We’re going to have some fun with before and after pictures of the city I currently live in, Gainesville, Florida. Gainesville is a lovely place to live. That’s why I live here. The city has also changed a lot since I was here last in 2007. My memory’s a bit foggy at times, but thankfully Google Map has a handy tool that can show you what a place used to look like. In Gainesville, some of the long time residents who are also at times very vocal will bemoan the loss of character here that has supposedly come with the rise of bigger housing and mixed used buildings. Let’s see what was lost and gained. One quick note that’s relevant though: Gainesville’s 2000 population was 95,447, 2010 population was 124,354, and 2020 population was 141,085. The city is growing rapidly and will continue to do so if historical trends hold.
Here’s what 1113 West University Ave looked like circa 2007:
I do miss that old Alligator building. Being a alumnus of the journalism school, I have a soft spot for the old place, even if my Alligator output was pretty small. The rest is a pleasant enough one story shopping strip with no housing.
Here’s what 1113 West University Ave looks like now:
It’s a lot of housing! It doesn’t have the charm of the old Alligator building. And Urban Thread moved. The store has moved a few times. It’s missing some of the old trees, although new ones were planted and maybe in time, they can provide a substitute for the trees that were once there.
Here’s 491 West University Ave circa 2007:
Literally just a parking lot.
Here’s 491 West University Ave now:
It’s not quite the opposite of paving paradise and putting up a parking lot, but it’s close. In this case, even the trees were kept up. In addition to gaining a lot more housing, we gained a Dunkin Donuts. This is in every way a huge improvement over what was previously here.
Here’s 309 NW 13th St circa 2007:
It’s a car wash. Cool.
Here’s that same lot now:
It’s a large building full of housing. This is a much better use of space than a car wash, especially when you factor in Gainesville’s rapidly growing population.
Here’s NW 13th St and University Ave circa 2007:
Ok, to be fair, this site was a bit of a mess and this isn’t the most accurate representation of what was there before. This is obviously just an empty lot.
Here’s what it was before it was an empty lot:
Here’s a video clip of the area from 1992:
And here’s the view from University Ave quite a few years later:
I understand the nostalgia for the original Burrito Brothers location. I ate there too when I first came to UF. Burrito Brothers ended up moving to two different locations that were both bigger and better. They had more kitchen space, and the menu got better. I don’t think anyone’s missing a single story Starbucks, useful as it may have been. Target Copy moved to a better spot, although I did prefer when the music store was in that building that now houses Target Copy. Ah well, things do change, even the way we buy music.
Here’s that same lot on 13th St and University Ave now:
This building probably evokes the most passion in Gainesville, which is pretty funny because it is rather nondescript. Its most defining feature is its size. The building is big for Gainesville. Where there was once a single story strip housing the old Burrito Brothers and a Starbucks and a Target Copy and a two story strip that housed a Rite Aid and Maui Teriyaki, now there is a large complex that has a Target (incredibly useful for the student population and good for Gainesville in general for less people to have to drive from campus to Butler Plaza!), a Chick-Fil-A (bad politics, good chicken), a couple of other fast casual restaurants, a higher end hotel (something Gainesville lacked near campus for a long time), and a whole lot of housing. The space is a lot more functional now. And if you notice in that old video clip and those old photos, there weren’t a whole lot of trees on this site. We might have actually gained trees here.
I understand the desire to keep things as they were, but that’s largely impossible. Things change. Gainesville is inherently a transient city because of the university that is a large reason for the city’s being. I think sometimes people bemoan what was lost to development without realizing that what was there before wasn’t much.