Equity: the quality of being fair and impartial.
Symbolism: the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities.
Liberalism: willingness to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one's own; openness to new ideas.

The democrat centric government of Alachua County is struggling to be honest and live by the true liberal creed; a creed that calls for being champions for the needs of the underserved. Operating in the shadows of the top five rated University of Florida (UF) has caused local government to take on a Judy in disguise persona. As UF goes so goes Gainesville. The Berkley of the south title UF crowned itself with has led to hyper symbolic liberalism where once used to be true moderation. Liberalism is a great recruiting tool for universities. The competition between schools for who is the most liberal is fierce; so fierce until collateral damage to the towns supporting the schools doesn't matter anymore.

Liberalism has its platinum, gold, and bronze tiers like most things we see in society. If you advocate for the environment and LGBTQ+ issues, you are seen as a card carrying member of the platinum liberal class. Platinum class liberals couldn't care less about what is going on in the heads of bronze class liberals. Howbeit, they do pledge a symbolic allegiance to the bronze class. The gold class liberals tend to concentrate on matters of voting rights, criminal justice reform, critical race theory and truth and reconciliation. Education disparities, food deserts, racial discrimination and gentrification are constantly on the minds of those who practice bronze class liberalism. Like the passengers in first class feel privileged over those in business and coach, so platinum class liberals are thought to be elite.

Gainesville has a situation where local government subscribes to platinum class liberalism in deed and gold and bronze class liberalism symbolically. Local governments have wrapped themselves in phrases like zero waste, net zero emissions, carbon neutral, urban cluster, urban density, gender neutral and children's trust, just to name a few, as a sign of their commitment to the liberal cause. All liberal ideas come with a hefty price tag that results in situations where there are winners and losers.
br> Alachua County, for reasons unknown to most, prides itself on adhering to the Palm Beach model of liberalism; which at its core is all symbolism. If Alachua County could reincarnate, it would come back as Palm Beach County, but for now in this life, it has to settle for being a university with a county around it. Palm Beach can afford to play the liberal ideas Du jour game; a game that has landed their consultants many clients willing to pay big bucks for the opportunity to see their liberalism implementation playbooks.

Liberal ideas rarely get fully implemented in Gainesville according to Palm Beach consultants' playbook instructions; usually because they require too many funds and produce hardly any tangible results in the time allotted. The presentations and the slideshows made it all look so easy and everyone who watched them was eager and excited to turn the slides into reality on the streets of Gainesville. What went wrong? Why did it work so well in the Palm Beach use case?

The most logical reason is Gainesville and Palm Beach has unlike subjects, and non-exact conditions by which they operate under. There have been several Palm Beach liberal playbook plays experimented with in Gainesville that have ended up on the scrap heap of ideas that never got off the ground.
When a liberal idea dies, it doesn't just die a quiet death. It takes a large chunk of the budget with it. Platinum class liberal governments are constantly faced with the task of convincing the underserved liberal classes they are being served even when they aren't.

Since liberal ideas are costly and can rack up expensive legal fees, oftentimes there just aren't any funds left over for serving the underserved liberal classes. The hope of it all is once the platinum liberal ideas become a reality; its benefits will lift all boats and make it a better world for all. All liberal ideas usually require a stream of revenue, and that usually mean some type of regressive tax, surcharge, assessment or rate increase that the underserved more often than not gets roped into paying.

There is a long ominous liberal shadow being cast from UF onto the city. That explains why the city is reluctant to make a move without getting recommendations from UF on which play to call when the natives become restless on equity issues. A network of surrogate organizations that is only capable of offering platinum class symbolic liberal solutions to mostly bronze class liberal uprisings is in place and has been the answer up to now for the city, but is beginning to wear thin. Bronze class liberals refuse to go away and be quiet; therefore the city finds itself up against a wall when it comes to moving beyond symbolism and is made to address disparities and inequities in a way that produce positive outcomes.

On any given night in Gainesville you can probably find the equity group meeting of your choice that is brimming with all sorts of liberal equity solutions. There is no shortage of equity officers in Gainesville. A liberal university requires a liberal city, at least on paper. The key thing to remember when you are in a situation like Gainesville is to be able to show something on paper. Making it look good on paper is all that matters to liberals.

If all the demographics have a representative who can be pointed to as being the face of the group, then mission accomplished. There capabilities don't matter and neither does their record. The term 'figure head' in Gainesville is considered taboo and does not apply; neither does it have any meaning when comes to liberal shenanigans.

Considering the amount of liberal ideas that has been invested in Alachua County, disparities should be rare and inequities should be even rarer. In conclusion I would say Alachua County is suffering from a bad case of liberal ideas gone wild. This has resulted in some of the highest taxes, highest utility bills and highest poverty rates in the state.

Symbolic gestures like passing ballot measures that is supposed to address inequities in housing, employment and schools are meaningless symbolism. Platinum class liberal ideas like ordinances that are supposed to promote energy efficiency which will result in cheaper rents and lower utility bills will go down as platinum liberal symbolic classics.
-GatorTown Review-