A pinecone-finding contest pulled Loyal Frisbie-Knudsen back to Gainesville.
He said the contest, run by Satchel’s Pizza, illustrates the relaxed atmosphere that makes Gainesville an enjoyable place to live. He said residents don’t rush through life; they take time to enjoy it.
“It was UF that brought me here and Gainesville that persuaded me to stay,” Frisbie-Knudsen, 34, said.
He is one of tens of thousands of residents who settled in Alachua County in the past 10 years.
The 2010 census results show that the county grew by 29,381 people since 2000, putting the latest population count at 247,336.
“There’s advantages to having growth,” county manager Randall Reid said. “We’re known as a community of a very high quality of life.”
While that growth is good, Reid said, it comes at a cost. More people means more services to provide. He said the county government will take the population increase into consideration when planning next year’s budget.
Reid said that UF’s growth has added to the county’s quality of life.
“Part of the reason people enjoy the university community, even for the retired community, is they provide the hope and the security that life goes on,” he said.
UF grew by 4,009 students from 2000 to 2010, putting last year’s enrollment at 50,116 students, according to the Office of the University Registrar.
Several minority populations in the county, including Asian, Hispanic and Pacific Islander, more than doubled in the last decade, and the rest grew more than 10 percent.
“We are culturally more diverse, not only racially but culturally,” Reid said.
