Proposed Outcomes

Focus on the basics again. The once thriving ethnic neighborhoods didn’t need all this micromanagement to thrive. They had parks, roads, public transit, and tenement housing. The one thing we took away was tenement housing — but it can be improved as owner-occupied again. Stop forcing low-income young adults to shack up and have babies, then we won’t need to worry about having daycare on every block, and adding new jail wings.

NO! This will gum up the gears of home building. Under the guise of environmental and neighborhood “rights” the same way California ruined their state. It forces urban sprawl even worse instead of urban renewal, and makes homelessness worse, too

Stop following national and global trendy issues that end up a net loss in many ways locally. It was a huge mistake to commission and then the biomass plant. Voters may end up selling GRU, next. Then these trendy wish lists will go for naught.

Stop the pandering to interest groups who will not benefit from staying or coming to a college town. Unless they’re sober, it makes no sense to welcome outside homeless and refugees here, just to prove we’re not white supremacists or Nazis — in Gainesville?

I went to public schools, too but I didn’t think it was part of city political platforms. Avoid inviting outsiders who don’t speak English, for one they’ll come if they think there’s work but don’t actively join “welcoming” movements — Gainesville’s public schools are struggling enough to teach English to native residents. Plus they’re already competing with 50,000 college students for min. wage jobs without adding underground human trafficking invitations, too.

I personally love the arts and understood it’s not for everybody as I grew up in school. Others preferred sports or skateboarding, church too. Avoid pandering to every NGO that volunteers for political campaigns just because it helps elect and re-elect politicians.

High school grads who don’t go to UF or SFC should be enabled more, they’re our essential workers. Lowering their cost of living can be done. Just focus on low cost homeownership as a reward for graduating high school. 12 years of school success = an excellent credit rating.

I would avoid trying to micromanage personal grievances. There are complicated unforeseen results from trying to be “inclusive” or “progressive”. The abandoned or blighted inner cities resulted from integration, voluntarily leaving ethnically segregated areas for the rest of the city after the civil rights era. That caused once thriving urban areas to decline, minority businesses to close, despair and uprisings that further destroyed hope there. FOCUS on owner-occupied single occupant housing only. The rest will fall into place. This will restore personal credit ratings because it’ll involve mortgages and increase net disposable incomes since rentals won’t be involved.

I see first hand the primary problem is young adults struggling to get their footing after high school. The majority do not go to college and must compete financially with college students for housing and jobs. True, many move away but those who stay often struggle, make parenting mistakes and burn out trying to cope, or end up in jail = more costs to society. The answer: just focus on building SRO (single room occupant) communities for $100/mo mortgages in self-governed, securely designed HOA communities. No gov’t bureaucracy, no more programs, no more section 8 rentals ruining surrounding neighborhood values = a net gain. Once the SRO owners decide to couple and start families, they will have excellent credit and move into other neighborhoods able to buy or afford a rental there. Forget about every other special interest criteria and focus on this.

Restricting leisure services to art & cultural services is unnecessaryily narrow and leaves out a vision for the future of public parks and natural areas. The environment is more than just avoiding pollution - planning green spaces as Gainesville grows is essential to ensuring a happy and healthy community.

Non-polluting transportation such as electric buses are an important part of upgrading our transportation systems and should be made explicit.

The energy efficiency of housing is an important part of affordability and should be made explicit as a goal.

> Let's talk GRU rates, stop raising the price and more about how to lower the rates. Not speaking of insulation, etc. but, rather reducing the actual rates and having the option of choosing let's say, Duke (like UF) or Clay.
> Another cable provider besides Cox.
> Stop the reckless spending, to name a few; Gainesville doesn't need another hotel and parking lot.

I'd like to propose creating a city-wide mental health case management service program for all individuals with severe and pervasive illnesses, especially those who exit incarceration or those who are released from mental health hospitalizations. This will decrease our crime rate, homelessness rate, and drug addiction epidemic, and much more.