ST. PAUL AFRICAN-METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH of St. Augustine, Florida (the "CHURCH") breached its promise to rehabilitate the historic ECHO HOUSE building and threatens to tear it down for a parking lot, which would be a profit-making business other than on church times.
PREDICTIONS
1. City of St. Augustine Historic Architectural Review Board and City Commission will apply the law to the facts and deny demolition request.
2. City of St. Augustine may retake the building subject to its right of reverter, since the moment ECHO HOUSE is no longer exclusively used charitable purposes, the City can take it back.
WHY?
1. Building can be saved.
2. No hardship.
3. No principled reason to demolish and destroy history for parking lot.
4. The Church's spreadsheet shows only $27k spent over four years, some of which might have been donated (invoices and cancelled checks not yet provided). Pitiful. Fully $20k of which was for internal demolition. $900 for architectural services from Commissioner Donald Crichlow. Conflict of interest?
5. No effort or money is shown to have been spent for grant writing or fundraising to seek funding to rehabilitate the building and start a school in the church.
6. Terra cotta roofing tiles were sold. Bad judgment.
7. Copper downspouts went where?
8. Long hand-made antique bookcases went to Global Wrap, the business of one of the Church leaders, Judith Seraphin. Where are they now (Global Wrap recently moved out of Lincolnville).
9. Cui bono? Who benefits? The Church described itself as a "business" growing at 8-11%/year. No business is entitled to growth at the expense of historic buildings. It is not entitled to go into the parking business as a result of destroying an historic building it promised to preserve.
10 The Church did not even try to preserve the building. It sat on it for four years. Who advised that? It now threatens to move from Lincolnville if it is not permitted to destroy the building. Who advised that? This is improper argument, along the lines of the late GEORGE MORRIS McCLURE, the late developer lawyer with whom Rev. Rawls was friendly and consulted on some matters.
11. Rev. Rawls brandished disrespect, hostility and animus toward our former elected School Superintendent, nonagenarian African-American leader Otis Mason at the last HARB meeting when he was asked about cooperation on parking.
12. City Manager John Patrick Regan, P.E. has promised to work with Rev. Rawls, Mr. Mason and the Roman Catholic Church to resolve parking problems and save ECHO HOUSE.
13. That should end the matter of the demolition permit.
14. Rev. Rawls, a full-time resident of Gainesville, has not been candid with the people of St. Augustine. This is Our Town and Our History.
15. Rev. Rawls is not promoting healing, but division.
16. Rev. Rawls still demands to destroy an historic building based upon racialized emotion (we're racists if we don't let him destroy an historic building in Our Town).
17. Rev. Rawls played the race card from the bottom of the deck, and tried to convince me to support him.
18. Rev. Rawls insulted historic preservationists at the first HARB meeting before any appeared.
19. Rev. Rawls does some good work for the community, but that does not entitle him to use racism as a sword or a shield to destroy ECHO HOUSE.
20. Rev. Rawls sometimes sounds like a fungible developer.
ECHO HOUSE's demolition permit must be DENIED.
P.S. Attacking civil Gay marriage, Rev. Rawls sounds like a homophobe (watch his YouTube videoZ) and I wonder exactly what "values" he is inflicting on impressionable young minds in his charter school -- does he teach healing or hatred? Does the St. Johns County School Board approve of this message?
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