‘People really expected some Jacksonville pride:’ Leaders react to mayor’s interview on FOX News

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry is facing criticism after appearing on One Nation with Brian Kilmeade Saturday evening.

Curry came on the program to defend the city after Kilmeade called it a “mess” earlier this month, but instead Curry said Kilmeade was “spot on” in saying the city’s downtown has unfulfilled potential.

“You were spot on. There’s a lot of unfulfilled potential downtown,” Curry said.

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We reached out to the mayor’s office and offered him an opportunity to clarify his comments and highlight what he’s done to revitalize downtown throughout his nearly seven years in office, but we were told he doesn’t want to comment further at this time.

Daniel Henry, Chairman of the Duval County Democratic Party, said he was shocked when he watched the interview.

“People really expected some Jacksonville pride,” Henry said.

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During his appearance, Curry did highlight some initiatives to revitalize downtown, including a new sports performance complex, the construction of a Four Seasons Hotel and the relocation of Museum of Science and History (MOSH) downtown.

But Henry points to failed projects like Lot J as evidence Curry has failed to deliver on downtown revitalization.

“It seems that his administration usually focuses on one big project that ends up being way too big, fails, goes back to the drawing board and we’re left picking up the pieces to try to figure out where we move next,” Henry said.

Democratic mayoral-hopeful Donna Deegan had a similar take.

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“Jacksonville does have unfulfilled potential. The reason for that though, is the broken promises and failed, uninspired leadership from city hall that we’ve had for the past few years,” Deegan said in an emailed statement.

Councilmember LeAnna Cumber (R-District 5) is running for mayor as a Republican.

She told us she believes Curry shares the bulk of the blame for the city’s inability to capitalize on its potential.

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“The person at the top has to take the responsibility and everyone whose job it has been to build up the city and build up the downtown from the mayor to the chamber, they need to take responsibility for the lack of movement and the slow movement that we have downtown,” Cumber said.

And while Curry declined an interview for this story, his office provided us with a list of more than 60 projects downtown in various stages of development.

You can find that list here.

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