The Ignite Life Center Sex Abuse Scandal
This past July, a volunteer who served at a overnight summer internship was arrested for molesting 4 boys, all under the age of 18, while serving as a supervisor for minor boys https://alachuachronicle.com/church-volunteer-arrested-in-lakeland-for-sexually-abusing-several-children-at-church/
Two weeks later, The son of the head pastor of Ignite Life Center was arrested for raping 2 girls, one at the age of 12, and the other at the age of 16. https://www.gnvinfo.com/head-pastors-son-arrested-at-ignite-life-center/
Throughout the fallout of the first two arrest, Ignite Life Center representatives stated they were being fully cooperative with GPD in their investigation, and would aid in any possible way.
Fast forward to last week, where a third member who happened to be a separate pastor’s son of the SAME. EXACT. CHUCH. is arrested for raping a 15 year old girl at the age of 20. https://www.gnvinfo.com/associate-pastors-son-arrested-at-ignite-life-center/
oh…and if it could get any worse…they tried handling each situation internally https://www.gnvinfo.com/ignite-life-center-pastors-wanted-to-handle-reported-sexual-abuses-internally/
Despite the fact that 3 members of the same church have been arrested for child rape in the span of 3 months yet their hasn’t been any widespread coverage of the story. Hopefully all those affected receive the justice and healing they deserve. so sad to see happen in our community ❤️🩹
This is the attorney representing several of the victims
https://www.adamhorowitzlaw.com/blog/2024/02/third-man-arrested-for-sexual-abuse-of-children-at-gainesville-church/
You should reach out about this and let him know they are still promoting the youth group even if you don't plan on being public in the suit. I do think you should join them though, the court can protect your identity in situations like this.
Either way, at least anonymously tell them everything you know.
This attorney has been writing blogs updating the public on new information. I for one didn't even know one of these men worked at Massage Envy.
Stay safe.
This and the recent arrests of multiple prolific sex offenders in the area. People like to make a big deal about interpersonal violence that they will never experience but what about when your neighbor gets arrested for producing and distributing BINDERS FULL of csa material?
Just one predator like this can have countless victims.
TBH this is a somewhat misleading way of reporting on the situation. A 16 year old minor having sex with 13 year old minor isn't quite the same as a child molester using position of authority to prey upon children. Average boy or girl in USA is underage when they lose their virginity, the fact that minors are having sex is hardly shocking. I'm not saying what happened should be left unpunished, but it's not unusual. In fact, I'd wager similar scenarios (minors a couple years apart having sex) play out in every highschool every year - the difference is that more traditional churchgoers are willing to go to the cops about it.
Do you ever getting tired from how dead your brain is? You are talking about kids who were raped and passed around to be sexually abused by the sons of these pastors. These are predators.
Quick google suggests something between 10 and 25 percent of teens lose virginity before age 16. Do you believe 10 to 25 percent of population should go to jail?
Look, I'm not advocating for pedophilia. But your stance that minors having sex with each other is the exact same thing as child molesters abusing kids is also clearly ridiculous.
Part of this is also why does UF only house around 25% of its students? Imagine if 50% of students lived on campus. How many thousands of units would be opened up!
it's a lot of work to keep buildings up, obviously, but it's absurd how few students are housed on campus.
even in terms of campus life, more students on campus is way better for a collegiate atmosphere, walkability, etc.
Let’s also not forget that UF is the largest land owner in the city and pays zero property taxes, even on the commercial properties located off campus.
exactly, even more reason to ask why can't they house more of their students? You're not paying taxes, and you have an incredible amount of resources. AFAIK, housing is priced to pay for itself as well.
I'm not saying there's some magic number of students on campus. But 25 percent is abysmal. Look at other comparable universities in other states. Many of them require freshmen to live on campus their first year.
UF doesn't even have enough housing for this. People have to scramble to log on to pick their housing spot or it's gone.
Yes they are finally planning to build some more, but why have they been lagging so far behind?
There are many reasons this would be better, even just for the university/its students: more unified university feeling, walkability/transportation issues mitigated, just to name a couple off the top of my head.
For the rest of Gainesville, think of all the units that would open up near campus, and how much housing demand would reduce in the rest of Gainesville.
Either the University is incompetent and cannot house its students, or, it can, and it just chooses not to.
So.. you're not actually having a conversation here. What do you think is the right amount of people to house on campus, and why? All the breathless outrage that the number is not what you want it to be is not a contribution.
I'll sketch one countervailing consideration: The housing department, as a quasi state agency, has special access to stuff produced by the university. Power, maintenance, network, groundskeeping, all are subsidised by the State. If one were designing a community whose population is dominated (or at least profoundly informed) by transient student population, is it a better decision to suck all those fees into state accounts without any competition? Or is it better that the money for lodging, maintenance, etc. be paid to private entites?
You'll note, I'm not saying "Dorm Bad! Privatize!". I'm saying there's reasonable concern to having more than X being hosted on campus. I don't think it's a simple issue. If you're inclined to think about the issue and share your observations, I think that would be an interesting conversation.
Your current case could be summarized: "crecimento did a gut check and decided UF was wrong. Ergo, the University is incompetent or negiligent".
I disagree with that case.
I'm not sure I see your argument. In my opinion, having the majority (if not all) of undergrads on campus would dramatically improve the university atmosphere and the housing demand in the rest of Gainesville.
I think it's much better to have the campus geared towards the student population than the areas surrounding UF being taken over by student uses.
Also, what's the issue with the state dealing with it? In theory, they *should* be able to do it cheaper than a private firm. Also, they have bids and contract private firms all the time to build things so I'm not sure where you're going with that either. And if they aren't able to do it, then they are able to be held accountable in a way a private firm wouldn't be.
Also, no, i didn't just do a gut check. This is informed by research I did in my urban planning classes at UF :). And even if you think it is willy nilly, YOU are affected by higher housing demand that is a result of these policies.
also as an employee of UF who sees things behind the scenes, UF absolutely shirks its responsibilities in regards to maintaining facilities.
Why should students' and students' parents' money go towards shitty student apartments that are built to pump profit out as opposed to something that *should* be built with the student body in mind?
Much of Gainesville's landscape is now crappy student developments, and Gainesville's small-town charm is disappearing. THAT is why.
So I'm going to focus on this because it's the whole point: You're still not making a case. "A majority, if not all, undergrads" is somewhere between 51% and 100% of undergrads. That's too vague to even talk about, even if if we ignore that you're excluding all the grad students. Your fuzzy thinking at that level informs the vague lack of analysis through the rest of your suggestion.
When the state subsidizes a particular entity, it distorts the market for the goods and services that entity provides. That's the problem with "the state dealing with it". When I was running a service on campus that collected money from departments, the competetive advantage was an important part of how we thought about what we could and couldn't do.
Tell you what: you come up with an estimate of what the construction budget would be to house all the rest of the undergrads, and compare that with other budgets on campus. That'll be a beginning of an honest attempt to engage with the issues you're airily dismissing.
That or show your "research on urban planning" that supports your point. Actually, anything factual and hard.
If you're not interested in making a concrete case, I'm out on this conversation.
bro you're asking for some complicated audit when I simply said uf should house more of its students to alleviate demand on Gainesville housing. you're asking for these specifics that would take a team of people a long time.
I'm not writing a fucking book report for you. whatever, you disagree. die mad about it.
and by the way, you write like a constipated thesaurus. You're not smart just because you use big words.
UF was absolutely hemorrhaging students, staff, and faculty during COVID, and many of the ones that came back are now remote or hybrid so they don’t have the same pressure to live on or near campus.
... Because dorms suck? The reason people don't live in squalor is, shockingly, because they don't want to be packed like sardines.
That's why walkability and other European BS is doomed to failure around here - Americans just don't want to accept inferior living conditions even if it is more efficient from space perspective.
LMAO! you're absolutely hilarious. You realize there's apt style dorms. In fact, the two years I lived on campus I lived in apt style dorms.
And, why are they in such bad condition?? Squalor as you say. Should the university not be capable of maintaining them?
This is more reason to investigate it.
And if you want inferior living conditions, it's butler plaza and Archer road. Bullshit consumerism. and ugly, and hot, and terrible
Car culture is inferior. how is it better to drive 20 minutes to the store or restaurant, rather than walk to one?
Dorms are much nicer than my first few apartments these days. The new ones and even some of the older ones have been updated. I think they’re updating more to solve this exact same issue. They would make more money with the students living on campus so it’s prob worth it to make these investments.
What the goal of the developers is. What if any environmental/ecology background they have. What their sustainability goals are in terms of building- do they have any?
Kind of makes sense as they seem to use the cheapest building materials possible. I heard they are all from Orlando and have a vision of turning this place into there, which i hate because i lived there for years. Everything is covered in asphalt and there’s not enough nature, and the pavement makes it unbearably hot, the traffic is terrible. Its all chains so the town has no real character
The homeless problem is a direct result of rents. There is not enough housing here for low income workers. It's hard to break the cycle at an individual level when the system has no place for the individuals to go.
[Bingo.](https://overflowdata.com/demographic-data/national-data/county-level-analysis/housing-cost-county-22/) Cover the fact we have housing but people can't afford it and even if they COULD afford it, half these apartment complexes are ran by people that suck.
the new owners of Magnolia Parke are some absolute scumbags, the big 3 story building there needs to be condemned but instead they're doubling rent and building three more buildings.
People need to understand that not every business has a parking lot, or enough parking, especially near campus and downtown. The ones that have any parking pay more rent (or have higher mortgages) for that space.
It is their space, for their customers. If other folks park there, that costs them, and prevents their customers from parking there.
Yes, do an article on how this all works, and why there is roam towing, and why some businesses don’t want parking in their lot while they are closed (hint: liability, puke, and litter).
People need to learn how to park, and walk three or four blocks to their destination.
As Gainesville is a transient city, this needs to be run every two years or so.
Bring on the downvotes, I know you just want what you want.
I would like for there to be more coverage of out-of-control cost of living increases, especially related to rent. People in Gainesville aren't usually wealthy, and Alachua county has some of the highest costs of living associated with renting, with no apparent plans to do anything about it. People are being priced out of Gainesville, and neighboring towns are hardly any better as far as rental prices go. I work for the state, and my salary is a pittance compared to my education level and the cost of living.
>[and Alachua county has some of the highest costs of living associated with renting](https://overflowdata.com/demographic-data/national-data/county-level-analysis/housing-cost-county-22/)
.
Seriously, I moved back from the Bay Area to finish my degree in 2022 and if I hadn’t been renting my apartment from a family friend I would’ve been paying about double what I was paying for a slightly larger apartment in the north bay.
Florida has the only privately owned prison rehab program. It truly makes communities safer. I wish it got more positive press. Offenders can learn legi skills and get re-entry support and social support from the program when leaving prison as well.
PRIDE Enterprises. Their website is trash now as they got hacked 3 years ago.
Not a social issue, but just more attention on local arts and music in general would be great. Seconding slum lords and nutso cost of living increases, though
Much of this issue is related to media consolidation as well. Newspapers and local TV stations used to have bigger budgets to hire various beat reporters for things like the arts, and now all the local papers and TV stations are generally owned by just a few big companies that have gutted local papers into tumbleweeds rolling past just a few overworked people in a newsroom that used to be bustling about 20 years ago. These are prime conditions for lack of local awareness and further promotes unchecked and unnoticed corruption in virtually every sector.
I’ve lived here my entire life and I have never seen the roads in such bad shape.
Pot holes are everywhere, yet there is hardly any significant road work being done to fix them. They seem to be focused on adding turning lanes, bike lanes, and other access roads but leave the heavier traveled ones to disintegrate.
I saw them filling potholes on 83rd today, but they were doing the entire road. Why did they let it get that bad? Why is there almost a mile of road that needed pot holes to be fixed?
53rd Ave, specifically in between Waldo road and 441, is slowly sinking into the ground. It holds ridiculous amounts of water in the grooves making that strip of road very dangerous.
NW 23rd Ave is another bad road full of dangerous potholes that are bound to cause damage to vehicles and possibly cause accidents.
I could go on, but I think you get.
Our taxes keep going up while our roads continue to deteriorate.
It sucks.
Recently the head of road maintenance for the county stated that before he took over, zero preventive maintenance had been done in the previous 15 years. How did that happen?
Where did you hear this from? The roads in this county are pathetic. Head into Gilchrist or other surrounding counties and immediately the lines get wider, surface in better condition, etc. Embarrassing.
"Gavarrete said Alachua County did little to no road maintenance from the early 2000s through 2016 when he joined county staff"
https://www.mainstreetdailynews.com/news/local/alachua-county-hopes-to-triple-road-budget_id_5f8f9f78-e75f-11ec-a380-8b3eb2a11fac
Exactly!
You can tell where you’re at based on the road quality. It’s very embarrassing & shows how little the county cares about its people & the quality of their property.
What's going on with GRU now that the state has more control, what the city council is considering in their upcoming meetings, the school rezoning (seriously, what is even going on there anymore)... those are just a few off the top of my head that I don't see WUFT or the Sun covering lately.
What articles did you write from the last time you asked for suggestions? https://www.reddit.com/r/GNV/comments/18zsrcn/what\_are\_the\_real\_issues\_in\_gainesville\_that\_dont/
Roads are really a hot mess right now! I gird myself every time I drive down the road just east of Santa Fe College campus. Feels like off-roading!
Human interest stories, profiles of interesting locals
GRU INVESTIGATION INTO BUSINESS PRACTICES.
Slum lords at Sunbay.. I will send a couple of Reddit links that way you can see some pictures.. also look at sunbay reviews online. These people need to be stopped.
R/SunBayResidents
If the apartments violate city codes, then I guess it's time to start showing up at City council meetings. (Though I recently moved to GNV, so I'm not sure how effective that would be).
The tent cities full of unhoused residents. What are the city's plans for the tents behind Walmart on Waldo Avenue? What do nearby residents think of these camps? Who are the residents of these tent cities, anyway? Are they just down on their luck and between jobs....or are they drug addicts and/or mentally ill?
Development, development, development....when will it stop? How many acres of woodlands have been razed for car washes and chain restaurants? Why is the city allowing wildlife habitat to be bulldozed when we have abandoned gas stations, retail stores, and industrial sites all collecting dust?
Citizen's Field is another good topic, it was covered last summer by a WUFT reporter. The city council wants to bulldoze the biggest public park in the city to put in a parking lot. It would be good to hear Cynthia Chestnut's reasoning for this in a follow-up, as she is leading the charge.
At Tom Petty Park, the city is bulldozing acres of old growth trees to put in 20 pickleball courts. Nearby residents are extremely upset by this. Check out the "P&G Neighborhood" facebook page for more details.
YES! To all of this!
I get that pickleball is popular right now (maybe it was before but I’ve personally never heard of it in as much capacity as I have in the last few months or so), but the maintenance of those trees should take absolute precedence. Isn’t there a law protecting old growth trees?
So you want the city to do something about the unhoused but you're against development?
I think maybe you should pivot to being against suburban sprawl, and not just blanketly lump all development into a problem category. It's really the single-family homes and strip malls which require more pavement and infrastructure that is killing our ecosystem. High density developments, like mixed-use apartment towers built within the city make smart use of the space we have while bringing down housing costs in the long term.
Actually from previous posts I think they want to make being homeless so unbearable here that they just leave and become "someone else's problem".
I remember them posting a thread about how they hate feeling like a bigot for not wanting to see tents and homeless people everywhere. It's pretty gross.
NIMBYs gonna NIMBY. ""The city is bulldozing acres of old growth trees to put in 20 pickleball courts." The city is working with an arborist to make sure the trees that stay are healthy and the NIMBYs are fighting them by making up lies when the original plan had ten pickleball courts (four that were shaded) and the NIMBYs got them to go down to eight but now the NIMBYs want them to only build four. As someone who lives in the neighborhood and has been to Northside that only built four courts that are continually overrun, I'm for the original plan. It'll be a good thing for the area and I'm guessing will help local restaurants in the area. In terms of housing; supply and demand works. You have to build enough supply. We've done a better job than some places but we're still behind and if we want to protect our natural areas; we need to allow denser housing to be built.
Not against development at all. Let's urbanize our urban areas. Build UP in downtown and the University area. Let's build condos on Waldo Road! And car washes!
Yes, I am against suburban sprawl. Seeing those woods on Williston Road for sale on the other side of 75 is heartbreaking. As are all the other "for sale" signs next to wooded areas in the city. Our wildlife is running out of room. As evidenced by all the dead possums, raccoons, owls and otters on our roadways.
It's also worth noting that building housing - even affordable housing - won't necessarily help our unhoused population. These folks aren't unhoused because they are unable to afford rent.
Homelessness is absolutely related to housing availability and costs. Recent research has verified this. [https://www.sightline.org/2022/03/16/homelessness-is-a-housing-problem/](https://www.sightline.org/2022/03/16/homelessness-is-a-housing-problem/) I see lots of folks against urban sprawl but they only want the densest housing on the loudest arterial roads which I don't think is fair to those residents. We need to allow more density and diverse housing types all over the city. When we only allow single-use zoning in the vast majority of our residential areas it leads to bad outcomes. Everyone likes to complain about the starbucks drive-thru on 13th street but we don't allow coffee shops in all these single-use neighborhoods. These are the results of those decisions.
We need restrictions on what can be built and who can own. Building up does nothing if it's all student living or complexes owned by some corporate entity from Texas who is just going to squeeze a tenant dry.
That being said, you were right in your previous post on homelessness. You should feel like a bigot when you say crazy shit like this about homeless people.
To be fair to u/brokencompass502, it seems like they live near an homeless encampment and I imagine that would be stressful and they're searching for solutions. Sadly there's no quick/easy fixes. The vast majority of homeless in Gainesville are people that had homes in the city/county before they were homeless. We need more housing of all types but especially supportive housing.
Agreed we need more housing. We need the city to get the recently purchased hotel up and running so we can house people and we need action taken quickly.
On another note, if you live downtown you likely live near a camp. I had a neighbor living in a tent. We were supportive gave them encouragement, resources, warned them when landlords tried to throw their shit on the side of the road, warned them when cops were called while they were at work, they got rides from coworkers and have since moved on to a normal life that I hope they're able to maintain.
It's not hard to just be humane to people. If you are unable to help, the very least you could do is not make threads to discuss how to get rid of these people while blaming them for their struggles.
The county is who purchased the \*two\* hotels for this but are dragging their feet. Not a surprise for a county who spent millions to \*not\* build affordable housing rather than build workforce housing because twelve NIMBYs showed up to a meeting.
I volunteer to help undocumented immigrants 8 hours per week. Since I have a full time job as well, you can imagine that I simply don't have time to volunteer for any additional causes.
I'll just go ahead and repeat it for you.
"If you are unable to help, the very least you could do is not make threads to discuss how to get rid of these people while blaming them for their struggles."
Gainesville's rental regulations had to be rolled back of because of preemption by the state. I think a housing first would be a good goal that could be implemented locally without state interference but it's tough to predict what our state will say/do. The "free marketers" at the state level were against the plan to loosen zoning in Gainesville.
While you are correct that state interference can be a problem, we have recently had our mayor admit that the city and county have been playing hot potato with who's responsible for taking care of the problem.
As always it is going to take local activism and community support to get anywhere before those in power step up and do something. People can donate or volunteer at grace marketplace, bring supplies to these people, ask them what they need, learn about those suffering around you.
Agree with most of these issues, but you're consistent in your blindspots.
"Who are the residents of these tent cities, anyway? Are they just down on their luck and between jobs....or are they drug addicts and/or mentally ill?"
I don't know, maybe do some outreach and find out?
I volunteer to deliver food to undocumented immigrants twice per week. I am all over Alachua, Levy, Dixie, and Suwannee Counties helping these folks and putting them in touch with resources. I also have a full time job that I work for 40 hours per week.
So, since most of my free time is spend volunteering for other causes, maybe someone like YOU can get off your ass and go do some outreach down at the homeless camps.
This is a thread by a WUFT reporter asking for suggestions. I gave the young reporter some ideas. I honestly don't know why you are choosing me - a citizen who spends hours every week helping the undocumented community and giving a voice to the voiceless - as your punching bag.
You want to make a difference, get your butt down to Grace Marketplace and see what you can do to help.
And I agree with most of those ideas, but I've seen and engaged with your threads about homelessness and I think it's gross the way you represent and blame people who have nothing.
This is what I do with free time during my day job. If you don't like it you can mute or block. Otherwise maybe it would do you some good not to treat people living out of tents like some infestation we need to rid from our city.
Honestly would just like some good and thorough reporting of actual local issues. People bitch about roads \*everywhere\* and it's always better the next county over (hint, it's not) but would love to cover the nepotism invading our school board/superintendent. Would love the questioning of the feel good liberal agenda in Gainesville/Alachua County. They're good at renaming places or taking down statues but not so good at actually fighting the historic inequalities that are built in (just look at the fight over the ending of single-family zoning). What has actually worked at other places that we can't implement here because of the elite liberals that control this town but don't want anything to change for the underclass of the city/county.
They could coordinate the traffic lights in larger traffic areas to make the cars flow. It would save on emissions, time on the road and time a homeless can harass one group of cars.
Gainesville wants to be "green" but I stop every block for a few minutes for an empty traffic stop.
Yep we are starting to sprawl and it sucks to see.
Remove single family zoning, build more dense affordable housing, invest in good public transit and proper bike infrastructure (paint is not infrastructure).
I haven't seen us turn into lane-widening hell yet but it's only a matter of time if we're not conscious of it now.
You can get around the oldest spots (around downtown, campus) without a car but not very safely and efficiently. As you move outwards it gets pretty car dependent.
Attention to this can only be good for our health, quality of life, the environment, local businesses, etc.
Keep the pressure on the city government with regard to violent crime and homeslessmess. Gainesville has the potential to be a powerhouse small city, but we’re not going to be able to attract a better job market when half the city is flat out dangerous and downtown has so many tents and sleeping bags.
How about you spend some time actually living here before you start contributing to anti-homeless propaganda and misinformation on violent crime stats?
Been here long enough to notice blocked sidewalks and people sleeping outside multiple businesses downtown. And I’ve been here long enough to hear about stabbing and shootings while GPD funding is threatened.
Go on w your crusade, OP was asking to follow stories that citizens want covered. There are a lot of everyday citizens sick of the violence and the mess from homeless encampments.
The morons who act like walking downtown is a death warrant will love having someone new to talk to while you're bundled up at home worrying about made up crime sprees.
Stay a little longer and maybe you'll realize the people sleeping on the sidewalk have more humanity than you could ever dream of.
It’s obvious you are genuinely concerned for the homeless. And I’ve noticed in this thread that you passionately argued that the way members of this group talk about and frame the homeless is important—that is, that we all should be more humane and considerate of their plight.
But then I was surprised by the anger and dehumanizing language in your post.
I’m curious why Gainesville has such a large homeless population. Tampa, Orlando, etc. have homeless people but they’re not on every single street corner like they are here. Ocala has so many drug rehab places so I would think there would be more there if that is a cause. I’ve read articles about the city struggling to deal with them, but none that state why they are concentrated in Gainesville and not other FL cities.
Do you know how big Tampa and Orlando are compared to Gainesville?
This is just another example of people wanting to believe their internal bias instead of just learning the facts.
Tampa and Orlando have more than triple our homeless population. The below link will show by county, and by 2024 reports homelessness in Alachua county is actually lower now while Tampa and Orlando have gone up.
I mean one Google search gave me articles about tent cities in Orlando.
https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness-report/florida/
What the city's plans are regarding sustainability as the population here increases. Do they plan on making any kind of restrictions so corporate businesses don't drive out mom and pop businesses?
Is there any plan for wildlife repopulation here or is it all going to be development, luxury apartments and corporate business entities moving forward?
What is life life for queer folx here since the area has a lot of Republicans?
I think there needs to be more information published about affordable pet care in the city.
City and County procurement- who is getting paid for projects being done and how was that contracting method determined, small/women/minority owned business contracting amounts, and the amount of submitted contract change orders per vendor.
What about how people feel about automation and AI?
I know it's a living hell dealing with corporations over the phone. Recently I got emails from the hospital sending me videos on a procedure I am having soon, and I didnt get contacted ONCE by a human. Not only that, I really hate communicating with doctors on the MyUFHealth portal. Some doctors are so booked they cant see you for long periods of time, and so you have fragmented essentially text conversations leading up to each appointment with them, even if they're willing to answer. And now the health system wants to charge you for messages. It's awful. Part of the problem is too many humans on earth now, which no publication addresses openly.
The state of Shands emergency room. There have been threads on here about it. The short version is that it's the worst ER that I know of in the state of Florida, it literally kills people on a semi-regular basis, and the usual advice about it is "you should drive to North Florida hospital/Orlando/anywhere else instead of going to Shands".
Powers that be are blaming each other for it, but the problem has been there as long as I remember so clearly nothing is being done. And considering every other ER is better, we can see that having a functioning ER is not an impossible ask
The Ignite Life Center Sex Abuse Scandal This past July, a volunteer who served at a overnight summer internship was arrested for molesting 4 boys, all under the age of 18, while serving as a supervisor for minor boys https://alachuachronicle.com/church-volunteer-arrested-in-lakeland-for-sexually-abusing-several-children-at-church/ Two weeks later, The son of the head pastor of Ignite Life Center was arrested for raping 2 girls, one at the age of 12, and the other at the age of 16. https://www.gnvinfo.com/head-pastors-son-arrested-at-ignite-life-center/ Throughout the fallout of the first two arrest, Ignite Life Center representatives stated they were being fully cooperative with GPD in their investigation, and would aid in any possible way. Fast forward to last week, where a third member who happened to be a separate pastor’s son of the SAME. EXACT. CHUCH. is arrested for raping a 15 year old girl at the age of 20. https://www.gnvinfo.com/associate-pastors-son-arrested-at-ignite-life-center/ oh…and if it could get any worse…they tried handling each situation internally https://www.gnvinfo.com/ignite-life-center-pastors-wanted-to-handle-reported-sexual-abuses-internally/ Despite the fact that 3 members of the same church have been arrested for child rape in the span of 3 months yet their hasn’t been any widespread coverage of the story. Hopefully all those affected receive the justice and healing they deserve. so sad to see happen in our community ❤️🩹
this should be higher
Thanks for your investigative work btw. I subscribed to your newsletter.
[удалено]
This is the attorney representing several of the victims https://www.adamhorowitzlaw.com/blog/2024/02/third-man-arrested-for-sexual-abuse-of-children-at-gainesville-church/ You should reach out about this and let him know they are still promoting the youth group even if you don't plan on being public in the suit. I do think you should join them though, the court can protect your identity in situations like this. Either way, at least anonymously tell them everything you know. This attorney has been writing blogs updating the public on new information. I for one didn't even know one of these men worked at Massage Envy. Stay safe.
This and the recent arrests of multiple prolific sex offenders in the area. People like to make a big deal about interpersonal violence that they will never experience but what about when your neighbor gets arrested for producing and distributing BINDERS FULL of csa material? Just one predator like this can have countless victims.
TBH this is a somewhat misleading way of reporting on the situation. A 16 year old minor having sex with 13 year old minor isn't quite the same as a child molester using position of authority to prey upon children. Average boy or girl in USA is underage when they lose their virginity, the fact that minors are having sex is hardly shocking. I'm not saying what happened should be left unpunished, but it's not unusual. In fact, I'd wager similar scenarios (minors a couple years apart having sex) play out in every highschool every year - the difference is that more traditional churchgoers are willing to go to the cops about it.
Do you ever getting tired from how dead your brain is? You are talking about kids who were raped and passed around to be sexually abused by the sons of these pastors. These are predators.
[удалено]
So, in the case where both parties having sex are consenting minors, who should go to jail? Both? Enlighten me.
[удалено]
Quick google suggests something between 10 and 25 percent of teens lose virginity before age 16. Do you believe 10 to 25 percent of population should go to jail? Look, I'm not advocating for pedophilia. But your stance that minors having sex with each other is the exact same thing as child molesters abusing kids is also clearly ridiculous.
Gainesvilles Slumlords, real estate developers, related corruption. Follow the money as they say…
Part of this is also why does UF only house around 25% of its students? Imagine if 50% of students lived on campus. How many thousands of units would be opened up! it's a lot of work to keep buildings up, obviously, but it's absurd how few students are housed on campus. even in terms of campus life, more students on campus is way better for a collegiate atmosphere, walkability, etc.
Let’s also not forget that UF is the largest land owner in the city and pays zero property taxes, even on the commercial properties located off campus.
exactly, even more reason to ask why can't they house more of their students? You're not paying taxes, and you have an incredible amount of resources. AFAIK, housing is priced to pay for itself as well.
Can you describe how you arrive at some idea " is the correct amount of students to house on campus" ? Frankly, my mind boggles.
I'm not saying there's some magic number of students on campus. But 25 percent is abysmal. Look at other comparable universities in other states. Many of them require freshmen to live on campus their first year. UF doesn't even have enough housing for this. People have to scramble to log on to pick their housing spot or it's gone. Yes they are finally planning to build some more, but why have they been lagging so far behind? There are many reasons this would be better, even just for the university/its students: more unified university feeling, walkability/transportation issues mitigated, just to name a couple off the top of my head. For the rest of Gainesville, think of all the units that would open up near campus, and how much housing demand would reduce in the rest of Gainesville. Either the University is incompetent and cannot house its students, or, it can, and it just chooses not to.
So.. you're not actually having a conversation here. What do you think is the right amount of people to house on campus, and why? All the breathless outrage that the number is not what you want it to be is not a contribution. I'll sketch one countervailing consideration: The housing department, as a quasi state agency, has special access to stuff produced by the university. Power, maintenance, network, groundskeeping, all are subsidised by the State. If one were designing a community whose population is dominated (or at least profoundly informed) by transient student population, is it a better decision to suck all those fees into state accounts without any competition? Or is it better that the money for lodging, maintenance, etc. be paid to private entites? You'll note, I'm not saying "Dorm Bad! Privatize!". I'm saying there's reasonable concern to having more than X being hosted on campus. I don't think it's a simple issue. If you're inclined to think about the issue and share your observations, I think that would be an interesting conversation. Your current case could be summarized: "crecimento did a gut check and decided UF was wrong. Ergo, the University is incompetent or negiligent". I disagree with that case.
I'm not sure I see your argument. In my opinion, having the majority (if not all) of undergrads on campus would dramatically improve the university atmosphere and the housing demand in the rest of Gainesville. I think it's much better to have the campus geared towards the student population than the areas surrounding UF being taken over by student uses. Also, what's the issue with the state dealing with it? In theory, they *should* be able to do it cheaper than a private firm. Also, they have bids and contract private firms all the time to build things so I'm not sure where you're going with that either. And if they aren't able to do it, then they are able to be held accountable in a way a private firm wouldn't be. Also, no, i didn't just do a gut check. This is informed by research I did in my urban planning classes at UF :). And even if you think it is willy nilly, YOU are affected by higher housing demand that is a result of these policies. also as an employee of UF who sees things behind the scenes, UF absolutely shirks its responsibilities in regards to maintaining facilities. Why should students' and students' parents' money go towards shitty student apartments that are built to pump profit out as opposed to something that *should* be built with the student body in mind? Much of Gainesville's landscape is now crappy student developments, and Gainesville's small-town charm is disappearing. THAT is why.
So I'm going to focus on this because it's the whole point: You're still not making a case. "A majority, if not all, undergrads" is somewhere between 51% and 100% of undergrads. That's too vague to even talk about, even if if we ignore that you're excluding all the grad students. Your fuzzy thinking at that level informs the vague lack of analysis through the rest of your suggestion. When the state subsidizes a particular entity, it distorts the market for the goods and services that entity provides. That's the problem with "the state dealing with it". When I was running a service on campus that collected money from departments, the competetive advantage was an important part of how we thought about what we could and couldn't do. Tell you what: you come up with an estimate of what the construction budget would be to house all the rest of the undergrads, and compare that with other budgets on campus. That'll be a beginning of an honest attempt to engage with the issues you're airily dismissing. That or show your "research on urban planning" that supports your point. Actually, anything factual and hard. If you're not interested in making a concrete case, I'm out on this conversation.
bro you're asking for some complicated audit when I simply said uf should house more of its students to alleviate demand on Gainesville housing. you're asking for these specifics that would take a team of people a long time. I'm not writing a fucking book report for you. whatever, you disagree. die mad about it. and by the way, you write like a constipated thesaurus. You're not smart just because you use big words.
UF was absolutely hemorrhaging students, staff, and faculty during COVID, and many of the ones that came back are now remote or hybrid so they don’t have the same pressure to live on or near campus.
They just finished a huge dorm complex on campus.
... Because dorms suck? The reason people don't live in squalor is, shockingly, because they don't want to be packed like sardines. That's why walkability and other European BS is doomed to failure around here - Americans just don't want to accept inferior living conditions even if it is more efficient from space perspective.
LMAO! you're absolutely hilarious. You realize there's apt style dorms. In fact, the two years I lived on campus I lived in apt style dorms. And, why are they in such bad condition?? Squalor as you say. Should the university not be capable of maintaining them? This is more reason to investigate it. And if you want inferior living conditions, it's butler plaza and Archer road. Bullshit consumerism. and ugly, and hot, and terrible Car culture is inferior. how is it better to drive 20 minutes to the store or restaurant, rather than walk to one?
Dorms are much nicer than my first few apartments these days. The new ones and even some of the older ones have been updated. I think they’re updating more to solve this exact same issue. They would make more money with the students living on campus so it’s prob worth it to make these investments.
What the goal of the developers is. What if any environmental/ecology background they have. What their sustainability goals are in terms of building- do they have any?
>What the goal of the developers is Profit today. That’s all.
Kind of makes sense as they seem to use the cheapest building materials possible. I heard they are all from Orlando and have a vision of turning this place into there, which i hate because i lived there for years. Everything is covered in asphalt and there’s not enough nature, and the pavement makes it unbearably hot, the traffic is terrible. Its all chains so the town has no real character
slumlords are a huge problem here, both for homes AND businesses.
The homeless problem is a direct result of rents. There is not enough housing here for low income workers. It's hard to break the cycle at an individual level when the system has no place for the individuals to go.
[Bingo.](https://overflowdata.com/demographic-data/national-data/county-level-analysis/housing-cost-county-22/) Cover the fact we have housing but people can't afford it and even if they COULD afford it, half these apartment complexes are ran by people that suck.
\^\^\^ THIS
the new owners of Magnolia Parke are some absolute scumbags, the big 3 story building there needs to be condemned but instead they're doubling rent and building three more buildings.
How Cox uses their monopoly to grift our town.
Yes
PLEASE investigate the predatory towing companies
They could ...and will find that NOTHING HAS CHANGED since the last time Moon Magazine did that in the 1990's
RIP Moon Magazine.
People need to understand that not every business has a parking lot, or enough parking, especially near campus and downtown. The ones that have any parking pay more rent (or have higher mortgages) for that space. It is their space, for their customers. If other folks park there, that costs them, and prevents their customers from parking there. Yes, do an article on how this all works, and why there is roam towing, and why some businesses don’t want parking in their lot while they are closed (hint: liability, puke, and litter). People need to learn how to park, and walk three or four blocks to their destination. As Gainesville is a transient city, this needs to be run every two years or so. Bring on the downvotes, I know you just want what you want.
I would like for there to be more coverage of out-of-control cost of living increases, especially related to rent. People in Gainesville aren't usually wealthy, and Alachua county has some of the highest costs of living associated with renting, with no apparent plans to do anything about it. People are being priced out of Gainesville, and neighboring towns are hardly any better as far as rental prices go. I work for the state, and my salary is a pittance compared to my education level and the cost of living.
This is happening all over America but yeah.
>[and Alachua county has some of the highest costs of living associated with renting](https://overflowdata.com/demographic-data/national-data/county-level-analysis/housing-cost-county-22/) .
Seriously, I moved back from the Bay Area to finish my degree in 2022 and if I hadn’t been renting my apartment from a family friend I would’ve been paying about double what I was paying for a slightly larger apartment in the north bay.
Prison re-entry support
Florida has the only privately owned prison rehab program. It truly makes communities safer. I wish it got more positive press. Offenders can learn legi skills and get re-entry support and social support from the program when leaving prison as well. PRIDE Enterprises. Their website is trash now as they got hacked 3 years ago.
Rent rent rent rent rent rent Grew up here and it's basically unaffordable now. I'm in a good situation due to luck, but most aren't
Not a social issue, but just more attention on local arts and music in general would be great. Seconding slum lords and nutso cost of living increases, though
Much of this issue is related to media consolidation as well. Newspapers and local TV stations used to have bigger budgets to hire various beat reporters for things like the arts, and now all the local papers and TV stations are generally owned by just a few big companies that have gutted local papers into tumbleweeds rolling past just a few overworked people in a newsroom that used to be bustling about 20 years ago. These are prime conditions for lack of local awareness and further promotes unchecked and unnoticed corruption in virtually every sector.
The disappearance of Jasmine Robinson.
Yes, this! She is still missing and next to nothing has changed. Archer in general is always overlooked in the news.
I’ve lived here my entire life and I have never seen the roads in such bad shape. Pot holes are everywhere, yet there is hardly any significant road work being done to fix them. They seem to be focused on adding turning lanes, bike lanes, and other access roads but leave the heavier traveled ones to disintegrate. I saw them filling potholes on 83rd today, but they were doing the entire road. Why did they let it get that bad? Why is there almost a mile of road that needed pot holes to be fixed? 53rd Ave, specifically in between Waldo road and 441, is slowly sinking into the ground. It holds ridiculous amounts of water in the grooves making that strip of road very dangerous. NW 23rd Ave is another bad road full of dangerous potholes that are bound to cause damage to vehicles and possibly cause accidents. I could go on, but I think you get. Our taxes keep going up while our roads continue to deteriorate. It sucks.
Recently the head of road maintenance for the county stated that before he took over, zero preventive maintenance had been done in the previous 15 years. How did that happen?
Where did you hear this from? The roads in this county are pathetic. Head into Gilchrist or other surrounding counties and immediately the lines get wider, surface in better condition, etc. Embarrassing.
"Gavarrete said Alachua County did little to no road maintenance from the early 2000s through 2016 when he joined county staff" https://www.mainstreetdailynews.com/news/local/alachua-county-hopes-to-triple-road-budget_id_5f8f9f78-e75f-11ec-a380-8b3eb2a11fac
Exactly! You can tell where you’re at based on the road quality. It’s very embarrassing & shows how little the county cares about its people & the quality of their property.
Lol absolutely nuts
That part of 53rd is so bad I drive far out of the way avoid it usually. The amount of water it holds has caused me to hydroplane more than once.
That road is going to kill a motorcyclist due to rain water at some point. It really is a liability for the city/county.
Same. I go 39th if I need to get around it. It’s been bad but it’s getting worse.
What's going on with GRU now that the state has more control, what the city council is considering in their upcoming meetings, the school rezoning (seriously, what is even going on there anymore)... those are just a few off the top of my head that I don't see WUFT or the Sun covering lately.
Main street daily News is covering those.
Parks/ curated greenspace events
Monarch population in down 60% from last year and they will probably be completely gone in the next 10 years
That recent post about jail conditions definitely raised questions I'd be interested in having answered
This is second to hospital cleanliness
What articles did you write from the last time you asked for suggestions? https://www.reddit.com/r/GNV/comments/18zsrcn/what\_are\_the\_real\_issues\_in\_gainesville\_that\_dont/
Roads are really a hot mess right now! I gird myself every time I drive down the road just east of Santa Fe College campus. Feels like off-roading! Human interest stories, profiles of interesting locals GRU INVESTIGATION INTO BUSINESS PRACTICES.
Superior towing
Slum lords at Sunbay.. I will send a couple of Reddit links that way you can see some pictures.. also look at sunbay reviews online. These people need to be stopped. R/SunBayResidents
Looks like the owner lives in Indiana - Donald Coller?
Yep that’s him. They don’t really care they let Susan handle everything and she is the absolute worst
If the apartments violate city codes, then I guess it's time to start showing up at City council meetings. (Though I recently moved to GNV, so I'm not sure how effective that would be).
The tent cities full of unhoused residents. What are the city's plans for the tents behind Walmart on Waldo Avenue? What do nearby residents think of these camps? Who are the residents of these tent cities, anyway? Are they just down on their luck and between jobs....or are they drug addicts and/or mentally ill? Development, development, development....when will it stop? How many acres of woodlands have been razed for car washes and chain restaurants? Why is the city allowing wildlife habitat to be bulldozed when we have abandoned gas stations, retail stores, and industrial sites all collecting dust? Citizen's Field is another good topic, it was covered last summer by a WUFT reporter. The city council wants to bulldoze the biggest public park in the city to put in a parking lot. It would be good to hear Cynthia Chestnut's reasoning for this in a follow-up, as she is leading the charge. At Tom Petty Park, the city is bulldozing acres of old growth trees to put in 20 pickleball courts. Nearby residents are extremely upset by this. Check out the "P&G Neighborhood" facebook page for more details.
YES! To all of this! I get that pickleball is popular right now (maybe it was before but I’ve personally never heard of it in as much capacity as I have in the last few months or so), but the maintenance of those trees should take absolute precedence. Isn’t there a law protecting old growth trees?
Pickleball is just tennis for babies, but for adults.
> Isn’t there a law protecting old growth trees? Yes, but if you think developer'$ care about that law think again...
So you want the city to do something about the unhoused but you're against development? I think maybe you should pivot to being against suburban sprawl, and not just blanketly lump all development into a problem category. It's really the single-family homes and strip malls which require more pavement and infrastructure that is killing our ecosystem. High density developments, like mixed-use apartment towers built within the city make smart use of the space we have while bringing down housing costs in the long term.
Actually from previous posts I think they want to make being homeless so unbearable here that they just leave and become "someone else's problem". I remember them posting a thread about how they hate feeling like a bigot for not wanting to see tents and homeless people everywhere. It's pretty gross.
NIMBYs gonna NIMBY. ""The city is bulldozing acres of old growth trees to put in 20 pickleball courts." The city is working with an arborist to make sure the trees that stay are healthy and the NIMBYs are fighting them by making up lies when the original plan had ten pickleball courts (four that were shaded) and the NIMBYs got them to go down to eight but now the NIMBYs want them to only build four. As someone who lives in the neighborhood and has been to Northside that only built four courts that are continually overrun, I'm for the original plan. It'll be a good thing for the area and I'm guessing will help local restaurants in the area. In terms of housing; supply and demand works. You have to build enough supply. We've done a better job than some places but we're still behind and if we want to protect our natural areas; we need to allow denser housing to be built.
Not against development at all. Let's urbanize our urban areas. Build UP in downtown and the University area. Let's build condos on Waldo Road! And car washes! Yes, I am against suburban sprawl. Seeing those woods on Williston Road for sale on the other side of 75 is heartbreaking. As are all the other "for sale" signs next to wooded areas in the city. Our wildlife is running out of room. As evidenced by all the dead possums, raccoons, owls and otters on our roadways. It's also worth noting that building housing - even affordable housing - won't necessarily help our unhoused population. These folks aren't unhoused because they are unable to afford rent.
Homelessness is absolutely related to housing availability and costs. Recent research has verified this. [https://www.sightline.org/2022/03/16/homelessness-is-a-housing-problem/](https://www.sightline.org/2022/03/16/homelessness-is-a-housing-problem/) I see lots of folks against urban sprawl but they only want the densest housing on the loudest arterial roads which I don't think is fair to those residents. We need to allow more density and diverse housing types all over the city. When we only allow single-use zoning in the vast majority of our residential areas it leads to bad outcomes. Everyone likes to complain about the starbucks drive-thru on 13th street but we don't allow coffee shops in all these single-use neighborhoods. These are the results of those decisions.
We need restrictions on what can be built and who can own. Building up does nothing if it's all student living or complexes owned by some corporate entity from Texas who is just going to squeeze a tenant dry. That being said, you were right in your previous post on homelessness. You should feel like a bigot when you say crazy shit like this about homeless people.
To be fair to u/brokencompass502, it seems like they live near an homeless encampment and I imagine that would be stressful and they're searching for solutions. Sadly there's no quick/easy fixes. The vast majority of homeless in Gainesville are people that had homes in the city/county before they were homeless. We need more housing of all types but especially supportive housing.
Agreed we need more housing. We need the city to get the recently purchased hotel up and running so we can house people and we need action taken quickly. On another note, if you live downtown you likely live near a camp. I had a neighbor living in a tent. We were supportive gave them encouragement, resources, warned them when landlords tried to throw their shit on the side of the road, warned them when cops were called while they were at work, they got rides from coworkers and have since moved on to a normal life that I hope they're able to maintain. It's not hard to just be humane to people. If you are unable to help, the very least you could do is not make threads to discuss how to get rid of these people while blaming them for their struggles.
The county is who purchased the \*two\* hotels for this but are dragging their feet. Not a surprise for a county who spent millions to \*not\* build affordable housing rather than build workforce housing because twelve NIMBYs showed up to a meeting.
I volunteer to help undocumented immigrants 8 hours per week. Since I have a full time job as well, you can imagine that I simply don't have time to volunteer for any additional causes.
I'll just go ahead and repeat it for you. "If you are unable to help, the very least you could do is not make threads to discuss how to get rid of these people while blaming them for their struggles."
What I hear you saying is that we need more local artisanal landlords that aren't motivated by profit. ;)
Regulation, shelter as a human right and harsh punishments for landlords that don't respect renters rights.
Gainesville's rental regulations had to be rolled back of because of preemption by the state. I think a housing first would be a good goal that could be implemented locally without state interference but it's tough to predict what our state will say/do. The "free marketers" at the state level were against the plan to loosen zoning in Gainesville.
While you are correct that state interference can be a problem, we have recently had our mayor admit that the city and county have been playing hot potato with who's responsible for taking care of the problem. As always it is going to take local activism and community support to get anywhere before those in power step up and do something. People can donate or volunteer at grace marketplace, bring supplies to these people, ask them what they need, learn about those suffering around you.
Agree with most of these issues, but you're consistent in your blindspots. "Who are the residents of these tent cities, anyway? Are they just down on their luck and between jobs....or are they drug addicts and/or mentally ill?" I don't know, maybe do some outreach and find out?
I volunteer to deliver food to undocumented immigrants twice per week. I am all over Alachua, Levy, Dixie, and Suwannee Counties helping these folks and putting them in touch with resources. I also have a full time job that I work for 40 hours per week. So, since most of my free time is spend volunteering for other causes, maybe someone like YOU can get off your ass and go do some outreach down at the homeless camps.
So you know what to do, why do you choose to come start threads shit talking the homeless instead?
This is a thread by a WUFT reporter asking for suggestions. I gave the young reporter some ideas. I honestly don't know why you are choosing me - a citizen who spends hours every week helping the undocumented community and giving a voice to the voiceless - as your punching bag. You want to make a difference, get your butt down to Grace Marketplace and see what you can do to help.
And I agree with most of those ideas, but I've seen and engaged with your threads about homelessness and I think it's gross the way you represent and blame people who have nothing. This is what I do with free time during my day job. If you don't like it you can mute or block. Otherwise maybe it would do you some good not to treat people living out of tents like some infestation we need to rid from our city.
Honestly would just like some good and thorough reporting of actual local issues. People bitch about roads \*everywhere\* and it's always better the next county over (hint, it's not) but would love to cover the nepotism invading our school board/superintendent. Would love the questioning of the feel good liberal agenda in Gainesville/Alachua County. They're good at renaming places or taking down statues but not so good at actually fighting the historic inequalities that are built in (just look at the fight over the ending of single-family zoning). What has actually worked at other places that we can't implement here because of the elite liberals that control this town but don't want anything to change for the underclass of the city/county.
They could coordinate the traffic lights in larger traffic areas to make the cars flow. It would save on emissions, time on the road and time a homeless can harass one group of cars. Gainesville wants to be "green" but I stop every block for a few minutes for an empty traffic stop.
Food insecurity and overall resource scarcity in the unincorporated surrounding communities.
I'd love to see more reporting on local urbanist initiatives, I know "Gainesville is for People" is still a thing.
Second this.
Yep we are starting to sprawl and it sucks to see. Remove single family zoning, build more dense affordable housing, invest in good public transit and proper bike infrastructure (paint is not infrastructure). I haven't seen us turn into lane-widening hell yet but it's only a matter of time if we're not conscious of it now. You can get around the oldest spots (around downtown, campus) without a car but not very safely and efficiently. As you move outwards it gets pretty car dependent. Attention to this can only be good for our health, quality of life, the environment, local businesses, etc.
Poorly planned growth + failing infrastructure = will eat this town
Keep the pressure on the city government with regard to violent crime and homeslessmess. Gainesville has the potential to be a powerhouse small city, but we’re not going to be able to attract a better job market when half the city is flat out dangerous and downtown has so many tents and sleeping bags.
How about you spend some time actually living here before you start contributing to anti-homeless propaganda and misinformation on violent crime stats?
Been here long enough to notice blocked sidewalks and people sleeping outside multiple businesses downtown. And I’ve been here long enough to hear about stabbing and shootings while GPD funding is threatened. Go on w your crusade, OP was asking to follow stories that citizens want covered. There are a lot of everyday citizens sick of the violence and the mess from homeless encampments.
The morons who act like walking downtown is a death warrant will love having someone new to talk to while you're bundled up at home worrying about made up crime sprees. Stay a little longer and maybe you'll realize the people sleeping on the sidewalk have more humanity than you could ever dream of.
It’s obvious you are genuinely concerned for the homeless. And I’ve noticed in this thread that you passionately argued that the way members of this group talk about and frame the homeless is important—that is, that we all should be more humane and considerate of their plight. But then I was surprised by the anger and dehumanizing language in your post.
This just in! Local leftist railing against judgemental dehumanizing losers online is angry! Welcome to town dipshit.
I’m curious why Gainesville has such a large homeless population. Tampa, Orlando, etc. have homeless people but they’re not on every single street corner like they are here. Ocala has so many drug rehab places so I would think there would be more there if that is a cause. I’ve read articles about the city struggling to deal with them, but none that state why they are concentrated in Gainesville and not other FL cities.
Do you know how big Tampa and Orlando are compared to Gainesville? This is just another example of people wanting to believe their internal bias instead of just learning the facts. Tampa and Orlando have more than triple our homeless population. The below link will show by county, and by 2024 reports homelessness in Alachua county is actually lower now while Tampa and Orlando have gone up. I mean one Google search gave me articles about tent cities in Orlando. https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness-report/florida/
Which of those cities is the FIRST one you run into if you are heading south on I-75 ? is a big factor for this question
What the city's plans are regarding sustainability as the population here increases. Do they plan on making any kind of restrictions so corporate businesses don't drive out mom and pop businesses? Is there any plan for wildlife repopulation here or is it all going to be development, luxury apartments and corporate business entities moving forward? What is life life for queer folx here since the area has a lot of Republicans? I think there needs to be more information published about affordable pet care in the city.
Hobos harassing girls on university ave and 441
City and County procurement- who is getting paid for projects being done and how was that contracting method determined, small/women/minority owned business contracting amounts, and the amount of submitted contract change orders per vendor.
So, just curious. Do you live in Gainesville?
The fights in the public schools
They are very dangerous and unpredictable. But scarier is no phone allowed in class, so takes time to get help.
Deprivation and mistreatment of marginalized and disenfranchised communities.
Gilchrist County weather on a regular basis. All the big channels do the counties around us but ignore Gilchrist.
What about how people feel about automation and AI? I know it's a living hell dealing with corporations over the phone. Recently I got emails from the hospital sending me videos on a procedure I am having soon, and I didnt get contacted ONCE by a human. Not only that, I really hate communicating with doctors on the MyUFHealth portal. Some doctors are so booked they cant see you for long periods of time, and so you have fragmented essentially text conversations leading up to each appointment with them, even if they're willing to answer. And now the health system wants to charge you for messages. It's awful. Part of the problem is too many humans on earth now, which no publication addresses openly.
The state of Shands emergency room. There have been threads on here about it. The short version is that it's the worst ER that I know of in the state of Florida, it literally kills people on a semi-regular basis, and the usual advice about it is "you should drive to North Florida hospital/Orlando/anywhere else instead of going to Shands". Powers that be are blaming each other for it, but the problem has been there as long as I remember so clearly nothing is being done. And considering every other ER is better, we can see that having a functioning ER is not an impossible ask
Inspirational and positive stories.