End east-side disparities

For years we've used somber faces and words to express our dismay about the disparities in education, jobs, housing and transportation for the citizens of the east side. We’ve wished for resources to fix the poverty.

With the realignment of the Community Redevelopment Area into the Community Reinvestment Area, in which funds from four districts will be combined into a single fund, we can raise up those most in need — on the east side. The resources are here.

Public/private partnerships could build infrastructure, housing and a grocery store, and fund small businesses. For less money than has been spent on the driver-less shuttle to connect downtown and the University of Florida, transportation could connect east-side residents to jobs.

Wouldn't it be great not to be among the worst in the state and nation for opportunity disparity? Go to https://gainesvillecra.com to find the dates of workshops. Attend. Write to city commissioners. Tell them the time to end the disparity is now.

Janice Garry, Gainesville

Prioritize housing over parks

On looking over the stated goals professed by the Gainesville City Commission at the town hall meeting, I failed to see any solutions to the housing problems let alone infrastructure improvements. So, I read the article again with great care and still did not find any mention of housing-related solutions nor additional infrastructure or police protection spending.

More parks and recreation facilities are not going to solve the housing crisis or deteriorating infrastructure, nor make the city safer. Environmental and social programs are consuming a ridiculous amount of revenue generated by the taxpayer. Affordable housing becomes more attainable when you add more advanced manufacturing businesses

As we lose more police officers to better-paying positions and dodge the potholes in the roads and stumble over the neglected sidewalks, life in Gainesville for the taxpaying citizens continues to deteriorate — especially for the low-income folks.

Susan Baird, former Alachua County Commissioner

Not a coup or lynching

President Donald Trump has called the Democrats’ use of the process of impeachment, which is explicitly provided for in the Constitution, a coup d'etat, which is an attempt to illegally overthrow a government. So the self-proclaimed stable genius is either ignorant concerning the Constitution that he is sworn to support, or blatantly claiming to not be bound by it.

He has also called it a lynching, which led to African-American Congressman Bobby Rush's devastating response: "You think this impeachment is a lynching? What the hell is wrong with you? Do you know how many people who look like me have been lynched, since the inception of this country, by people who look like you?"

Geoff Pietsch, Gainesville

Overdue changes

The time is long past when the United States should have changed to the metric system. Probably a lot of our foreign trade that has been lost might have been saved if we were using the system the rest of the world uses. The metric system is easy to use, practical and there is no reason not to change.

At the same time, it is time to change to the 24-hour clock system, the same as almost all the world. That system does away with all AM and PM nonsense, and makes it so much easier to understand what time is being talked about for appointments, hours of operations and everything else.

Robert L. Stephens, Gainesville

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