Good bunch of pictures on the empty buildings downtown

[mtraininjax]

From the WOKV website:

http://www.wokv.com/gallery/news/local/vacant-buildings-tour/grXd/#1661343

Nice section and discussions on the vacant buildings in downtown Jacksonville.

[buckethead]

Millions of dollars in wasted value just within the courthouse. We are insane.

[mtraininjax]

From the WOKV website, good article on a way to help us pay down our pension costs, not as crazy as selling JEA, yet:

http://www.wokv.com/news/news/wokv-investigates/nP8f2/

Police and Fire Pension Fund Administrator and Executive Director John Keane says over the past five years, the city has transferred vacant or little-used buildings and land to their control in exchange for credit against the actuarial liability the city owes the fund. In other words, rather than paying the city for the buildings it would credit down some of the city’s pension payout.

Keane says this has been a mutually beneficial relationship in the past. When the fund took on the Laura Trio on Laura Street and Forsyth Street, Keane says the properties sold for a large profit, which also helped pay down the pension as well. He says the now Jake Gobold City Hall Annex is another example of their ability to revitalize a building.

Since those projects, however, the transfers have stopped.

When I asked Keane if he had spoken with this current administration about continuing this plan which had worked under the prior mayor, he told me he has spoken with a number of city officials and is waiting them to act. Mayor Alvin Brown was not available for an interview, but I have a request through his office for how much he knows about this idea.

Keane says the fund is prepared to take on real action.

“We’d be willing to take on a number of properties in the Downtown area, as well as portions of the land at the west end of the former Cecil Field Naval Complex,” he says.