Readers comment on a Gainesville For All project, a columnist's piece on housing and more
Vital need
I am so excited to share with our community the great project that James Lawrence and the Gainesville For All group is developing to address early learning and family needs in the underserved areas of our Gainesville community. This concept of early learning is universally accepted to be vital to the development of successful lives and productive citizens.
A family learning center is planned to open this fall in the Gainesville Empowerment Zone (GEZ) with the able help and support of the Alachua County School Board and the Children’s Trust of Alachua County. The individuals in these professional groups have the research, knowledge and experience to really believe in, support and encourage early learning and care.
I encourage all my fellow residents of this great community to become informed about the plan and support it. Check out the GNV4ALL website and help promote the success of this great experience for families, babies and toddlers until kindergarten-ready.
This is the best plan to work toward a happy, successful future for our community and country! Let's all work to make it a success.
Shirley Bloodworth, Gainesville
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Progressive policy
The Sun needs to fact-check their guest opinion columns. Reading Kim Tanzer's columns is like entering another universe where up is down and low is high.
The majority of her columns are breathtakingly inaccurate. She recently wrote an entire column attacking "inclusionary zoning" as libertarian without understanding that it is a mandate on developers to set aside affordable units. It is a progressive policy championed by Bernie Sanders. This is just one example of the many inaccuracies she was written.
I worry some readers give her credibility because she's an architect, but architecture has nothing to do with urban planning or housing economics. Kim Tanzer is another retired NIMBY who doesn't want affordable housing near her wealthy neighborhood and is either shockingly uninformed or intentionally misleading about housing policy.
The Sun needs to fact-check guest writers or needs to limit columns to actual experts who write accurate information.
Andrew Mitchell, Gainesville
Rare honor
Last spring, the Legislature unanimously passed the Florida Wildlife Corridor Act, covering nearly 8 million acres of our state, not only securing access to the reclusive Florida panther and other wildlife, but also protecting the headwaters of major watersheds, including the Everglades. The law helps sustain working ranches and forests in Florida’s heartland, and protects critical coastal estuaries.
The act grew out of a lobbying campaign by renowned conservation photographer and filmmaker Carlton Ward Jr., and led to him becoming only the sixth Floridian ever to be awarded honorary membership in the Garden Club of America, composed of 18,000 members nationwide.
My garden club nominated Ward for this rare honor, with the notable support of the National Geographic Society, the Nature Conservancy of Florida, the International League of Conservation Photographers and White Oak Conservation.
Carlton Ward is Florida’s 21st century Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, the great champion of the Everglades. What Douglas achieved with her pen, Ward has achieved with his camera. We who care about saving Florida’s heartland for people and wildlife alike — for centuries to come — owe him a debt of gratitude and continuing support before the Legislature this session.
Susan Smathers, president, Late Bloomers Garden Club
Next GNV4ALL meeting
Cynthia Curry, interim city manager of Gainesville, will be the featured speaker at the GainesvilIe for All general body meeting on Jan. 24 at 6 p.m. During the virtual meeting, Curry will discuss city priorities for the year ahead. To join, visit https://ufl.zoom.us/j/92291670002
Join the conversation
Send a letter to the editor (up to 200 words) to letters@gainesville.com. Letters must include the writer's full name and city of residence. Additional guidelines for submitting letters and longer guest columns can be found at bit.ly/sunopinionguidelines.
Journalism matters. Your support matters.
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This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Letters to the editor for Jan. 23, 2022
