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A weekly, local news podcast for Gainesville, FL and Alachua County, covering business, government, education and events. StreetSmart is produced by Mainstreet Daily News, the source for local news that matters to you.
Hello from Gainesville, Florida. It's Monday, September 7, and you're listening to StreetSmart. I'm Seth Johnson. StreetSmart is a weekly podcast from Mainstreet Daily News, where we cover local news that informs, engages, and inspires listeners like you. A big thanks to our sponsor, Forest Meadows Funeral Home, where compassion meets experience.
Seth Johnson:Check out their beautiful gardens, funeral home, and tribute center. Formations, funerals, and memorials all in one trusted place. With exceptional care and personal attention, Forest Meadows is here to honor every life with care. Here's the top headlines we're following. The city of Gainesville and the Gainesville Housing Authority won a $25 million grant from the federal government.
Seth Johnson:The city was shortlisted for the grant in 2023 before completing a two year evaluation of the community and submitting its final proposal. The money will redevelop the East University Avenue community, including 180 units of low income housing. The Alachua County Sheriff's Office removed 27 flock styled license plate readers from Florida owned roadways to comply with new state directive. The Gainesville Police Department also decided to stop using its license plate reader cameras, but there are still active license plate cameras in the county. A Gainesville high school athlete was detained by immigration enforcement and transported to a Texas facility.
Seth Johnson:His coach and other local officials pleaded for his release and raised funds to post his bail. The student athlete and three members of the family were released and returned to Florida. UF Health launched a study last week about the impacts of doulas on pregnant mothers, babies, the entire family. Funded by the federal government, the study hopes the research can increase insurance coverage of doula care during the postpartum stage. The streetery finished construction in downtown Gainesville on Friday.
Seth Johnson:The pedestrian only thoroughfare is intended as a festival street with programming planned for this fall. For all the details behind these stories, visit mainstreetdailynews.com. Everyday we're adding new information to keep you informed, and it's all free with no paywall, thanks to our generous members. Welcome to another episode of the StreetSmart podcast. I'm Seth Johnson, and I'm with co host Lillian Hamman this week on a special Labor Day edition.
Seth Johnson:And it's also a special edition because we're gonna be talking about the labor we've gone through in the last week to prepare an upcoming 25th anniversary edition of the nine eleven attacks.
Lillian Hamman:Yeah. It's been a lot of weeks putting all these stories together and our paper coming out on Wednesday will include a special section featuring a lot of those things that we found and we're gonna talk about some of them today on StreetSmart.
Seth Johnson:It's gonna be a very special front page, something that Mainstreet's never done before, kind of a
Lillian Hamman:new unique design.
Seth Johnson:Yeah. And covering Gainesville for the last five years, you know, I've gone to a lot of these annual remembrance events for nine eleven. The city of Gainesville will have one in front of City Hall and there's the stair climbing that happens at Ben Hill Griffith Stadium, you know, the swamp each year. But for a special anniversary, you know, we dug into the archives and it was really interesting to read some of that robust local reporting from the time, talking to volunteers at Oaks Mall collecting $3,000 in three hours to send to the Red Cross. And of forensic scientists from UF being taken by military planes, you know, the very next day to New York to identify remains.
Seth Johnson:UF's president, you know, talking about UF and provost were stuck in California and unable to return for the memorial ceremony. Got to learn about Michael Gannon who was a professor at UF and kind of a titan of teaching, it looks like, at the university and he spoke at that memorial ceremony kind of reminding the audience of past attacks with the War of eighteen twelve and Pearl Harbor And also encouraging the people attending not to let it jade them towards maybe Muslims in general, to allow them to give in to some of those worst proclivities that humans can have sometimes.
Lillian Hamman:And that timeline included some somber things like bomb threats, marches. There were some other patriotic things like Walmart sold out of American flags, and what was going on at the blood bank.
Seth Johnson:Yeah. There was a huge blood response. Obviously, you know, people were thinking of what they could do to help and blood came to mind. And so, the blood center at the time was just packed with donors. Think that first day, Tuesday, over 1,000 blood donors in Gainesville and there were another 300.
Seth Johnson:And then the very next day, Wednesday, they had another, you know, record day of blood donors where they wouldn't normally get that many in a week, they were saying. They had so many people that they didn't close the doors until 4AM on Wednesday morning because they wanted to get through the entire batch of people who were lined up. And there were already people lined up at 6AM, you know, two hours later, and so they opened early to get people in, start, working on drawing blood and hopefully sending it to anybody in need.
Lillian Hamman:And of course, you know, with nine eleven came a bunch of changes for airports and security and things like that. Gainesville was not excluded from that. Lots of security changes, including Beamer, who is a yellow Labrador, and she's been the airport security dog for almost a decade. And Seth, you got to go meet Beamer and interview her handler and talk about her next step into retirement. What was it like getting to meet a celebrity like Beamer and learn about her story?
Seth Johnson:And I mean, she is a celebrity. I mean, she has her own plush toy that looks just like her little canine sniffing dog. She's been to arenas to demonstrate her sniffing abilities and down to the World Equestrian Center doing demonstrations and goes to local schools. So there are a lot of people who have met Beamer. And yeah, obviously nineeleven came with huge changes to airports.
Seth Johnson:And then several years later, there was a bomb threat at Gainesville Regional Airport. And it took several hours to get a team from the University of Florida to the airport and clear it and make sure everything was good to go. And it's quite a delay for air traffic. And so the staff there started thinking, maybe we need our own canine specialist to be able to clear those threats or uncertainties or unattended baggage quickly so it's not disrupting the business. And so one of their staffers got trained and they brought in Beamer.
Seth Johnson:And they picked Beamer cause it's named for Todd Beamer, who was one of the passengers on flight 93 and helped, you know, rush the cockpit and ended up with that flight crashing in Pennsylvania. And they reached out to Todd Beamer's widow and asked for permission and she granted it and so named it Beamer in his honor. And Beamer's last day is going to be this Friday on nineeleven, you know, the 25th anniversary and so they're gonna have a little ceremony and she will officially be retired after, yeah, nearly a decade of, you know, being at the airport, being an ambassador for the airport really, and then also being at that safety measure. Another story that will be coming out, and these will be ones that are online at mainstreetdailynews.com, we weren't able to fit everything into the print edition. But Lillian was able to speak to a first responder from New York and also a soldier who fought in Afghanistan, you know, in the resulting war after nine eleven on a theater production that's going to be coming to Gainesville, kind of in memory of nine eleven, even though it's not gonna be happening for a couple months.
Seth Johnson:Right? Tell us about that.
Lillian Hamman:Yeah. So November 10, there's going to be an event called Behind the Lines at UF Performing Arts Center. And essentially, there's this program called Modern Warrior that was founded just a couple years ago, and it aims to tell the stories of veterans and first responders through theater and music. So they've written this one specifically for nine eleven. And, yeah, like Seth said, features a Former New York City firefighter, Bill Spade, and veteran of Afghanistan who served three years in combat.
Lillian Hamman:His name is Jaymes Poling. And they come together, tell their stories on stage with Juilliard trained musicians in the background performing. So Bill, he was actually in one of the World Trade Towers when it fell, and he was the only member of his unit who did not perish that day. So big losses as well as his uncle was also a passenger on flight 93. And then Jaymes, the Afghanistan vet, he enlisted when he was 17 years old right out of high school and went straight into combat.
Lillian Hamman:And he said whenever he was trying to, you know, get himself ready to go fight, he would just envision that day when he was in school and nine eleven happened and watching it on TV. But a big thing that they try to do with these productions is connect veterans and anybody else struggling with PTSD and trauma with resources to be able to overcome those traumas. So I think they had a statistic that seventy four percent of audience members said they're more likely to seek help after seeing one of these performances. So doing some pretty big work on top of commemorating a big anniversary. You're definitely not gonna wanna miss the print copy this week.
Lillian Hamman:We've got all of our free drop locations listed on our website. Go grab a copy and reflect on what was happening this day twenty five years ago.
Seth Johnson:We're going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsor before we get back to the news forecast and event segments.
Forest Meadows:At Forest Meadows, our commitment is simple. Exceptional care, personal attention, and respect for every family we serve. Forest Meadows offers every option in one trusted place. Visit our beautiful gardens and glass front niches or plan ahead for cremation, funerals, and memorials at our funeral home or tribute center located on our cemetery grounds. Forest Meadows, where compassion meets experienced, and every life is honored with care.
Lillian Hamman:Now for this week's news forecast. Alachua's planning and zoning board will meet tomorrow at six p. M. To vote on updating its comprehensive plan with provisions to potentially allow AI data centers. Alachua County will hold its regular meeting tomorrow as well.
Lillian Hamman:It starts at 11thirty am. The Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority will talk Wednesday about debt reduction and demolition in the power district. The city of Gainesville will have a special meeting on Thursday at 05:30PM.
Seth Johnson:Now for our events segment covering upcoming family friendly events this week. The Gainesville Veg Fest is coming to Bow Diddley Plaza at 11AM on Sunday, featuring an array of plant based foods, fitness opportunities, and fun activities for all ages. The University of Florida will hold a public astronomy night on Friday at the teaching observatory on campus. The event is set for 08:30PM, but check the status for the free event up to an hour before to make sure the skies are clear. Waldo's second annual Sweet Potato Festival kicks off on Saturday, celebrating all things sweet potato.
Seth Johnson:The free family friendly festival will feature a sweet potato dish contest for your best pie, casserole, or creative creation. And before we sign off, this episode of StreetSmart, obviously, has been a very somber topic as we look back to 09:11. But we also remember the first responders who are here in our community every day, continuing the work that those firefighters and police officers were doing twenty five years ago.
Lillian Hamman:On behalf of the entire Mainstreet Daily News team and MARC Media Studios, we just want to give a big thanks to those first responders and wish you a happy Labor Day.
Seth Johnson:And that's all we've got for this week's podcast, brought to you by Mainstreet Daily News and made possible by our generous members. You can access more free local news at mainstreetdailynews.com. We'll be back next week with more stories that matter to you because they take place right here in Alachua County. Take a minute to share StreetSmart and help us continue the work. Our theme music is Sunset Sonata by Gainesville ska band, Now Leaving Space.
Seth Johnson:This episode is a production of MARC Media.