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Hitchcock s vs. Bravo?
The commission on Thursday voted 6-1, with Duncan-Walker voting no, to have the city s attorneys draw up a contract for a later vote with Southern Accommodations LLC for the Bravo community grocery project in the plaza at 2302 Hawthorne Road.
Food Lion and Save-a-Lot are among the stores that did not make it in those locations.
“One of my concerns is that this has felt very rushed,” Duncan-Walker said.
She said there are people in her district who quite frankly are not interested in Bravo in East Gainesville, and that could be for a number of reasons.
Other commissioners said the plaza has been empty for years and the project might even convince some residents to move to that area of town, which has been losing population.
A developer who wants the city to spend $3.3 million in tax money to open a grocery store in an East Gainesville commercial plaza where two stores have previously failed says this time, things will be different.
Jacksonville resident Fred Washington says the proposed Bravo community supermarket at 2302 East Hawthorne Road would be much more than a grocery store. A Save-A-Lot and Food Lion have opened there, but later closed.
The city is asking developers to bring plans for a community grocery store for East Gainesville possibly using American Rescue Plan Act funds or Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area funds.
Developers have until July 22 to share plans for an at least 20,000-square-foot supermarket.
Come October, Gainesville s oldest and youngest residents will have unlimited free rides on city buses.
Starting Oct. 1, people younger than 18 and those 65 and older will no longer be charged to ride Gainesville Regional Transit System.
Monday night, the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization for the Gainesville urban area voted to adopted the yearlong pilot program, with the city and county each pitching in $115,000.
That is the estimated revenue the bus system will lose by not charging those passengers for rides.
City Commissioner Harvey Ward said he hopes the fare-free rides become permanent after the pilot project.
“It is an investment in our children, a repayment of a lifetime of service for our seniors,” he said earlier this week. “I believe transit has a democratizing influence. Number one, if lots of different people ride the bus, that is a good thing. And the easier we make it to ride the bus the less friction we put out there between somebody