The Downtown Art Walk returns to Jacksonville’s urban core Feb. 1 with a special theme of peace and love. Downtown Vision Inc. CEO says to not be afraid to take part in the Wednesday night event despite recent shootings.
Jake Gordon, president of Downtown Vision Inc. joined host Melissa Ross Monday on First Coast Connect with a message for the public: Art Walk is on and it’s safe to come downtown and enjoy it.
“Unfortunately, this does kind of reiterates long-standing kind of misperceptions about Downtown, but the reality is, as you said, Downtown is unbelievably safe,” Gordon said.
Gordon said “for all the events we have and for all the things we do, it’s the fourth safest area in the city by JSO statistics.”
In fact, Gordon said he is working to increase security measure to ensure the safety for the upcoming event.
“Every month we hire over 18 off-duty officers for JSO, we also hire private security,” Gordon said. “We are working on improving the flow of the event and are going to have a lot more officers.”
Art Walk will be back Feb. 1 with a peace and love theme to continue chipping away at the perception that Downtown isn't safe.
News Intern Joy Kader can be reached at joykader@yahoo.com, 561-900-5235 or on Twitter at @joykader95.
