Readers comment on Gainesville architecture, gentrification and more
Big, ugly buildings
Why does high density have to come with a loss of design appropriate for its area, areas steeped in history that we were proud of? Good architecture over a period of time creates a sense of place that can be destroyed by new ugly buildings.
The Duck Pond neighborhood is an example where new construction is required to match the sense of place, and there are a few other historic districts. Too bad University Avenue and downtown were not protected with architectural standards.
The new building by Santa Fe College on University Avenue is an example of good architecture that fits in; many other new buildings nearby do not. The crown jewel of downtown is/was a 1910 post office called the Hippodrome. It and other nearby structures that used to provide a sense of place are being hugely obscured.
Why are we allowing density to be ugly?
Gary Anglin and Robert Rush, Gainesville
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Onslaught of gentrification
When I hear the mayoral candidate David Areola, District 4 City Commission candidate Brian Eastman and even backpedaling, level-headed Harvey Ward talk of the need to basically ravage our wonderfully diverse, tree-and-wildlife-filled town by opening up our gorgeous single-family neighborhoods to exploitive builders and development entities — I’m appalled and with how big cityish it’s gotten here, so quickly.
Because people aren’t catching on fast enough, it seems to stop them from ruining this wonderful pocket of caring and empathy for our local area’s natural beauty that bestows so many blessings onto each of us daily.
Stay woke, Gainesville. Don’t cave during this onslaught of gentrification or you can kiss it all goodbye in the name of so-called progress and claims this push to grab these properties has anything at all to do with helping the working poor find shelter. That would mean admitting we have not only become numb to the rapid rise of concrete around us, but that in this mecca of learning and cultural richness, we are actually foolishly naïve enough to think our leaders would ever sell us all out for ambition.
Hugh E. Suggs, Gainesville
Response to criticisms
I loved Susan Bottcher’s July 17 letter. I’m thrilled that I live rent free in the head of a former city commissioner that hid the overcharging of Gainesville Regional Utilities customers before the biomass plant went online in order to hide the true cost of that debacle.
The fact is, as the citizens of Gainesville screamed about the Koppers Superfund site and got hammered by the most inept public utility policy in the history of the city of Gainesville, Bottcher’s repeated responses were the modern-day equivalent of “let them eat cake.”
Being criticized by probably the worst city commissioner that Gainesville has ever had is not really the worst thing for me.
Stafford Jones, Gainesville
Jumping to conclusions
What an outrageously unfair headline and lead story bannered across your front page on July 18: “K-9 attack costs man eye.”
The police were doing their job of protecting the community from the likes of him. Allowing criticism of our police before the facts are even known is irresponsible.
Furthermore, The Sun’s disgraceful illustration of this story with two photos of this man’s injuries — one a quarter page photo of his hand! — would be hilarious if it were not so unfair.
And the comments from Police Chief Lonnie Scott promising a transparent and “accurate accounting of this incident” should have been on the front page, not buried at the very end of the story on page 5-A.
Shame on The Sun. Shame on the man. And shame on a community that jumps to conclusions.
Dorothy Smiljanich, Gainesville
Police overreaction
Terrell Bradley sadly joins a historically racist list of Black folks treated as if they were runaway slaves. Stopped for a supposed traffic violation — though it would be no surprise if it was another driving-while-Black harassment — he gets scared and takes off.
The police, knowing who he is from his ID, have no need to call in the dogs at this point. Treating a non-threatening, non-aggressive man like they did could only lead to unfair, hurtful possibilities.
Gainesville’s reputation has once again been sullied by police overreaction, when in contact with a young Black male. It’s not so long ago that we witnessed the killing of teen Robert Dentmond and the shooting of Kofi Adu-Brempong. As Malcolm X sagely observed, pulling the plunged knife halfway out of the back is not progress.
Bob Tomashevsky, Archer
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This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Letters on Gainesville architecture, gentrification and more
