Opinion: Commissioners use fake charity to play savior
OPINION
BY LEN CABRERA
The October 7 Alachua County Commission Special Meeting exposed the Commissioners’ total misunderstanding of the role of local government: rather than providing basic services and public safety, our activist commissioners see themselves as saviors while wrapping themselves in a cloak of fake charity, redistributing taxpayer money to people who, in their view, deserve it more than those who produce the goods and services that provide for the needs of the community.
During the meeting, Assistant County Manager Tommy Crosby warned about providing more money for social services: “Remember, all money is in competition with itself.” This ruffled Commissioner Anna Prizzia, who refused to acknowledge budget realities and “competing priorities.” She resorted to urban legends and fake compassion to justify her policy priorities: “Poverty is the number one driver of crime. And so when we make investments in economic development and we make investments in housing and social services and the social determinants of health, we are investing in public safety.” Commissioner Ken Cornell rushed to virtue signal: “I couldn’t agree more with the point she made.”
There are many theories about the causes of crime, but poverty is not the primary cause. Columbia University research shows “the relationship between poverty and crime is far from predictable or consistent.” It’s clearly not a causal link because not all people living in poverty are criminals and not all criminals are impoverished. In fact, wealthier people have better legal representation, so their crimes are likely underrepresented in criminal data research, further skewing the data.
That didn’t stop Prizzia from using the poverty myth to portray herself as the savior of Gainesville’s impoverished residents. Truth and data are irrelevant when it comes to justifying the policies she favors; an emotional appeal is sufficient because nobody wants to seem uncaring about those who are struggling to make ends meet. Over a decade ago, Thomas Sowell warned, “The whole point of political rhetoric is to make it unnecessary for you to have to go into the specifics before taking sides. You don’t need to know any economics to be in favor of ‘a living wage’ or ‘affordable housing.’ In fact, the less economics you know, the more you can believe in such things.”
If the objective is really to alleviate poverty, throwing more money at the problem won’t do that, and a refusal to consider proven solutions will only ensure that the problem continues in future generations. A 2013 Brookings Institute report found that poverty can be avoided by following three simple rules:
- Finish high school.
- Get a full-time job.
- Wait until age 21 and married to have kids.
Based on their research, 98% of the people who followed those simple rules lived above the poverty level, and an astonishing 75% were considered middle-class.
But telling people how to succeed by doing something (or not doing something) doesn’t give the appearance of compassion. While the politicians pat themselves on the back for their generosity (with other people’s money), they should realize what their policies reveal about their true attitudes toward the poor. Boxing journalist Steve Kim is fond of saying, “The expectations you have for somebody say what you really think about them.” Given how simple the Brookings Institute’s three rules are, what must Prizzia and others think of Gainesville’s poor to insist that the only way to help them is to throw more and more money at nonprofits that claim to provide services but never get people out of poverty?
Clearly, many Alachua County voters fall for this fake compassion because they voted for these politicians who think compassion means taking money from some to give it to others. Economist Walter E. Williams‘ words should remind them that “in order for government to give one American a dollar, it must, through intimidation, threats, and coercion, confiscate that dollar from some other American… The act of reaching into one’s own pockets to help a fellow man in need is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into someone else’s pocket is despicable and worthy of condemnation.”
These politicians (and voters) have warped priorities, and the same people think our soft-on-crime policies are compassionate. That’s only true if you ignore the plight of the victims of repeat offenders. Similarly, using tax dollars to bolster your warm, fuzzy feelings of charity ignores the residents who pay those taxes. Spending other people’s money is not charity, and it doesn’t make you a more compassionate person.
Property tax reform can’t come soon enough.
Sure Adam, mandated by the state, which is ripping off taxpayers on it’s own. As Len writes:
“Spending other people’s money is not charity, and it doesn’t make you a more compassionate person.”
Try this:
“The Transparency Florida Act says state agencies must publish contracts to the state’s contract tracking website within 30 days of being signed. However, a Florida Bulldog analysis of nearly a thousand emergency state contracts worth $1 million or more identified 719 eligible contracts – many inked years before – that are not publicly posted on the Florida Accountability Contract Tracking System.
The total value of the missing contracts is more than $6 billion.
All of the contracts examined originated from the Executive Office of the Governor, which includes the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and the state’s own data indicates they were all no-bid deals awarded without competition.
Many companies receiving these contracts have provided significant financial support for the governor’s political ambitions. They include Miami’s CDR Maguire, which describes itself as providing engineering, financial and emergency management consulting services, along with healthcare and lab services, and Deerfield Beach-based AshBritt, a rapid-response disaster recovery and special environmental services contractor.
While Florida’s contract tracking database lists entries for the 719 state contracts – with some limited information like the name of the contractor and the contract value – the actual contract documents are missing. Without the contracts themselves, details about how the DeSantis Administration spent those billions of taxpayer dollars are unavailable for public inspection – making it difficult, if not impossible, to scrutinize the terms to see if taxpayers got a good deal or got ripped off….
Roughly three out of every four high-value, “emergency procurement” contracts the governor’s office has awarded are missing the legally required public documentation, with no document uploaded at all into the state’s contract tracking database….”
A list of the awards is at the link.
https://www.floridabulldog.org/2025/10/more-than-6-billion-in-desantis-emergency-contracts-missing-required-public-documentation/?rmail=1
Your TDS and DDS are lighting up like a Christmas tree. Focus on what is being said about LOCAL dems. Everytime a local Dem is challenged on their morals or decisions you go Federal or State. Get back on your meds
Bear, if your OK with our president Diarrhea Don imagining in public dumping on a peaceful protest of millions, you need less meds.
This post goes to the principles Len’s column promotes and given there’s little doubt he’s a Republican – hey, if not my bad and love to hear that – who is criticizing those he describes as on the left, I think a little reality sandwhich is in order. I know you are unable to respond intelligently and on point here, but if that changes I’ll be eager to see it.
You are proving my point. Back to Trump. That’s all you got is to insult a US president over the faults of local politicians. Thanks for playing
Supporting the poor is not teaching them how to not be poor. It IS enabling them to continue their current life choices.
Supporting the poor [LBJ’s Great Society] clearly does no succeed in eliminating poverty. It creates poverty by giving folks just enough keep them from seeking greater.
False.
“The War on Poverty resulted in significant antipoverty programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, and increased funding for education and housing. These initiatives, along with a strong economy and other civil rights advancements, led to a dramatic drop in the poverty rate from around 19% in 1964 to a historic low of 11.1% in the early 1970s.”
and, written 2014 on the 50th anniversary
“Today’s safety net — which includes important programs and improvements both from the Johnson era and thereafter — cuts poverty nearly in half.In 2012, it kept 41 million people, including 9 million children, out of poverty, according to the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). If government benefits are excluded, today’s poverty rate would be 29 percent under the SPM; with those benefits, the rate is 16 percent….
Meanwhile, poverty in America is high compared to other wealthy nations largely because our safety net does less to lift people out of poverty than those of other Western nations….
and
“To measure poverty since the late 1960s by today’s living standards, the researchers took the 2012 SPM poverty line and adjusted it for inflation back to 1967. Under this measure, overall poverty fell from 26 percent to 16 percent between 1967 and 2012, it fell among children from 29 percent to 19 percent, and it fell among the elderly from 47 percent to 15 percent. ..”
https://www.cbpp.org/research/war-on-poverty-large-positive-impact-but-more-work-remains
“The War on Poverty resulted in significant antipoverty programs like Medicare, Medicaid …. ”
And we are 47 trillion in debt because of many of these programs. The only thing they have done is to teach dependence on the government for all your needs. We are not better off when more people join every year, the point of these programs was to be a life line during hard times, now it’s become a way of life for some over multiple generations.
Hundred, then I suggest the GOP run on eliminating Medicare and Medicaid and give voters that choice.
Keep in mind that where medical prices are cheaper – that would be everywhere but the US and that’s not a joke – the low prices are largely a result of price negotiations or laws between suppliers and the huge m,arket of all citizens represented by the government.
By the way, we are the only developed country in the world that does not provide universal health care.
PS Hundred, also keep in mind that most of us that have health insurance have it through our employers, we don’t go buy it on the market. This warps the labor market, keeping people in jobs they might otherwise leave, burdens employers, and ends up being subsidized by those who purchase their goods or use their service through higher prices.
How many of your employees do you provide health insurance for?
None. I’d be unable to compete if I did, or my employees would take home a lot less and wouldn’t work for me. By law I provide worker’s comp to cover injuries that are work related.
“universal health care.”
AKA rationed health care with months long waiting lines.
A well written opinion that says it all. Unfortunately, the people who need to read this will not.
What Mike said…
The easiest way to debunk Dem-socialism is to compare family members and classmates. Why are some individuals more successful than others within the same family or class? If it were “systemic” groupism, then why do individuals from the same origination demographics vary so much?
We could have saved $50 trillion.
Prizzia and Cornell may be the local political versions of Dumb and Dumber, but I’m not quite sure which is which.
Bahahahaha Thanks for the laugh. Wish it wasn’t so serious, but had to laugh with you!
Thank you, Len, for speaking truth. Unfortunately, truth is a disappearing reality. Kids growing up today will have no idea who “has their back” and who is lying. AI will make this nearly impossible to comprehend. The USA is in deep poop and people just want to hate and virtue signal in the shallow end of the pool. China and Russia are really enjoying the clown show. Might be time to start teaching Chinese and Russian in school. God help us.
“Rather than providing basic services and public safety, our activist commissioners see themselves as saviors while wrapping themselves in a cloak of fake charity, redistributing taxpayer money to people who, in their view, deserve it more than those who produce the goods and services that provide for the needs of the community.” ~ 🫳🏻🎤
Thanks Len!
Ya sure helping people move in or covering a $1750 once every 18 months is a real handout smh same place was $600 before covid. For people on the brink, it
does help but you have to show
youre working. People here are so full off themselves but act like they have social sciences degrees
Why is it that the white German in America lives better than everyone else?
Go to school and find a full time job right?
But the white German controls the hiring in virtually all of the living wage paying jobs in Gainesville, and they hire their own kind first and foremost.
Lmao, I have never worked for a black person in my life, not cause I didn’t want to but because they don’t own anything with which they can hire and pay a living wage, and the ones that do, don’t hire their own.
There are not enough full time jobs locally to go around.
Not because people can do the work, but because its not about the work, its about politics, culture, and beliefs.
So to get a job here that’s decent you have to hide one or all of the aforementioned things unless you share the same characteristics.
Gainesville is a single cell amoeba divided into two parts red and blue.
You have to stroke ego’s and walk on eggshells to maintain employment here, I’d rather be broke than have to focus on my job and navigate these emotional and political minefields.
Hire me cause I can do the job well, not because we have the same beliefs, lol.
Every white man I ever worked for except for one named Shawn, loved my work, gave me raises and appreciated me.
Once I started using my intellect to suggest how to make more money or do things more efficiently, they became upset and accused me of trying to tell them how to run their business, or co workers got jealous because my customer service was better than theirs.
Y’all talk as if working a job in the modern day is just about doing the work when its not, it involves so many other things that it shouldn’t.
To all the people reading this, give a thumbs up if you were forced out, hours cut or fired, not because you did a bad job, but because you arbitrarily rubbed someone the wrong way.
Also America is pricing out its own citizens, so while prices keep getting higher, naturally employers don’t wanna raise pay because it cuts into their bottom line.
Yet we say just get a education and job like that will save the day.
They said go to college and get a degree and you’ll be fine, that was a lie.
Also white people talk as if their experience is the same as everyone elses when its not, they have always had advantages, the are only crying now because the white German is basically taking care of their own and excluding anyone who challenges their ideologies white or not.
Also the job market locally prioritizes everyone other than normal citizens.
So when you now speak of poverty, its the result of a broken system that white America only acknowledged was broken once they began to be excluded as well.
Why do all the people in city and county government look like they could be cousins or originate from the same regions?
Why are so many of our elected officials and city leaders gay?
The brown haired brown eyed people run Alachua County, and everyone else either subjects themselves to their way of doing things or suffer by being excluded.
The Irish don’t run Alachua county, The Italians don’t run it, The Hispanics don’t run it, only the Germans, they have all the control and power locally, doesn’t matter what side of the Berlin wall they came from lmao.
‘White German’? Are we talking chocolate?
Well that was probably the most nonsensical assortment of words I have read since Kamala Harris. Sounds like someone considers themselves a victim. Why are you not the owner of a business where you can hire others as competent as yourself? Are you advocating the need for governments to be Robin Hoods? When have you ever seen government dependency turn into independence? The only time I have ever seen that is when dependency is rebuked. You speak of Germans running Alachua County and Gainesville, yet it is the Democrat party that elects both of those boards. It is the Democrat party that possesses the soft bigotry of low expectations and feels that throwing other people’s money at a problem will cure the ill. That in itself is ignorance.
Who are the Democrats locally…the white Germans.
Who pushes lgtbq agendas…the white Germans
Who is the largest immigrant group in America….people of Germanic descent.
Therefore who runs and controls America…. The Germans.
Wasn’t it America that imported large numbers of Nazi’s after the war for their scientific knowledge and other things?
The Asheknazi originate from the Rhineland, where is that… Germany.
See you guys like to argue issues but never identify who is in control and is responsible for the problems.
Clay, well played on the German Chocolate, lol that was a good one. I like white chocolate, not more than dark or brown chocolate, unless its a white chocolate pretzel, those are to die for lmao.
How many Ashkenazi are there in America, and what percentage of them identify as German rather than Ashkenazi. Yet they all come from the same place.
I been to Germany, and the Germans in Germany are a lot nicer and more reasonable than the ones in America.
Black people are victims especially when you factor in that we were given the 40 acres and a mule, and then the president reversed it and gave it back to the Germanic slave owners.
Go back and look at pictures of “Americans” from that time period, they all look the same and who are they, Germanic peoples.
Spare me with the victim stuff because yall are the biggest oppressors and at the same time victims that ever lived, who are you to shame anyone else for claiming to be a victim.
42 billion in reparations back in the 40-50’s amounts to what in current times? That’s alot of money that has been passed down from generation to generation.
Now we see why all these eateries, and entertainment venues, smoke shops and tattoo parlors keep popping up in downtown Gainesville when there is not enough foot traffic to justify the businesses.
For crying out loud, y’all now trying to say slavery wasn’t that bad, but telling us 9/11 and what Hitler did was a tragedy and atrocious even though it as you tell us “happened so long ago”. Hypocrisy is you guys strong point.
The anglos, The Franks, The Italics, The Ostrogoths, The Visgoths, The Saxons aka Western Europe are all different Germanic tribes. Go learn your history, and you owe me a coffee and a joint for this lesson, I just taught you.
I’ll look forward to your response.
Democrats locally encompass a majority of the black community. Are you claiming that they are of germanic ancestry as well? What about the black commissioners we have had on the county commission, the county school board, as well as the city of gainesville commission? Are they of germanic ancestry? They are just as culpable for the conditions in which you blame white democrats for. You cannot have it both ways by blaming whites and making blacks victims of the decisions made by whites when it is both black people voting these white people in as well as black people having been voted into office making the decisions. If I were you, I would probably change my screen name..
The black community was initially Republican, after the 100 years of race riots where white people destroyed all the progress that black men had made leading their communities (Occoee, Rosewood, Tulsa etc.) What happened next?
Welfare programs that and the “man in the house rule”, in which the black woman exchanged the men as providers for the federal government being the new provider.
Then the Iran Contra affair where a certain agency imported cocaine into the country and introduced crack into the black community to fund a war that Congress would not approve funds for, you guys really don’t know your history.
So when black men talk about being “in the streets” they don’t realize how this came to be, a systematic plan to put them out of the house and into the streets.
The black woman then turned Democrat and raised their children to be Democrats because it was the Democrats who incentivized them having babies out of wedlock and not being with the father’s. The Democrats taught them through “empowerment” that if they had education and finance they did not need to depend on their men.
The black church also participated in this, as the saying goes…a black pastor’s favorite group is single mothers, they give their money to the church and the pastor keeps them single, rather than encouraging them to exist properly in two parent households.
The black men are now waking up and leaving the Democratic party, and they are catching hell from the black woman for doing so.
The school board, county and city commission only have two black women or a couple half-breeds, the rest and majority of each of these boards is Germanic.
Let’s be honest black people were never supposed to think for themselves, when Andrew Johnson took away our economic independence, it forced us to adopt the mindsets and politics of the employing class to survive.
Look at how people get their panties in a bunch when a black man thinks for himself and disagrees with the white narratives.
Also don’t forget it was the white German Democrat woman that brought feminism into the black community by convincing black women that the white women’s struggle with her man was synonymous with the black woman and her man.
We have always been told what to think and how to vote, we have never decided for ourselves based on our individual needs and desires for our community.
See white has never been right when it comes to the black plight.
Black women will sell out their communities as long as you give them something.
Notice in the old days it was the black community, now its black women and children and the black man has been left by the wayside by his own women.
In the 40-60’s were there black children in the streets running wild having babies out of wedlock and killing each other? NO, because the parents were married, and the men controlled the community.
Ever since welfare and the raising up of the black women to not need the black man, what has been the fruit of that tree? Girls having babies just to get welfare and shaking ass in the streets, black men selling drugs and killing each other in the streets.
When you dismantle the family unit the kids go wild because there is no discipline.
As a black man in these days its easier to find a white girl that has traditional and conservative values than it is a black woman, and the black women who do have the proper values are all snatched up quickly and married, leaving a bunch of wild alternative lifestyle, stripper tattoo, feminist wildcats who don’t want or need no man as the single women.
Black men are waking up, and once things begin to change in the black community, everyone will benefit. As long as you white folks don’t get jealous at the progress that happens when the black man leads his community and try to burn it all down again.
If was black men who fought for, met with General Sherman and received the 40 acres and a mule, it was a racist white man Andrew Johnson who took it back, and another racist white man Lyndon B. Johnson who instituted a program that put the black man out of the house and taught the black woman to depend on the government more than her man.
Also don’t forget, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton labeled black males as super predators, lol.
The white and Jewish man still control their communities and that’s why their children aren’t out here in the streets running wild like ours at the same rates.
The black women is the democrat, and only the black men who see women as gods are democrats, the black men who lead the black community to its greatest heights ie Black Wall Street etc were all Republicans, we don’t want a handout, we just want a fair shot.
I’ll keep my moniker, and remember ignorance is bliss until you run into Common Sense, hihi.
Good Day sir!
(in my best Willy Wonka impression).
Your problem isn’t white people… Your problem is Democrats but you would rather lash out at white people while echoing the low expectations of soft bigotry against blacks. You want blacks to be more self sufficient? Then help work to get them off the Democrat plantation. You want a fair shot, then unseat those that keep you dependent on the government. You want unity, then get out of the mindset of racism. You want inclusion, then stop the hate. I am familiar with the history and it was FDR (a Democrat) that said he would give blacks handouts and keep you on the plantation for a hundred years. I have never understood why blacks fell for that and sold their independence and pride for that handout. Blacks have just as much power in this county as any white person simply because they are Democrats… The Democrat party owns the blacks in our county and have been promising to give them stuff for the 20 years I have lived here just to keep them voting democrat . This is a Democrat problem as even the local NAACP stands against the very beliefs of the national NAACP which in turn keeps power in the hands of Democrats so nothing changes. There is no economic growth on the East side of the county because neither the County nor Gainesville will do anything positive for the area. Why haven’t elected black representatives in the county and city fought to improve the safety and economic opportunities for all those that live on the East side? I want to see a county where we are indeed all equal, with equal opportunities based on skill and motivation. I see that you recognize a lot of the issues, now you just need to direct your energy towards the actual problem…. the Democrat party.
We have been groomed for centuries, using violence and oppression, by Democrats and Republicans, aka white people.
So the onus is on your guys to right your wrongs, as much as it is on us to understand how we got here and take steps to do what we can to correct it, but always remember we don’t and have never had the power.
CommonAre you suggesting blacks are not intelligent enough to think for themselves? That is exactly what you are saying.In your response to me by claiming blacks have been groomed for centuries. If that’s so please explain the black people who have managed to become successful, regardless of whether they are democrat or republican. Using your logic, you must also be groomed and cannot make your own decisions or create your own success. Repeat this acronym, whenever you get the opportunity R.A.M…… responsibility, accountability and motivation.. Are you going to tell me that those traits have been groomed out of the black culture? The desire to succeed and the motivation to do so should exist within everyone, regardless of what color they are.. It is not my responsibility to make sure someone else takes responsibility.accountability or is motivated to drive their own success. Stop making excuses and if you feel you are successful, why don’t you go and be a mentor to those who feel oppressed? Teach them how to stop taking handouts, and the importance of the nuclear family. Democrats don’t want strong men holding the black family together and if I were you, I would be appalled at that. I would never vote democrat again in my life.
Common, you write:
“The black men are now waking up and leaving the Democratic party”
78% of black men voters voted for Harris. The other 22% were taken for suckers. The economy is going downhill, including jobs, grocery prices are still rising, and the current administration has 1 black man as a cabinet officer and it’s white man hire for Sec of Defense is busy firing 1 black general and admiral after another. They passed a budget bill which cuts taxes primarily for rich (white) men while black men (and black women and white men and white women) needing health care subsidies to afford it will be paying as much as 4 times as much more per month starting next year. But hey, if you think black women and black kids need to be punished more than they need health care, child care so mom can work, and food programs to make ends meet, you keep on voting for the elephant and slitting your own throat and theirs.
We wouldn’t need subsidies if our economic independence has not been taken from us, again we don’t want the governments help, we just want a fair chance.
The elephant’s policies did not create the social welfare programs, the donkey’s policies did and now we look like the jack-asses.
Black women and kids need to be punished?
Lol, so when I speak of discipline and black men leading their communities this is what you hear?
What are the statistics on single parent households in regards to children?
What are the statistics of single father households vs. single mother households in regards to the effect on the children in them?
Statistically the black male is the most involved father in America.
The number one cause of black death is not black on black crime but abortion.
People like you don’t wanna see us do better, because our only job is to support you and your political agendas.
You guys are either deficient in reading comprehension and history, or you are choosing to ignore the crux of the issue, which is the black community is in the position it is in because the black family unit was destroyed by Democrat Presidents and policies.
Notice how you completely ignore the revocation of reparations by Johnson and the social welfare programs by Johnson and the effects it had that led to the current status of the black community and pivot to talking points that have nothing to do with improving the status of the black community.
If we got our 40 and a mule we would want taxes cut for the rich as well, because we would be rich.
See your policies put us into perpetual poverty and now rather than reverse that course, we have no purpose but to support Democrats cause “we are poor to”.
Don’t you get it, Dem policies made us poor and now we only matter if we support Dem policies, the Republicans didnt enact programs that destroyed our communities and family unit.
Its like you can’t fathom us having any opinion or stance that does not agree with yours, and that sir is a problem. But, wait you ain’t a “racist Republican” you are a Democrat, interesting and also my case in point.
Dude, the social welfare programs created by Democrats – along with support for unions, fair hiring practices (DEEI!! Boooo!!), and job creating infrastructure programs like the bill passed in 2021 – are available and used by whites and blacks and nobody says it destroyed white peoples economic independence. Who do you think always fights these things along with minimum wage increases. The Elephant! Low pay will definitely F with your economic independence and so will your kid not getting into college because you can’t afford it.
Wake up!
“But hey, if you think black women and black kids need to be punished more than they need health care, child care so mom can work, and food programs to make ends meet, you keep on voting for the elephant and slitting your own throat and theirs.”
If the father was in the home, they wouldn’t need government health care, and mom wouldn’t have to work so hard because there would be two incomes, furthermore with the economic independence that was taken away we would also have generational wealth.
Notice how you refuse to acknowledge how we got to this point, but keep trying to Monday morning quarterback how we should move forward.
No one’s keeping loving fathers with pay checks from homes and you must have a very low opinion of black women if you think they prefer social workers to having one.
Now, lets try to get opportunities for those pay checks improved.
Holy delusions of grandeur Batman!
Another person who could run and win in alachua county
There was a Gainesville City Commissioner about 10 years ago that repeatedly warned, “It’s easy to spend other people’s money.”
And that’s the sense of euphoric feeling and power that these small town elected commissioners get high on. They think it’s their right to spend on the personal agendas they’ve longed for instead of finding out what the basic services and public safety needs are, if they are being met, and how they can be obtained at a fair price and taxing the minimum to cover that.
Much is wasted on nonsense by the city and county. Taxes on real property have risen to absurd levels in Gainesville.
True, Carlos, and thank you for your perspective as an objective auditor. The mayor saying last week that Gainesville city government is fiscally conservative was, well, unrealistic at best. Besides the unanalyzed wish-list projects, the city wastes millions of tax dollars on consultants and corporate welfare for supposed “economic development” and “affordable housing” incentives that produce neither and cost everyone, most of all the residents and businesses that can least afford to subsidize them. It’s hard to say what could get city government out of its downward spiral. Maybe unbiased commission candidates next year and a fresh start with a well-chosen new city manager. Meanwhile, less moralizing and more accountability.
They fund their future NGO job golden parachutes. In case they likely won’t advance higher up in politics. That’s the only explanation, because what they claim it’s for doesn’t bear fruit.
ACLUSPLCDNC Party 👹👿
Take a tour of Gainesville east of Waldo Road to see how these policies are “helping” the poor and lifting people out of poverty. 🙄
Go off Waldo Road. Also 20th Avenue and Tower Road. 8th Avenue and Tower. The projects are amazing. Poverty is present among the new affordable housing. And danger.
Vote them out!!!! We need governance with COMMON SENSE!!!
I have known Prizzia professionally for years, she is batty and has no conception of how to help people. It is all to make herself feel better about a job “well done” however the truth is far from it.
Prizzia pointed out that the county doesn’t want any more low quality warehouse jobs. She wants more elegant jobs. Her grasp on reality becomes worse than ever.
During the pandemic she sat her behind home and waited for these lowbrow essential workers to provide her with food, beverages and whatever her disrespectful heart desired. She is elitist and out of touch. Graft is easier to obtain from grants and digital companies than it is from big alert companies like Walmart, Dollar General and Cisco.
Be aware that there are so many people in Alachua County that need jobs that the warehouses have more people seeking jobs than there are positions. Every Eastside business that closes leaves people floundering. The economy is dying in Gainesville.
Legends in their own minds.
Len, from your link:
“….As we saw with Irish and Italian immigration to the United States—and will someday see with America’s black and Latino populations—movement up the social ladder to the middle class is associated with sharp declines in violent crime. The reasons for this are easily appreciated. The middle-class person has everything to lose, and little to gain, from interpersonal violence: personal injury, loss of status, and criminal justice sanctions. Plus, the civil legal system provides effective alternatives for dispute resolution that middle-class individuals can afford.
Now we can better understand why so many offenders are in the low-income bracket. It isn’t that poverty causes crime, but rather that more affluent people avoid violent conflict, in effect, ceding the field to the poor.
Both Left and Right agree, correctly, that the movement of minorities into the middle class will reduce crime. They disagree, however, about the best way to get there. That’s a subject for another discussion…”
Instead of giving a people a hand up, many people who have lived a privileged life want to give people a hand out, while continuing to keep them down with the other hand.
Len, you write:
” A 2013 Brookings Institute report found that poverty can be avoided by following three simple rules:
Finish high school.
Get a full-time job.
Wait until age 21 and married to have kids…”
Those 3 rules imply being raised with realistic aspirations of advancing through work or education, but the poor, regardless of race – excepting recent immigrants who are a self selected group of highly motivated achievers – live in communities with few examples of that and in some a multi-generational history of similar behaviors. It could be culture or it could loss of previous employment opportunities – see the rust belt and cities like Detroit and Cleveland – but programs aimed at keeping kids in school have a worthy goal one would suspect you could support if effective. Other aids to those in poverty – Prizzia mentioned health – have a more direct target and health insurance specifically is universal for every other developed nation in the world and for less money then our FU system (by the way, we do not excel in health care results or patient satisfaction. In some areas like cancer we do and suck in others).
Elsewhere you decry “soft on crime policies” and we may agree on some of that. But given the example of recent GOP star and candidate for Governor Donalds who benefitted from court proceedings lenient to him as a young man, he overcame 2 convictions and went to college. It’s true that since then he’s wasted his future being a GOP politician, but he still is an example of the possibilities of not being condemned to carrying a record and probably following a life of crime – other than being a GOP politician – from a young age.
In short, while you believe in small government – what about Tallahassee dictating to local governments? – elected governments can do what they want within the law, and besides for the potholes and police protection, have generally chosen to benefit the lives of constituents including those down on their luck. That doesn’t just end at orphanages.
Soooo sick of all this wasted welfare junk. Working taxpayers are paying for lazy able bodied people. People need to go to prison for committing crimes, people need to get a job to provide for themselves. Only elderly and handicapped should get aid. All others need to work.
Well said, Len. “Free” handouts lead to more handouts. Free to one person means others are paying for it and in some cases those who are trying to make a livable income are barely making it themselves yet having to pay for others receiving it free.
You must have reliable paperwork from those in need of help to feed themselves and families. Perhaps those who need can be trained to fill out the paperwork.
This has to stop or the well will run dry.
And again, it is not difficult for them when they are spending others’ money
eviction is a vicious cycle, they provide deposit assistance and rent and it’s only 18 months, and you have to show you’re working. it’s a lifesaver, especially how long it takes to get paid or interview.
Taxes are a wedge between what something costs and take-home pay.
Taxes either make goods and services more expensive or reduce take-home pay. For example, sales or use taxes increase the cost to the consumer. Income, payroll, and self-employment Taxes reduce take-home pay.
Decreasing public spending would decrease this taxation wedge, making each hour of work buy more.
I am represened by Anna Prizzia. She is 100% INCORRECT in her statement that Poverty is the #1 driver of crime. Crime is just like a drug that an addict cannot just stop doing. Just like you and I might take extra cash that we earned at what I call a “legit” vocation and buy a birthday gift, that is all a Criminal is doing…birthday shopping at thier job in an illegal vocation. It can be burglery, selling drugs, prostitution, robbing a person at an ATM or carjacking a vehicle. All they are doing is “shopping”. . It is much easier for someone to perform these “duties” of their illegal craft than to complete for a legit company a resume, interview for a job or career and “work” 40 hours a week at $20 an hour before taxes. That amount is barely above poverty level for a family of 4. Some can find legit “cash” jobs like laborers or hold signs at an intersection to get a few dollars tax free. It is all about EDUCATION (K-12) and the HOME culture. We have allowed our schools to ignore the children and promote them to graduate without the skills needed. Sure the HOME is the key, but lack of education is what leads to poverty.
Amen!! Thank you for writing that!! I couldn’t agree more.
This should be required reading and at least a half hour of serious reflection by each of our elected officials.
“The act of reaching into one’s own pockets to help a fellow man in need is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into someone else’s pocket is despicable and worthy of condemnation.”
Tbh she did make some concerning magical thinking comments this year during the jail expansion discussion, hedging on the funding.
Essentially that prevention would
make crime just disappear. Ya Florida is a destination and transient state, with 67 counties. Too many off the cuff comments so thanks for covering the meetings.
Bottom line, we need police, prevention and economic opportunities. Waldo Road all the way to Waldo and Bradford County is totally neglected and a food desert, little to no commerce.