Goldstein: Gainesville’s plan to double the cover over permeable absorbent ground is curious in an era of climate change
Letter to the editor
Dear Editor,
It has been noticed that climate change sharply increased urban flooding. In neighborhoods that roofed over permeable ground, the result is particularly devastating.
Here, years of poor planning by local governments require both City and County to pay for high-power pumps to deal with neighborhood flooding events.
Gainesville, however, is considering a totally new approach to the problem.
Mr. Bryan Eastman, a noted political campaign consultant and incumbent City Commissioner, proposed a plan for city neighborhoods to sharply increase development, doubling or tripling the number of impermeable surfaces and eliminating most of the absorbent, permeable ground in our neighborhoods. Yards–back, front, side–are considered unwanted barriers to development by Eastman and will be covered over, according to the plan. And the financial windfall is planned to benefit City Hall’s influential landlord club.
Perhaps help will come by adding another executive to the many in the City Manager’s office: Keeper of the City Rain Gauge or Director of Neighborhood Pumping.
In the event that Eastman, the City Manager, or the City Commission majority have missed the natural consequences of bad planning, the attached evidence may help:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468312423000093
https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs07603/
Mark Goldstein, Gainesville
The opinions expressed by letter or opinion writers are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AlachuaChronicle.com. Letters may be submitted to info@alachuachronicle.com and are published at the discretion of the editor.
Great summary
The city, county and many citizens know this but the elected reps speak with a split tongue at every turn in a poor attempt to continue the con on their insanely naive voters.
You have to be next level brainwashed to truly believe that irresponsible development is not the core problem here. But as always, the elected officials are going to blame the invisible enemy for their intended outcome
Increase density, and areas that have not flooded before, now will flood. Blame it on global warming. Not infill.
City 3%ers put tax revenues over climate doomsday cult edicts, because their own jobs are on the line. Most city voters are leftist employees of gov’t or subsidized NGOs. They know “climate” was just an electioneering distraction and hoax, that’s obvious now. Climate is deemed a “justification” for a UN-led commie takeover with dissolved borders, “Imagine”-like. Well, we’re just getting a sample of that here and the EU.
Florida has natural 60-year long oceanic wet/wetter cycles. But increasing the sprawl will increase flooding, unless they dig more *manmade* retention ponds, as required.
Exactly!
100%! Climate Change is just another way the Marxist try to brainwash our kids to hate themselves and their country. The climate has always changed, I wonder how many SUVs were driving around during the Younger Dryas (roughly 12,900 and 11,600 years ago) when the climate changed dramatically. It HAD to be humans that did it! It sure couldn’t be a natural occurring phenomena.
Thanks, Mark, for the ‘heads up.’
The resistance against the science is composed of politicians seeing more tax revenue from structures than open spaces. Of course, the downsides of that ideology – commonly known as ‘risks’ – are higher homeowners policy rates and infrastructure overload.
This begs the question for the Commission; what is the risk/reward in rolling the dice against the effects of climate change?
The City Commission plays politically expedient games with environmental issues like, in January 2019, voting unanimously to pass an ordinance banning single-use plastic bags and foam containers in Gainesville. That was rolled back 3-years later.
From one side of their mouths, the politicians herald growth as progress – more buildings, less greenspace – and, then, with all this growth promise a zero-waste Gainesville by 2040.
It’s as bad drama as it is ‘policy.’
The only risk/reward analysis that seems to get done is in relation to their agenda and bank accounts.
Unfortunately, that is the trend.
It is self-revealing of motives and true goals when the politicians cherry pick their environmental/climate issues while ignoring those with no populist fuel.
This is their ‘noble fight’ among the low-hanging fruit.
I am going to sell out and give up, move to Ghilcrest or Levy county, at least they are a few there that still have common sense.
Given population growth everywhere in Florida, higher density in urban areas results in less new land being covered by impermeable surfaces because new roads to serve sprawl are not necessary and typically urban areas do not exist on or near marginal wetlands, as new developments might, especially given the weakening of the state’s water management districts regulatory powers. There are other reasons to oppose general and specific urban development, but this is not one one of them.
Jazzman: “…typically urban areas do not exist on or near marginal wetlands, as new developments might…”
You might want to reconsider that position given Miami and Orlando/Kissimmee exist because of the altered wetlands around them.
Much of the dredge and filling which created Miami Beach and other parts of Dade County are no longer legal 2By. Proximity to a lake, ocean, or river are indeed incentives for city development. Swamps, not so much.
If your commie voters stopped asking for free stuff, the green voters would keep what they wanted, more tree space. Apparently the greens are dying off boomers, so make way for younger commie urban infill moochers, now?
nice theory jazzman but didn’t work as hundreds of wetlands were filled in Gainesville.
Gainesville regularly pumps out flooded overbuilt areas
perhaps it’s time for you to deal with some actual outcomes.
A review of recent advances in urban flood research
Author links open overlay panelCandace Agonafir a b c, Tarendra Lakhankar b, Reza Khanbilvardi a b, Nir Krakauer a b, Dave Radell d, Naresh Devineni a b
Follow the money trail folks.
More retention ponds substantially increase the risk of childhood drownings.
The Left doesn’t care about results & outcomes. It’s only about their virtue signaling not fixing anything.
Oh they care … about making money for the cause! If you make enough money, you can start to hire people and pay them to push propaganda and request more money and the snowball starts rolling and getting bigger.