Let’s Go Downtown
Lucky White Girl, a Gainesville blogger, wrote yesterday about the way the homeless are reviled today in a way that hearkens back to an earlier, more hateful age. I agree with her on that count, though I would go her one further and say that it is the poor, in general, who are looked down upon with contempt by a society increasingly obsessed with richness, and becoming rich.
Lucky White Girl’s post mentions a recent newspaper article which quotes a local developer by the name of Linda McGurn, who is no fan of Gainesville’s homeless. The article in question was published in yesterday’s Gainesville Sun, and concerns a proposal to move the weekly Union Street Farmers’ Market from the cramped confines of the Sun Center, to the more open Downtown Community Plaza. I have been to that farmers’ market many times, and it’s fun and full of interesting people and things. Personally, I like the feeling of the Sun Center, with the Hippodrome on one side and Maude’s on the other. But if space is a concern, I can certainly appreciate why the much larger Community Plaza is favored.
The problem, if you can really call it that, is that the Downtown Community Plaza is a favored hangout of Gainesville’s homeless. To be certain, I don’t even know that most of them are technically sans home; but to the casual observer, they fit the description. In any case, the proposed move is viewed by some as an effort to drive the homeless out of downtown.
I don’t really buy that. To be sure, nobody ought to be able to tell the poor people who have traditionally congregated in the Plaza to take a hike. It’s a public place, and, regardless of whether or not you’re Filthy McHaggard, or Rich Richardson from Richmond on your way to the Sovereign Restaurant, the Plaza should be open to all. That said, the Plaza ought to also be open to the farmers’ market.
As for the so-called one-stop homeless center: while it can be argued that the proposed site near Main Street and 39th Avenue seems designed to get the poor out of downtown, I cannot see why the city has any obligation to put a facility in any specific place. It would make more sense, however, from a logistical standpoint to have the facility downtown, where we know it would be more convenient to those who might use it.
Filed under: Current Events, Gainesville, Politics on September 7th, 2007
Good point. I also frequent the downtown farmer’s market and can definitely understand the need for more space. I think whether the change of location is good or bad for the homeless who use the plaza is pretty much a matter of spin. There’s no reason to think the move necessarily has to be mean-spirited. Especially if folks go out of their way to make current plaza users feel comfortable with the new crowd…. and farmer’s market folks tend to be the sort of people who would do that, methinks, so I have hope! :-)
I am, however, irked that they placed the Grace Marketplace way up on 39th Ave. That’s a loooong way to walk in the summer heat. Despite what some self-centered wealthy people might think, placing homeless services in downtown areas has nothing to do with some nefarious plan to personally get under their skin, it’s simple logistics. Many homeless people have mobility issues such as shopping carts, wheelchairs or pets which means they have to walk everywhere. Placing service centers within easy walking distance simply means the difference between people being able to easily access those services and it being just one more hurdle in their already difficult day. Sorry if this sounds judgmental (because it is) but only a cold, heartless human being would vote to further impede those who need what scant help the government offers those in need by placing service centers as far away as possible. Left to them, people like the McGurn’s would probably place the thing in Georgia if they could!
I agree with you; plus, putting the Grace Marketplace way up at 39th and Main seems like a waste of money; few homeless would get much use out of it, and it wouldn’t significantly reduce their numbers downtown.