Gainesville City Commission approves $3.1 million 3-year contract for downtown Ambassador program
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At their August 15 Regular Meeting, the Gainesville City Commission approved a three-year $3.1 million contract with Block by Block to administer a downtown Ambassador program.
Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area (GCRA) Director Rick Smith presented the program, which is part of the City’s Downtown Strategic Plan, to the Commission. The contract is for $3.1 million over three years, with an increase every year to provide salary increases to the Ambassadors, and two one-year renewals. The program was approved 4-3 by the Downtown Advisory Board on August 6 with the condition that GCRA will send out quarterly surveys to downtown stakeholders and businesses to gather feedback.
“National industry standard for Ambassador Programs”
Block by Block was identified by City staff as the “national industry standard for Ambassador Programs,” and the contract was pursued with a “sole source” solicitation process instead of the usual competitive process. A Notice of Intent to Purchase Sole/Single Source Ambassador Program Services was issued in April, giving other vendors seven days to respond with a proposal, but only one proposal was received, and it was determined to be non-responsive.
Block by Block has over 140 clients (including six in Florida: Miami DDA, Hollywood CRA, Jacksonville BID, Lincoln Road BID, Coconut Grove BID, and Coral Gables) and provides eight types of services including cleaning, parks and landscaping, safety and outreach, transit, and hospitality.
The Ambassador Service Area is split into three zones, with the downtown zones divided by Main Street and a West University zone between the western downtown zone and SW 13th Street.
Services provided by Ambassadors
Smith said ambassadors will circulate continuously through the district and report suspicious activities, including helping to enforce the boundaries of the Arts, Culture, and Entertainment (ACE) district; engage with homeless people and connect them with service providers; provide safety escorts on request; report on incidents and persons of interest; clean up litter, weeds, graffiti, handbills, stickers, and trash receptacles in the downtown zones; provide greetings, directions, and recommendations on places to visit; and engage with downtown businesses.
Block by Block will “track the pathway of an individual Ambassador during the course of their day, to see who they interacted with, where they were walking.”
Wages will start at $20/hour for Safety and Cleaning Ambassadors, with Team Leaders and Coordinators making $23-$30/hour and an Operations Manager making $80,000/year. Only the Outreach Coordinator and Operations Manager positions are full-time jobs, with the hours of the others varying by season. Shifts are staggered throughout the day and evening; some shifts will begin at 7:30 a.m., and others will end at midnight. Ambassadors will receive initial and ongoing training.
Funding for the program
The program will be funded by the Downtown and College Park/University Heights Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds, with the funding going toward the services provided in each district.
Nearly all Ambassadors in Miami “were once part of the houseless community”
Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said it was a “wonderful program. I am very excited to see it come to fruition, and I think that the downtown merchants will be happy, as well. I was impressed with the hourly rate at $20 an hour; I think that’s a very good commitment to our community.” She asked whether they would be able to hire “the homeless – unhoused – if you’ve have any luck hiring the homeless.”
Smith said in Miami, “nearly all of their Ambassadors were once part of the houseless community.”
Derreck Hughes from Block by Block said the company’s approach “is about community first… We have a company culture that is second-chance driven.” He said he saw “a really high chance for coordination” with GRACE Marketplace, “so my plan would be to definitely tap into the resources in the community here and place them in jobs, where we can.”
Commissioner Reina Saco asked whether the cleaning services would be on top of the work now done by Public Works, and she was told it was “complementary rather than supplementary.” She said she was also excited about the safety component for “female employees who close up and are trying to find their way back to their car or home at 3 a.m… – it’s a little unnerving. So having that kind of opportunity for an escort… is a wonderful thing.” However, none of the shifts in the draft schedule went past midnight.
Saco asked how many people would be employed under the contract, and Smith said between seven and nine on any given day, with a mix of part-time and full-time employees. Smith also told her the company could start within two months of the contract being executed.
Eastman: “I became a real believer in it”
Commissioner Bryan Eastman said he was “really excited about it, as well.” He said he had some experience with the program in Miami “and got a much better idea of what this looks like on the ground… They were proud of the work they did. They wanted downtown to look nice… They had a feel for downtown in a way that – without our downtown unit that we had for GPD, which I think served that role, we haven’t had that in downtown for a little bit… So I became a real believer in it… and I think a lot of our downtown owners are going to see that as well.”
In response to a question from Commissioner Casey Willits, Smith said the City can end the contract with 10 days’ notice and no penalty. Willits also asked about liability, and Smith said the City is indemnified.
More details on funding
Commissioner Ed Book asked Smith to say more about the funding because “we say we have financial issues and there’s $3 million we [spend], but we’re doing it because it’s strategic, and it also has specific requirements on the way we use those funds.”
Smith responded that the City has two different Tax Increment Financing funds, College Park/University Heights and the downtown district. There is about $600,000 in the downtown fund and about $2.4 million that’s unencumbered in the College Park/University Heights district. Smith said, “That’s a source of funds that has to be used geographically within this area. We can’t use it for closing budgetary gaps in the General Fund. We’re also using Downtown Strategic Plan funding, which is also geographically constrained but needs to be spent within the Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area.”
Smith continued, “Earlier this year, the City Commission recommended budgetary reallocations of funding to heighten our presence downtown, our investment downtown. We will be using that money to pay for the annual operating costs for Block by Block, as well as other things that we’re paying for within the budget.” He said there was also a rollover of about $4.6 million that can be used through FY29, and that is also geographically constrained.
Downtown Advisory Board concerns
Book asked why the Downtown Advisory Board had been split, and Smith said a couple members thought the program was “too expensive for Gainesville, too big for Gainesville, and I don’t think it was fully spelled out to them that smaller communities than ours use this program.” He said other concerns were related to the limited remaining budget for GCRA, with funding that ends in FY29, and how to “weigh this against making tangible brick-and-mortar improvements” in decisions on how to use the remaining funds.
Book said he had “the same concern about cost” and “some concern about being a sole-source [contract],” although he recognized that not many other companies provide these services. He concluded, “The program, as structured, should be something that really benefits our city core; it looks like it’s going to do that.”
Mayor Harvey Ward reminded the commission that the City issued a Notice of Intent to Purchase “and we still only had one respondent.” Smith said, “It was put out in April for about five days, six days. There really are no providers in Florida… We understand, you know, it could be controversial to sole-source something of this magnitude, but they also are a demonstrated industry standard for this type of service for the last 35 years.”
Ward said he had reached out to smaller cities that have Ambassador programs, and they all used Block by Block and gave the company “rave reviews… It seems to work… What we’re hiring here is downtown specialists to fill… gaps. I think we will see tremendous success with this.”
Motion and vote
Chestnut made a motion to approve staff’s recommendation to award the contract to Block by Block for $3,119,422.22 for the initial three-year term, and Saco seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
I’m willing to bet $30 they won’t get any lazy bums to take them up on the offer. They’d rather interrupt traffic, cause public disturbances, and it’s much easier for them to throw the trash on the sidewalks than pick it up. Not to mention most are only here for the FREE STUFF THE IDIOTS IN CITY HALL KEEP GIVING AWAY. I’m guessing Harvey will be helping them with their taxes as well.
I also think the trash people leave on the sidewalks should be picked up and dumped at the entrance to City Hall or Poe or Ward’s houses. They invited the trash, let them clean it up off their own front porches.
Just had a conversation about which local governing body could be the worst custodians of tax revenues and biggest purveyors of fiscal incompetence, looks like the City has jumped out to the lead.
I wonder if we, being shareholders, (as some claim), will be able to fire them if we catch them drinking, smoking dope, or sleeping on the job?
Do they have to pass a drug test since the city is a large employer?
Hopefully after this election, this will be the only employment opportunity some commissioners have.
While we are at it can we drug test the City of Gainesville and Alachua County Commissioner’s?
Why would I give 3.1 million to GPD to hire a few more officers to serve these areas exclusively. Instead I can give 3.1 million to some consulting /ambassador company that will actually only spend $200,000 and buy a few bikes and umbrellas for people to ride around all. Besides, it’s hard to say no when the ambassador company walks into my office with a box of donuts.
In the picture above, it appears Willets is looking at the motion and job requirements to check his eligibility for another job at the expense of taxpayers.
Maybe he’s looking to see how long it’s funded, and if it will qualify for retirement benefits.
YES! Bring back the Officers on bicycles, and on foot. Enforce the panhandling ordinance and the vehicle noise ordinance.
“….most are only here for the FREE STUFF THE IDIOTS IN CITY HALL KEEP GIVING AWAY…..”
“Florida’s homeless will be banned from sleeping on sidewalks and in parks and other public spaces under a law signed Wednesday by Gov. Ron DeSantis….Homeless individuals are prohibited from camping on city streets, sidewalks, and parks and instead placed in temporary shelters monitored by law enforcement agencies under the new law…”
If you don’t know this, you should probably not be commenting on the subject.
If you don’t know that every city – especially those where it is warm and citizens have disposable income, i.e., most in Florida – have a significant homeless population regardless of red/blue commissions, you should not be commenting on the subject.
We don’t want them panhandling or otherwise accosting/harassing normal folks, attacking people, stealing from Wawa and other businesses, stealing from and burglarizing residents, etc. Landlords can’t even have empty units without them getting broken into. You don’t know anything.
No one does. That has nothing to do with the constant and ignorant attacks by you and others on authorities dealing with a difficult problem, which in fact the city improved on in the last decade, as far as downtown is concerned. Criticizing policy constructively is of course valid and worthwhile, but that’s not what we have here in these comments everyday by the same harpies.
Yes, you want to pretend you are grand and sophisticated. The cement man who would be Kissinger.
Gov Newsom just did same thing in California. He even photo-op-ed himself cleaning up a camp in LA so what is your point? And it never rains in sunny southern California it pours!
Not sure of your point, but Newsome and other western governors helped push the SC to rule on a challenge to a 9th circuit ruling that they couldn’t evict homeless from public spaces even if they offered them alternatives – they won recently and California is busy evicting thousands. They have to have alternatives, but if the homeless refuse to go to them, that’s their problem, not the cities and counties.
“In California, which is home to one-third of the country’s homeless population, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said the decision gives state and local officials the authority to clear “unsafe encampments” from the streets while acting with compassion. “This decision removes the legal ambiguities that have tied the hands of local officials for years,” he said.”
https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-homeless-camping-bans-506ac68dc069e3bf456c10fcedfa6bee
If you’re not offering a place for them to stay on your homestead, you’re just another liberal hypocrite.
You definitely shouldn’t be commenting until you do offer more than talk.
Yeah’ I’ll do that when you lock up all those with what you think are too low bails until their court dates.
You go first dummy.
By the way, I am totally against allowing the homeless to camp in public places unless it assigned for that purpose.
Another punt by a progressive liberal. As for my “going first,” I’m tired of seeing the constant influx of homeless refugees, tired of the city and county giving away everyone else’s farm but their own, and even more tired of increasing my taxes and utility rates so they can get some warm feeling in the crotch of their pants. That may sit well for you but it doesn’t and never will for me.
The city has full time employees who don’t make $20 an hour; even on their website it advertises that by 2025 employees will make a minimum of $15. Guess it depends more on who’s important to them rather that what. That may explain Saco’s 🖕🏻 to employees a while back.
Maybe you should run for office, you’re obviously cut from the same cloth as Poe, Ward, and the other knuckleheads.
Yeah. I didn’t thinks so.
There are times when I wonder if you ever think at all.
Maybe you and Ward haven’t spoken today? That would explain things.
Jazz: They’re bums…that’s how they like to live. Personal responsibility.
After all of the belly-aching over how to cut budget and can’t live without the GRU transfer, they just threw away $1 million a year on this stupid crap. This isn’t Phili, Atlanta or Nashville, we don’t have tens of thousands coming to see the sites and the university does well taking care of students and family visitors that come to see them. Democrats are famous for needless spending to show they’ve done something. Well this takes the cake! With a million bucks you could fill many potholes or build 4 or 5 small houses for the poor…but no, you’d rather have some folks walking the streets with little to do but wear a polo shirt with City of Gainesville on it. Wait until the hoodlum you hire rapes a student or robs a store, then you’ll feel real good.
All that’ll be left downtown are law firms, court services, govt admins and the 3% oligarchy restaurants and condos serving them.
Money laundering at its finest! Welcome to America 2024 y’all!!!
Our potato headed politicians could attempt to help bring real industry and real jobs to our area instead of more bullsh!t wasteful spending on retarded projects like this. But hell no…let’s fuel the fire instead of helping to stop the spread, they say…
The serious drug-addict vagrants don’t even get their evening started until after midnight.
Totally insane.
If you want to do something for downtown…pressure wash the sidewalks, put in better lighting, make parking possible without fear of a ticket.
The place is a dumb and they are double downing on it.
You can’t walk twenty feet without avoiding someone’s body fluids on the ground.
You can pay people to be ambassadors…but if there is no reason to go downtown then there is no reason for an ambassador.
Fix the decay!
Your overactive imagination – no, there are not bodily fluids noticeable anywhere downtown – says more about you then efforts to improve a problem most American and Floridian cities have to deal with.
Sure there are. I personally heard people complaining like two days ago about how it smells like piss out in front of Harry’s. Again, you are just an ignorant person trying to sound authoritative.
Jazz, with all due respect. You can’t walk down South East 1st Street without seeing puke stains, crap, you name it.
It is onn buildings, on sidewalks, it’s a normal site for anyone who goes down town.
Gainesville has the potential to have a lovely vibrant downtown. But it needs a clean up and renovation.
Given that bars close at 2:00 AM and are full of drunk college students, you probably can step in puke on 1st street at 2:30 AM. It’s been awhile since I would be there then – not that long ago because i like live local music – and I don’t recall a big problem.
Jazz,
I would say over the last eight years or so it’s gotten worse.
Really, as much as you and I agree an disagree I would love to see the city concentrate on making the place look better.
It got a lot worse during and after COVID.
Just pressure washing the sidewalks would help, better light for evening and perhaps making it better for new attractions.
The place needs a change.
Parking is always and issue as well. The city has started getting serious about ticketing vehicles.
It makes it harder to justify going downtown.
By the way. The Appleton is a great regional museum.
We agree on parking and the Appleton. I hope also on the Harn. I mean, Gainesville is such a horrible place, with nothing to see or do and full of dull stupid people, it’s good we have at least 1 decent thing. I wish I could afford Lake City of Ocala!
If you have lived here long enough you have probably done just about everything there is to do in Gainesville.
Our rural nature makes it much nicer to live in the area. We have a lot of good places to hike, fish, and enjoy.
Not sure about dull people. I met a belly dancer with a PHD in physics last night. She’s an expert in black holes.
That’s a lot of interesting in one person. People fascinate me. Everyone has a story.
With Grace Marketplace, we should never see a panhandler or vagrant!
Sure, because most human endeavors are perfect in their results, which is why 1.000 hitters in baseball are the rule.
There’s human excrement & urine that’s soiling entryways to buildings and it’s easy to see unless you’re one of those who closes your eyes. Take a big whiff and you’ll smell the urine – unless you’ve been diagnosed with anosmia as well.
Check out in front of Court Services, EPD or County IT entrances if you still need proof. Ever wonder why fences were put around the County Administration Building? People were using them for their personal outhouses.
Glad I don’t live in your world. I go to all those places but don’t imagine the same things you do. No wonder you’re so sour.
Many of us have already concluded you live in your own Fantasyland and rarely peek out beyond the blinders.
Just because your hero doesn’t allow the homeless to camp in the facade of City Hall doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen across the street. It really is unfortunate Jennifer doesn’t allow us to post pics on her website, it would make up for your ignorance of the real world downtown.
Unlike you and your perpetually whining and miserable comments buddies I provide stats and facts with links on many of my posts. You provide the same old emotional BS.
Look, if you like Friday nights at Walmart, enjoy yourself, but quit pretending your not afraid to get out of your car and see the world. Obviously you are and haven’t.
Put your feet where your mouth is… Start on N Main at 1908 Grand, head south towards University Ave, keeping an eye, (remove your blinders), on the store and office entrances on your left, (that’s looking east by the way), turn left on University, go 1 block and make another left on NE 1st, (you should be heading north if you’re capable of following directions), keep looking at the office entrances, walk 3 blocks until you get to Holy Trinity Episcopal Church and turn towards the west. If you want a side trip, walk the brick street, (NE 1st Ave), back towards the Top for a more intimate view. Get back with us next week with your discovery.
If you don’t see the stains and trash on that path you’re blind, or just a flat out liar.
Watch your step and be mindful of the panhandlers.
It’s not something I have any control over, in the absence of a large amount of money to hire someone to create a custom comments module… People often post pictures in the comments on Facebook, though.
Putting a body cam on someone downtown won’t keep them safe. This sounds like a great idea if it’s a man suited to be a bouncer. Please hire safe. Healthcare isn’t work risking your life downtown. Solve the drug problems and the social economic disparity. That is what will make real change happen. Paying some informant hall monitor to pick up trash and a supervisor with a body cam play permit Patty isn’t going to solve any issues downtown. People have never been able to afford to live here. There is just too much poverty and there is zero help for drug addicts here. Any help is on the outskirts of town. Selling plasma is more convenient than rehabilitation. Shame on you GNV for not taking accountability for the social economic issues you create.
Are you f**king kidding? $3.1M for Downtown Ambassadors? Dems employing relatives and buy a few more votes! Some of the “well established Dems” in Gainesville have “deep roots!” Right CC?
You want an Ambassador Chestnut and Co? Go do the job yourself, you’re already grossly overpaid for doing nothing!
What a joke! This is a slap in the face of any taxpayer and a waste of funds no matter what level of goverment it comes from! The whole GNV City Council should be ashamed but that would mean they actually give a rats a$$ about GNV! NOT!
We already have a group of overpaid, parasitic bums. It’s called the city council.
Oh hell no!!! A product of incompetent city leadership.
Many hourly workers throughout Gainesville don’t even earn this much money, along with health insurance, paid time off, 401k, etc.. Well don’t stop there, how about a company car?
What a slap in the face to the taxpayers.
None of you feckless commissioners have ever run a business.
When will the other 97% start waking up? Dems have a pattern of creating a problem so they can create a new govt program to “solve” a new problem.
The cultural decline is most obvious in Dem voting districts.
Grow a brain, 97%, ok?
💩🤡👿👺👹ACLUSPLCDNC
“…Biden’s winning base in 509 counties encompasses fully 71% of America’s economic activity, while Trump’s losing base of 2,547 counties represents just 29% of the economy….”
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/biden-voting-counties-equal-70-of-americas-economy-what-does-this-mean-for-the-nations-political-economic-divide/
This article doesn’t really make the point you think it does. The counties are called fly-over country and it’s where the forgotten man lives and works. The very reason the founding fathers instituted the electoral college and only 2 senators from each state no matter population. To protect the minority from the majority.
All you’re doing is admitting the mainstream media gaslighting most of you, like I said 97% here in G’ville alone.
Why don’t you give the bums the keys to the city while your at it. Sorry to the existing businesses while the city uses this boondoggle which will keep their paying customers away.
Funny how the City Commission has been like Chicken Little crying their world was going to end when they lost control of GRU. Remember all those cuts they were going to have to make to police and fire and other essential services but they have no problem finding millions for bs feel good programs like this.
Yesssss!!!
If someone is making $16 per hr. working part-time currently, they are going to be given lower consideration for these jobs b/c they don’t list Grace as their address? Why? That’s terribly unfair if so.
I met friends in the thriving downtown/restaurant/entertainment district of Ocala last night. I plentiful found FREE parking, with a free parking garage, clean streets ZERO bum/drunks/panhandlers/menacing loud vehicles. It was BUSTLING with happy people of all ages and walks of life. What a contrast to downtown Gainesville. This ambassador program is a joke. What we need is efficient law enforcement, including traffic and vehicular noise ordinances, the discouragement of homeless on the streets and plenty of free parking. I will drive the 40 minutes to go out in Ocala, versus having to fear for my life and property in the decaying and violent downtown of Gainesville.
My wife and I recently had dinner at Harry’s in Ocala on a Friday evening and it was delightful, but pretty similar to Gainesville. Yes, there were a few homeless in doorways of closed businesses and less families with kids, but only because Fridays in Gainesville means music in the Plaza, with the always present toddlers to 8 year olds dancing and chasing around on the artificial turf in front of the stage, and the maybe older crowd dining before hitting the Hipp. Both cities have done a good job in recreating their downtowns.
The fact that you chose to drive all the way to Ocala to go out to eat instead of Gainesville speaks for itself.
You’re truly an idiot.
We happened to visit the Appleton Art Museum that day, where we had never been, though we’ve lived here for many decades. We both would highly recommend that as well. Don’t wait as long as we did.
I have been there already, decades ago. Are they doing a good job of keeping the park-like area outside free of vagrants?
The contrast between Ocala’s downtown and Gainesville is reminiscent of the difference between Democrat-run Detroit and Canadian Windsor. On one side of the Detroit river you are forced to pack heat to pump gas and on the other you may wander the streets at any hour unmolested.
That’s BS. I’ve been to both and recently.
You just got back from Detroit or Windsor? Inquiring minds want to know?
2024 Compare Crime Rates:
Ocala, FL vs Gainesville, FL
Ocala, FL Gainesville, FL United States
Violent crime 35.9 35.4 22.7
Property crime 72.4 52.4 35.4
https://www.bestplaces.net/crime/?city1=51250750&city2=51225175
It’s easy to keep your stats low when you don’t enforce the laws.
“Lies, damn lies, and statistics” – Mark Twain
I don’t see anything in the budget about supplements for uniforms. Surely these ambassadors will need to dress in distinctive ways. Perhaps with turbans and pixie slippers with turned up toes? Or tailcoat tuxedos with white bowties and monacles? Maybe blazers with epaulets and medals?
A waste of money.
If we still could plunder the GRU piggyback then 7,000,000 could be used.Take care now.
Lauren Groff can breathe a sigh of relief. Her nifty bookstore aimed towards feminists and their friends in the 500 block of N Main will soon have Ambassadors to clean up the trash outside their swanky store. And to think this is the city she chose to open a business in.
Where else could you make a living with a business model of battling to keep groomer books in kids’ hands? It would be mocked and ridiculed in any normal city in Florida.
Did you know Gainesville already has a law against begging on public property that they don’t bother enforcing? But you better not step over the drunk-walk border if you have an open wine cooler on you.
“Sec 19-80. – Begging, panhandling or soliciting on public property, sidewalks and streets; certain designated places prohibited.”
https://library.municode.com/fl/gainesville/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICOOR_CH19PESOCA_ARTIIIBEPASO_S19-80BEPASOPUPRSISTCEDEPLPR
30 bucks an hour to supervise the ambassadors. Dang. Where the app?
You’d probably have to be a trans woman of color or butch lesbian on testosterone therapy or something similar to actually get hired. These are Ambassadors for Gainesville, after all.
Jazz,
I was a United States Army Recruiter stationed in downtown Boston from 2015-2020. I have seen Block by Block run an Ambassador Program first hand.
It’s absolutely useless. Try to ask an Ambassador for directions, oh, he’s to high on drugs to even make sense. These “cleaners,” are just as big of joke. I have witnessed them doing this weird lean thing against their sweeper bucket.
As for this “making females safe late at night,” I know many females. In fact, I am even married to one. So you can imagine absolutely loved being all alone downtown with drugged “ambassadors.”
Now Jazz, if this doesn’t sound like your idea of some badass liberal Brady Bunch socialist utopia, why don’t you move there?
Oh wait. Yeah you can’t afford it. I don’t mean that as a personal insult, but good luck finding a place to rent that isn’t “Luxury,” or some such nonsense. My rent was over 4K for a 2 bedroom apartment on a third floor walk up.
Have fun changing your license plates. Every quarter expect a 4K excise tax so your license doesn’t get suspended.
It’s fees on top of fees on top of taxes. You can give me all the stupid socialist statements like “Oh I can walk/bike/public transport there!” Yeah that sh*t was hilarious to watch for the 9 months a year it’s raining/snowing/freezing, not to mention the subway doesn’t work, constantly catches on fire and is general disrepair from years of spending money on Ambassadors and other virtual signaling nonsense.
Now Jazz, I know you can only get so erect, but they have a huge selection of homeless shelters! So why are does “Methadone Mile,” exist? Oh yeah it’s because they would rather do drugs all day and all night in a dirty tent.
I actually grew up in Rhode Island and as such I was exposed first hand to what happens to place that just throws money at problems. They have spent millions of dollars on bridge that is years over due and a hundred million over cost.
Jazzboi, I’ll end with this. I grew up liberal, but as I moved around the country, and the world I realized that if you’re not a liberal when you’re young you have no heart. If you’re still a liberal when you get older you have no brains.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk
Gee, I didn’t know I had written in support of Boston and all that set you off – I must have been drunk!
Look on the bright side – you could have been sent to Live Oak from 2015-2020.
You have heard of suburbs I hope. That’s where people with families who aren’t rich live in cities. The cities are for rich and young people, and in the case of Boston, the future leaders of the universe and Nobel scientists who are in Cambridge. We have a small taste of that here on a more manageable scale. I like it.
Dummy Saco
This. Is. Insanity.
Once again, the uneducated buffoons on our City Commission have been finessed by snake-oil salesmen. This time it’s the California-based “Block by Block” organization, which is an offshoot of the “defund the police” movement.
Instead of spending $3.1 million to hire, retain, and equip more professional law enforcement, let’s blow the money paying drug addicts to do absolutely nothing, and create another useless layer of bureaucracy as well!
Santa Monica, CA kicked this program out of their city recently, and if you read the reviews of Block by Block on Glassdoor, Indeed, etc. you will understand why. These “ambassadors” are just thrown out there with zero training and zero expectations, and as expected the few token homeless they put on the team can’t stop drinking or getting high long enough to do anything.
Why the hell would we pay for a full-time social media / outreach coordinator specifically for this program, when the city already employs people to do that? Why would we pay to advertise for this program? Put that useless shill Andrew Caplan on it–Lord knows he has plenty of free time after banging out one 3-paragraph press release a month.
Why are 90% of the “safety” team scheduled during daylight hours? Why are there 3 managers/team leaders needed to manage 9 other people? If this team is going to be reaching out to homeless people and directing them to services, then what is GRACE Marketplace’s fake “street team” going to be doing? Should Alachua County demand their money back?
I am concerned about the “safety ambassadors”. I am not sure that homeless people are the best individuals to be looking after the safety concerns of others in a college town. Many issues with this plan are disturbing.
They need to quit using Miami as a model.
Yes, Miami has a few stark differences. The business owners and public will tolerate a less crap compared to people here. They will get their baseball bats from behind their counters and take care of business if someone is hurting innocent people, and people don’t act up as much because they know that. Those people come here, by the way.
Miami has a fully-equipped police department with the support of their local government. Not a neutered police department overseen by an antiquated DEI expert woman.
Check out this video of their police helicopter on patrol and the other videos on their channel. This is exactly what we should have here, flying back and forth at night from 34th and University to Waldo Rd. and University, focusing on the area between Main Street and Midtown. It DETERS crime. This would be a much better use of the money.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLzIaVcZ5QE