SMALL TALK

Newsworthy Nuggets from Northeast Florida to Chew on This Month

O The holiday season is known for being merry and bright, but hectic schedules and highways full of travelers can result in overly aggressive drivers. According to the cheap fuel-finding app GasBuddy, many of those agitated motorists live in Northeast Florida. Its recent study ranking U.S. cities from most to least “scroogie,” placed Jacksonville #2 for having the “Most Aggressive Holiday Drivers,” with Tucson, Arizona garnering the top spot. Rounding out the top five were Nashville, Orlando and Birmingham, Alabama. Y’all don’t come back now, ya’ hear.

O Scroogie drivers aside, the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas were pretty good for many Florida businesses. In fact, shoppers were turning out in record numbers from Black Friday through New Year’s Day, says the Florida Retail Federation. Its annual survey found about 60% of shoppers began purchasing gifts in early November. Consumers polled said they planned to buy clothing or accessories (55%), gift cards

(45%), toys (37%) and books or other media (33%). The most popular toys were Barbie for girls, LEGO for boys.

O The First Coast real estate market was already weathering some inclement days as rising interest rates were battering home sales as fall turned to winter. The situation wasn’t helped by hurricanes Ian and Nicole, two storms that dampened many sales contract hopes and helped drive a 24% decrease in closed sales for homes, condos and townhouses in November. According to the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors, new listings for those properties dropped by approximately the same numbers. In Jax, the November median price of a single-family house was $325,000, a slight decrease from October’s $332,000.

O Low-fare airline Breeze Airways recently made visiting the Big Apple a little less expensive. Service from Jacksonville International Airport to New York’s Westchester

County launched in October, offering nonstop routes for less than $100 each way. “We’re excited to keep growing from Jacksonville and serving Northeast Florida residents with low fares and nonstop flights to popular destinations,” says Breeze president Tom Doxey. The budget airline already provided direct service to Hartford, Las Vegas and New Orleans from Jax.

O The Center for Legislative Accountability recently released analysis that examined all 7,400 state lawmakers from each of the 50 states, counting more than 265,000 individual votes across 3,500 different bills introduced in state legislatures. Among its findings are that the nation’s 3,906 Republican state lawmakers voted conservative 81% of the time. It also ranked the legislatures based on conservative voting of their lawmakers across 186 policy categories. Alabama lawmakers voted with the conservative position at the highest rate (74% of the time); Florida came in at #6 (71%) and Massachusetts ranked 50th (15%).

Wild at Heart

Big changes are coming to the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens, among them the recently announced VyStar Skyscape, a planned centerpiece of the Zoo’s public entrance. Standing some 50 feet high, Skyscape designs call for an open-air structure covering 25,000 square feet and including space for guest relations, retail and dining, as well as a stage, VIP lounge, meeting rooms and full-service catering kitchen. The new venue is being funded by a $2.25 million gift from VyStar Credit Union and is part of the Zoo’s larger $52 million ReZoovenation campaign—which, at present, has raised 75% of its goal from private sources and matching dollars from the City. Other ReZoovenation plans include a new education campus with expanded lion habitat, a redesigned elephant enclosure, and the introduction of orangutans to the Zoo’s menagerie of some 2,000 animals. u

WALL ABOARD!

Jax needs more public art, so it’s wonderful to see additions to the local mural scene like this one by artist Ramses Allen, adorning the side of the barbershop building in the Shops of Avondale. Keep painting, Ramses. Keep painting.

Remember When

Few Floridians have left a more no table legacy on the state and country than Augusta Savage (1892-1962). The artist, teacher and civil rights activist was reared in Green Cove Springs and last year a long-deserved historical marker was placed near the site of her childhood home on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Talking Heads

A new roster of six local storytellers takes the stage for the next installment of Untold Stories, a quarterly showcase hosted by artistic director Barbara Colaciello and the Florida Theatre, March 30. Doors open for the night’s theme, “Winds of Change,” at 6:30 PM, and the show starts at 7:30 PM.