Home Insurance Prices in Florida: What's Next?

I wrote about trying to find new insurance last year when I was dropped. This year, my new insurance guy (who I'd recommend over my last deadbeat and all the vultures I met last year), sent some rate comparisons out, along with an article I'd read about the soaring costs of Florida homeowners insurance. It's pretty bleak, and if you've been dropped, there may not be many options. 

Culver's Arlington Location (UN)Explained

Evan Clagnaz is a lot like me. He's from Wisconsin. He wants a Culver's in the Arlington area of Jacksonville. He trusts other people. He has a few million dollars to invest in a restaurant. Etc. 

OK, fine, at 36 I didn't quite have $4+ million to invest. Or at 46. Maybe at 56 (fingers crossed), but by then, all the Culver's restaurants will have been built in Jax, and I'll have missed my chance to own one. Except for maybe one that fails because it’s been built in the wrong location.

Florida Tourism - The Destination Funeral

I was trying to find out what happened to the lovely 33-acre May Mann Jennings Park over on the North Side when I had this great idea for tourism in Jacksonville. It's mostly because Streetview of the park seemed to only show the Evergreen Cemetery, which kind of shares (or overruns) the park. In fact, COJ says the May Mann Jennings Park has "been returned to a natural, undeveloped state." For those of you who don't know government code, this means there's no funding for a park in an industrial/hood area of town. Anyhow, my search for a forgotten gem of a park was thwarted, but the cemetery next door got me to thinking about Florida/Jacksonville tourism, and I wondered if anyone had ever considered a destination funeral. 

Rosa Parks Homeless Park?

Rosa Parks Homeless Park

I've driven past the Rosa Parks Transit Station several times since it closed, and I noticed that quite a few homeless individuals line the streets nearby. Since a bus terminal is an eyesore already, and this one is just fenced off, I was wondering if maybe we'd be better off just combining two eyesores into one, making the Rosa Parks Homeless Park out of the bus station. 

A Tree Grows in Jacksonville

I was talking to a young man visiting Jacksonville from Illinois, and he wanted to know more about the city, as he was considering relocating here. I gave him the regular routine about the weather (heat and hurricanes), told him to be ready for long dinners out, and said that you always have to be aware of criminal activity. He also wanted to know about downtown, since he had been there at a bar but didn't know much beyond that.

Is Regulation The Problem With Jacksonville?

I got into an interesting conversation with a gentleman about why Jacksonville has not yet attained the stature that it should have as a metropolis of one million residents. We kind of went back and forth for a time, both of us mentioning what might be wrong, when he came up with government regulation. He claimed government regulation was the number one worst thing with living here, even though I often look around and wonder whether there's any regulation at all in the city. 

Jacksonville 1901 Fire Highlights Poor Mattress Material Choice, Rich History of Property Theft

I saw an article about the great fire of 1901 in Jacksonville, and I was surprised by two primary takeaways: the highly flammable material that caught fire was being used for mattresses and Jacksonville residents used the opportunity to steal from one another.

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.

Arlington Renewal: Reality Check

I'm all for reviving and renewing Arlington, as long as it's not going to wake up all cranky on us. I have enough experience in urban planning (as a college student and connoisseur) to be able to predict a few major concerns with renewing Arlington, whether or not some hot-shot Miami developer says it's going to happen. And I don't have millions of dollars or years of experience in the neighborhood. Just sense.

Adverstising on Zillow For Free?

I was looking up the highest crime area of Arlington when I came across a strange phenomenon on many of the homes near the high-crime apartments. Someone had claimed the homes on Bert Rd. and added the following:

This property is never For sale or rent sun and Jerome Harrison Wilson and Emma kim-tashis Harrison Landlord Owner contact me at 904....

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?

After More Than A Year, I Realize There's A Skyway in JAX

Sorry, city leaders. I just didn't know there was a vibrant Skyway automated monorail in town. I kind of thought it was either an idea that had never been made or something that was closed down. Although I still have not seen this in person, I went to several websites to confirm that it does exist. My goal, in the next year-and-a-half, is to find a reason to ride this free people-mover.

Kernan and McCormick Intersection Options

This article may not get very many hits because no one is going to search for something that seems to be a no-brainer. But I was inspired to create an interesting design option based on a road configuration I saw in The Villages. And if anything is a no-brainer, it's that nothing can be inspiring in The Villages. But this was. With all of its uses of traffic circles / roundabouts, one intersection stood out to me, and it could lead to an option for Kernan and McCormick if we're willing to think outside the box.

Alignable For Local Businesses: Three Cities In

I got an initial invitation to Alignable from a former student when I was still living in Wisconsin. The idea seemed like a good one and came at the right time, since I'd recently been laid off. I was also trying to take my career in a new direction. But Alignable has been a bit of a disappointment in a long line of time-consuming disappointments when it comes to running my own business.

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.

Take 'Em Down JAX -- Hmm, What Could 'Em Be?

Upon hearing there was a Take 'Em Down rally in Jacksonville, I wondered at what all the 'Ems in Jax could possibly be. 'Em is short for Them, in case you weren't sure. In Jacksonville's case 'Em might be short for Confederate monuments, but there are so many other 'Ems. Let's consider what other 'Ems we could be attacking here.

Sticking with the Civil War theme, I'd say street signs and school names could be 'Em. Probably especially school names. Robert E. Lee Generals? This school is 65% African American. I mean, unless it's a belittling thing to Southern generals (like Indians/Warriors/Braves/Redskins), why in the world do we have that happening here? I could maybe see it if Lee was from Jacksonville. Robert E. Femoyer of Jacksonville received the Medal of Honor from the United States of America (WWII), and the name's still Robert E., in case you like that combination. According to my sources, we have at least one Femoyer left in town, but seemingly not a large delegation. (And Femoyer wasn't really from Jax, but he is buried here.) If we don't want war heroes for schools or roads, we could always have Skynyrd Way and Bizkit Avenue. Or Tebow Terrace. 

My Solar Score In Milwaukee Is Higher Than In Jax

This one is hard to compute, but I've used the tools on two different websites that came up with similar results: my Milwaukee house has a higher solar energy potential than my Florida house. Let's take a look at how that can possibly be the case.

When Will Jacksonville Hit 1,000,000?

With a census report that said Jacksonville added over 11,000 new residents in 2017, how long will it take for the city to boast 1,000,000 people? If we can assume 10,000 per year, and we're just over 890,000 now, that would mean this year plus ten more years of similar growth.

Not Having to Travel Very Far to go Anywhere

A woman interviewed about the large shopping development going in at the 9-B/I-95 interchange said she was excited about not having to travel very far to go anywhere. The problem is that anywhere, or nowhere, is what's being built.