Gainesville Iguana

Gainesville Iguana Subscriptions to the Iguana are $15-$20/year, mailed First Class.

The Gainesville Iguana is a semi-monthly progressive newsletter and calendar of events which first began publishing in October 1986. Through its calendar, directory of organizations, and content, it fosters the growth of movement consciousness and community organizing on issues from local to international.

06/09/2024

Hey Iguana fans, here is the new one!

It was my honor and pleasure to be a volunteer at this conference which, when asked by a friend from home what it was li...
04/27/2024

It was my honor and pleasure to be a volunteer at this conference which, when asked by a friend from home what it was like, I could only answer "hopeful and inspiring" .

Video Links Scroll down for embedded videos. Thanks to Act.tv and More Perfect Union for their work to livestream and circulate these sessions! Rebuilding a Fighting UAW Friday Night Main Session Saturday Morning Main Session Organizing the South Great Labor Arts Exchange Concert Black Labor Struggl...

Come watch the All-Stars take on Orlando Roller Derby on Saturday, May 13, at 6pm at the MLK Jr. Multipurpose Center at ...
04/07/2023

Come watch the All-Stars take on Orlando Roller Derby on Saturday, May 13, at 6pm at the MLK Jr. Multipurpose Center at 1028 NE 14th St. in Gainesville.

Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. Kids 12 and under get in free. Pick up tickets from Loosey’s or purchase online at Brown Paper Tickets.

Follow Gainesville Roller Rebels on Facebook or Instagram for more information about upcoming events.

Doors open at 6pm and the action starts at 6:30pm. Food and drinks will be available for purchase. There will be a raffle with proceeds going to a local charity.

Interested in volunteering?

All of the volunteers get free admission on the day of the bout, free food at the after party, and a free entry into the raffle. They will also receive a volunteer punch card to get Gainesville Roller Rebels swag after volunteering at multiple bouts. Contact [email protected] for more information.

Come watch the All-Stars take on Orlando Roller Derby on Saturday, May 13, at 6pm at the MLK Jr. Multipurpose Center at 1028 NE 14th St. in Gainesville.

CORRECTION to elections articlePosted on July 25, 2022 by adminPlease note that the July/August edition misstates Gary G...
07/29/2022

CORRECTION to elections article
Posted on July 25, 2022 by admin

Please note that the July/August edition misstates Gary Gordon’s position regarding single family zoning. He supports single family zoning and is against the proposal that would change that. A missing word—”proposal”—in the original report creates the confusion. Again, he is against the exclusionary zoning proposal and supports single family zoning as we have it now. Sorry for the confusion. It has been corrected in the article online.

This entry was posted in Articles, July-August 2022.

Please note that the July/August edition misstates Gary Gordon’s position regarding single family zoning. He supports single family zoning and is against the proposal that would change that. A missing word—”proposal”—in the original report creates the confusion. Again, he is against the ex...

Last saw Roy on his Blue Dot Tours, visting our Blue Dot in NCF.
07/26/2022

Last saw Roy on his Blue Dot Tours, visting our Blue Dot in NCF.

Join my mailing list and participate in our next Virtual Sing-Along Videohttp://www.royzimmerman.com/contact.htmlTHREE HOUR TOUR - Gilligan’s Island ParodySo...

07/21/2022

Linktree. Make your link do more.

The May/June issue is out! Please support our work and get The Gainesville Iguana right in your mailbox.
05/14/2022

The May/June issue is out! Please support our work and get The Gainesville Iguana right in your mailbox.

The May/June issue of the Iguana is now available, and you can access it here! If you want to get your hands on a hard copy, check out our distro locations here.

We got another Iguana done, the January February edition can be accessed here. Thanks for reading it, forwarding it, an...
01/19/2022

We got another Iguana done, the January February edition can be accessed here. Thanks for reading it, forwarding it, and supporting it. https://gainesvilleiguana.org/2022/articles/january-february-2022-iguana/

The January-February issue of the Iguana is now available, and you can access it here! If you want to get your hands on a hard copy, check out our distro locations here.

"They sent us a collection letter for $16,000,” said A, one Collier tenant. She is being sued for $16,000 in damages aft...
11/28/2021

"They sent us a collection letter for $16,000,” said A, one Collier tenant. She is being sued for $16,000 in damages after Collier stopped accepting COVID-related housing assistance.

“Your staycation is over,” said a property manager to K, another Collier tenant. She was served a lease non-renewal because her property manager received her ERAP funds late...."

“They sent us a collection letter for $16,000,” said A, one Collier tenant. She is being sued for $16,000 in damages after Collier stopped accepting COVID-related housing assistance.

"With the unexpected resignation announcement of At-Large City Commissioner Gail Johnson a couple months ago, the need f...
11/01/2021

"With the unexpected resignation announcement of At-Large City Commissioner Gail Johnson a couple months ago, the need for a special election has happened. That election will be Tuesday, Nov. 16, with early voting November 12-14. It is open to all City of Gainesville registered voters.

There are five candidates who have registered for the election. The most well-known and strongest in the field is former Mayor and City Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut, who served office in the City from 1987 to 1990, and then was a County Commissioner from 2002 to 2006. She has been very active in Democratic party politics over the past decades. She is also the candidate Gail Johnson has endorsed to carry on her agenda, which she cut short for various personal reasons just months after having been reelected in 2020.

The second strongest candidate is political newcomer Matt Howland, who already has an active grassroots campaign in full swing. He is a former Gainesville Middle School teacher who stepped away from teaching and became active in the non-profit sector, currently running a youth fitness program. From his website: “… (we) should focus on actionable issues that are inclusive and sustainable, such as renewable energy and waste collection, public transportation and safe streets, supporting small businesses and cutting red tape.”

With the unexpected resignation announcement of At-Large City Commissioner Gail Johnson a couple months ago, the need for a special election has happened. That election will be Tuesday, Nov. 16, with early voting November 12-14. It is open to all City of Gainesville registered voters.

Once again two Washington, D.C.-based nonprofits, the Center for Voter Information and the Voter Participation Center, a...
10/25/2021

Once again two Washington, D.C.-based nonprofits, the Center for Voter Information and the Voter Participation Center, are sending potentially misleading mailings to Alachua County voters and other residents.

The two groups, which routinely send similar mailings across Florida, announced they will collectively send more than 13,000 pieces of mail to Alachua County. In 2020, the same groups sent more than 30,000 mailings. Residents started receiving the unofficial mailings last week.

Intended for residents who are not registered to vote, the groups’ mailings have previously confused and angered some voters, with notices sent based on incorrect or out-of-date information. Prior mailings have resulted in pre-filled voter registration applications sent to already registered voters, deceased persons, minor children, and even pets.

Both the Center for Voter Information and the Voter Participation Center are not affiliated with the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections. The Alachua County Supervisor of Elections does not provide the address information used to conduct the mailings.

Individuals with questions or concerns regarding these mailings are encouraged to contact these groups directly and can unsubscribe from future mailings using the following links:

Center for Voter Information

Toll-free 866-290-1599

[email protected]

Voter Participation Center

Toll-free 877-255-6750

[email protected]

The Alachua County Supervisor of Elections is the official source for information related to voter registration and elections in Alachua County. Residents can verify and check their voter registration status at https://www.votealachua.com/My-Registration-Status or by calling 352-374-5252.

For more information, contact the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections at 352-374-5252.

Once again two Washington, D.C.-based nonprofits, the Center for Voter Information and the Voter Participation Center, are sending potentially misleading mailings to Alachua County voters and other residents.

August 30, 2021by James Thompson"Afghanistan may be hard to find on a map, but each day its o***m poppies provide the va...
09/09/2021

August 30, 2021
by James Thompson

"Afghanistan may be hard to find on a map, but each day its o***m poppies provide the vast majority of he**in to Europe and the world. While the United States draws its supply largely from Mexico, our imperial endeavors implicate us deeply in the Afghan he**in trade.

Without the economic “stability” and payoffs to corrupt governments and warlords that o***m poppy farming supplies, neither the Taliban, nor Raytheon, nor Boeing, nor the U.S. sponsored Karzai government would have been able to operate the giant money laundering business that Afghanistan has been for the last twenty years.

The soaring profit from the drug trades, arms production, and the salaries of a 300,000-strong “ghost army” are made on the backs of everyday Afghans, but also everyday U.S. citizens struggling with the $2 trillion cost of the war. Every president since Bush II, and every one of their Vice Presidents, including Joe Biden, was aware of this through public media wire reports and U.S. and international agency investigations.

As the world’s foremost illicit supplier of drugs – with hectares in production of poppy equal to at least a third of all coca hectares in the Americas – Afghanistan was an ideal location for the imperial money laundering scheme which benefited all sides of the war racketeering business.

Both the Taliban and the “legitimate” colonial government used a system of cash payments funneled inequitably upward through redirected soldier salaries to warlords, and the profits from the drug trade, to maintain an uneasy stalemate which saw record op**te production and global addiction rates between 2001 and 2020.

Shareholders in private mercenary firms (which had the majority of the non-Afghan soldiers on the ground), aerospace companies (drone and bomb manufacturers like Lockheed and Raytheon), and the ubiquitous small arms and vehicle manufacturers (General Dynamics) joined Taliban and Afghani government funded warlords in creating the most inequitable upward redistribution of wealth in the history of both our nations.

U.S. working people and Afghan laborers – including the men, women, and children that are forced under gunpoint to meet warlord and village poppy quotas – pay the full price for this in taxes, and in blood.

Few people have analyzed the correlation between the beginning of the U.S. war against the Taliban in 2001, when they were so weak as to offer Osama bin Laden and most of their Afghani territory as prizes to the infidel empire, and their parallel near “eradication” of poppy production.

The Taliban mujahideen did what no other government in global history has done, except for the eradication of quaalude production in the 1980s. It almost completely eliminated a source material for a globally addictive drug.

If this were not a testament to the power of the Taliban and the existential relationship between o***m, empire, and fundamentalist Islamic anticolonialism, what came after surely was. Immediately after 9/11 a U.S. foreign office narcotics director, William Bach, reported to the House of Representatives that the Taliban removal of “haram” (forbidden items or acts under orthodox Islamic law) poppy was actually a ruse to increase o***m prices, and that warlords had stockpiled non-degradable o***m to hedge the market.

The continued influx of he**in to the global market, and the relative lack in price hikes, suggested this was true. The Taliban, it turns out, were master capitalists and market manipulators. Bush II and his war dog corporate cronies wanted in on the action, and they got it. He quickly turned down the generous Taliban deal, turned a blind eye to record poppy production and increased processing, and opened the floodgates for war profiteering on all sides.

Another fact little discussed is that the U.S. war did not end because of the largesse of corporate sponsored leaders like Joe Biden, or out of any concern for the “failure” of “nation building.” Rather, domestic movement pressure from the progressive left on Democratic platforming at the state and national level has exposed the costliness of global imperialism, while at home, civilization is in decline.

The United States is one of three nations (with Hungary and Brazil) of 163 with a decline in living standards over the last ten years, according to the Social Progress Index. A huge part of this decline is manifest in the very addiction to Afghan and Mexican he**in in the United States, and the failure of privatized medicine and corporate “democracy” to mitigate the conditions giving rise to drug use.

One thing is certain, the drugs will flow despite the Taliban’s post U.S.-exit claims to make Afghanistan free of poppy farming. As we know from our experience with religious fundamentalism at home, money is never “haram.”

So while the U.S. “war” with Afghanistan is technically over, the war of capital against the people in both our countries rages on.

As Orwell wrote in 1984 “Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.” One could also write that we were always addicted to Eastasia, and addicted to the idea of it as a terrible opposite to our “Western Civilization.” It turns out Eastasia/Afghanistan is not the opposite, but the exemplar of our kleptocratic corporate global empire. And it remains the source of the dangerous medicine that global citizens use to treat the sadness which comes from living with imperialism.

To riff on a famous Marxist dictum, it might be said that op**tes are the religion of a people struggling with empire."

🌍🌏
The author dedicates this piece to fellow addicts in Afghanistan and the United States.

For the Iguana, most of this information is from the wire and easily obtained. If you want to fact check my report on U.S. standards decline, it is here:

https://tinyurl.com/Iguana1237
The report I mention to the House is from William Bach, Director, Office of Asia, Africa, Europe, NIS Programs, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Testimony Before the Committee on Government Reform U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, Washington, DC, October 3, 2001.

Afghanistan may be hard to find on a map, but each day its o***m poppies provide the vast majority of he**in to Europe and the world. While the United States draws its supply largely from Mexico, our imperial endeavors implicate us deeply in the Afghan he**in trade. 

Here is the September 2021 Iguana, with special attention to Afghanistan and a 20 year old 9/11/01 archival post as wel...
09/01/2021

Here is the September 2021 Iguana, with special attention to Afghanistan and a 20 year old 9/11/01 archival post as well. With heavy hearts we also mark the passing of James Thompson, a frequent contributor (see pg eight) who died two days ago (8/31). He will be missed.

https://gainesvilleiguana.org/2021/articles/september-2021-gainesville-iguana/

The September issue of the Iguana is now available, and you can access it here! If you want to get your hands on a hard copy, check out our distro locations here.

Are you registered? Need to update your address? Have you missed recent elections and are unsure if you are still curren...
08/30/2021

Are you registered?
Need to update your address?
Have you missed recent elections and are unsure if you are still current?
Check yourself out here, and please share!

If you are using this tool to check the status of your vote-by-mail ballot, the online display, a series of gray arrows that will change to blue as your ballot progresses through the following steps:

Alachua County Public Schools Superintendent, Carlee Simon said Corcoran’s desire to punish the school districts defies ...
08/18/2021

Alachua County Public Schools Superintendent, Carlee Simon said Corcoran’s desire to punish the school districts defies rationale.

“The punitive approach of the Commissioner is driven by a need for compliance regardless of rationale,” Simon said.

Corcoran, in a written letter outlining probable cause, argued because Broward and Alachua school districts required masks and did not allow sufficient opportunity for parents to opt-out, the school districts violated two laws: The Parents’ Bill of Rights and the Department of Health’s emergency rule that requires schools to allow a student to opt-out for wearing a masks.

Simon argued no state law was violated because a medical exemption in Alachua school district’s mask policy did allow for opt-outs.

“It doesn’t have to be entirely a physical condition. It could also have anxiety associated, but we do need this to be signed by a qualifying medical provider,” Simon explained.

Broward County Public Schools’ policy also allowed for medical opt-outs, but Cartwright said the state did not meet the necessary requirements to enact an emergency rule anyway.

“The rule that the Department of Health put out is lacking specificity,” Cartwright said.

Simon, in defending her school districts’ policy, also pointed to another opt-out allowance made possible by an emergency rule recently adopted by the State Board of Education that said students can use a Hope Scholarship to move schools if they don’t want to abide by a mask requirement.

But there's not much the state can do about it.

by Dmitry Podobreev, Paul Ortiz and Sheila Payne, Alachua County Labor CoalitionOn July 2, the Alachua County Labor Coal...
08/13/2021

by Dmitry Podobreev, Paul Ortiz and Sheila Payne, Alachua County Labor Coalition

On July 2, the Alachua County Labor Coalition (ACLC) helped organize with members of Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and members of the Pine Ridge community to go door-to-door to talk to residents of the Pine Ridge community in NW Gainesville with the aim of organizing resistance to their displacement by a new landlord. Twenty community members joined with 20 Pine Ridge residents in solidarity to defend the Pine Ridge residents’ rights to not lose their housing. This was after a Zoom meeting where Pine Ridge residents told what was happening to their community.

Key City Capital, a Texas based investment firm, purchased 83 units in Pine Ridge in 2020, including a beloved community center building which provides the neighborhood children with programs and activities. The company says they are renovating the apartments and will raise the rents by almost $400. Current residents, many of whom have lived there for over a decade, some for over 25 years, were put on a month-to-month lease and are being told to leave their homes within 30 days with no guarantee of another place to stay.

Residents are receiving letters from the management company stating, “You are advised that your tenancy and/or lease if applicable will not be renewed. You must vacate the premises no later than 7/31/21. In the event that you do not vacate the premises by said date, legal action may be taken in which you may be held liable for holdover (double) rent, damages, court costs and attorneys’ fees.”

Living conditions in the neighborhood have long been sub-standard. Many of the apartments suffer from leaky roofs with concurrent mold and clogged plumbing among many deficiencies. When residents asked the property managers to live up to their responsibilities, perform maintenance, and deal with the glaring health and safety problems at the properties, they are ignored. Worse yet, one resident says, “I was told by the new owners that no one would be receiving their security deposits.”

Despite all the issues, Pine Ridge residents cherish their bonds with each other and the community they’ve built.“We have worked to build our own community center here where our children have healthy activities to do after school. We will lose all of this if we are kicked out of our homes,” one resident said.

“Pine Ridge people are lower-income but we are tight-knit. We look out for each other and keep our children safe from all of the violence in this city. If we are dispersed from this development, many of us have nowhere to go.”

Another resident at risk of losing their home said they expect to be homeless if they are kicked out from Pine Ridge, “because there is no affordable housing in Gainesville.”

The primary emotion that Pine Ridge residents expressed was incredible stress and horror at losing their home and community.

Key City Capital and Jacksonville based Suncoast Property Management, the company hired to manage the units, are destroying the community, displacing people, pricing them out of future residency, and furthering the housing crisis in this city.

Especially because of the pandemic, many residents do not have first and last month’s rent, security deposit money, and are fearful of not finding another place to rent.

Almost 100 residents signed the petition to the City of Gainesville and Alachua County Commissioners asking for their help. Three Rivers Legal Services is offering their assistance, as is Alachua County Support Services.

ACLC is meeting with the residents at the community center next week to plan further actions, tell them about community resources including moving assistance and monetary assistance with deposits. We want the residents to stay in their community, but are planning for mutual aid assistance.

We are asking people to call the city and county commissioners to ask for help to stop these evictions. We are demanding that this wealthy corporate investment company give the residents their security deposits back and are demanding that they give residents longer than 30 days to find other homes.

On July 2, the Alachua County Labor Coalition (ACLC) helped organize with members of Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and members of the Pine Ridge community to go door-to-door to talk to residents of the Pine Ridge community in NW Gainesville with the aim of organizing resistance to their displace...

Hello CMC friends! The Civic Media Center is thrilled to announce that we plan to reopen in August. We’re still keeping ...
08/13/2021

Hello CMC friends!

The Civic Media Center is thrilled to announce that we plan to reopen in August. We’re still keeping a careful eye on the local and national COVID numbers, but with vaccinations now widely available, we think it’s the right time to get ready to welcome you all back in person.

We hope to have the library open for limited hours before the end of August, and we’re putting our heads together to come up with some great events for you. Stay tuned for specific dates, and details about how we will maintain social distancing and safety precautions at events.

In the meantime, you can find the CMC at a number of tabling events, in our online programming including our book club, and you can get involved by joining our volunteer meetings.

We recently hosted our very first in-person volunteer meeting in the CMC courtyard in over a year. With such a strong turnout we are hopeful that our slow transition to in-person operation in August will be supported and safe.

For now, volunteer meetings will be every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month at 5:30 pm in the courtyard. Details can be found on our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/civicmediacenter. Masks and social distancing are required, but if you have any other questions feel free to reach out to us.

As we continue to organize and push forward, volunteers are beginning to develop some programming ideas to re-energize the community and raise funds. Ideas include bike maintenance day, self-defense classes and an outdoor music show.

We are always looking for more people to plug in and get involved, so we encourage you to join a volunteer meeting or get in touch through email or social media.

Summer is a slow time for the CMC, and we welcome any donations to help us pay rent and allow us to continue providing a space for important organizing. If you’d like to get more detailed updates, sign up for our bi-weekly email newsletter using the link above.

We hope to see you soon.

The Civic Media Center is thrilled to announce that we plan to reopen in August. We’re still keeping a careful eye on the local and national COVID numbers, but with vaccinations now widely available, we think it’s the right time to get ready to welcome you all back in person. 

https://gainesvilleiguana.org/category/articles/july-august-2021/
07/08/2021

https://gainesvilleiguana.org/category/articles/july-august-2021/

The Friends of Susan B. Anthony will celebrate Women’s Equality Day (Aug. 26) with their annual festivities via Zoom on Saturday, Aug. 28 at 1 pm. This event, which began as an informal birthday party for Susan B. Anthony over forty years ago, is now held in conjunction with the anniversary of the...

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