Brooklyn Fire Station to be replaced by a parking lot!

[thelakelander]

Low Fidelity

When the city of Jacksonville wooed Fidelity National Finance to its shores, it presented the company with a riverfront corporate campus with sweeping views of the St. Johns, a package of financial incentives that has so far amounted to a whopping $23 million, and a city willing to do just about anything to please. Fidelity is just one of a cluster of corporate giants that have transformed the strip of Riverside Avenue between the Acosta Bridge and the I-95 overpass.

For those of us outside their corporate embrace, we mostly experience their presence as a cruise through low-slung, sleek, gray glass and important-seeming busyness when driving along that stretch of Riverside Ave. But it’s the more humble antidotes to that nondescript modernism that the eye notes from the car: the shotgun houses lined up in a row a field away in Brooklyn, the buff-brick Fire Station #5 at the curve. And it’s the fate of such remnants that says something about us, about whether we can stitch future with past, whether we understand the value and sacrifice we came from, or whether we honor who came before. The past resonates in architecture, especially in a building like the fire station, which has been in continuous service since 1910. Such layers of use give depth to something as simple as a drive down a road.

The deal that the city cut with Fidelity over Fire Station #5 doesn’t inspire much faith that our leaders understand how to make the city’s past a meaningful part of its present. In order to obtain a small urban park that will probably be used mostly by Fidelity brown-baggers, the city and Fidelity agreed in 2005 that the city had five years to move Fire Station #5 from the Riverside waterfront. If it doesn’t, Fidelity can tear the building down. It wants to build a parking lot there.

(See here.... http://citycirc.coj.net/coj/COJBillList.asp?Bill=2005-0503)

This has mostly gone unnoticed, but Jacksonville blogger Skot Wilson recently launched a campaign to save the fire station on his blog. His campaigning led City Councilmember Glorious Johnson to introduce a bill last week asking the City Council to designate the station a local landmark.

Skot Wilson's blog - http://www.savestationfive.blogspot.com/

The Historic Preservation Commission agrees with Wilson and Johnson that the fire station should be designated as a landmark, and has referred a staff report recommending the designation to the City Council. But even if approved, that designation might not save the building. It would merely put another layer of bureaucracy in the path of demolition. Fidelity would have to seek permission from the commission in order to proceed. But at least the process would be brought back out into the public arena. When the City Council approved the land swap with Fidelity for the firehouse in 2005, it waived the requirement that the deal go before the Historic Preservation Commission and a city code requirement that it be auctioned to the highest bidder.

The station was built in 1910, when fires in Jacksonville were still fought with horse-drawn equipment. It was designed by architect Robert Lee Sevil, who also designed several Riverside homes, and built during the administration of fire chief Thomas W. Haney, who led the force that battled the Great Fire of 1901.

So â€" meaningful city history, or another office building? Tough decision.

http://www.folioweekly.com/folioblog/?p=535

[Lunican]

Maybe one day I will be able to park my car on the foundation of every historic building in the city. That would be nice.

[Ocklawaha]

Hey Fidelity? Why not use a little imagination? Why not allow the executives or employee's of the Week park in the old Fire Truck bays... It is a garage after all... You understand that right? Garage? Parking? Then go in and lease the upper floor to a really cool Fidelity Fire Station Food Loft... Brown baggers welcome.

Are we seeing a pattern Jacksonville? San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose? Just try and knock down a fire station there. Try and smash a Cable Car Barn. Knock down that old bridge. Kick out the walls down on the Wharf. Yeah, just try it. Can't imagine such a thing? That's okay, just move the store to Jacksonville, where we'll be given the keys to knock the City flat.  

Ocklawaha

[brooklyn-ite]

oh, I'm not surprised.... just what Brooklyn needs .  Another Park ... another parking lot ... another retention pond.  Whats the difference ?  They tore down Mt. Moriah and to me that was more historical than the Fire Station.  So don't be surprised when that gets torn down too.

Ron Barton now has the TDC footing the bill for some salaries instead of actually CUTTING his budget.  Don't all city departments just wish they could have someone else pay their employees instead of actually CUTTING something ?

How about we CUT Ron Barton ? He needs to go before we have another LaVilla on our hands.

[Skot David Wilson]

I agree to a degree.... "They tore down Mt. Moriah and to me that was more historical than the Fire Station.  So don't be surprised when that gets torn down too." ....
Yeah, and Ocklawaha was right, try to destroy something like Five anywhere where people actually have an education and a social conscience. Wouldn't happen...
So people like us who are disgusted and fight are basically the last line of defense for what is good, decent and right.
I appreciate those of you who support what I'm doing, and I think we need to network on things, support each other and stand more as one. I stood alone at City Council Tuesday night... and I think if we stood in support of each other instead of alone on our individual causes and concerns we'd have more power to effect change.
http://savestationfive.blogspot.com has an update from last night's events. I think if maybe ten of us each with our own individual project worked together and supported each other that we'd have a better chance at getting things done....

[Skot David Wilson]

Oh, and Barton and the EDC seems to be a waste of money, or moreover, a way to filter money from the rich to the rich at taxpayer expense. I say we remove consolidation and re-create local townships who can have control over their own destiny. It would remove the fat living off fat to a degree and inspire a sense of "community", which Jerksonville really lacks....

[raheem942]

looks out of place whatever buiod a new one and welcome our new corprete friend if we get enough of them we might start looking like a real metrocity

[Skot David Wilson]

Glorious Johnson and I will try the re-write of 988 to just make the station and a buffer historic, letting Fidelity have at the rest of the property...
BUT WITHOUT PEOPLE SPEAKING AND NOT SHOWING UP AND DOING ANYTHING...........

[Johnny]

Now, being a historic property... is there absolutely nothing that can save this building? That's ridiculous.

[Skot David Wilson]

Save it? I don't see anyone else standing up, showing up, or speaking out at any council meetings!
I've supported and spoke on 5 other concerns other than my own.
Where is everyone? Have you sent city council any emails? or maybe just said "Too Bad" while council and administration does whatever they want?
I'll say it again, people......
get off of your duffs and speak up and out...
THAT'S what save the station, stops the expansion at Craig, or does anything else we know is the "right" path, and not for the profit of developers......
We all need to network, support each other, and fight.

[RiversideGator]

I want this building saved too but I am afraid it faces long odds given that the Mayor and Fidelity are for demolition.  Those are powerful odds.

[vicupstate]

I want this building saved too but I am afraid it faces long odds given that the Mayor and Fidelity are for demolition.  Those are powerful odds.

That may be true, but Fidelity could change it's mind if it sees the idea is unpopular.  It also doesn't excuse complacency. 

[Ocklawaha]

Can't you see it folks? Fidelity was going to take down that old Fire Station out in California... When they ran up against the San Francisco-San Jose-Berkley crowd, they packed up the hammers and moved here. We are now ALL dancing around the fire station singing, "We've got a Fortune 500! Yippee!" Anyone got a match?

Ocklawaha

[Skot David Wilson]

I ask again, why was I the only one at the LUZ speaking out?
I say again, if you have matters and think I can help, tell me!
I add (again), that I even spoke up on the runway extension (to serve the rich) supporting those who need their neighborhood protected, who need justice.
If it matters, then DO something except talk.
Ever think that Council and The Board and maybe even Pay-Me-A-Ton Peyton maybe aren't really bad people, just grossly misdirected? Ever think that you can speak loudly and clearly enough to touch their conscience?
These people are money-changers.
They make a living off the backs of those that really produce work more than make it honestly themselves.
They take our tax dollars and direct them to their friends.
And they do so because we let them.
If we stand up, and be counted, we can change things.
We have to make the time to do this if we want to make a some changes.
Your choice.
WHO are you?
WHAT are you?
Define yourself by your actions, not your words.
So if you think you've lost and you never even fought..................