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Sam Julien
Gainesville, FL
Hi, I'm Sam. I help people with personal finance, web presence, and social justice awareness. I also love to consult with non-profits about how they can leverage social media to help their cause. How can I help you?
Recent Activity
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Sam commented on the article |Eric -- I'm a current Gainesville resident. I wonder if I ever saw you at Trinity (some friends of mine took over for the founders over the past few years).
Thanks for your post. You are correct, in my opinion, that the city is 1) moving the homeless away from downtown and 2) privatizing care for the homeless. I believe this cap is intended to accomplish both of those things -- by perhaps causing other shelters to start, and by moving the homeless out of downtown to find said new shelters.
If you came back to downtown Gainesville, you'd see a lot of new things, like a new Hampton Inn smack in downtown (with a guard at the front entrance) -- complete with restaurants and shops on the ground floor.
The city has been revamping downtown for years now, hoping to tackle both the gang violence and homeless problems while attracting new business. Your example of closing the bathrooms is right on. I remember talking to some folks at Trinity and being appalled at how badly they were treated by local law enforcement.
We will see what consequences their decision has in the long run, I suppose.
In the mean time, keep up the good work in DC. We'll keep working in Gainesville.
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Sam commented on the article |Hang on, now. I've lived in Gainesville for about six years and know Dr. Mastrodicasa through UF. She is a brilliant person (PhD and JD) who is very compassionate.
SFH is virtually the only homeless shelter in town, and it is well known for getting crowded fast -- too many homeless, too many student groups trying to volunteer. I don't think the Commission is necessarily making the right choice, but I can understand them trying to shift the demand.
At the same time, I'm sure shifting the demand is also a conscious effort to "relocate" the homeless. The city has been working on changing the image of downtown for years now: cracking down on underage drinking, trying to reduce gang violence, helping open a big Hampton Inn, promoting small business office space (Grooveshark!), etc. This is another part of that master plan --- whether the motives are pure or not.
This cap is not the solution to Gainesville's homeless problem, but hopefully it will inspire some other shelters to start, and get the discussion going in order to reach a solution that gets to the heart of the problem. With that in mind, I don't think it's fair to bash the Commission or the City outright.
And knowing Gainesville and our indredible activist community, things will get fixed eventually. Between the University and the Civic Media Center, I have no doubt the people will be able to interact with the local government.
SJ
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Sam commented on the article |Great post. Another pitfall I've seen is non-profit leaders who have jumped so far on board with social media that their site is a mess of buttons and pop-up videos. It doesn't reflect that they're interested in using social media for brand-building, it just makes them look like they've gone "Sign Up Here" crazy. In other words, brand-building with social media needs to be focused and purposeful.
