Folio Weekly Article on Lavilla.

[Prometheus]

Very good article on Lavilla. Like to see some discussion on it. Is it better now than what it was??.....OMG I look at the cover and I cant believe people that lived in those kind of conditions called it home.

[rpschutt]

Is it better now than what it was?

There's no one left. The plan worked. They ran everyone out.

[Diane Melendez]

The article was super and Gwynedd did an excellent job. Now it is time to send some folks running for cover!!!!! They can retreat under the rocks they crawled out from under but it will not save them from being exposed for the greedy, heartless creatures they are. I am going to start a new thread this week and give everyone the back up story to several slippery deals in LaVilla. This city and special interests have pretty much obliterated LaVilla. There is a single original citizen left in one of three standing homes and this city is doing it's best to drive her out. The situation is sickening. This is why we are fighting so hard for the restoration of the Historic Brewster Hospital. We need to keep some of our history intact.

We are living in a city that buried the dreams and futures of a multitude of it's citizens under want and greed. A city with leadership and specials interests that care only for themselves, their bank accounts and personal desires and at the same time deny the City's own heritage and legacy. The dirty deeds and money pocketed in LaVilla is downright vulgar. You will see much of it here next week along with loads of documents to back it up. Folio gave an overview of what went on. I just had too much documentation and verification of slippery deals to put in a single article. So we will take it from here with a little help from our friends in the media who care enough to expose the truth. Our deepest thanks to Folio for telling it like it is. You guys rock. And to Channel 4 and Jennifer Waugh, when they tried to stop some projects from tanking and taking our tax dollars with them some 4 years back. Did the city act to rectify the situation? No, they made their excuses and looked the other way. Those days are over folks. We will no longer let them turn away from the wreckage they create.

[spidey]

Does Padrica Mendez still own her home there, Diane? I haven't seen her in so long, that I wasn't sure whether or not she had moved.

[Cali]

One might wonder what Council Jones can do to help. It is after all in his district.

[jbm32206]

Ahhhhh...Mr. Jones.....he's part of the problem and the corruption that resulted in what happened to LaVilla....

Oh, Diane...save me a copy of the Follio....you know I'm out of town...thanks!

[johnmeeks1974]

We could have had something like New Orleans' French Quarter or Tampa's Ybor City if we played our cards right. La Villa would have been a nice enclave of culture and history. Instead, we chose 'progress' in the guise of a bulldozer and reduced that neighborhood to rubble.

[Diane Melendez]

Padrica is still there and is the last original homeowner left. There is a great picture of her in the article.

John, you are thinking along the same lines as myself. There was so much potential in the area that was lost, however there is still an opportunity to return some history and character. That is if we can get the hands of the non thinking and greedy off the area.

Cali, you will see how Warren Jones fits into this situation this week as I walk you all through the underbelly of Jacksonville politicians and their cronies.

[MindingEye]

There was so much potential in the area that was lost, however there is still an opportunity to return some history and character. That is if we can get the hands of the non thinking and greedy off the area.

There has been no follow-through for profiteering so there must have been other reasons for this to happen.

Consider that the reason it was leveled was that there was a power center potentially there. It had to be controlled and stopped. Think patterns in Jacksonville! The pattern in Jacksonville is to keep power totally in the relatively few who control things now.


This is the same issue with the crime in Jacksonville, it needs to have the leaders in the neighborhoods be empowered and fight it from the bottom up with access to jobs, mental healthcare and other assets. This is the Boston plan with David Kennedy that came out of the JCCI study.

It seems anything that is done in the north side that involves the minority population is to limit self-empowerment and keep any crumbs of influence from being shared with anyone. This is true for all for all citizens of Jacksonville, but this example cries out for bottom up fixing not top down repression!

[lindab]

We rode our bikes downtown on Sunday, through LaVilla. It was dead, dead, dead. Outside of the school and a few offices there is nothing to remind anyone that this was once a bustling community adjacent to downtown. If Springfield and Riverside are hopping, why couldn't LaVilla take a few hops forward. City involvement is probably not the answer.

[Diane Melendez]

Just so you know minding eye. There are several situations happening in Jacksonville that I have intimate facts about and probably know more than the folks at the City Hall about. Who said what to whom, who got paid, the whole deal. I tell you not to "toot my horn" by any stretch, but to let the "people" who read here know, that there are some of us who have taken the time, energy, done the research and involved ourselves with authorities to a degree that has made it possible to know what is "truly" going on. There has been more than one occasion where legal authorities or departments in this city have had to contact me for documents, latest information or corrected info. Just imagine how much goes on that no one ever knows about. I also have documents gotten from the city years ago that have magically "disappeared' later from city files!

There "is" follow up going on, that is a fact. So far, we are over five years into dissecting some of these deals. There will be more coming.

[Sylvia]

The article was super and Gwynedd did an excellent job. Now it is time to send some folks running for cover!!!!! They can retreat under the rocks they crawled out from under but it will not save them from being exposed for the greedy, heartless creatures they are. I am going to start a new thread this week and give everyone the back up story to several slippery deals in LaVilla. This city and special interests have pretty much obliterated LaVilla. There is a single original citizen left in one of three standing homes and this city is doing it's best to drive her out. The situation is sickening. This is why we are fighting so hard for the restoration of the Historic Brewster Hospital. We need to keep some of our history intact.

We are living in a city that buried the dreams and futures of a multitude of it's citizens under want and greed. A city with leadership and specials interests that care only for themselves, their bank accounts and personal desires and at the same time deny the City's own heritage and legacy. The dirty deeds and money pocketed in LaVilla is downright vulgar. You will see much of it here next week along with loads of documents to back it up. Folio gave an overview of what went on. I just had too much documentation and verification of slippery deals to put in a single article. So we will take it from here with a little help from our friends in the media who care enough to expose the truth. Our deepest thanks to Folio for telling it like it is. You guys rock. And to Channel 4 and Jennifer Waugh, when they tried to stop some projects from tanking and taking our tax dollars with them some 4 years back. Did the city act to rectify the situation? No, they made their excuses and looked the other way. Those days are over folks. We will no longer let them turn away from the wreckage they create.

Please do post the information. I read the article and thought it was good, but did not go far enough. What would be very interesting to know is: who owned the substandard, violation riddled housing that was condemned and then bought by the city? Many of the people living in those dwellings did not own them. How did the city manage to pay $25 million for such a large expanse of worthless real estate? And to whom did they pay it? The LaVilla debacle is a continuation of the City's entrance into "urban renewal" that started back in the '60's and '70's with the bulldozing of the area not far from LaVilla called "Sugar Hill". (It was the area where many African American professionals lived). The area was first assaulted by the expressway system - most of the homes taken were well away from where I95 was actually built - and then by Methodist Hospital, a private entitity being bolstered by the city. One person sued - and won after many years - but, by then most of the residents had fled to northwest Jacksonville thinking that they would be able to recreate the same kind of neighborhood.

Back to LaVilla, I think the real story there is who actually profited from the leveling of a neighborhood and business district. So, please post additional information. Perhaps the media will delve further. I hope so.

[Diane Melendez]

Sylvia, I will be putting up alot of information and supporting documents. My crazy computer is giving me a pain, running slow and dropping my posts. As soon as I can smooth that out, you will all see several stories come alive with facts right before your eyes. Make sure you take anxiety meds before reading. This should push everyone blood pressure over the top.

[Jimmy]

Sylvia, I will be putting up alot of information and supporting documents. My crazy computer is giving me a pain, running slow and dropping my posts. As soon as I can smooth that out, you will all see several stories come alive with facts right before your eyes. Make sure you take anxiety meds before reading. This should push everyone blood pressure over the top.

We gotta get you a Mac, Diane. :)

And good job with all of this. I've been in Diane's dining room and I've seen with my own eyes the files on these dirty-deeds stacked from floor to ceiling.

[jbm32206]

I've also seen many, many of the documented proof of some very dirty business...and that's one hell of a job you've done in collecting it all through the years, Diane!!

[Charles Hunter]

Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap?

[MarriedBro]

I am sickened by the current Lavilla. I can recall hanging out there when it was, albeit going downhill, bustling and thinking about what great potential it had.

The people that leveled the framework in the name of "Renaissance" ought to be dealt with.

Anyone have any tar and feathers?

[mtraininjax]

The reason, that I see Lavilla going nowhere is that it is cut off from downtown and Riverside. You have the 95/10 interchange that has worked to cut out traffic, then you have the courthouse that will never be built and barren land that makes the moon look pretty. Of course, it could be worse, it could have stayed the way it was, and look like Beaver Street, west of I95, but even that area was saved and is now seeing new growth and paint colors on row homes.

Lavilla is cut off from walk-up traffic. There just are not enough places for people to go or restaurants in the neighborhood. I blame Reggie Fullwood for the mess. He was entrusted to grow that area, and he never did. We wasted money on buildings that are empty and on promises that went no where. The only good thing out of Lavilla is Jacoby Pittman's facility (culinary program) and the school. As for what was built there now, there is no life, and this is the same addage the city has elsewhere. Do you add people first or restaurants first? Obviously, the City needs people in Lavilla, so where is the housing? Its mostly all commercial.

[jbm32206]

Because money talks and that's what these people like Fullwood and Jones (to mention a just a couple) were thinking and making....money...not the people, just of themselves! They had no intention of making it into a livable community, it was strictly their buisness that they were gunning for

[MindingEye]

The reason, that I see Lavilla going nowhere is that it is cut off from downtown and Riverside. Do you add people first or restaurants first? Obviously, the City needs people in Lavilla, so where is the housing? Its mostly all commercial.


What about a play area, Farmers market, Daily Flea Market and other "people helping and entertainment" being encouraged there. If you want to encourage the use and growth encourage this low startup activities by individual and allow the growth to occur by demand not placing and subsidizing a favored few. This favored few attempts have failed why not allow individuals from the surrounding areas and elsewhere to try and establish activities that they can grow themselves