danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

If all politics is local, it doesn’t get much more local than the ongoing controversy surrounding the city’s plan to expand their vehicle maintenance facility located on 39th Avenue, just east of 6th Street. Back in May I was encouraged to attend a meeting of the city commission in which they would hear presentations from the various departments involved in the proposed expansion. The public was also invited to make statements, and it was clear that most of the Stephen Foster residents in attendance were vehemently opposed to the expansion.

As I listened to the city’s presentation, looked at the plans and saw the photographs of the existing facility, and the renderings of what the expanded facility would look like, and how it would effect the surroundings, I couldn’t quite understand what the fuss was all about. What was clear from the proposal was that:

• The footprint of the facility would be no larger than before
• There would be a considerable amount of planting of trees
• The noise levels would be no louder than before
• The traffic would not be an issue on any of the neighborhood streets

Answering the door moments ago I was asked by a middle-aged woman to sign a petition to oppose the expansion in a second round of hearings. I politely explained to the woman that I had been to the initial hearing, had seen the city’s presentation, listened to the engineers and architects and the city’s arborist, and I couldn’t see a legitimate reason to oppose the expansion of the vehicle maintenance facility. Moreover, I said, the city needs a place to service its vehicles, and that facility has already been there for a long time. It isn’t like people bought their houses there not knowing what they were getting into. Furthermore, the expansion plans, in my opinion, seemed more like an improvement than anything else.

“Do you own this house?” asked the woman. I told her I did. “Do you know that when they do appraisals that they look at the values of the surrounding neighborhood?” I told her I wasn’t worried about that happening. First of all, I doubt that the city’s plans would hurt anyone’s property values, and, second, it isn’t close enough to me anyway.

But that isn’t my real point. You see, there are a lot worse things to live near than a city-owned property where pick-up trucks get serviced, and the public never goes. I used to live across the street from a place that installed booming bass car stereos. Other people look out at stores or parking lots or freeways. If people really wanted to make a difference, and increase the property values in the Stephen Foster Neighborhood, they’d do something about the abandoned houses, and the overgrown lots with rusty shopping carts, and not gripe about what, to an unbiased eye, would appear to be an improvement of city property.  I could see if these people lived next to a lovely park, and then, suddenly, the city proposed a new service garage.  But that isn’t what’s happening here.

So, when I told the lady I supported her grassroots activism, but opposed her cause, she became pretty testy, and was suddenly in a hurry to go “convince other people”, as she said. I have a pretty good feeling that the lady that was at my door was the same one who wrote this letter to the Independent Florida Alligator. Sorry I upset you, but I think your passion is misplaced.

Filed under: Gainesville, House, Politics on August 27th, 2007