JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Brentwood community protested outside of Jacksonville’s City Hall and demanded that the medical examiner facility that’s being built be repurposed to benefit the community.
A picket line started Friday at 11:30 a.m. The Metro Garden Neighborhood Association said the facility is “part of the legacy of redlining and Supreme Court ordered segregation.”
They also said the devaluation of property and land in redlined communities has created challenges to create intergenerational wealth.
“I started Brentwood 300 and February the 22nd it was just the idea if they could bring 300 dead bodies out in our neighborhood,” I wanted Brentwood 300 to bring 300 live bodies in our neighborhood and say, ‘hell to the naw.’ And we got those 300 so now we working on Brentwood 3000 because if they try to bring them dead bodies over there, I hope to have 300 to 3000 people laying in the street to stop them."
Bell talked about what they’d like to see instead of the medical examiner’s office.
“We would like to see an urgent care,” Bell said. “We no longer have a pharmacy in our neighborhood. We can use a pharmacy. We can use it for a tutoring center. We can use it for training students.”
The facility is being built near the KIPP V.O.I.C.E. Academy. Residents said they hadn’t known about it for years. They alleged the city violated their civil rights by not informing them of the project until after construction began in 2023.
“Death does not belong in our neighborhood,” Bell said. “We want a Brentwood Skill Center, not a Brentwood kill center.”
This same group fought the opening of a property that would have been a liquor store next to the KIPP V.O.I.C.E. Academy.
Instead, that property is being turned into the Jacksonville Small and Emerging Business Entrepreneurship and Workforce Development Center.
News4JAX has reached out to District City Council Member Ju’Coby Pittman for comment and is waiting to hear back.