To Be Demolished: The Formal Track to demolition

[iloveionia]

And there lies a point of contention.  Kim Scott was ticked with folio weekly gave kudos for "stopping 139 demolitions" the number of homes in the urban core (32206) on the unsafe structures list, at that time.  Tisk, tisk she said, the information was incorrect and she was fuming.  FUMING!!!  I spoke to her on the phone as she refuses to email near most all of the time. 

She and her staff have been exposed.   And this fight will be unforgiving and relentless.  She despises anyone messing with the unsafe structures list and trying to (as she calls it) save the house in the 13th hour.  Tell ya what.  I don't care if it's the millionth hour in her book.  Everything absolutely possible will be done to prevent further demolitions in our neighborhood. 

The neighborhood has been wronged on so many levels from so many different facets.  Back off.  Yup, that's right, back off.       

[Debbie Thompson]

It's never too late to preserve something.  13th hour?  Tough!   No way to go back after it's gone. Too late for regrets then.

[avs]

iloveionia, this won't stop until you get rid of her.  take her out with the Sunshine Law.  You've got a ton of proof.  Take her out.

[Kaiser Soze]

iloveionia, this won't stop until you get rid of her.  take her out with the Sunshine Law.  You've got a ton of proof.  Take her out.

What proof is that?

[iloveionia]

Emails. Written proof with top of the food chain denial.

[Kaiser Soze]

Emails. Written proof with top of the food chain denial.

Ha!  Good luck with that.

[strider]

To be honest, under Mayor Peyton, the sunshine laws were taken very seriously. We never had any trouble getting the information we were entitled to.  Except from Ms Scott.  Who likes to show up to meetings and do her best to intimidate without being even slightly prepared.  At least that has been my personal experience meeting with her and Dr. Gaffney.   I do have to say that she was smart enough to sort of comply, but never really comply with our information requests.  Still, once certain information comes out, and certain legal actions are taken, she will mostly likely find herself in hot water.

Since Mayor Brown, we have had several sunshine information requests involving things like demolitions and the recent attempt at getting mothballing sunsetted pretty much totally ignored.  The city is most definitely not taking these requests seriously and are blatantly in violation of the laws.  I think they are just hoping that no one will have the balls to take this to the state ethics people. (Their wrong.)  I guess Ms Scott might just fit right in with the new administration.

[strider]

Below is an e-mail from Robert Prado to Joel McEachin providing Joel with the list that PSOS had asked for many times and Kimberly Scott refused to provide.  Not only that, but it also states that MCCD had asked and the OGC had agreed that the new rules did not apply to them and that they were demanding that Joel state in writing that he would issue those administratively approved COA's for the demolition of the listed houses.  Is there any doubt that the goal of MCCD is to tear down historic houses regardless of their real condition or the wishes of anyone else? Let alone the real needs of the city and the community for which the department supposedly works for.

From: Prado, Robert
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2011 2:34 PM
To: McEachin, Joel
Cc: Scott, Kimberly; Teal, Jason; Beard, Nelson
Subject: Condemned Structures with HPC approval

Joel the following list are the addresses and MCCD cases of the unsafe structures with commission approval for demolition. Review the list and send me a memo for the files that states an Administrative COA will be issued for the issuance of demolition permits. As per Jason Teal's advisory email.
Thanks

2009-48418      1925 N. Liberty St.
1998-479          253 E. 2nd St.
2002-4475        1112 Ionia St.
2004-5530        2011 N. Market St.
2003-12601      1430 N. Liberty St.
2003-243          1145 N. Market St.
2009-106647     115 E. 3rd St.
2008-185935     321 E. 5th St.
2008-109635     1334 N. Liberty St.
2010-17878       1323 Ionia  St.
1998-5557       1524 N. Market St.
1998-4990       1647 N. Pearl St.
1998-4546       423 Walnut Ct.
2005-409         342 W 10th St.

Robert Prado
A.M.I.O.
Code Enforcement Administrator
Municipal Code Compliance Division
407 North Laura Street Suite 200
Jacksonville, Florida 32202
904-255-7002
rprado@coj.net

[Timkin]

How do we stop this ?

[strider]

I have no idea how or if Joel responded at the time this e-mail was received.  I do know, however, that the COA for the demolition of 1647 Pearl Street has been sitting on his desk unsigned for about a week or so.  Kudos to Joel for this.  He bought us time and now we have Councilman Lumb doing his thing and we have a stay of execution for 1647 Pearl.  A great first step that may not have been possible if Joel had just picked up that pen like Jason Teal of the Office of the General Council apparently told him to in some advisory e-mail.

[peestandingup]

To be honest, under Mayor Peyton, the sunshine laws were taken very seriously. We never had any trouble getting the information we were entitled to.  Except from Ms Scott.  Who likes to show up to meetings and do her best to intimidate without being even slightly prepared.  At least that has been my personal experience meeting with her and Dr. Gaffney.   I do have to say that she was smart enough to sort of comply, but never really comply with our information requests.  Still, once certain information comes out, and certain legal actions are taken, she will mostly likely find herself in hot water.

Since Mayor Brown, we have had several sunshine information requests involving things like demolitions and the recent attempt at getting mothballing sunsetted pretty much totally ignored.  The city is most definitely not taking these requests seriously and are blatantly in violation of the laws.  I think they are just hoping that no one will have the balls to take this to the state ethics people. (Their wrong.)  I guess Ms Scott might just fit right in with the new administration.

So much for Brown's "core initiative" then. With stuff like this & the moratorium on the mobility fee, it seems like business as usual for Jax.

I looked at all of the listed properties on Google Maps. And while I never support tearing down any historic structures (unless they're an absolute lost cause), almost all of them looked really really bad. Far worse than most of the ones that have recently been demoed. I wonder if many of them could even be saved??

[sheclown]

Kudos to Joel for this. 

yup.

To my knowledge, he never released the COA.

[sheclown]

@pee...

of course, most of them do look bad. 

That's what neglect looks like.

But, looks are deceiving.  That is one of the benefits of mothballing, you make the outside look better while protecting the structure.

[sheclown]

Lessons learned from this loss:



To be honest, I never drive by the place where the Patterson Apartments used to be.  I take other paths and it is quite easy for me to ignore that now vacant lot.

Pearl Street would have been another matter.  I could not have avoided looking at the empty space that used to have this house sitting on it.

My heart, like so many hearts, is so grateful tonight.  To Joel for laying down in front of a COA.  For armies of emails, phone calls, conversations.  For CPAC and most definitely for Councilman Lumb, a true and proven friend to Springfield.

But I am also grateful to that little square apartment building, on the formal track, that we lost and that taught us the cost of failure.

[iloveionia]

My heart, like so many hearts, is so grateful tonight.  To Joel for laying down in front of a COA.  For armies of emails, phone calls, conversations.  For CPAC and most definitely for Councilman Lumb, a true and proven friend to Springfield.

But I am also grateful to that little square apartment building, on the formal track, that we lost and that taught us the cost of failure.

I absolutely concur.
While we enjoy a stay of execution, there is more work ahead. 
We can do this.
We got mothballing.
We can put our lost and forgotten homes in the hands of individuals and/or groups who will love them.  All of them.