It always bothered me when a candidate for elective office seeking a Gainesville Sun endorsement knew less about the job than I did.
To be fair, I was Sun editorial page editor for 30 years, during which time I interviewed thousands of candidates and wrote endorsements for hundreds of em.
We didn’t decide endorsements on the flip of a coin, the spin of a bottle or whether the candidate was a D or an R.
We decided by asking incisive questions about the duties of the office, the relevant issues of the day and the candidate’s own convictions about, you know, life, the universe and everything (sorry, but I love to slip that cultural reference into my blogs.)
And my job wasn’t just endorsements. On a weekly basis I wrote editorials and columns about issues of governance, public policy and, yes, politics. And because we were a community newspaper, I was especially focused on local government.
You really can’t work for years as a local newspaper journalist and not acquire a knowledge base and understanding that, frankly, some candidates for city and county offices would kill for.
I tell you all of that by way of telling you this:
Today I am – or rather FreeGNV.com, my blog home since I retired after 37 years at The Sun is – endorsing Nathan Crabbe for Gainesville City Commission Dist. 2.
Not just because Nathan was a colleague who worked for The Sun for 17 years.
Nor because he succeeded me as editorial page editor as I headed out the door.
Or because he was the last Sun editorial page editor before the newspaper cravenly decided that it could no longer be bothered to host GNV’s Voice Of The People.
(Fun fact: Did you know that The Sun won two Pulitzer Prizes in its storied history…and that both were for opinion writing? I doubt anybody still working at The Sun remembers that.)
No, I’m endorsing Nathan Crabbe because he spent years learning from, observing and writing about city government…acquiring in the process a reservoir of practical knowledge that will serve him well as a commissioner.
Because when he left the Sun, Nathan didn’t pull up roots and seek professional opportunities elsewhere. His home is still GNV. He raised his kids here and here he stays.
Because he is an environmentalist who, upon leaving The Sun, became editor of an on-line publication focused on climate change, sea level rise and ecological degradation – this in a state that, according to official government policy, doesn’t believe in any of those things.
Because he is an urbanist, who understands that the key to a community’s quality of life begins at street level. And streets that are not safe for pedestrians and cyclists, but only for motorists, are a serious local quality of life detractor.
Because he is a progressive who believes in (gasp!) diversity, equity and inclusion.
Here’s what Nathan wrote in his very last Sun column, in 2022, as his turn came to walk out the door.
We have all the ingredients here to make Gainesville an even better place to live and work, including more highly intelligent people per capita than most cities in the country. But we sometimes can’t seem to get our act together as a community, squabbling over minor issues rather than focusing on larger goals. People too often seem more interested in protecting their own turf rather than collaborating on common interests.
My greatest hope is for the incoming leaders of the city and university to truly commit to marshalling their resources and bringing people from all walks of life together to solve Gainesville’s most persistent problems. Gainesville’s wide and well-documented racial and socioeconomic disparities should top that list.
Working with James Lawrence on the Gainesville for All initiative has been an eye-opening experience. It showed me there are no quick fixes for Gainesville’s inequities, but many people willing to roll up their sleeves and work on lasting improvements if given the chance.
I won’t be lecturing from my editorial-page perch about these problems any more, but have confidence in community members putting aside their differences to solve them. Gainesville is a great place to live, but it could be even better if we worked together.
That was not a future campaign platform written by someone who was already planning to run for local office. He was not.
It was, rather, a reflection of what Nathan had learned about GNV during his years at The Sun. And his hopes, dreams and aspirations for a city in which he had laid down roots and where he fully intended to remain.
None of this is meant to be critical of Nelida Jean-Baptiste Pellot or Wyatt Zintiz, the other Dist. 2 candidates. As far as I can tell they are well meaning people who have their own hopes, dreams and aspirations for GNV.
No, I’m endorsing Nathan Crabbe because he has shown, over the course of two decades, that he understands GNV, its governance, potential and shortcomings as well as anybody I know.
For what it’s worth.
FreeGNV 