JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The first of 109 homicides recorded in Jacksonville in 2012 was a murder at a nightclub called "Club Chicago" in the Grand Park area in the early morning of New Year's Day.
"There's shooting, there's still violence, that's about all, but no murders," said Thompson.
People who are familiar with the area, like Ronald Thompson, believe the Grand Park community is still unsafe even after two men accused in the New Year's Day murder were arrested and zoning in the area was changed in an effort to deter businesses from setting up shop in the middle of a neighborhood.
"When we talk about crime in a neighborhood, we have to address it with enforcement, prevention and intervention, and enforcement includes zoning sometimes, and it this case, we felt we could address it with zoning and we did," said Jacksonville City Councilman Warren Jones.
"They ain't been back there now in a year, but they just have a lot of drunks parking around here and stuff like that," said Thompson.
Channel 4 Crime Analyst Ken Jefferson believes crime remains a problem in the Grand Park area. Jefferson said that communities across Jacksonville need to deal with the problem to decrease the number of murders in Jacksonville.
"Open areas where murders occur, we've got to look at it, we can't just sit back and say, this happened, and let's patrol it for a couple of days and let's move on," said Jefferson.