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