same thing in my kitchen. I know that my $60 kitchen garbage can isn't commercial-grade, and it's probably a bit smaller than what's needed, but for $5,000 a pop, I'm hoping some local artisans are building 16th century vintage trash cans. Wait, there were no garbage cans when St. Augustine was founded. So we can do whatever we want.

Nocatee Fees: CDD and HOA

We spent our first day in the Nocatee area of St. Johns / Duval in order to check out the farmers market. While there were only three actual farmers at the market (two produce and one dairy), it was still interesting to see the planned community. In fact, our kids were quick to suggest their grandparents look into the area, since it has a certain feel that's similar to some of the retiree planned communities in Florida but without the stigma of being just for old fogies. But what about those fees and cost of getting in?

Interviewing With St. Johns County Schools - Part I - Before The Interview

Truth be told, I am only in the process of getting materials together so that I might apply to teach or otherwise work in the St. Johns schools. However, in the process, I saw the interview advice given on the school district website, so I thought I'd pass that along to any of you looking to interview in St. Johns or anywhere else. The advice listed comes from a quick job interview guide published by another website, but I am certain interviewers in St. Johns know that future employees will be looking at the image (rather than reading the links on the page). Let's see if these will all work for me.

$700,000 Missing From St. Johns Sheriff's Office And Neighbors Didn't Notice

A naughty employee has been accused of stealing $700,000 from the St. Johns Sheriff's Office. And her neighbors didn't notice any crazy spending. What gives? If you stole $700,000, wouldn't all your neighbors know about it? Mine sure would.

Cause and Effect: Walmart and Riffraff

A nice lady from St. Johns County was being interviewed on the news about the big shopping center going in near her house. She wasn't all that excited about the traffic, but she specifically didn't like the idea of a Walmart going in. She said Walmarts bring in the riffraff. No, not Riff Raff the rapper from Houston. She meant the type of people: disreputable or the lowest class. (OK, Riff Raff might qualify.) So the question here is whether Walmarts bring riffraff to an area or if Walmarts in an area simply provide a place for the riffraff that already exists to congregate.

Amendment 3: I Guess It's OK

I just saw this very professional-looking commercial, reminiscent of one you might see for the new Big Pharma drug. The language of the ad seems to make sense, with all these normal people telling me that people like me want the amendment. And that might be true. At least kind of.

St. Johns, Not St. Jobs

Everyone wants to live in St. Johns County. Just like where I'm from, those people all say it's because of the schools. But that was supposed to be the purpose of consolidating Jacksonville's schools. Jacksonville went with an experiment that I actually would have thought might work, especially given the sheer distances created by making Jacksonville so huge. But it failed. Why? I'm not sure, but I'm still trying to figure out why so many people see St. Johns as the place to be.

Here's Why People Don't Invite News Crews Into Homes

I've seen a lot of people who tell news reporters to leave them alone, and many others who won't show their faces in interviews. Sometimes, I think it's silly, especially if you were just being interviewed about some random crime in the Walmart parking lot. Then again, there might be a time when you should have remained anonymous, like when you invite the news crew into your home to check out the mold in your bathroom.

Website Design in Jacksonville, Florida

Let's be honest: this website isn't all that great. It was easy to create using Blogger, but it has limitations. If you have a small business in Jacksonville, you might want to check out a newly-relocated business called Passive Ninja Web Design.

Passive Ninja works quickly to build or rebuild your website. All the major elements are part of the design:

• Mobile-friendly websites
• Integrated Google Map
• https security
• Easy to update
• Inviting design

Oh, and it's cheap. Not as cheap as a secretary setting up a Blogger website, but pretty cheap, starting at $500, and normally costing around $1,000.

And fast. A week or two, not several months.

In Jacksonville, all of Duval, The Beaches, Orange Park and Clay, St. Augustine and St. Johns. Here to serve you. 

Related Stories  Your Connection Is Not Secure: OH NO!  I Want to Build My Own Website But Don't Know Where to Start  Freelancer Nightmare: Unpaid Work

Thanks for reading. See more of my content:

Satisfamily - Articles about being happy as a family
Passive Ninja - Web Design in Jacksonville
McNewsy - Creative Writing
Educabana - Educational Resources
Brave New Church - Church Website Design
Voucher School - Pros and Cons of School Vouchers
Luthernet - Web Design for Lutheran Churches
Sitcom Life Lessons - What we've learned from sitcoms
Mancrush Fanclub - Why not?
Epic Folktale - Stories of the unknown
Wild West Allis - Every story ever told about one place
Educabana on Teachers Pay Teachers (mostly ELA lessons)
Real Wisconsin News - Satire from Wisconsin
Zoo Interchange Milwaukee - Community website
Chromebook Covers - Reviews and opinions

Brian Jaeger - Resume (I'm always interested)

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