Putting Partnership Before Protest

growing up

it was just me and my big brother who

was

always messing with my dogs one day he

pulls the head off my barbie and i’m mad

well he promised to fix it but i was

still mad

i went on and on about the countless

number of toys and things of mine he had

broken over the years i was ranting

about how big brothers are pretty much

demons

who cared nothing for little sisters

because of all the devilish things he

had done in the past

as he frantically looked for a fix to my

dog he reminded me

of his stretch armstrong figure that i

poked the hole in

to make see what made it mushy and

stretchy

i was about to go into full denial when

my granny walked in and asked

how long y’all gonna sit there and argue

about who shot john

of course we’re both confused who is

john

who shot what her answer exactly

she went on to teach me one of the most

valuable lessons

i would ever learn you can continue to

argue about your current situation or

you can work together

to fix your current situation

now i always knew that the who shot john

lesson would be relevant

so i kept it tucked away waiting for a

time to inspire my own children

and it worked well for me then this

lesson will also prove useful while

helping my hometown

gainesville florida home or the fighting

gators

create partnership and dialogue

to promote collaborations to address

problems facing our communities

we’ve played who shot john for

decades when it comes to the university

of florida

and before any type of reconciliation

can be done

understand that truth has to come first

and the truth of the matter is for

decades there’s been a rift

between the university of florida and a

large number of gainesville neighbors

particularly

those of us from historical

african-american communities

in close proximity to the school our

communities have gone through

significant changes

in the past 20 years in the pleasant

street and seminary lane districts

we’ve watched the character change as

what the developers come in and remove

single-family homes replacing with

luxury student developments that’s great

for attracting new businesses but it

displaces the current residents in the

process

and in the past communities like the

porters neighborhood near tumbling creek

were historical african-american

communities whose residents

were mainly professionals and employees

of the university

people who have lived their entire lives

in these communities

can no longer afford the cost of living

here any longer

businesses are being built to

accommodate students without

any consideration for schools and stores

that could still

serve the families that are holding on

to their properties

this is the reason why the world’s view

of the university of florida

and the community’s view of the

university of florida

are polar opposites the u.s news and

world report ranked the university of

florida

as the top six public university now

we think of our sports teams as number

one

win or lose our students

that help build capacity in various

non-profits

local governments that’s what makes us

number one our researchers

that help make our medical programs top

rated

that is what makes us number one those

who are affected the most by the

university of florida’s growth

have a very different overall

perspective of the school

some didn’t even think we deserve number

six and when the ratings came out

who shot john conversations resurfaced

oh we pointed the finger at the

university of florida

for the rapid growth and the lack of

investment to compensate

for tax exempted property owned by the

university of florida

and then the city points the finger at

the state because state certain state

laws

restrict tax in institutions such as the

university of florida

states provide no additional supports to

college towns who experience

issues and developers

point the finger at the community some

are

criticized for cashing in on family

wealth

others are blamed for not having the

resources to maintain

failing housing housing infrastructure

and rising property taxes

community points the finger back at

developers for even building in these

historical black communities

i even point my finger at ineffective

and underfunded programs that are

intended to but do not assist families

in maintaining

generational wealth through home

ownership and we are all justified in

our thinking

the problem is who shot john

finger-pointing has only worked to keep

us stagnant

to keep us divided to keep us

marginalized

and gentrified we can move past

who shot john oh the university can grow

in tandem with the community and not on

top of it

let’s start first by recognizing and

acknowledging publicly

that the university of florida is indeed

growing faster

than original communities can sustain we

have to be clear about what

gentrification

is and what it looks like locally

i remember attending a meeting at

innovation square innovation square

steps away from the university of

florida serves as a hub for

software developers tech companies

engineers and such

and it’s surrounded by luxury student

housing

i was speaking with a colleague and we

were given our input on affordable

housing issues

when gentrification was mentioned a

facilitator of that

meeting expressed how wonderful

he thought it was that he had been in

gainesville for two years and hadn’t

seen

any sign of gentrification my colleague

and i both laughed a little

how ironic that we would be sitting in a

building

that overlook what used to be the

poorest community

a thriving working-class

african-american community

and this does not mean that the

university of florida has no value here

in gainesville oh no

there are huge values to housing the top

six

public university in your city we have

the huge value

of having access to top-notch medical

research

as covet has shown us non-profits have

the huge

value of building capacity with graduate

interns

well all we have going for us it should

be no problem

helping president fox and his

commitments to our community

and reaching the top five one of the

ways that we can do this

is to change the reputation of the

university of florida

as it pertains to how it’s embedded in

the community

unc chapel hill stood out to me

because of the way it’s embedded in the

fiber of chapel hill the college

along with duke university in north

carolina state

has figured out that the best way to

grow is with their community not on top

of them

become embedded in their processes

they’ve learned the value of investing

in the community

through nonprofits such as the marion

cheek jackson center

durham congregations associations and

neighborhoods

helping them to address issues like

housing

economic development and equity

programs like the summer of service

program which teaches

rural carolina communities to grow and

sustain food

or the pink steam program which invests

in stem education for

girls k-8 are the tools for change

which engages faculty and staff

in a transformative understanding

of race racism

and racial equality all of this

changes the culture of the community and

since it’s been done before

we can use unc chapel hill as an example

to visualize our success doing the same

instead of being hung up on what the

state will not allow

it is the university of florida’s due

diligence to our community

to find ways to invest continue building

the partnerships

the community we have to do our part too

we should be the ones to spearhead this

change to ensure

that equity is embedded in all they do

we have to have viable plans and

strategies for our communities

that the university can support

our elected officials city government

they should be the conduit

to facilitate this change

when we work together with our community

to strategically plan

how to address social issues we create

the synergy that leads to unity

involving the university of florida and

these conversations and actions

could help to bolster our ranking and

develop a community driven model

that can be used by other college towns

that experience the same things that we

do

i have the privilege to be in a position

to help facilitate this change long

before the covet 19 pandemic

and the public commitment from the

university of florida i’ve been moving

towards partnership and away from

protests

with the university of florida and i am

not alone

opportunities are being created as we

speak

for collaborations to happen two major

movements

are the partnership for reimagining

gainesville

and the first community community

development corporation

the first is the city of gainesville

partnership with the university of

florida to bring investment

to community driven solutions

carissa raskin the collaborative

specialist for the city of gainesville

and andrew teos the director of

collaborative initiatives for the

university of florida

worked with community advisors such as

myself to remove

barriers to accessing these funds

and first community community

development corporation is a

community-owned development company

we will work to create programs that

address housing

education and economic development with

equity embedded in them

if you want to be empowered if you want

to empower

others those are the perfect

opportunities

and right now now is the perfect time

and if i leave you with anything i want

you to understand this

that the university of florida is not

just in gainesville

the university of florida is one of the

biggest parts of gainesville

the best energy that we could spend

will be to ensure that we have the very

best partnerships

and collaborations built so that we can

turn

the city’s greatest asset and to a

fountain of hope

flowing into every part of our community

let’s make sure that our children are

not here

20 years from now still debating

about who shot john