Prejudiced City of Jacksonville, Florida Advertises It's "On Fire"

An Google (R) banner ad on the New York Times website caugh my eye yesterday: t was for the dull city of Jacksonville, Florida's downtown, which the ad improbably proclaimed is "on fire" and is Jacksonville's "ORIGINAL HOT SPOT." I kid you not.

So much for irony.

Jacksonville barely survived a huge fire in May 3, 1901 which started in Spanish moss used to fill mattresses at a matterss factory. The conflagration then spread quickly from wood building to wood building, destroying a total of 140 city blocks, burning 2368 buildings, and leaving 10,000 people homeless. Jacksonville was under martial law. The 1901 Jacksonville fire was the largest and most destructive fire in the history of the Southeastern United States.

So much for overpad advertising geniuses with yellow ties and cufflinks, and their legendary lack of appreciation for history.

Speaking of which, St. Johns County has squandered tens of millions of dollars on its no-bid contractor, the St. Johns County Visitor and Convention Bureau, Inc., which spends money on dull ads in Reader's Digest and Better Homes and Gardens, while eschewing ads to reach out to Youth, African-American, Hispanic and Youth tourism markets, and only surveying the top 50% of income earners each year.

VCB has no Antitrust and Civil RIghts compliance policies, and it shows.

It's our money.

That contract must be re-bid.

TDC needs to spend more money on PR and free media. The last time the New York Times travel section ran an article devoted to St. Augustine was September 5, 2003.

The next TDC contractor needs to do better. We need to emphsize our Nation's Oldest City's diversity and tolerance. I called and asked for a list of Gay-friendly lodgings in St. Augustine and St. Johns County several days ago -- no response. Our Cities of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach have enacted Fair Housing ordinances, forbidding discrimnation on the basis of sexual orientation and other factors.

Our TDC must embrace diversity, encouraging Youth, African-American, Hispanic and GLBT tourism, instead of hiding our light under a bushel basket. That woudl include an ad campaign poking fun at Jacksonville, whose prejudiced pachyderm City Council voted last year NOT to protect GLBT people from discrimination, a stench in the nostrils of our Nation and the State of Florida.

How about "St. Augustine Celebrates Diversity While Jacksonville Incinerates the Bill of Rights?"

What do you reckon?

Meanwhile, I'm not encouraging anyone to spend any money in Jacksonville, a prejudiced place where TaliBaptists control City Hall.