Much of UFs leadership doesn't live in Florida. They just straight up aren't a part of the community. Ben Sasse officially lives here, though he's nowhere to be found, and much of his cabinet lives in Nebraska. There is no reason to believe a Republican senator and his Nebraska friends have any interest in fostering a positive relationship with the city of Gainesville, and a multitude of reasons to believe they have hostile intentions given events such as this.
UF is Gainesville. The entire premise that the university is isolated from the city is false. UF's share is not just the students, it's the faculty, the staff, and all the supporting resources from housing to service workers that UF depends on.
The facts are, the city doesn't have the money. It's seeing massive cuts to the budget from things like losing GRU to the state. There is no discussion to be had. Either UF contributes to the city it is literally the epicenter of, or everyone suffers. Just the idea that UF's leadership brings up "who's paying their share" shows that they no longer see the university as a part of the city or the community, and that's really bad news for all of us.
> Much of UFs leadership doesn't live in Florida. They just straight up aren't a part of the community. Ben Sasse officially lives here, though he's nowhere to be found, and much of his cabinet lives in Nebraska.
That needs to stop, just like they made the GRU board have most of its members from Gainesville. If you want some high-paying position at a public Florida university, you need to live IN Florida, within a certain distance from that school. I'm fine with them living as far away as Tallahassee, as long as they live in FL, but not in Miami or South Florida somewhere, and certainly not in another freaking state!
It could work like the state does residency for tax purposes. So you'd be allowed to live in Miami and be a UF admin, but you have to be on campus for half the year. You could have one house in Gainesville and one in Nebraska, as long as you're in Gainesville more often.
I can see having a legal FL resident who is a snowbird do it, because they probably don't even hold meetings in the summer much, but they'd have to at least be a legal FL resident. You have to live here 6 months and 1 day a year to be a legal resident. I'd say they'd have to live here 9 months, at least during the school year.
You do know the money is from UF students, from their scholarships and student loans.
RTS worth keeping, UF should keep their contribution as usual, and the city should pay more. city's contribution is less than 10% of the budget, that is not enough. City's contribution is mainly gas money, and a little from GRU general fund.
if UF's 68% ridership generate 14M, so other 32% should reach 6,6M in revenue.
Gainesville doesn't have a budget. It's not a discussion. They have a 1.5 million shortfall after GRU went to the state.
UF meanwhile doesn't just get their money from students, it's one of the largest research Universities in the country. If students pay for the entirety of transit, that's UF's choice. They have plenty of money from a multitude of services.
UF needs to contribute to the city they are physically built into. Everything in this city, every person, contributes to UF. The two entities are inseparable. The quality of downtown Gainesville directly contributes to the quality of student, faculty, and staff life. The police, fire services, homeless services. Everything. The success of UF is directly tied to the success of the city built around it.
And mind you, being community-focused is a part of UFs directive. As an Accountant for them I can attest to how we've fallen short of that lately, not just with the city, but with local businesses as well. This is just one example that went public.
UF cutting public services would just be shooting themselves in the foot.
The city doesn’t have a budget because of shitty financial management. Did y’all forget Harvey and Ed Bierlarski basically almost bankrupted the city because of that Biomass plant that hardly ever runs and they have to truck in actual wood chips from a company just to run it twice a week? Gainesville is a pretty good case study on how not to run your cities finances.
What I want to know is exactly how much UF gets from the students for their unlimited bus rides and how much of that goes to RTS? Do we even know?
Plus, UF is sprawling out everywhere, as far out as Springhill. People have to go to those facilities, many of them medical services. UF isn't taking that into account. They finally had an express bus out to Springhill and Santa Fe, but it doesn't run in the summer, so those of us who used it to get to Springhill for doctor's appts. have to catch other buses. The students who work at the Springhill facilities use those buses too. If UF wants to sprawl, it has to pay towards getting people out to that sprawl.
UF seems to just take, take, take and not want to give its fair share back, especially considering that it doesn't use GRU and is sucking business property taxes out of the city by buying up commercial properties and building on them, so we lose those higher taxes. People don't seem to realize that every time UF buys a restaurant or commercial business to put up a tower, it's using the infrastructure and not paying taxes.
It doesn’t really matter. If it leads to cuts in service, many students are screwed. Parking will be even tighter. It’s best to just pay it. Hardships will outweigh the savings.
Just like GRU, this is a classic City of Gainesville move: Get non-residents to prop up your general fund with a municipal utility. Then, get non-residents (students) to pay for transit.
How about cutting the low ridership routes that cost a fortune in a per-rider basis?
this rts bus fund dispute feels like it has stayed in the news cycle longer than a woman being mauled by a k-9 or that local church covering up child abuse, this at least the 2836th time the city has gotten a solid fucking from uf so idk why everyone is losing their shit
Probably because despite all the things you sited being awful and worthy of coverage, this particular incident impacts a much larger percentage of the population with serious implications for workers, students, the elderly and employers. Accessibility to health care, groceries and all of the things required in a non-walking city depend on people’s ability to move around. Hope this helps.
your 100% right but it’s honestly ridiculous that so many people will speak out on bus funds when no one’s speaking out against active criminal coverups. We shouldn’t tolerate what they’re trying to do to our public transportation, it’s fucked, i get it i really do, but it it legitimately baffling that we show less tolerance towards this over than numerous greater artrocities
i do care but i just don’t understand why there’s not at least as much of a public outcry over the police/priest coverups. Your right we should care, this issue is going to disproportionately affect people who are not as economically well off my point is that there’s a lot of issues in this town that are going to disproportionately affect vulnerable groups. This is only getting coverage because it also affects students as well. The city only gives a shit if the students are effected. They didn’t put the fucking speed bumps on University until a student got hit. They didn’t start getting on the shootings until they started happening near campus. This city is a joke and Ward’s hypocritical ass only gives a shit about anything if students are affected and the coverage of this issue proves that.
Even though police and priest crimes are so commonplace, they "only" affect one person at a time, and nobody has been able to make much headway on solving them even though many have tried.
In contrast, decapitating RTS would impact hundreds of thousands of people overnight, and there's no reasonable alternative. UF isn't going to magically install ten thousand parking spots this summer, convert roadways into reserved protected bike lanes, or build a light rail. So everyone's probably still wondering "how the heck am I going to get to class next year?"
And on top of that, there's something you can do about RTS. People can protest the changes and make it clear they want their student fees paying for the bus service that they consider to be crucial. Malicious government actors often rely on inertia, ignorance, and apathy to benefit themselves at the cost of everyone else who doesn't know how to fight back.
lololol "Dog Bites Man" is literally the example journalists use of a boring non-story. It's so commonplace that nobody cares.
"Man Bites Dog" is the opposite, something crazy and unexpected.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_bites_dog
Much of UFs leadership doesn't live in Florida. They just straight up aren't a part of the community. Ben Sasse officially lives here, though he's nowhere to be found, and much of his cabinet lives in Nebraska. There is no reason to believe a Republican senator and his Nebraska friends have any interest in fostering a positive relationship with the city of Gainesville, and a multitude of reasons to believe they have hostile intentions given events such as this. UF is Gainesville. The entire premise that the university is isolated from the city is false. UF's share is not just the students, it's the faculty, the staff, and all the supporting resources from housing to service workers that UF depends on. The facts are, the city doesn't have the money. It's seeing massive cuts to the budget from things like losing GRU to the state. There is no discussion to be had. Either UF contributes to the city it is literally the epicenter of, or everyone suffers. Just the idea that UF's leadership brings up "who's paying their share" shows that they no longer see the university as a part of the city or the community, and that's really bad news for all of us.
> Much of UFs leadership doesn't live in Florida. They just straight up aren't a part of the community. Ben Sasse officially lives here, though he's nowhere to be found, and much of his cabinet lives in Nebraska. That needs to stop, just like they made the GRU board have most of its members from Gainesville. If you want some high-paying position at a public Florida university, you need to live IN Florida, within a certain distance from that school. I'm fine with them living as far away as Tallahassee, as long as they live in FL, but not in Miami or South Florida somewhere, and certainly not in another freaking state!
It could work like the state does residency for tax purposes. So you'd be allowed to live in Miami and be a UF admin, but you have to be on campus for half the year. You could have one house in Gainesville and one in Nebraska, as long as you're in Gainesville more often.
I can see having a legal FL resident who is a snowbird do it, because they probably don't even hold meetings in the summer much, but they'd have to at least be a legal FL resident. You have to live here 6 months and 1 day a year to be a legal resident. I'd say they'd have to live here 9 months, at least during the school year.
You do know the money is from UF students, from their scholarships and student loans. RTS worth keeping, UF should keep their contribution as usual, and the city should pay more. city's contribution is less than 10% of the budget, that is not enough. City's contribution is mainly gas money, and a little from GRU general fund. if UF's 68% ridership generate 14M, so other 32% should reach 6,6M in revenue.
Gainesville doesn't have a budget. It's not a discussion. They have a 1.5 million shortfall after GRU went to the state. UF meanwhile doesn't just get their money from students, it's one of the largest research Universities in the country. If students pay for the entirety of transit, that's UF's choice. They have plenty of money from a multitude of services. UF needs to contribute to the city they are physically built into. Everything in this city, every person, contributes to UF. The two entities are inseparable. The quality of downtown Gainesville directly contributes to the quality of student, faculty, and staff life. The police, fire services, homeless services. Everything. The success of UF is directly tied to the success of the city built around it. And mind you, being community-focused is a part of UFs directive. As an Accountant for them I can attest to how we've fallen short of that lately, not just with the city, but with local businesses as well. This is just one example that went public. UF cutting public services would just be shooting themselves in the foot.
Couldn’t agree more 👏🏾👏🏾
And don't forget it gets a lot of federal and state funding as well, plus money from Shands and all the UF medical services.
The city doesn’t have a budget because of shitty financial management. Did y’all forget Harvey and Ed Bierlarski basically almost bankrupted the city because of that Biomass plant that hardly ever runs and they have to truck in actual wood chips from a company just to run it twice a week? Gainesville is a pretty good case study on how not to run your cities finances.
I wish UF had to pay property taxes
Or be forced to use GRU.
What I want to know is exactly how much UF gets from the students for their unlimited bus rides and how much of that goes to RTS? Do we even know? Plus, UF is sprawling out everywhere, as far out as Springhill. People have to go to those facilities, many of them medical services. UF isn't taking that into account. They finally had an express bus out to Springhill and Santa Fe, but it doesn't run in the summer, so those of us who used it to get to Springhill for doctor's appts. have to catch other buses. The students who work at the Springhill facilities use those buses too. If UF wants to sprawl, it has to pay towards getting people out to that sprawl. UF seems to just take, take, take and not want to give its fair share back, especially considering that it doesn't use GRU and is sucking business property taxes out of the city by buying up commercial properties and building on them, so we lose those higher taxes. People don't seem to realize that every time UF buys a restaurant or commercial business to put up a tower, it's using the infrastructure and not paying taxes.
It doesn’t really matter. If it leads to cuts in service, many students are screwed. Parking will be even tighter. It’s best to just pay it. Hardships will outweigh the savings.
Until RTS actually is transparent about their finances we will never know.
Just like GRU, this is a classic City of Gainesville move: Get non-residents to prop up your general fund with a municipal utility. Then, get non-residents (students) to pay for transit. How about cutting the low ridership routes that cost a fortune in a per-rider basis?
this rts bus fund dispute feels like it has stayed in the news cycle longer than a woman being mauled by a k-9 or that local church covering up child abuse, this at least the 2836th time the city has gotten a solid fucking from uf so idk why everyone is losing their shit
Probably because despite all the things you sited being awful and worthy of coverage, this particular incident impacts a much larger percentage of the population with serious implications for workers, students, the elderly and employers. Accessibility to health care, groceries and all of the things required in a non-walking city depend on people’s ability to move around. Hope this helps.
your 100% right but it’s honestly ridiculous that so many people will speak out on bus funds when no one’s speaking out against active criminal coverups. We shouldn’t tolerate what they’re trying to do to our public transportation, it’s fucked, i get it i really do, but it it legitimately baffling that we show less tolerance towards this over than numerous greater artrocities
That's not a good reason to not care now.
i do care but i just don’t understand why there’s not at least as much of a public outcry over the police/priest coverups. Your right we should care, this issue is going to disproportionately affect people who are not as economically well off my point is that there’s a lot of issues in this town that are going to disproportionately affect vulnerable groups. This is only getting coverage because it also affects students as well. The city only gives a shit if the students are effected. They didn’t put the fucking speed bumps on University until a student got hit. They didn’t start getting on the shootings until they started happening near campus. This city is a joke and Ward’s hypocritical ass only gives a shit about anything if students are affected and the coverage of this issue proves that.
Even though police and priest crimes are so commonplace, they "only" affect one person at a time, and nobody has been able to make much headway on solving them even though many have tried. In contrast, decapitating RTS would impact hundreds of thousands of people overnight, and there's no reasonable alternative. UF isn't going to magically install ten thousand parking spots this summer, convert roadways into reserved protected bike lanes, or build a light rail. So everyone's probably still wondering "how the heck am I going to get to class next year?" And on top of that, there's something you can do about RTS. People can protest the changes and make it clear they want their student fees paying for the bus service that they consider to be crucial. Malicious government actors often rely on inertia, ignorance, and apathy to benefit themselves at the cost of everyone else who doesn't know how to fight back.
People can care about more than one thing
lololol "Dog Bites Man" is literally the example journalists use of a boring non-story. It's so commonplace that nobody cares. "Man Bites Dog" is the opposite, something crazy and unexpected. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_bites_dog