Deciding GRU’s (and GNV’s) future
GNV residents (i.e. the legal owners of GRU) have an opportunity in November to take back their utility. In his recent Substack blog, GNV City Commissioner Bryan Eastman lays out in compelling terms exactly what the stakes are if a DeSantis -appointed board is allowed to continue to run our utility in the years ahead.
Eastman begins:
GRU is at a crossroads
There are a few times in the utility’s history where big decisions need to be made, and those decisions will determine the future of the utility. This is one of those times.
The City Commission, with Tony Cunningham as GRU General Manager, was clear about our direction. We were hiring outside experts, getting data, and doing community engagement to analyze what the future of GRU should be. We were balancing the need to be sustainable, affordable and reliable as a utility. We were committed to investing in renewable energy whenever feasible.
The GRU Authority’s leadership has also been clear about the direction it wants to go. Ed Bielarski has told them his direction: he wants GRU to “exit the generation business,” and the Authority soon fired Tony Cunningham and appointed Ed to lead them.
Will GRU invest in affordable renewable energy, or will it spend millions more to privatize that energy generation? Will GRU invest in our assets and keep our utility producing power locally, or will it hand that over to a private utility like Florida Power & Light?
It’s a bit long but an important message. So please take the time to read it. And then choose come November.
Gone but not forgotten
A Facebook friend recently asked me who is responsible for the awful state of affairs for the condition of transportation in Gainesville, Florida, a city where I toiled for 20 years as a senior long-range city and transportation planner.
Hey, anybody remember my old pal Dom Nozzi? He was for several years a senior planner for the City of GNV and a frequent guest columnist for The Sun.
That is, he was a frequent Sun contributor until his city bosses told him that as a GNV employee he had no First Amendment right to share his opinions with the folks he worked for.
Anyway, Dom is long gone but he certainly hasn’t forgotten about us. His latest Substack blog isn’t exactly a love letter to GNV. But it’s an interesting read. Check it out.
In answer to his Facebook friend’s question, Dom writes….
One likely responsible entity would be the suburban, car-dependent city planning (and other) staff in Gainesville who I had the displeasure of crossing swords with on a regular basis.
However, if I were to be generous, one could conclude that much of the suburban values of staff were due to the suburban values of elected city commissioners.
And yet much of the suburban values of the elected folk was due to the CITIZENS of Gainesville, 98 percent of which are living a drivable suburban lifestyle.
That lifestyle compels 98 percent of Gainesville citizens to spend their entire adult lives aggressively fighting to enable a drivable lifestyle, where all trips are obligated to be by car.
We have met the enemy and they are..well, us.
The arts are not just for art’s sake
On a somewhat more positive note…
Speaking of familiar voices, Michael Blachly was for many years director of UF’s Phillips Performing Arts Center. These days he’s holding down a comparable job, albeit on an interim basis, at FSU. But he still calls GNV home.
Anyway, writing in Florida Politics, Blachly brings attention to a unifying force that can help heal some of the bitter schisms that seems to increasingly separate Americans against Americans.
In these starkly divided times, one positive truth is that relief from our woes often comes from appreciation of mass-audience events: sports and the arts/entertainment. Rather than ignore that truth, we should embrace it—to promote, produce, and protect such unifying moments that bring us together despite our differences.
Whether it be folk, jazz, western European, any genre of dance, family events, theater, rock, pop, rap, hip-hop, blues, rhythm & blues, soul, mime, film, video, visual, spoken word, cirque, Celtic arts, and beyond. All are languages of our global community. These significant means of communication cross borders and meld landscapes of hope and sharing.
The arts provide a tapestry of inclusion regardless of race, creed, color, gender, age, ethnicity, geographical boundaries, political orientation, or religious beliefs. In many ways, arts and sports are the medicine we most need today to welcome opportunities to ‘unite,’ if only for a little while.
Tom Petty would have agreed. Check out his full column.
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