Gainesville’s push to save The JAM
Residents convened at City Hall to make pleas for one of Gainesville’s most unique concert venues
On Thursday, April 28th of 2016, the City of Gainesville Plan Board met at City Hall to discuss and approve a permit to create (surprise!) another apartment complex in Gainesville. As Chair Erin Condon said herself, many of these meetings are usually only attended by the Plan Board as well as some City Hall staff. On April 28th, this was not the case.
On this evening, City Hall was packed with Gainesville locals and students alike that were eager to share their opinion on the implications building this particular apartment complex will cause for our city. Building this complex comes at a steep price: tearing down The JAM, one of Gainesville’s most vibrant and unique concert venues.
The JAM is much more than just a place to hear music, a fact that was embodied in the numerous individuals that went before the board to plea that the development of this complex be reconsidered. In just four short years, The JAM has hosted over 1200 music performances, 20 charity events, and even one wedding. Many found a home away from home at the JAM, a place where all are welcome and no one is a stranger. It truly is a piece of Gainesville’s culture. As the JAM owner and general manager Blake Briand put it, “no one moves to Gainesville for the CVS in the bottom of an apartment building. Destroying a successful business that holds a cultural identity for a city goes against the goal of development that creating these complexes has to begin with.”
Blake Briand speaking at April 28th’s meeting
This simple yet eloquent statement embodies the issue with tearing down cultural businesses in pursuit of corporate agendas. Bulldozing beautiful venues like the JAM guts a city of its cultural identity, which is, at the end of the day, the thing that attracts people to a city in the first place. People don’t move to cities in pursuit of their gargantuan office buildings or empty retail spaces; they move to cities in pursuit of their vibrant cultures and hubs of entertainment.
As one recent graduate put it, “Local music scenes help attract and attain educated and highly skilled people that drive economies.” The young innovators that Gainesville is looking to attract won’t stick around when pieces of Gainesville’s culture get bulldozed in pursuit of corporate greed. Building this apartment complex holds much greater implications than just tearing down a concert hall. It begins the slow and painful process of ripping the heart and soul out of Gainesville.
(Photo Credit: GainesvilleScene)
While touched and inspired by the hour’s worth of opinions from the public, the board was ultimately unable to stop this development from occurring. It is, after all, the landowner’s right to do what they want with their property. However, one local man’s words struck deep in the hearts of arguably all who were listening. His simple statement embodied how the Gainesville public feels about developments such as this, developments that slowly begin to suck the culture out of our town.
“Out of all the people of the public who have spoken tonight, not a single one has spoken in favor of this development,” he said. “I wonder where those people are.”