Gainesville - Florida - 4K Downtown Drive

Weekday afternoon drive in and around Gainesville, FL. Also includes a quick drive through the University of Florida Campus.
Filmed: February 2021

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From Wikipedia:
Gainesville is the county seat of, and the largest city in, Alachua County, Florida, and is both the principal city of the Gainesville, Florida, metropolitan statistical area and the largest city in North Central Florida. In 2019 the US Census Bureau estimated Gainesville's population at 133,997, a 7.6% increase from 2010, and the metropolitan statistical area's population at 288,212.

Gainesville is home to the University of Florida, the fifth-largest public university campus by enrollment in the United States.

Since the 1990s, suburban sprawl has been a concern for a majority of the city commissioners. The "New Urbanization" plan to gentrify the area between historic Downtown and the University of Florida may slow the growth of suburban sectors and spark a migration toward upper-level apartments in the inner city. The area immediately north of the university is also seeing active redevelopment. Many gentrification plans rely on tax incentives that have sparked controversy and are sometimes unsuccessful. University Corners, which would not have been proposed without a $98 million tax incentive program by the city, was to be "a crowning jewel of the city's redevelopment efforts", 450 condos and hotel units and 98,000 square feet (9,100 m2) of retail space in eight stories covering three city blocks, on 3.4 acres (1.4 ha) purchased for $15.5 million. 19 thriving businesses were demolished in April 2007,[38] but in May 2008 deposit checks were refunded to about 105 people who reserved units,[39] and in July 2008 developers spent "$120,000 to beautify the site, so we won't have this ugly green fence."

Gainesville's east side houses the majority of the city's African-American community, while the west side consists of the mainly student and white resident population. West of the city limits are large-scale planned communities, most notably Haile Plantation, which was built on the site of its eponymous former plantation.

The destruction of the city's landmark Victorian courthouse in the 1960s, which some considered unnecessary, brought the idea of historic preservation to the community's attention. The bland county building that replaced the grand courthouse became known to some locals as the "air conditioner". Additional destruction of other historic buildings in the downtown followed. Only a small handful of older buildings are left, like the Hippodrome State Theatre, at one time a federal building. Revitalization of the city's core has picked up, and many parking lots and underutilized buildings are being replaced with infill development and near-campus housing that blend in with existing historic structures. There is a proposal to rebuild a replica of the old courthouse on a parking lot one block from the original location.

Helping in this effort are the number of areas and buildings added to the National Register of Historic Places. Dozens of examples of restored Victorian and Queen Anne style residences constructed in the city's agricultural heyday of the 1880s and 1890s can be found in the following districts:

Northeast Gainesville Residential District
Southeast Gainesville Residential District
Pleasant Street Historic District
Additionally, the University of Florida Campus Historic District, consisting of 11 buildings and 14 contributing properties, lies within the city's boundaries. Most of the buildings in the Campus Historic District are constructed in variations of Collegiate Gothic architecture, which returned to prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Historic structures on the Register in and around downtown are:

Bailey Plantation House (1854)
Colson House (1905)
Matheson House (1867)
Thomas Hotel (1910)
The Old Post Office (now the Hippodrome State Theatre) (1911)
Masonic Temple (1908)
Seagle Building (1926), downtown Gainesville's tallest building.
Baird Hardware Company Warehouse (1890)
Cox Furniture Store (1875)
Cox Furniture Warehouse (c. 1890)
Epworth Hall (1884)
Old Gainesville Depot (1907)
Mary Phifer McKenzie House (1895)
Star Garage (1902)
A. Quinn Jones House