By Barbara Ruth
Stephen Foster Neighborhood
The Stephen Foster neighborhood won a huge victory over the City Planning Department on May 24, 2007. That was when the Development Review Board (DRB) in a unanimous decision voted to deny the City of Gainesville’s petition to expand the City's Fleet Maintenance Facility at the city compound site adjacent to the Stephen Foster neighborhood. Substantial, competent evidence was presented by the neighborhood and its outside resources, demonstrating that the expansion was not compatible with their Residential Single Family (RSF-1) zoning.
It appears that the City has not accepted the findings of fact and conclusions of law by the DRB. The City cannot resubmit its petition for one year, but the powers-that-be have invited the neighborhood to a "public workshop," apparently to further pressure the neighborhood into allowing the expansion. The City staff, in effect, now wants to meet us at a peace treaty signing and ask us, the victors, to fall upon our swords. After all, they have already spent a quarter of a million dollars on plans. A pity they didn’t ask for our opinion before committing these tax dollars.
This is no small nor insignificant drama. It is part of a major issue between citizens and city planners, crucial in the protection of our neighborhoods and in all of our citizens' pursuit of happiness. The current political culture apparently puts the future plans/dreams/schemes of the City before those of the citizens who vote them in and pay their salaries. Time and again, numerous neighborhoods have voiced their opposition when City planners change zoning on properties at the request of private interests, and then help them pass their petitions to build what often are incompatible projects in our neighborhoods. Many neighborhoods in Gainesville have objected to development plans, but the City--its Commission, advisory boards, and planning staff--signed off on the projects just the same. Usually, the deck is stacked against the neighborhood.
Let me point out the uniqueness of the Stephen Foster Neighborhood win. In this case, the City was the developer, the petitioner, the overseer of the DRB, and the writer of the findings of fact and conclusions of law by the DRB. The cards were stacked even more than usual against a neighborhood, and I think they were quite surprised when their petition was unanimously denied by the DRB, which is a voluntary citizen group. We too were surprised that the win was as strong as it was. Over a period of nearly 7 months, the City planning staff had rescheduled the DRB hearing for this petition 4 times. The neighborhood had to regroup and rally its residents repeatedly. And now, even after we have won, our problem will not go away.
The City planners do have difficult problems in keeping the neighborhoods happy and making the city solvent by adding to taxable property. As a result, three distinct troubles have become apparent to me: the Three T's.
The first T is Tyranny. As we celebrate our nation’s independence from tyranny, the citizens of Gainesville face the smaller-scale tyranny of our own City government. It is our experience that the Gainesville City government is frequently oblivious to our pleas for justice and fair treatment. The Commission members respond to their constituents by saying that they can’t please everyone, and that some will have to suffer for the good of the collective citizenry. They also reason of late that they don’t have the resources, with tax revenues being cut, to do things the right way, so that no one will have to suffer. This is ridiculous. The Commission could stop the assault on the neighborhoods. They seem to find the funding for their own pet projects, and they help each other get them approved. They set the agenda and tell the City planning staff to make it happen. Then they turn their backs as the planning staff pushes forward the agenda by abusing their power whenever there is opposition from someone or some group that does not agree with their agenda. I personally have found that the planning staff is slow at providing requests for public records; often they give you other documents and don’t supply reasons why the specific document is not available. They stonewall, they double-talk, they misinterpret codes and ordinances. They propose changes to codes and ordinances when it suits or strengthens their hand. It is very difficult to win a fight with the City, as many people who have tried to do it will tell you.
The second T is Trust. Mayor Hanrahan recently lamented at a Commission meeting that she didn’t understand the lack of trust. I understood that to mean trust in the Commission and the City planning staff to wisely steer the City’s course. She also said, as I understood her, that she didn’t know how to correct that. Trust is earned and lost by us all; and it is shaped individually as we align our thoughts, words, and deeds. It is difficult to regain trust, if it is allowed to slip away. It is nearly impossible to call oneself a politician these days and have a good chance to be considered trustworthy, and that seems to be true locally as well as nationally.
The third T is Truancy. Perhaps the most glaring sign of trouble in Tree City is the fact that its citizens are complacent (like most cities'). If we do not incorporate our responsibilities to preserve our freedoms and protections into our everyday duties, we are surely going to forfeit them. Early in our neighborhood's fight with the City; I realized my lack of vigilance for the greater good. I had my head in the sand, not knowing or caring what was going on in other neighborhoods. I believe it was Hamilton who warned that we would self-destruct because the common man is too easily swayed and cannot intelligently participate in such a system and help keep it viable. In this wonderful city, it is easy to see how the ordinary citizen can be distracted. We have many things to fill our heads with--the circus of the Gator sports programs, the arts and museums, the parks, springs, and beaches close at hand. One thing the majority of us have in common is that we don’t cherish and honor our true gift of democracy. We are lazy truants and deserve such as we give and get. I have been in that absentee mindset for far too long and now have new hope that henceforth I will do a better job as an advocate for and participant in good citizenship. I have the City’s challenge to my rights and my protections to thank for my awakening.
We are as a nation and town aiding in expanding the distance between poor and wealthy. We are polarizing at the extreme edges of political ideals and losing sight of true civil debate and how to change our ideals by exchanging ideas and arriving at thoughtful consensus, tempered by logic and compassion. Certainly, democracy is an evolving system and much has changed. Our rights are always in flux, but whom do we trust to hold them for us? When we who do go to cast our votes on election day are voting for the lesser of two evils, as I often hear, and don’t demand exceptional service of our elected officials, then we will reap what we have sowed (or left for others to sow if we don't show up to vote).
Tyranny will not be overcome by our own Truancy or by electing officials who do not earn our Trust. Time will tell if the problem of the three T's is curable or fatal. Tick tock, tick tock
