Newsroom

Neighbors are invited to participate in an hour-long dialogue about racial inequality when the Mayor’s Book Club resumes 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 18 as a virtual event. 

The City of Gainesville has expanded dataGNV, part of its online open data portal, to include data collected during its recently completed Neighbor Survey. Neighbors can locate survey data and analysis reports through the new Neighbor Feedback button on dataGNV.

The City of Gainesville 352walls Community Artist Program is seeking 12 regional artists or artist crews to create a total of 12 temporary 8 feet x 8 feet murals with social justice as the theme. The murals will be located in City of Gainesville parks and public spaces. The murals will be painted on prepared plywood panels affixed to wooden posts, enabling them to be relocated during the two- to three-year lifespan of the project.

City of Gainesville Housing and Community Development (HCD) staff is soliciting feedback from area neighbors and realtors about local affordable housing needs during a virtual meeting this week. The aim is to review recommendations on its draft Housing Action Plan.

City Commissioner David Arreola is hosting a one-hour telephone town hall Thursday, July 30 at 7:15 p.m. for District 3 residents and all Gainesville neighbors. He’ll be joined by several of the city’s charter officers to answer questions from callers about renters’ rights, equity matters and other topics including the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Public Works Department is soliciting feedback from neighbors to include in its application for $500,000 under the Rebuild Florida General Planning Support (GPS) Program from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (FDEO). The source of the funding is the Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant – Mitigation fund. The FDEO has allocated $20 million in rarely accessible funds to the GPS program to create regional plans that will enable the state of Florida to withstand future disasters.

The City of Gainesville Police Department (GPD) anticipates applying for Rebuild Florida Critical Facility Hardening Program (CFHP) funding provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to support long-term mitigation efforts by assisting the State of Florida and its local governments in minimizing or eliminating the risks and reducing losses from future disasters. This program is being administered by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) thru the Community Development Block Grant – Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) Program. A total of $75,000,000 in funding has been allocated by the DEO for the program. DEO has identified the following types of structures as critical facilities:

• Potable water facilities
• Wastewater facilities
• Police departments
• Fire departments
• Hospitals
• Emergency operation centers
• Emergency shelters

Starting Monday, April 13, Gainesville area restaurants will provide meals to some of the city’s most vulnerable residents during the coronavirus crisis. The City of Gainesville has partnered with the Greater Gainesville Chamber of Commerce and local restaurants to provide grab-and-go meals seven days a week for community members in need.

During the 2010 Census, an estimated 40,000 people were not counted in the Alachua County area. This resulted in an estimated loss of nearly 400 million dollars over the past ten years. This year, we have an opportunity to make sure that we are getting the funding our community needs and deserves. We need your help! Through our Census Mini Grant Program, the City of Gainesville is offering five grants of up to $3,000 each to local community organizations to help us make sure that every person living in our area is counted.

Please note this event has been postponed.

The City of Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area (GCRA) is sharing its 10-Year Reinvestment Plan at a public event at the Cade Museum (811 S. Main St.) Tuesday, March 17 from 6-8 p.m.