An Open Letter to Mayor John Peyton of Jacksonville, Fl

Excellent article. I guess the mayor was "convinced" he should back the developers as opposed to the Navy families (gee, I wonder how that could have happened?), and an entire neighborhood suffered as a consequence.

On a different note, is it illegal for residents to reclaim their neighborhood if the police fail to make it safe? I'm not saying people should shoot pushers, pimps and prostitutes but surely there are ways of convincing them not to ply their trades in certain areas..?

And the logistics isn't easy, either. These were starter homes back in the 1960's and they qualify as the same today. With the Navy at Cecil Field, you had three Navy bases in Jacksonville - Mayport, near the beach, NAS Cecil Field at one end of 103rd St. and NAS Jacksonville at the other end of 103rd St.. (103rd is a VERY long road in the city with the largest land area in the U.S.)

The neighborhoods around the other bases are untouched and relatively the same as they were when I was young. But without Cecil Field's housing requirements, which effectively screened the people living there, these inexpensive houses are being sold to whomever can buy it - just like capitalism says it should. The problem lies in this kind of cheap housing is in the price range of the criminal element.

Navy families would have needed to buy/rent houses in the area, since it is close to Cecil Field, and they would have been able to bring both police and Navy legal strength to the fight to get rid of the bad elements.

Hookers in the house next door? Call the cops on them, then call the JAG office to have them get involved. Before long the hookers move.

Drug dealers? Call the cops and the MP's. Get both local, military and federal investigations going (because the MP's will call the FBI and NCIS) and very quickly the local crack house is being repainted by its new owner for its new tenants.

Local police alone can't help - especially as corrupt a police force as the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. I suppose the citizens can find a way, but most likely a few of the good guys dying at the hands of the bag guys and that effort goes away.