Blight committee ponders razing sound structures --

[Josh]

The callous, wholsale destruction of housing stock has not worked anywhere else, so why is Jacksonville any different?



What's really perplexing is that the same thing happened in Jax already. Mixontown and La Villa aren't any more revitalized decades later.

Field:  What is this a photo of?

Detroit. It's in the file name.

[sheclown]

Anti-crime activists oppose preservationists in home-demolition debate

By Steve Patterson Fri, Jul 25, 2014 @ 7:41 pm

Activists waited in line at Jacksonville City Hall Friday to argue for and against controversial legislation that would require demolition of most boarded-up houses lacking utilities.

Three hours of debate by residents and City Council members ended without a consensus, and highlighted divisions that could keep the legislation (2014-427) unsettled until it can be rewritten to win more support.

"It's going to take a while, Ms. Lee. It's not going to happen in a month or so," Councilman Warren Jones told Denise Lee, who chairs a council committee on neighborhood blight. Lee had championed the bill as part of a set of steps to curb street-corner loitering and drug-dealing, whose effect Lee described as "human blight."

Lee said it's evident changes are needed in the bill, which applies to buildings boarded up for two years. But she insisted the aim was worthwhile.

"I am not going to fool you. We are going to get the legislation through, because it needs to be done," she told a critic, Key Ehas, who touted steps other communities had taken to revitalize neighborhoods with little use of demolition.

Ehas told the committee that out of 949 properties demolished since 2006, 88 percent of the lots were still vacant and had generally lowered property values.

The criticism echoed warnings that the city's Historic Preservation Commission delivered in an email.

"The proposed ordinance, rather than promoting an economic revitalization, would instead promote the bulldozing of buildings," commission Chair Jennifer Mansfield wrote, adding: "The commission believes that rehabilitation is a better tool than demolition for the revitalization of neighborhoods."

Mansfield said the bill "significantly threatens Jacksonville's historic resources." He noted that City Hall, the 1900s-vintage St. James Building that was a long-closed department store before the city bought it, would have been required to be demolished if the bill had been in effect 25 years ago.

But Lloyd Washington, a longtime neighborhood leader in Grand Park, told the committee he supports the bill as is. He said he shares some concerns about effects on historic buildings, but said people in areas terrorized by drug crime and violence need some relief, even if that means leveling vacant buildings used as drug dens.

A series of people who live or have businesses in neighborhoods targeted recently by the Sheriff's Office Operation Ceasefire anti-crime push made similar arguments, while several people involved with preservation efforts in Springfield and Durkeeville expressed concerns about the bill.

"We are indeed talking about two different communities," said Jones, who added the legislation will be talked through further in a subcommittee he chairs.

Steve Patterson: (904) 359-4263

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2014-07-25/story/anti-crime-activists-oppose-preservationists-home-demolition-debate

[thelakelander]

Was an example offered up to where a community has bulldozed most of its abandoned buildings to reduce crime?  Detroit has been doing this for decades. Jax has as well. Neighborhoods like Durkeeville have already lost over 50% of their population since 1950.  Others like LaVilla and Sugar Hill, don't even exist anymore. The crime rates are still horrible because one is just as exposed to crime in an abandoned overgrown lot as they are in an unmothballed vacant structure. If you want to get rid of crime, you find ways to create economic opportunity for residents. Demolition for the sake of being vacant doesn't do that.  It seems like our government has failed these urban core communities for so long that people are now really reaching for straws to reduce crime........even if the theories proposed have largely already been proven to be failures.

[Kay]

Was an example offered up to where a community has bulldozed most of its abandoned buildings to reduce crime?  Detroit has been doing this for decades. Jax has as well. Neighborhoods like Durkeeville have already lost over 50% of their population since 1950.  Others like LaVilla and Sugar Hill, don't even exist anymore. The crime rates are still horrible because one is just as exposed to crime in an abandoned overgrown lot as they are in an unmothballed vacant structure. If you want to get rid of crime, you find ways to create economic opportunity for residents. Demolition for the sake of being vacant doesn't do that.  It seems like our government has failed these urban core communities for so long that people are now really reaching for straws to reduce crime........even if the theories proposed have largely already been proven to be failures.

Your conclusion is exactly where Lee, Jones and some of the residents are today.  The committee does not appear to be taking a data-driven, researched approach.

[Kay]

And I made the point that demolishing structures has not led to neighborhood revitalization or crime reduction.  Seems the two initiatives are cameras and increased demolition. 

[fieldafm]

The callous, wholsale destruction of housing stock has not worked anywhere else, so why is Jacksonville any different?



What's really perplexing is that the same thing happened in Jax already. Mixontown and La Villa aren't any more revitalized decades later.

Field:  What is this a photo of?

Detroit

What's really sad is that the same thing happened in Councilman Jones' district nearly 15 years ago, and crime is still rampant.  You don't need to go as far as Detroit to see this policy's failure. It's happened in Jacksonville over the last three decades.

Demolishing neighborhoods quite simply does not work. It hasn't led to a reduction in crime, nor has it led to 'revitilazation'. These neighborhoods have actually become less valuable and violent crime has increased as a result of these policies.

This is the very medical condition called 'insanity'. 

[thelakelander]

Insanity it is. Especially, when we have the economic and visual data to see the failure of such strategies all around us. These council districts are a mess and they don't have to be if we could find a way to apply common sense and logic to resolving the true issues.

I know some in the community want to see buildings demolished but what happens after that?  What's the plan to stabilize and enhance economic development opportunity in these long struggling neighborhoods.  It really gets tiring to see Jax leaders spend so much time considering and seriously debating policies that have a high failure rate in this country.

[sheclown]

Losing our history, we lose our connection to this:

http://www.youtube.com/v/YtqjW2uhBT4?hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0"

and this:

http://www.youtube.com/v/FAaGSzHLL8c?hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0



http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,18092.0.html

[sheclown]

and this from Thelakelander:

Unfortunately, the street scene that James Weldon Johnson, Philip Randolph, Zora Neale Hurston, Eartha White, Ma Rainey and others enjoyed a century ago has been erased over the last seven decades. In my quest to utilize Metro Jacksonville to expose local history that may have been considered too dark, ethnically diverse and not architecturally significant enough for many historians of Jacksonville's past to consider researching, I present Davis Street.

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-nov-ghost-of-jacksonville-davis-street#.U9UCjLGQ7wo

http://www.youtube.com/v/jbp6tKyMGVo?hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0

(now there is a marker on an empty lot)

[JaxUnicorn]

New Councas is effective July 1, 2015.  I believe Crescimbeni was asking Kim questions to give her the opportunity to put the facts and truth out there to counter balance what Brown was saying.

Kay, you are wrong about Cresembeni. If that's what he was doing he would not have asked me how many properties I owned. And when I asked him why he was asking he would not have said "this is how this works - I ask the questions, you answer."  I believe he along with Brown were trying to discredit me, what I was saying, as well as my organization (PSOS). The way Brown and Cresembeni treated me yesterday was unprofessional, unethical, and inappropriate.

Kim,  I've know John for quite a while.  How can you be sure you aren't wrong?  You and I are going to disagree on his intent obviously.  I to agree that Brown was way out of line.

Kay, neither of us can be sure of Cresembeni's intent and I'm ok with you and I agreeing to disagree. What I AM sure of is the way I felt during the attack and that what was done was way out of line. I have requested a copy of what Brown had in front of him. From what I saw of it, it was a short list...perhaps something printed from a search on the Property Appraiser's website.

[LadyGlori]

It's been a long time since I was a member of MetroJacksonville. But, I have returned and I am so grateful to read the concerns regarding this Blight Committee. So many good structured homes have already been demolished. This does not make any sense.  In name only, we are called a part of the Urban Core, but, in reality, we are NOT!!! Even when our representative attends these Urban Core meetings, we have NO say so in anything or included in the Agenda. What's up with that?

My community has become the dumping ground for crimes, unacceptable unemployment of our young and our adults, drugs, predators, pedeophiles, prostitutes walking the streets day and night, slum landlords and negligent homeowners who rent to people who do not care about our community. The people in my community and the surrounding areas have expressed their lack of hope because they believe no one cares about them and the conditions of the community. I care and want the once prosperous and safe community to return to that economic and prosperous vision our parents worked so hard to accomplish.

But, our elected officials do not have a vision or insight as to what we can do to make the quality of life better for everyone, not just themselves. It's not about them. It's about US! Only a few people are not afraid to speak out, but, they are eventually blackballed or excluded out of meetings to express what they are experiencing each and every day of their life.

The gutless people keep saying, "...don't make them mad" Who the heck do they think they are? We should not be living in a community that looks like it's applying for a "Third World Application Approval."  I am sick and tired of being sick and tired of the money grabbing, control seeking, and power pumping people who come in this community, make money and leave. Please forgive my ranting. What anyone thinks of me is none of my business. I am fighting for a community I was raised in, that has literally been destroyed by these so-called leaders. Lord, help US!

[LadyGlori]

Stephendare, it's been a long time since we have seen or talked with one another. I see that you, Bob, and Ennis are doing great. I am so proud of all of you. Thank you for keeping me informed on the real issues in Jacksonville. I appreciate all of you. In order for me to stop the bleeding in my community, I must return to City Hall and make some changes. Check out "The GloriVan." I am riding throughout District 9, talking to the people and the business owners, to find out what they have to say about District 9 and what they want me to do to make the quality of life better.
www.voteglorious.com

[sheclown]

The blight committee minutes are now online for Friday's meeting.  I invite you to listen by going here:

http://www.coj.net/city-council/standing-committees/jacksonville-s-neighborhood-blight-ad-hoc-committe.aspx

The discussion on demolitions begin at 44:45

Kay's presentation begins at 1:03

Celia Miller of MANIA (Myrtle Ave Assoc) begins her comments 2:03:18 -- Celia Miller accused Lee of "cussing her on the street".  And a heated argument and lack of respect for her comments.

Kim Pryor begins her comments at 2:11:43.  Reggie Brown attacks Kim 2:15:21  Crescimbeni jumps in at 2:17:44 and brings Preservation SOS into the mix.  (and btw we ARE a 501 (C) 3).

Kim did AMAZINGLY well considering she was attacked for the "crime" of speaking her mind.  Grace under fire.

[sheclown]

[strider]

Crescimbeni - Jones - Lee?