Jacksonville Mayoral Race – Part 2 w/ Stephen Dare – S4-Ep10

In this post, our second in a series, Tracy Rigdon was joined by special guest, the talented writer and journalist, Stephen Dare, who is also a consultant to the campaign to elect Democratic candidate for Mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, Donna Deegan. They discussed the challenges that small businesses face in Northeast Florida. Dare talks about how it has been 20 years since either the Republican or Democrat candidate reached out to young business owners in the area. He notes that there are too many regulations and red tape, making it difficult to open a small business. They mention the change of use requirement, which mandates that a private engineer certify older buildings, costing business owners upwards of about $10,000. Dare is in favor of the idea of creating more business improvement districts. They talk about how such a district could help small businesses in the community by providing them with a funding source that they could use for entertainment, repainting the streets, or adding trees. The district would also provide support and membership groups to small businesses without the need for the city's support. Dare believes that small businesses are the backbone of the economy, as does Candidate Donna Deegan, and need more support from the city. They also talk about how cleaning up small businesses would improve the community by creating walkable neighborhoods with thriving little areas and pockets of town. They discuss how this concept has worked in other neighborhoods, such as San Marco, and how it could work in other areas that have empty buildings. Overall, they believe that the idea of creating a business improvement district could be a useful tool for helping small businesses in the community thrive. Dare talks about the importance of planning and zoning in cities and mentions that a portion of the units developed in a city, such as Jacksonville, should be workforce housing. He suggests breaking up the idea of segregating the poor and the wealthy and building affordable housing units along with luxury housing to create a safe environment for everyone. Dare mentions that the current plan of building in floodplains is not viable, and the city should instead invest in building things now that will benefit the city in the future. Rigdon agrees with Dare's vision and adds that Donna Deegan has future vision and wants to leave each part of what she does in a better place than she found it. The conversation then moves to the topic of creating tech hubs in the city, with the recent news of a 500 million dollar pot of money from the feds. Dare talks about the Robotics Place and mentions that Jacksonville has a spaceport that the city has ignored for 25 years, which could be an excellent opportunity to attract someone like Elon Musk. Rigdon suggests that the Cecil Commerce Center is a perfect place to set up high-tech businesses. ** For the full episode, please visit our website: https://bit.ly/DonnaForMayor ** Music Tracks for this Podcast by Alex Grohl on Pixabay ** Feel free to LIKE, SHARE AND COMMENT. If you are featured here and we don't have your link(s) posted, please let us know. Follow The Contrast Project online: ** https://www.facebook.com/TheContrastP... ** https://www.instagram.com/the_contras... ** https://twitter.com/ContrastProjTV ** The Contrast Project Lounge Podcast is proudly created in part using the Riverside.fm platform. By using this link you are helping to support this show. Thank you so much: https://bit.ly/3BH3q2t #ChangeForGood #DonnaDeeganForMayor #voterawareness