Election of Alvin Brown: "Yes, Massa; No, Massa"

Jacksonville, Florida elected Alvin Brown as its mayor on Tuesday. He is the city's first black mayor. Today's Florida Times-Union screamed "Historic Election" on its frontpage.

In the accompanying articles, many expressed their expectations of "change" for the city. Where have we heard that before? Ah, yes, Obama promised transformative change for the nation. God help our city if we experience that kind of change here. The bad news for those expecting change in Jacksonville by voting for Alvin Brown for mayor is, in reality, they were snookered into voting for more of the same old, same old. They will be sorely disappointed in the next four years.

For decades, Jacksonville has been run as a plantation by a clubby group of local businessmen, landowners and developers. Whatever they wanted, they got. They owned City Hall. I once overheard a discussion between several of this group in which one of them expressed regrets that the "natives were getting restless" and it was getting "harder to manage the plantation."

If any politician, mayor or councilmember, dared to defy them, this group financed and backed their replacement. Few dared such defiance, and even fewer survived in office if they did. One of those who did stand up to this group on occasion was Mike Hogan, Brown's Republican opponent in the mayoral race.

Jacksonville's powerbrokers were horrified when Hogan won the primary in May. Their support was split between Rick Mullaney and Audrey Moran, although the bulk went to the latter. That was a strategic mistake that allowed Brown to squeek by Moran for second place. Even Brown's supporters were surprised that his mobilization of the black vote gained the prize of a run-off against Hogan.

So, what did the majority of Jacksonville's Republican (in name only) plantation owners do? They decided to back Democrat Alvin Brown. Led by Pete Rummell, a former St. Joe Paper executive, the group of thirty or so business leaders poured money into Brown's campaign coffers. They did so because Brown, unlike Hogan, promised to watch out for their interests, especially the development of downtown Jacksonville.

For decades now, this group has promoted downtown over the interests of other neighborhoods and needs in the city. Thanks to them, we have the mostly riderless Skyway Express, the shopperless Jacksonville Landing, the businessless LaVilla section, the workerless office buildings, the dinerless restaurants, the walkerless sidewalks, the readerless Main Library, the conventioneerless Prime Osborn Convention Center, the winless Jacksonville Jaguars and the residentless condo high-rises in downtown Jacksonville.

A few weeks ago, I had an appointment at a doctor's office in LaVilla. Riding through downtown, even I was shocked at how dead downtown was at 10 a.m. Almost the only people I saw were the homeless. Yet, we have the monuments to this gang of thirty's skewed priorities of the Baseball Grounds and Everbank Field that sit vacant most days and the money pit of the new County Courthouse under construction.

Those of us who think other areas and other priorities -- like jobs, the port, transportation, taxes and small businesses -- deserve City Hall's attention saw hope for change in Hogan. He promised to give downtown no more (and no less) attention than other neighborhoods around the city. In other words, he was willing to buck the plantation's owners.

Unfortunately, the owners whipped Hogan. They showed him, Brown, and all the other politicians in Jacksonville that they better not dare to buck the plantation system. Brown is completely beholden to these plantation owners. When they tell him to do or not do something, he had better answer "Yes, massa" or "No, massa" if he wants to keep his new job.