Monday, October 19, 2009 | Rural Jacksonville, circa 1970. The banks of the St. Johns River, an undeveloped slice of paradise for a 10-year-old to run wild. A picture postcard, perhaps, of the way things used to be. This was home base for Lesley Blackner as she was growing up, an impressionable young girl who watched deer bound through the woods and manatees cruise the warm river waters. "Lots of wildlife," recalls Blackner, who is now 48 and waging an often bitter, controversial battle to give voters the ability to approve -- or nix -- changes to comprehensive land use plans. Opponents say Amendment 4 to the Florida Constitution, which she co-authored, will create chaos. But to Blackner, a 12-year resident of Palm Beach, it's a way for people to regain control of their state before it "goes down the drain."
To be clear, here's her definition of going down the drain: "Just paving over everything, cramming as much development in as possible with no concern about any kind of balance. You go down to Broward County and there's very little property left to do anything. And that's the goal for the whole state of Florida, I have no doubt in my mind. They want to build over every square inch of private property." It's a viewpoint that accumulated over the years. It had its start in Blackner's childhood, was nurtured in college and law school, and culminated in her career as an environmental attorney.
A very free childhood
To a certain extent, people are products of their time. They do change, but their goals and philosophies are often built on foundations established in youth. They are influenced not only by family and friends, but also by events that define the era.
In the late 1960s and '70s, the country was dealing with hot-button issues such as civil rights, environmental threats and equality for women. They touched everyone, especially someone growing up in the deep South.
Blackner, however, was actually born in Japan. Her father was a Navy pilot and the family moved around a bit before settling in Jacksonville. Their home on 6 acres on the St. Johns River, she says, was considered "out in the sticks.
"I had a very free childhood. In the '70s people didn't really worry about their kids. We ran wild. Now parents seem to micromanage their kids. I could be gone all day and nobody would worry about me.
|  Photo Credit: Lee Hershfield Lesley Blackner, president of Hometown Democracy, holds her dog, Astor. She is pushing for the passage of Amendment 4, and said there needs to be limits to development. 'I have no doubt in my mind. They want to build over every square inch of private property,' she said of developers.
Lesley Blackner
Occupation: Environmental lawyer and president of Hometown Democracy, the organization that has been promoting Amendment 4 on the November 2010 ballot. The amendment to the state constitution would require voter approval for changes to municipal and county comprehensive land-use plans.
Quote to live by: 'Be the change you wish to see in the world.' -- Gandhi
Most admired person: Harry T. Moore, an early civil rights activist and NAACP organizer in Florida. He was killed when his house was bombed in Mims. 'I've read everything about him I could find. It's tragic he didn't live to see the change.'
Favorite books: Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond; Hope Against Hope and Hope Abandoned by Nadezhda Mandelstam.  Photo Credit: Lee Hershfield 'I'm lucky to be in a position to do this,' said Hometown Democracy President Lesley Blackner. 'How many people get to work on something they think is really important?'
| "Jacksonville wasn't as built up and I was outside all the time. I always thought Florida's natural beauty was spectacular. It's a beautiful place."
She was drawn to books more than TV or movies. She plowed through all of the Nancy Drew novels in one year and adds: "I read some of the Hardy Boys books, but I didn't like them. I liked the girls in charge." Blackner was an academic enthusiast and earned her undergraduate degree at Emory University in Atlanta. The next stop was the University of Florida law school. She says she opted for law school because she was a good student, and her mother told her: "You'd better get a profession where you can support yourself. Because don't think some man's going to support you."
A nonpartisan debater
She moved to Palm Beach in 1996 with her husband, Richard Stone, also an attorney. They have two children, one 13 and one 5. Between the family and the Hometown Democracy project -- into which she has poured $1 million of her own money -- Blackner's days are filled up. And she makes regular trips throughout the state trying to drum up support for the amendment. Today, Blackner calls herself a "registered nonpartisan" who is happy to blast either Republicans or Democrats. Her main opponent in this battle is Floridians for Smarter Growth, based in Orlando. She has had several debates with its executive director, Ryan Houck, whom she describes as smart and well-spoken.
Houck says he looks forward to debating Blackner every chance he gets, "because the more people learn about Amendment 4, the more likely it is that they'll oppose it."
He adds: "I do appreciate her willingness to engage in all of these forums around the state."
Blackner says she's been vilified "a little bit" by her opponents. She complains she's been painted as "a radical environmentalist. My response to that is, don't we all have a stake in saving the planet? I mean, where are we supposed to go?"
She adds: "Ryan calls me a rich Palm Beacher, but I don't really consider that an attack. It's true, I mean compared to other people. I'm lucky to be in a position to do this. How many people get to work on something they think is really important?"
Would Houck characterize Blackner as a radical environmentalist?
"I would characterize her policies as radical," he said. "They are so far out of the mainstream that they have alienated groups within the environmental movement."
Florida's civil rights era
The Blackners' home is vintage 1924, Spanish architecture that is a block from the beach. Stone has an office in the house; Blackner has an office in another building behind the house. They are both avid newspaper readers and the kitchen table is piled with reading material.
She's proud of her yard, which is low maintenance.
"We use a lot of native plants," she said, and points out example after example with an easy familiarity.
Upstairs, she talks about the latest book she's reading, an intriguing civil rights story about a guy who claimed to be black so he could marry a black woman.
"I've been very interested in the civil rights era in Florida," she says.
"Martin Luther King said that of all the places he'd been to, St. Augustine was the most lawless. Which is very interesting to me. I was a kid in the '60s, and my mother was from Atlanta. But growing up in Jacksonville we didn't speak about any of this. That's stunning to me, in retrospect.
"The civil rights era shows that society can change rapidly when it wants to — and for the better. It doesn't have to stay stuck in a rut. That the South was able to transition away from segregation is a remarkable tribute to America's ability to transform itself."
Talk of the Town
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Joyce Reingold
Editor and Publisher, Palm Beach Daily News
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