City of Gainesville to host workshop on Eighth & Waldo Revitalization Project on Feb. 18
February 17, 2025
Press release from City of Gainesville
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The City of Gainesville invites all neighbors to a community workshop to share their thoughts about redeveloping the City’s sports and recreation facilities at the corner of NE 8th Avenue and Waldo Road.
When: 5:30-7 p.m. on Tues., Feb. 18
Where: MLK Multipurpose Center, 1028 NE 14th Street
The 34 acres at this municipal site include the Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) Multipurpose Center, Citizens Field, and the Citizens Multipurpose Fields.
Staff will present the goals of the revitalization project and gather feedback from the community to help shape the vision for the northeast park complex and Citizens Field.
Sounds like a great idea to revitalize. They should move the Medieval Faire there while they’re at it. Much more open space for events. If there going to spend money on it the need to use the area.
It’s well used. The city’s neglected it to the point that sections of the stadium are roped off as unsafe, and the MLK Center roof leaks, and repairs are being further delayed because Cynthia wants a convention center across the street from their new funeral home. Disgraceful.
Karen, what is the status of the military property next to the park and MLK? Will the city be getting it once the new depot is finished by the airport?
Where is the money for this coming from?
They’re stealing it from the poor Black people in the Eastside redevelopment area across Waldo Road. To do so, they had to move the boundary from Waldo Road to NE 8th Ave and 12th St, where Cynthia Chestnut and her family own property where they plan to build a new East Gainesville funeral home (like most East Gainesville business branches, in the Duck Pond area, not Eastside). The park is surrounded by quiet single-family neighborhoods, but she wants to build a 50,000 sf convention center and parking garage in the park because, she says, churches, fraternities, and sororities need an affordable space for conventions and large meetings because they’re paying too much to Hilton and Best Western. District 1 Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker (Cynthia’s niece) said it should be in Eastside because of the park’s neighbors concerns about traffic on narrrow, winding NE 8th Avenue. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HO1Wt0BFOijX_asLdwyeyUe2GkPY81l1/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114144960891510223235&rtpof=true&sd=true
One day notice? Not a way to get community involvement.
They may want to ask the nearby liquor stores to relocate too.
There’s a convenience store that sells beer, tobacco, and lottery tickets, no liquor stores. East End Eatery, the firefighters union office, the Army reserve, a church, a check cashing store on Waldo. Everything else on NE 8th Ave is residential.
Like every single thing the city does, they will TALK this project to death! How many years now? And now with a last minute public engagement meeting. Tell me you are unserious without telling me.
2018 is when the commission tried to give it to the county for their sports and events center, to the shock of the park’s neighbors, but the county’s consultant said it wasn’t suitable. It’s been on the redevelopment agency’s list as a project since 2020. Their advisory board wasn’t interested, but then Cynthia got elected and decided to make it her “passion project,” neighbors be damned.
I remember. I also remember how they kept trying to compare it to a huge sports complex in Birmingham, where the facility serves a lot more people in a very densely populated part of the city. Then I heard how Cynthia tried to steer the contract to someone she knew personally. This project has been kicked around so much with very little community involvement.
The City sent out emails about it days ago. The Chronicle is just getting around to printing it.
We published this the same day the City sent it out. Neighbors may have gotten notice of the meeting prior to the press release, but that was not provided to the media.
Add city commissioner dunk tanks and you’ll have it used to full capacity every weekend.
I would 100% support using my tax dollars to upgrade the MLK facility and the stadium. Evidence suggests having kids involved in sports means they are less likely to try drugs, participate in gangs, etc. This is a good investment. But, the city will probably make it part of a much bigger project thus further delaying any progress for years. Let’s stop the empty promises and update these TWO facilities.
if only they could get corporate sponsorship or something to renovate and maintain Citizens Field. it’s a bit of a disgrace at this point with the 3 Gainesville High Schools using it, I know Buchholz has had to move some games away to Santa Fe and Starke due to the conditions of the field. and delay a few games as well.
How bout a public pool on the westside? We pay the majority of the taxes but still no pool at Jonesville or Kanapaha parks.