Mayor Ed Braddy’s recent pledge to “revamp” the City of Gainesville internship program is nothing new. I interned for the City of Gainesville in the summer of 2011 and did much more than “shadow the City Commission,” as Braddy claimed in the Feb. 26 edition of the Alligator.
My fellow interns and I did significant amount of independent research, toured city facilities, met with city staff and learned a significant amount about public policy and urban planning. I never felt unwelcome in City Hall and never saw the student voice ignored while working with Democratic commissioners.
In fact, the worst treatment of students has always come from local Republicans like Ed Braddy, who have continually proposed scaling back transit options for students, opposed environmental protections and LGBT rights initiatives that students overwhelmingly support and fought against using the Reitz Union as an early vote location.
Braddy’s claim that he’s the first to “give students an idea of how their local government works and give them an opportunity to participate in a more hands-on manner” is, frankly, disrespectful to every hard-working student who has interned or participated in our City Government.
It’s part of a pattern for this mayor: He’s out of touch with the priorities of the average citizen.
[A version of this letter to the editor ran on page 7 on 3/10/2014 under the headline "Mayor Braddy out of touch with interns, residents"]
