After moving from New York to Jacksonville more than 30 years ago and raising their three children here, Ted and Nancy Powell are civic-minded members of the community they have grown to love.
First impressions of Jacksonville weren’t the best: They stayed at a hotel on the Southside and realtors showed them homes that were part of newer construction in the newer areas of Jacksonville. Coming from New York, walkability was important to them, which they didn’t find. That was until Nancy stumbled upon the Riverside and Avondale areas.
“It was a historic area,” Nancy said. “I thought, ‘OK, this is a nice little area.’”
Originally, they were told by realtors that the area didn’t take kindly to strangers and newcomers.
“That was a total myth,” Ted said. “We had neighbors bringing us dinners for days when we first arrived. Two of our neighbors are still some of our dearest friends. People on our street we’ve known for 34 years.”
Even the ones who have been in Jacksonville for generations and have family money are still down-to-earth compared to people in other cities they have lived, he added.
“We’ve talked about downsizing, but then we’d have to leave our street,” Ted said.
They spent the next two decades raising their children, Laura Jane, Teddy and Scott, in the area. When their kids went to college, they started to get more involved locally and met people from other walks of life, instead of simply parents of their kids’ friends.
“What’s great about Jacksonville is that if you want to get involved, you get involved,” Nancy said. “There’s nothing stopping you.”
Their former neighbor and Scenic Jacksonville (previously CAPSigns) co-founder, Bill Brinton, brought Nancy into civic advocacy when he recruited her to lead the effort to underground the utilities in the neighborhood.
“We went knocking on doors and kind of got out in the neighborhood to educate everyone,” Nancy said.
Brinton has since passed away, but Nancy continues his legacy by serving as the executive director of Scenic Jacksonville. She also joined the Riverside Avondale Preservation (RAP).
“It’s all about balancing quality of life with growth of the district,” Nancy said.
She served a two-year term as board chair of RAP and was a board member for six years.
“What’s great about that organization is it’s super hyper-local,” Nancy said. “And you get to meet a lot of people in the neighborhood.”
She is also an advocate for the city’s parks. People in the area must be stewards of their neighborhood park instead of relying on the parks department to do it all, she said. There are 27 parks in the Riverside area alone.
The Powells are urban people and would love to see the downtown area expand and grow.
“That’s part of our goal overall, to make Jacksonville a place where people really want to come back to, where we have a downtown worthy of the young folks,” Ted said.
They spent a good part of their lives going to great public spaces like Grant Park in Chicago, Boston Commons in Boston and Central Park in New York and would love to see the riverfront and other parks around town give them that same feel.
“That’s been part of my push, from both a professional standpoint and a volunteer standpoint, of pushing the city forward,” Ted said.
“There’s a lot of work to be done there, but we felt like we needed to get started,” Nancy said.
Nancy is also a founding member of the Riverfront Parks Conservancy. This group strives to be a nonprofit partner with the city with a focus on the riverfront parks.
They started looking at how other cities have developed their riverfronts, including Chattanooga, Memphis, Sarasota, Charleston and Tampa, among others.
“There’s a lot of inspiring examples out there,” she added.
While Nancy spends her time working with different civic organizations, Ted ventured into the theater and public speaking space.
In 2014, he delivered a speech at the TEDx conference in Jacksonville. He spoke about the perils of negative thought patterns provoked by information overload in a rapidly changing world. There were 11 speakers and an audience of 300 people.
“It was an exhilarating and terrifying experience being on stage,” Ted said. “It ended up turning out, and the message we delivered resonated with people.”
The Powells felt like Tedx was the conduit to the civic side — art, culture, theater — of Jacksonville for them.
“I’m starting to wind down my professional career,” Ted said. “I decided that in my next life, I want to become a struggling actor, performer.”
Ted has been a managing partner and leadership consultant with Stop at Nothing for almost 30 years. He is moving into a mentoring role, which leaves him with more time to focus on other things, like story slams and his videography.
“I love storytelling,” Ted said.
He volunteered to interview people for RAP and puts together reels for weddings, family events and Jaguars tailgates. He’s a huge Jags fan.
“It probably started with the kids highlight reels,” Ted said. “I filmed just about everything, and the kids would tell me to put the camera down. Well now as adults, they like watching those family movies.”
Nancy is also a competitive tennis player. She plays in the senior leagues. She was a junior tennis player and played in college.
“Team tennis as an adult is a lot more fun than junior tennis,” she said.
Nancy also did Leadership Jacksonville last year and met all types of people and many from the younger generation.
“It’s fun to kind of be able to pay it forward,” Nancy said. “And age doesn’t stop you from either side, young or old.”
