Tuesday on First Coast Connect we spoke with author and urban planner Peter Kageyama on how to get people to love the cities where they live (01:18).
Jacksonville University Associate Professor Sawsan Tabbaa talked about the Give Kids a Smile program (30:28).
Comedian and actor Colin Quinn joined us ahead of his performance this month at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall (46:00).
Peter Kageyama
Fans are disappointed the Jaguars were one game short of going to the Super Bowl, but one urban planner says, don’t be blue; Jacksonville needs to celebrate the team’s recent success and build on it to build more love for our city.
Peter Kageyama is the author of For the Love of Cities: The Love Affair Between People and Their Places.
He says Jacksonville should channel the energy around the Jaguars into the redevelopment and revitalization of our neighborhoods.
Kageyama is in town for two events benefiting LISC Jacksonville. He’ll be at an interactive workshop on neighborhood development from 3 p.m to 5 p.m.Tuesday afternoon at Intuition Ale Works. Tickets are $10 for individuals or $25 for groups up to four people from the same organization. Then he’ll be at the LISC Jacksonville Community Development Awards 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Jessie Ball DuPont Center.
Give Kids a Smile
The biggest American Dental Association effort in all of Florida, Give Kids a Smile offers free dental care to thousands of children in Northeast Florida. Many of them are refugees from Syria.
Dentists say the care is desperately needed because untreated dental disease in kids is an epidemic.
Nearly 1-in-4 children under the age of 5 already has cavities, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many children enrolled in Medicaid receive no dental services throughout the year.
Give Kids a Smile provides free dental care and supplies. Dr. Tabbaa said she plans to hand out 1,000 dental kits to community children this year.
Colin Quinn
Jerry Seinfeld has called Quinn the “quintessential New York comedian.” Quinn has been beloved by fans ever since he first hit the national airwaves on the 1980’s MTV hit Remote Control.
He went on to host Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, and you’ve seen him on his own show on Comedy Central, Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, in hit films like Trainwreck with Amy Schumer, and on stage with his popular one-man show.
He’s in town Feb. 18 for a show at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall, a stop on his One In Every Crowd tour.
Kevin Meerschaert can be reached at kmeerschaert@wjct.org, 904-358-6334 or on Twitter at @KMeerschaertJax.
