March is far and away the best part of being a Gainesvillian. Beautiful weather, events every weekend, UF in full swing. Enjoy it while it lasts, summer comes quick!

On the City side, Gainesville in March is a bit slower before ramping up in April. We only have one full City Commission meeting, followed by the General Policy Committee on March 13, Spring Break the week after, and then a budget workshop at the end of the month. The items we have on the agendas aren’t as high profile as they’ve been, but we are starting the process on some bigger ticket items from last month.

First, Some Good News

One of Gainesville’s great hidden gems, Duval Nature Park, is getting a refresh with a new walking trail, playground, and a parking lot so you can more easily get to it.

The Florida Theatre has been officially designated an historic building on our local registry. Built in 1928, it has hosted some of America’s greatest artists, including Jimmy Buffett, Rush, Ray Charles, and Waylon Jennings. Today it’s being refurbished by local entrepreneur Bill Bryson, who will use the historic tax credits to open it by a planned date of 2028.

I’m not sure this is good news but it’s kind of cool news. The New York Times highlighted Gainesville over new UF research showing our “sewers” are filled with alligators, snakes, and bats1. “This City’s Sewer System Is Full of Alligators, but It’s Not New York.” They documented 3,789 animals over six months including 1,800 raccoons, 700 bats, and 50 alligators.

There’s some new restaurants that just opened and are set to open in Gainesville. The Burrito Factory opened in the old Ameliano’s building in downtown and serves up good Mexican food. A David Bowie inspired pizza spot is going into the old “Sweet Dreams” on 13th, and the owners of Munecas are opening another pizza place, the “Pizza Pub” on 6th in Pleasant Street.

And while it’s a tragic story, a lot of kudos needs to be given to our police department for successfully deescalating a very scary situation on Saturday. Armed with an AR-15 and two pistols, a woman was in a standoff with police for over five hours outside of Walmart in Butler Plaza. This could have easily ended in tragedy, but police were able to deescalate the situation and no one got hurt. That’s a small miracle that really speaks to the patience and thought our first responders gave, in conjunction with the sheriff’s office and UFPD.

Starting the Budget Season

The end of March begins our official budget season with a “commission retreat” on March 27th. This starts the long road to finalizing a budget by October 1st. The City has just come out of a few hard budget years, cutting 161.5 positions and $11.9 million from the budget since 2023, all in an effort to shore up GRU debt.

We’ve weathered that storm remarkably well, even earning a bond rating upgrade from Fitch last year. But there are more headwinds ahead, and a lot of uncertainty in the coming year. So starting on March 27th we start the already difficult job of setting priorities and creating a balanced budget, but in a time with a lot of uncertainty. Here are some of the things we’re planning around:

Will GRU be under local control? On April 2nd the City and GRU will be in front of Judge Wright to argue whether the people of Gainesville have the right to alter our own city charter and return Gainesville’s utilities to local control. The GRU Authority sued the City last year to stop the vote and keep control, with a hearing on April 2nd. If they lose the lawsuit it will mean the 73% of the voters will be heard and GRU will return to local control. That’s good news, but it will be another large transition for GRU, with new responsibilities for our administration and a complete change in our budgets as we include GRU in them. Our city leadership is more than up to the task, but it’s another uncertainty we need to prepare for.

Will GRU be under Governor control? Alternatively, if the City loses we’ll be back in the endless back-and-forth the city has been in for the past two years. Throughout these two years GRU has cut budgets and canceled agreements at random with little warning. We’ve been forced to pay for various pet projects of the utility throughout the year, projects like paying for their entire legal department and their infrastructure rental fees on county roads2, leaving our staff reeling trying to find cuts mid-year.

So if GRU does remain under Gov. DeDantis’ control it will mean budgeting around the reality that the agreements and funding with GRU can, and likely will, be changed on a whim. Governments can’t operate with that much randomized instability, so we have to find ways to build that into our forecasts.

What impacts will the legislature have? The 2025 Legislative session kicked off yesterday with 1,825 bills filed. These bills include things that could have huge impacts on the City and our ability to fund ourselves. The largest is the changes to property taxes, which Ron DeSantis has come out in favor of abolishing. They’ve also included changes to sovereign immunity, business taxes, and unfunded mandates on cities.

Most of these changes won’t go through, but if some do it will mean more big budget cuts coming during our next fiscal year.

What will the economy do? Gainesville’s saving grace during these hard years has been our strong economy, which has grown year-over-year as more people move here and more businesses set up shop. But the specter of Trump’s tariffs, lowering consumer sentiment, and an inverted yield curve could spell trouble for the city. Just yesterday the stock market plunged and JP Morgan Chase downgraded their market view to “bearish” saying, "Look for US GDP growth expectations to crater and for earnings revisions to be materially lower.”

GDP growth “cratering” is bad news for everyone, including the City. If we’re heading for a recession, that would put an already slimmed city into more difficult circumstances. Nationally, property tax revenues dropped 5 to 6 percent during the 2008 recession, and didn’t recover for nearly five years.

All of these uncertainties are on top of the already heavy lift of setting priorities and creating a balanced budget over a $458.9 million budget impacting 1,461 employees of the city supporting 145,812 residents.

School Zone/Red Light Cameras

For the last six months, the City of Gainesville has been studying speeding and red light running to prepare for school zone cameras and red light cameras. These are just what they sound like: a camera will take a picture of a license plate if you either speed in a school zone or run a redlight and then send you a ticket in the mail.

These are treated a little differently than a standard ticket. It won’t go on your insurance reporting, and it’s treated as a civil infraction like a parking violation.

Research by our traffic division found that red light cameras reduce total crashes by somewhere between 7%-62%, as well as the severity of crashes. The school zone cameras enforce the 20 MPH limit during school zone times, when kids are coming in or leaving the school. The research is pretty definitive that slowing cars at this level makes a huge difference for safety. The difference between a car hitting you at 20 MPH vs 30 MPH quadruples the chance of fatality.

On February 27th the City Commission unanimously approved creating an ordinance to get these installed. The plan is to roll this out incrementally, so at first these cameras will only be in a few areas. The school zone cameras are planned to be in front of Lincoln Middle School (Williston Road) and Talbot Elementary (NW 43rd St.), only during school zone periods and the 30 minutes before and after that.

Red light cameras are planned to start at NW 23rd Ave and 6th Street and NE 39th and Waldo Rd. These aren’t the most red light running intersections, those are Archer Rd. & 34th and University & Main, but it lets us ramp up to those larger intersections in the future.

These ordinances are being drafted by the City Attorney and should be back to us later this year.

Streatery Update

On February 20th the City Commission moved forward with our biggest infrastructure project in downtown in many decades: the SW 1st “Streatery”. The plan is to build a curbless street along SW 1st Avenue that can be used for concerts, events, and just pedestrian lounging.

On February 20th we made some key decisions for the future of this street. The first is the design: we’ll be using brick to match the look and feel of our other bricked downtown streets. This was instead of the concrete road or “hybrid” design.

Second is the name. As I mentioned in the last newsletter, I’ve personally never liked the name “Streatery”, but that’s just a personal preference. We voted to allow the public to vote on the name of SW 1st. Be on the look out for a public poll at some point in the near future to let you decide what this street will be called.

Finally, we’ll be getting back some design plans for benches, pavers, and amenities for the street at a later date. The current plan is just a hardscaping plan, meaning we just approved what the pavement will look like. This leaves the fun stuff like seating, planters, and the overall look to be decided later.

Florida Bicycle Month

March is Florida Bicycle Month and I’ve got two events coming up to celebrate and get people onto a bike in this fantastic March weather.

March 29th: Bike With Your Commissioner

On Saturday, March 29th we’re hosting a new and updated “Bike With Your Commissioner”. Originally started by former Commissioner Lauren Poe, this is an opportunity for residents to bike around with transportation staff, hear about the plans the city has, and give feedback.

This year is going to be a big year for bicycle planning, with the county finalizing their bicycle/pedestrian master plan and the city working on our mobility plan. This “Bike With Your Commissioner” will be a ride to see much of our upcoming “Mobility Plan.” It will be a fairly easy, not strenuous 3-4 mile ride from Depot Park. We haven’t finalized the time, so be on the lookout from the City for that shortly.

March 31st: eBike Test Rides

Two days later I have another bike event to get more folks out on bikes. Ever since I got my first eBike about three years ago it’s been my main form of transportation and I’ve been a pretty zealous enthusiast of them. The Gainesville Sun even wrote an article about it last year.

Well on Monday, March 31st you can come out to the Grove Street Farmers Market and test ride an eBike yourself. I’m partnering up with District 4’s own Electric Bike Garage to let people come by and try out their selection of eBikes. If you’ve never tried an eBike before come on down and give it a spin. They’re a lot of fun, great for the environment, and make bike commuting around the city a breeze. The Farmers Market runs from 4-7 PM.

Local Business of the Month

The Nightjar is Gainesville’s newest, coolest community spot. Created by local musicians/artists, it’s a gallery/studio/venue/community space built into an old 19th century church on 6th Street. It’s the cool, localized, very Gainesville kind of business you love to see going in. It’s right across the street from my favorite museum in town, “The Theatre of Memory” and just south of Curia on the Drag. A very fitting addition to a cool part of town.

They’re still getting up and going, but today they host live music, sewing classes, old time music jams, and gatherings. If you’re a local artist they’re accepting applications for art studio space as well.

It’s a very cool idea that’s a real labor of love from the folks that put it together, so follow them on Instagram to get updates on events they have coming up.

Local Band of the Month

Quil Cauchon is half of the songwriting duo of local folk-punk favorites “The Confession Kids” which I highlighted in my newsletter in July of last year. “Confession Kids” make incredibly charming, catchy political folk songs that are hard not to love.

In the last few months Quil has come out with solo work as “Quil Darling” and it’s completely blown me away. Quil still retains the fun/lightheartedness of Confession Kids, but with a new level of maturity and depth to the music that is tremendous.

Here’s their January single “One of the Boys”, a genuinely fantastic song that’s been stuck in my head for the past week.

“One of the Boys” is a waltz about unrequited love (I think?). Whatever the song is about, it’s incredibly well done, with a tasteful backing track that slowly builds, composed by fellow “Confession Kids” writer John Shermyen. Quil is an amazing songwriter with a unique style that I’m really looking forward to seeing where they go from here.