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Our beloved Rattlesnake Creek
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-UP THE CREEK-
AUGUST '23 NEWSLETTER
Florida Park is a lovely, quiet, neighborhood. My neighbor, Patsy, commented yesterday, "The big news here is when a tree falls down". She's right. When it happens we gather, stare, and remind each other that trees don't last forever.
This happened to our neighbor at the corner or NW 8 Ave. and 18 Terrace last week.
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The stump of the tree that crashed into the house on NW 8th Avenue
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Most houses in Florida Park were built 60 or 70 years ago. Back then many homeowners planted laurel oak trees which are now toppling from old age. These trees have a relatively short life span, 50-70 years. When you hear chain saws chances are the are cutting down an aged-out laurel or one that just crunched a house.
This big'n toppled (fortunately, away from the house) on NW 12 Rd. a
few days earlier. It's best to have tree experts check you trees regularly if you have any doubts. Hurricane season is here so now's as good a time as ever.
NEIGHBOR OF THE MONTH, FOREST LISLE-
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The retired professor with his daughter, Katherine
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The retired UF architecture professor lives on a splendid estate at 1920 NW 8 Ave. His remarkable residence is perched on a 60-foot ridge that overlooks the south side of Rattlesnake Creek.
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His backyard drops sixty dramatic feet
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Professor Lisle has enjoyed living on his three-acres of lush, forested land since 1971. Far below his back deck, a second waterway, Magnolia Creek, heads north to meet Rattlesnake Creek. Just before it does it drops six-feet. This results in one of the G-ville's rare
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| One of Gainesville's rare waterfalls |
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waterfalls. Fifteen years ago Forest discovered a seven-foot alligator basking in the water below. He had the authorities take it away before it could eat anyone.
Forest is a good neighbor and when I drop by I am always greeted with a broad smile.
While there's little happening on the UF campus this summer, I did stumble upon a reception last Wednesday for guest artist, Amor Munoz. She is visiting from Mexico City, here to greet visitors to her art sound installation at the Libby Gallery on SW 13th St.She explained that her piece represents how, in nature, one thing affects another.
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Amor with her magnificent creation. When you touch a sculpted fabric column, a podium robot responds.
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This sounded much better than the press release which explained,
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The "bioautomata" on top looked like pee pee.
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Chimera, Expanded Bodies
(2022) is “a sound installation made up of a set of bioautomata,
artificial entities that contain living matter and generate performative
gestures through their biological processes, which are monitored by
sensors.”
Anyway, it's a cool show in an air-conditioned building. It'll be there for you to enjoy 'til September's end.
ONE MORE AIR-CONDITIONED WONDER TO VISIT on a hot summer's day... The Theater of Memory Museum
at 1705 NW 6th St. Open Wed. thru Sun., 10:30-4:30. It's a wonderful place to visit any time of the year.
ANOTHER COOLING TIP, Today we traded our 96 degree air for the 72 degree water in Poe Springs.
The water was cool but green, somewhat reminiscent of Jello.
I'm not complaining.
It's probably something left over from a St. Patrick's Day celebration.
Francesca and I visited Gainesville's version of the Sistine Chapel -otherwise known as "Room A" at the downtown library- Tuesday evening. It was another monthly "Roundtable Discussion on Housing" sponsored by Gainesville Neighborhood Voices. For a change a wide-range of people were able to speak up about development and housing problems in their neighborhoods. This group led the way to get rid of the former city commission's efforts to eliminate single-family housing. Now we're seeking better solutions.
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Developer Andy Coffey explains his affordable housing plans
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This month's Good Neighbor Award goes to Lee Zeitlin. He and his
wife live next to an abandoned construction site on NW 11 Road. In a week's time he filled an empty dumpster with all of the crap the non-resident homeowner and her workers left in the yard. Thank you, Lee!
Plans for December's Flying Pig Parade are moving right along. We've raised almost half of the funds necessary. Next week we start our Go-Fund-Me drive. We have many
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Come join our planning group! That's Chef Mark in the grey shirt.
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exciting fund-raising events planned for the fall.
Mark Newman, the former owner/chef at the much-loved Leonardo's 706 restaurant, will be hosting a brunch in November. That will be one hot ticket!
You might have heard that our governor says he going to spend a year
enslaved on a plantation to prove that the slave life was actually not that bad. I don't know if this is a joke or not but if he's holed up in Haile Plantation I'm gonna complain.
LOCAL BUSINESS NEWS- We're getting a new Thai restaurant on
the SE corner of NW 10th Ave. and 6th St. It opens in the spring.It's great that we'll have more options than Appleby's for walkable restaurant locations. It's unfortunate that we don't have more useful retail stores south of 16th, on busy 13th Street.
The building they've been working on the NW corner of 16th Ave. and 6th? Sadly, a worker there told me its going to be another smoke shop.
They're still cleaning up the fire mess at Lloyd Clarke Sports. They have been good neighbors and we hope they will be in business again soon.
The secret ice cream store just north, at the corner of NW 16th Ave. and 13 St. has been open for 17 months and is still -without a sign- continues to looks like an empty storefront.
GETTING THE WORD OUT- Someone asked me, "Why are you spending hours writing another newsletter when you wrote
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What remains of ours...
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one three weeks ago? I explained, "Heck, I could write one everyday. People used to do that for these things we called 'newspapers'."
(Note: I actually still subscribe to several!)
Hate in the Hood- Two years ago we had antisemitic brochures delivered to our driveways. Three months ago the "We Say Gay" banner was stolen as it hung from the United Church of Gainesville on NW 5 Ave. When they replaced it with a similar sign last week, a night visitor ripped a hole in it.
Repaired, it is displayed once more.
(Who does this stuff?)
Let me close with happy news.
The Fairy Village in Rattlesnake Woods is open again. Summer storms caused some problems but our elfin friends are back in business. Their ice cream store even has a sign.
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