Two years ago, the City Commission rezoned Buck Bay Mobile Home Park in northwest Gainesville. Buck Bay residents were then told by the new owner that they had to relocate their families to make way for a new single-family housing development.
To those who relocated from Buck Bay to another part of Gainesville, the City Commission even offered the possibility of receiving the hefty sum of $3,000 to soften the blow of being forced to move from their homes. If a family relocated somewhere beyond the city's limits, they still might be eligible to receive a $1,500 thanks-for-getting-out-of-here bonus.
These bonuses, by the way, have only been awarded to 19 of 36 relocated homeowners. Apparently, forcing people out of their homes isn't enough to make people eligible for a small amount of aid.
The community still has two mobile homes that remain occupied. The reason one of the last two residents hasn't moved? He says there's nowhere to move a double-wide in Alachua County.
Is it humanly possible not to feel a little sad for this man and his wife?
They were living comfortably in their home in a community bustling with 144 total homes. All of a sudden, they had their community's rug pulled out from underneath them.
Just like that, everyone had to pack up and get out because Gainesville rezoned.
That was two years ago.
Two years is a long time. Two years is 60-plus credit hours. It's almost half of a new car agreement. It's Joakim, Corey, Taurean and Al as out-of-nowhere superheroes, and Chris Leak as an ultra-long shot for BCS Championship MVP.
We hate to point fingers, but passing the buck - forgive us - seems to be the universal theme of this controversy.
A former resident who has since relocated blames the new owner for prioritizing profit over people's lives.
The new owner blames the squatting residents for not abiding by his imposed two-year move-out mandate.
The remaining homeowners don't blame the new owner. They say he's just doing his job. However, they do point fingers at the former management and the City Commission.
Meanwhile, the City Commission denies that anyone is to blame. They say this kind of feedback should be expected when making such an impact on people's lives, and in hindsight, maybe they would've acted differently.
To us, this whole Buck Bay mess started a little too quickly for it to end neatly.
We feel like this is going to drag on until something ugly happens, and we don't want to see that. We don't want anyone getting thrown out onto the streets, but the area could use a new affordable-housing community.
It's hard not to sympathize with people who have had their homes taken from them because of a government decision. At the same time, they had two years to get out. Within those two years, there must have been some kind of opportunity available for them to move. After all, 142 of 144 Buck Bay homes have become former residences, so why can't these remaining two follow suit? Hopefully, we're missing something.
We've got bleeding hearts, people; we just want sunshine, rainbows and kazoos for all parties involved.
Unfortunately, these things rarely work out so nicely.
