A few nights ago, I had a conversation with two men. One was a handyman for the apartment complex where I reside. This was Jim. The other was his friend, Andre, who does not work for the same grouping of apartments, but his extensive understanding of air conditioning units placed him in my humble apartment after dark.
Andre and Jim came to fix my thermostat and air conditioner. I was there to assist Jim in not helping Andre. We were occupied with small talk at my kitchen table. Andre had finished the wiring, but we sat together for another hour, give or take, discussing bills, the hardships one endures in a car accident, and above all else, the imperialist behavior of Trimark Properties.
Let me be candid with you: Jim and Andre were not the names of my companions that night. It would be shameful of me to tarnish their privacy. However, everything about our conversation was true. We talked about the destruction Trimark imposes on the neighboring low-income communities, caused by the ever increasing geographical mark they are making in the area. (When the hell did The Cascades complexes get built there?) The more property they own near campus, the less options students have if they want to be a reasonable distance from school. The choice is between paying Trimark’s exuberant (really, comedic) rates or living in another part of town. If we are being realistic, this does not affect most of Trimark’s current and future residents; as I would guess most of these tenants are funded by their families. However, as Trimark’s footprint increases, the pushing away of students begins extending to non-students, who are residents that would prefer to remain in their community. The result of Trimark’s behavior becomes a frenzy of gentrification.
Gentrification impacts regular people, Jim and Andre for example, who now have to work harder and longer hours to allow smaller landlords in the area to compete with the colossal Trimark. If your contributor can be candid again for a moment: I am riddled with bias when I write this column. I am a naïve 21-year-old who has lived in Gainesville for a marvelous 21 years. This city has been kind to me, and it has been so because of local figures like Jim and Andre, who were willing to work on my air conditioning late into the night, not because anyone told them to (I assured them that it could wait), but because they are truly benevolent individuals.
Let’s not forget, gentrification doesn’t just affect employees in the housing industry. Trimark is just one piece of a larger problem. It affects the local businesses that have thrived in Gainesville longer than myself, a well-known example being the beloved Burrito Brothers, who were put out due to the hindrance that nearby construction put on customers trying to access the restaurant by car. The big-money being brought to town causes boutiques like Wolfgang to be erased from existence and restaurants like Kabab House to be pushed away from the foot traffic of West University Avenue. Gainesville’s desire for corporate money is revoking our local individual’s ability to make their impact on the city, to leave a mark doing what they love to do. It would break my heart if the Gyro Plus brothers were forced to relocate and make way for yet another fast food joint, only to lose the customers that kept them afloat due to an extreme change in location. It would devastate me because it is the personality that these business owners and hard-working individuals bring to Gainesville that make it the diverse city that I love too much to leave.
Is this capitalization of our city inevitable? Is it the natural order of capitalism to replace individuals with a series of chain restaurants, department stores, and supercenters? Perhaps this is simply a sign of progress in our economy. If so, we must ask ourselves if the economic prosperity of corporations is worth the sacrifice of individuality from Gainesville’s downtown area. That individuality has not yet been eradicated, but someday there might be a The Standard at Gainesville on every other corner. Perhaps Jim, Andre and I will reconvene to deliberate when that day comes.
Joe Dickerson is a UF English senior. His column appears on Wednesdays.
