Gainesville Mayor Lauren Poe and UF President Kent Fuchs signed an agreement Tuesday promising to turn Gainesville into a “new American city.”
The agreement came during the annual State of the City Address, held at the Gainesville Police Department’s Hall of He- roes. City officials, UF administrators and community members were in attendance.
The agreement, called a memorandum of understanding, is between the school and city — the first of its kind — honoring a strategic development plan, which aims to consistently improve Gainesville in the coming decades, focusing on joint projects that will both culturally and economically help the city.
“These partnerships are ones that enrich and sustain our university and our community,” Fuchs said.
Fuchs said by partnering with the city, UF is closer to accomplishing its most important goal of becoming one of the nation’s greatest public research universities.
“Now, with our visions and plans for the coming decades outlined in greater depth than ever before, we are fortunate to take this partnership to the next step,” Fuchs said.
Poe ended the address by highlighting the city’s achievements in the past year, including the opening of Depot Park, substantial economic growth in east Gainesville and a decline in violent crime and juvenile arrests.
“The state of our city is strong,” Poe said, although adding that there is much more
work to be done.
Poe said Gainesville continues to have the highest concentration of poverty in the state and one of the highest rates of income disparity in the nation, adding that the city must work to become a complete community for people of every ethnicity and background.
“We are only as strong as the most vulnerable among us,” he said.
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UF President Kent Fuchs spoke before city officials, UF administrators and Gainesville community members at the 2017 State of the City Address at Gainesville Police’s Hall of Heroes on Tuesday. Afterward, Fuchs and Mayor Lauren Poe signed a memorandum of understanding between the university and the city.
