StreetSmart: Gainesville

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Lillian: 00:37

Hello from Gainesville, Florida. It's Monday, February 2, and you're listening to StreetSmart. I'm Lillian Hamman StreetSmart is a weekly podcast from Mainstreet Daily News, where we cover local news that informs, engages, and inspires listeners like you. Here's the top headlines we're rounding up.

Lillian: 01:00

Last week, a 12 acre commercial plaza in Gainesville sold for $16,000,000. The plaza contains Planet Fitness, Winn Dixie, and O2B Kids off 13th Street.

Lillian: 01:11

Bricks and Mini Figs, a Lego store with new, used, and trade in sets opened in Gainesville on Saturday. The West Gainesville storefront comes as the owner also uses Legos to bond with his patients at the children's hospital.

Lillian: 01:24

Alachua County School Board member Janine Plavac filed to run for the district one seat. Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Plavac last year to fill a vacancy. Three other candidates will also run across three open seats.

Lillian: 01:37

Alachua County issued a week long mandatory burn ban on Friday. The ban was issued because of drought conditions that put the area at risk for wildfire spread.

Lillian: 01:47

Ever visited Devil's Millhopper or San Felasco Hammock? Well, an Alachua County State park ranger who works there was named the 2026 park ranger of the year for Florida.

Lillian: 01:58

As always, you can visit MainstreetDailyNews.com for more details on these stories. Thanks to our generous members, this news stays free for the whole community with no paywall.

Lillian: 02:16

Thanks again for listening to Street Smart. I'm Lillian Hamman, and with me in studio today is associate editor Seth Johnson.

Seth: 02:23

Hey, Lillian. Happy to be here for our first ever episode of StreetSmart and on Groundhog's Day, no less.

Lillian: 02:28

Perfect timing. Have you been keeping your eye on the weather?

Seth: 02:31

I have not. It doesn't really matter if there's a shadow or no shadow because what's already here is street smart after months of planning, and we're so happy.

Lillian: 02:39

Woo hoo.

Seth: 02:40

And we're so happy to have you guys here on the Ground Floor, the initial episode. With a news podcast, you know, people kind of join all along the way, and we're hopeful that it builds traction and kind of snowballs. But you guys will always be that select few for episode one.

Lillian: 02:54

That's right. And this week, you can already look forward to a special bonus episode with our publisher, J.C. Derrick. And the best part for all of you who are tuning in today, we have some special prizes for you.

Seth: 03:06

That's right. Big shout out to DJ Vinny Foo with Magic 101.3 for hooking us up so we can hook you up with four tickets to the Crayola Experience in Orlando.

Lillian: 03:16

Yeah. You won't want to miss out on these tickets. They have over 20 different hands on experiences for people of all ages, including the world's largest crayon.

Seth: 03:25

And a really great part about these tickets is they don't expire till most of the way through November year, so it's great to have in your back pocket for a birthday coming up or a special weekend trip, however you want to do it. Although I'm sure the majority of people here are really just here for the news and the tickets are just a little bonus on the side. They didn't click the Facebook ad to come here just for the tickets.

Lillian: 03:44

But we do really appreciate you listening, and we hope you enjoy StreetStreet.

Seth: 03:48

Now to win those tickets, let's get to it right off the bat. Just listen to the end of the episode, go to the show details, and click the link that say free tickets, and you can fill out that form, and we will select a winner on Friday just after noon. So you have from now till Friday at noon to fill out that application. And of course, the smart people are already going to the show notes and click on the link and not waiting for the episode to end, which is fine. Just remember to come back once you fill out that form and get all of this week's news.

Lillian: 04:15

Yeah. We have a lot to keep you updated on, and we can just jump right into it, Seth. What are our featured stories for the week?

Seth: 04:21

Well, it starts off with you and the Alachua election.

Lillian: 04:25

So last week, the city commission voted to close one of its three precincts ahead of the election coming up on April 14. The city is closing Precinct 53, which is the Hathcock Community Center. And various political groups from across Alachua County are calling it out as voter suppression and disenfranchisement. Staff said this was necessary because Hathcock Center was going to be under construction.

Lillian: 04:47

There's been plans in the works for the last year to renovate it or build a new center. The last updates were given in the fall, and so far, design plans have not even been approved, but they're saying it's going be under construction.

Lillian: 05:00

So two of the groups that have voiced opposition to this are the Alachua County Democratic Party and the Alachua County Labor Coalition. And they're calling on the city to provide a set start date for construction or provide an alternative precinct.

Seth: 05:15

And those two groups in particular took issue with the fact that Precinct 53 is the one that's closing. Why is that?

Lillian: 05:22

Both of the groups pointed to the fact that historically, the Hathcock Center has seen the highest number of minority votes. During the spring election last year, 63% of black voters in the election voted from the Hathcock Center.

Seth: 05:36

Now, the vote was unanimous, but then the next day, one of the commissioners changed their minds.

Lillian: 05:42

Yeah. Less than twenty four hours later, Commissioner Jacob Fletcher posted on Facebook that he wished he hadn't have supported it, that he felt like he was voting for it because there was some deadline with state statute. But after reviewing that and, you know, seeing how upset people were about what happened, he said even though he can't change his vote, he's going to do what he can to fix things moving forward. So the issue will come up again on the next regular meeting agenda, February 9, and they'll try to move forward for the upcoming election.

Seth: 06:15

And for this next election, it's only commission seat three that's up for election, so one commission seat that will be on the ballot.

Lillian: 06:21

That's correct. And I will be at that meeting on February 9, we'll continue to see what happens.

Lillian: 06:26

And Seth, you've got our second feature story of the week that touches on something recent, but it also goes back to a story that you did last year as well.

Seth: 06:34

Yeah. So this is a story I had a lot of background information on already, but the Gainesville Police Department held a press conference on Monday in coordination with the US Attorney's Office for North Florida and the FBI's Jacksonville office, along with the IRS's Criminal Investigations division here in Florida. Which I did not know the IRS had a criminal investigations unit, but it sounds like that should be a new TV show right there.

Seth: 06:59

So all of these organizations sent some high ranking officials to Gainesville on Monday and kind of the main crux of why they were here is a sentencing that happened earlier in January. A federal court sentenced a man to eighteen years for his role in defrauding $15,000,000 from at least 28 different victims across the East Coast.

Seth: 07:16

Now, the man that was sentenced, he's 23 years old. He was living in South Florida at the time, but actually he had overstayed a student visa and was here illegally. He's from India originally. So he's gonna be spending the next eighteen years in federal prison.

Seth: 07:29

And those different investigators and prosecutors really here in Gainesville to talk about preventing fraud down the line. They encourage people to have discussions with older parents or loved ones to let them know that, you know, anyone calling, demanding payments in gold or in gift cards or in cryptocurrencies, they really need to pause, they need to take a deep breath, and kind of wait and make sure they know what they're getting into.

Lillian: 07:51

And why are these investigators choosing to come to Gainesville?

Seth: 07:54

So that's the connection that goes back to last year in a story I did. So one of the victims, his name is Brian Oliver, and he lives here in Gainesville. After retiring and traveling in an RV for a while, he chose Gainesville to move to because of UF Health being close. He's in his eighties now. And he fell victim to this fraud scheme about a year ago now. After being contacted, he was convinced that he needed to pay in gold because of some incorrect bank transactions. So Brian went out he got 68 gold coins worth about $200,000 and a man came to his house in a black mustang and he gave him the cardboard box. And then a little bit after this happened, he got contacted again saying, 'oh there's still an issue. We're gonna need another payment.' And as he spoke to me he said, 'you know, I came out from under the ether at that point and realized he had just been duped big time. And he said his first instinct was to call him, to message him, and cuss him out, but instead he went to the Gainesville Police Department.

Seth: 08:46

And the Gainesville Police Department set up a sting to actually catch the courier who would come to his house. And Detective Torres with the police department told me on Monday at the press conference, you know, because these scammers were still in contact that put it at the top of their list because they knew they could get action on this versus a lot of scam victims when they come it's too late the scammers have already cut the line and there's no contact there. So the Gainesville Police Department set him up with some more gold coins. They convinced the courier to come back, and when he did they arrested him and that's the man who's been sentenced to eighteen years in prison now. But this had a really big impact on Brian Oliver obviously $200,000 he just lost. He spent a little bit of time in the hospital afterward, he said, because of the stress of this event on his life. And then he testified in court in October during the hearing when the jury found the man guilty. Now, the neat part I think about this is Oliver's determination to get out the information so that other people don't fall for this.

Seth: 09:41

After the jury convicted him, he asked the prosecutors, are you guys putting out a press release? Are you guys gonna let more people know? And if you remember, this was during the government shutdown back in October. And they said, we will, but we have to wait until the government returns because all nonessential personnel, and that includes these press releases, have been canceled right now. Well, he wasn't gonna wait around and he was telling a friend and his friend said, you've got to talk to Main Street about this.

Seth: 10:04

So he did. He walked into our office and our front desk person was actually gone that day, but I'm at my desk and I hear, hello. And so I walked on out there, met Brian Oliver, and he said, I've got a story for you about a Gainesville police sting. And I was a little skeptical, but brought him back and sure enough, he had all that documentation and we did a story and talked with him about how he fell for the scam and some warning signs for others to also not fall for this. Got to see him again last week and he spoke again, you know, warning other elderly people to beware anytime someone's demanding you pay in gold or in cryptocurrency, to take a deep breath, and to really trust on your local law enforcement if you're ever in doubt, especially if someone's impersonating a government agency or saying you have an arrest warrant out or something's been tied to your identification.

Lillian: 10:48

That's one of the coolest parts of our job is when we get to not only be on the ground with our sources but when we get to be part of creating some positive change, hopefully.

Seth: 10:58

Yeah. And Oliver is really trying to get the word out there and create that positive change for others. Those top officials said, you know, Florida is one of the top three states for the number of fraud complaints and also for the amount of money that gets scammed. So Florida is the front lines, and they were talking about that. But because we're the front lines, they said there's also been a lot of cooperation between all the organizations involved to really have an investigation and prosecution method that can bring these people to justice.

Lillian: 11:25

And that wraps up our featured section for this week's Street Smart Podcast. We're gonna head into our news forecast where we tell you about government meetings and different events you can look forward to for this week. The Metropolitan Transportation Organization will meet on Monday at 3PM. It'll be the first meeting with a new executive director hired in January. The organization will discuss leasing office space and how Gainesville moves forward with paratransit services.

Lillian: 11:51

Alachua County has a special policy meeting on Tuesday. The county commission will hear the results of a needs assessment on farmers markets across the area. Gainesville also has a downtown advisory board meeting on Tuesday morning. The agenda has items to discuss an Uber lift staging area downtown, and city staff will give an update on downtown storefront vacancy rates. And the city of Gainesville has a regular meeting on Thursday with quarterly updates from the police and fire departments.

Seth: 12:20

Now for our events section covering upcoming family friendly events this weekend. The third annual second street circus spectacular will feature flying trapeze, circus art, and food vendors. Entry to the outdoor stages is free and the indoor performances cost $15 at the gate. The circus spectacular will be Saturday from 11AM to 3PM at the Gainesville Circus Center. The six gun territory, Wild West weekend, and reunion will gallop into Williston this weekend at the Kirby family farm.

Seth: 12:48

From 10AM to 4PM on Saturday and Sunday, the cowboy and outlaw themed event promises to be the South's largest wild west shindig. Also celebrating its third year, the Brick City Bluegrass Festival in Downtown Ocala is coming this weekend. The event will feature the Lonesome River Band, Authentic Unlimited, and the Flatlanders along with other artists. Tickets cost $30 online. For more weekend events, go to mainstreetdailynews.com and click on the events tab under local living.

Lillian: 13:15

And that's all we've got for our first episode of the street smart podcast brought to you by Mainstreet Daily News and made possible by our generous members.

Seth: 13:24

But that's not all the tickets we have to give away for the Crayola experience. If you did make it here to the end, sometime in the next month or two, definitely before the end of March, we will be giving away another four pack of tickets for free for listeners. So just listen to episodes, click the subscribe button, and on one of these intros here soon, we will let you know that the tickets are back up for grabs.

Lillian: 13:47

Absolutely. Lots of reasons to keep listening, and we definitely wanna give a special thanks to Forest Meadows for believing in local news and sponsoring this podcast. Make sure to join us next week as we round up more local news that matter to you. Remember, you can always find more free local news at MainstreetDailyNews.com or pick up a print copy around Alachua County. Our theme music is Sunset Sonata by Gainesville's very own ska band Now Leaving Space.

Lillian: 14:14

This episode is a production of MARC Media.