How many residential structures are in the Springfield Historic District? Where are the boundaries of this Historic District? How many structures are in excellent condition? How many in good condition? How many in poor or worse condition?
JaxNYC79 makes a lot of excellent points:
"Springfield still lacks that dense critical mass of restored gems that would give it the buzz of a happening and rebounding historic district."
"Perhaps I missed the right routes when I visited."
Springfield is block to block and house to house. Saving a house just because it's old will never fly in the 21st Century. Stating that a boarded up house is better than a vacant lot is an opinion. I am a Realtor and I've sold quite a few homes in Springfield. Right now the principal draw is that is way cheaper than Riverside Avondale and San Marco. NOT the amenities. NOT the Restaurants. NOT Shantytown.
In my opinion the future of Springfield is a combination of the new construction like Terra Wise and LowCountry Classics and expert restorations of architecturally interesting homes. There is a lot of poverty still there and slum lords are very difficult to remove. That may never change, as slum lords often leave their properties to children, or sell to other slum lords. There are also drug dealers living there. One of my repeat customers (3 renovated houses so far) sees the activity on a regular basis.
Springfield was apparently neglected for a long period of time, and it will take just as long to get it to that critical mass that JaxNYC79 speaks about.
To answer some of your questions, here's a link to a post on MJ:
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,21083.0.htmlas a summary though:
Just to recap, we have lost in the past 28 to now working on 29 years, at least 360 contributing structures (20%) and at least 170 structures listed as non-contributing (45%) or 25% of the structures within the Historic District of Springfield are gone. The means on the average over one every single month since we have been a historic district. Non-contributing structures, without any protections I might add, are fairing a bit better at only one every other month since we have been a Historic District. If I was a house, I might like my odds a bit better on that non-contributing list. At least in Springfield, the odds of surviving each year is 50% better than being a protect historic house. And yes, there is official supporting documentation to confirm my figures.
You can find the bounds of the Historic District here:
http://www.coj.net/departments/planning-and-development/community-planning-division/default/springfield-historic-district.aspx along with the regulations that must be followed.
Interestingly enough, you must follow those regulations even if you were left out of the Historic District but are within the area covered by the Springfield Zoning Overlay, which is:
Beginning at the west side of North Main Street where it crosses Hogans Creek; thence north and west along Hogans Creek to Broad Street; thence north along the centerline of Broad Street and Boulevard to the abandoned Seaboard Coast Line railroad right-of-way to north of West 12th Street; thence east along the abandoned railroad right-of-way to North Pearl Street; thence south along the centerline of North Pearl Street to West 12th Street; thence east along the centerline of West 12th Street to North Main Street; thence north along the center of North Main Street to the abandoned Seaboard Coast Line railroad right-of-way north of Warren Street; thence east along the railroad right-of-way to Walnut Street; thence south along the centerline of Walnut Street to East 11th Street; thence east along the centerline of East 11th Street to the right-of-way of the St. Johns River Terminal Company railroad located just east of Ionia Street and Clark Street; thence south along said railroad right-of-way to East First Street; thence west along the centerline of East First Street to its intersection with Walnut Street; thence south along the centerline of Walnut Street to Phelps Street; thence west along the centerline of Phelps Street to North Market Street; thence south along the centerline of North Market Street to its crossing over Hogans Creek; thence west and north along Hogans Creek to the point of beginning. It is worth mentioning here that the city has attempted to both totally wipe out Springfield or at least taken down every empty house as fast as possible in the past. It has been through the hard work of folks like those that are standing up for this particular house today that we even have a single house left here to argue about.
What I need to do is see if I can figure out what percentage of the total empty lots have had new construction houses built on them. I suspect as an educated guess the percentage will be in the 10% range, counting the HUD housing the city built years ago. The infill rate is way below the loss rate in any case, when viewed over the life of the Historic District.
As to bad behavior in the community: Drug dealers live pretty much all over Jacksonville and drug activity goes on in even gated high end communities. A fact of life. Perhaps it is more in your face in the urban areas, but that is not only Historic Springfield. As a Realtor, I also would hope you can ask yourself this question and answer yourself honestly. Would those people you have sold more than one house to in Historic Springfield had looked at all if it were not a Historic District? Have you been reading about some of the things going on in Riverside/ Avondale? Seems like the same kinds of issues are there as here in Springfield. You just have a higher entry cost. And yes, perhaps a little less in your face.
Saving a house because it is old is exactly the purpose of a Historic District. If it wasn't, then there would be no district and only the "interesting" houses would be Landmarked.
Someone being considered a "slumlord" is, I guess, in the eyes of the beholder. One that I know gets called that actually deserves it, though his properties are not nice today, they are much better than they were 15 years ago. Another I know never was a "slumlord" though he gets called one. One of his "rooming houses" has granite counter tops. Clean, reasonably well maintained, low cost rentals are needed here but many don't want "those kinds" here so the owners of such establishments get called names and whispered about behind those closed doors. Every real study I have seen in the last ten or so years has included the concept of "If you are good enough to work here, you are good enough to live here" when discussing the revitalization of an urban area.
Yes, we need the new in-fill. But it should not ever be the most important thing going on here and the values per SF that brings the good infill should be arrived at in a natural and slower fashion so that it is sustainable and we don't get the overly inflated false values we got here 7 to 10 years ago. Thankfully, the builders here today either agree with that or have no choice but to be patient and can't do what SRG and others did back then.
Overall, there is no doubt that Historic Springfield was and in many ways, is still being neglected by the city and has a long way to go. Destroying the very assets that make it unique just doesn't seem like a way forward.
