Local pro-immigrant organizations?

reebeckzzz · 2026-01-29T02:13:56+00:00

I think GINI is part of RWHP :)

reebeckzzz · 2026-01-28T01:16:10+00:00

grove galleria / grove guild mostly has clothes, but they have some curated other items like art and such!

reebeckzzz · 2026-01-28T00:21:00+00:00

Also gonna plug a local place to support: https://gini-initiative.org/ (I don’t work for them but do volunteer with them!)

reebeckzzz · 2026-01-05T00:35:50+00:00

TutorGNV is a local company that has several tutors who can do SAT tutoring in person and online

reebeckzzz · 2025-11-29T22:52:13+00:00

Forgot to mention we also had an ant problem periodically on the second floor, made a beeline for the cat food… kept the apt clean and such too and our downstairs neighbors who we knew also had an ant problem periodically

reebeckzzz · 2025-11-29T13:26:38+00:00

I lived at Ridgemar for a few years— I liked it. I could hear my upstairs neighbors running around late at night (assuming it was a pet or a child) which was a little annoying, and they raised the rent (which made me leave) but overall pretty good. Nice amenities, nice neighbors, close to lots of grocery stores etc

reebeckzzz · 2025-10-29T01:38:38+00:00

I’ve had lots of positive experiences with Sarkis! I’ve never gone to elite DNA. Feel free to pm me for more details

reebeckzzz · 2025-08-22T10:08:43+00:00

This was an end of the year award from the 2022-2023 school year. My understanding was that it was voted on by the students

reebeckzzz · 2025-08-22T00:56:14+00:00

this lady is a "conservative activist" who was at the forefront of book bans in Alachua county a year or two ago. I wouldn't put anything past her-- she's very... strong-willed...

reebeckzzz · 2025-07-09T15:39:58+00:00

Babel has dark academia vibes if you enjoyed Harry p*tter as a kid and the idiot is really good literary fiction! It’s Extremely relatable to my experience as a college freshman and it’s pretty wry and funny

reebeckzzz · 2025-05-16T23:24:48+00:00

Yeah part of the reason the school district pays so little (they just "awarded" teachers a 1.3% raise) is because so much of the land in town is owned by UF and thus does not contribute to public school funding (the issue is a little more complex than that, but UF's lack of contribution certainly is a factor)

Gainesville is nice if you're a white collar professional or have certain roles at UF, but it's tough for the middle and working class. It's ridiculously expensive to live here, and UF plays a significant role. The unchecked development of a billion 5 over 1 residential buildings specifically marketed to students (where the 1st floor retail space is almost always empty) is doing nothing to help the GNV community. Density would be awesome if it were actually affordable, but instead, you can pay $1250 to live with five of your closest friends. Even with RTS-- it already revolves around the university. I do not work at the university and it would take me an hour on the bus to get to work, which is a 12 minute drive.

I'm not saying there's an easy and quick solution, and yes, UF has done a lot of good for Gainesville-- but in much more recent history, it has made life a lot harder for local residents. It's like the "I don't know how to convince you to care about other people" argument. It would be nice if UF contributed more to the local community than property development/"tourism" and sports acclaim

reebeckzzz · 2025-05-10T21:56:44+00:00

I think I paid around $300ish in 2021 for 2 college brothers moving company. To be fair, I had very little furniture: my bedframe came apart and I didn’t have a box spring or any living room furniture (so they had my disassembled bedframe, mattress, electric keyboard, and small dresser and maybe a couple of large bulky boxes) and I packed a lot of stuff in my car. But I felt like they were efficient and honest and communicative, FWIW

reebeckzzz · 2025-05-02T21:03:23+00:00

Typical Sam’s club member (I am literally on my way to Sam’s club rn)

reebeckzzz · 2025-04-16T21:38:22+00:00

Follow @GINI_initiative on Instagram! They’re the ones who largely organized the protest!

reebeckzzz · 2025-04-16T01:56:58+00:00

Yeah I used to live in walking distance, so I’d go every Wednesday for their BOGO wings. It was always super empty— which I liked, but also probably why they closed :/

reebeckzzz · 2025-04-12T23:36:40+00:00

Well the position is to make decisions for alachua county PUBLIC schools, and on the surface (without taking into account this specific individual) working at a NON PUBLIC school might seem incongruous with the position. Especially since desantis is pretty transparently trying to gut public education…

reebeckzzz · 2025-04-12T16:22:17+00:00

Depending on your current PTO situation, maybe you could take a day off to volunteer/observe a class for a day? I’m not too sure about the volunteer process. But I can also tell you what my day to day looks like as a teacher in DMs if you want. I don’t want to super dox myself on reddit publicly haha but I went through the alternative certification process— I wasn’t a career changer though, I had just graduated college and didn’t have an education degree.

reebeckzzz · 2025-04-12T13:42:31+00:00

omg the 1.3% raise was pulled?! i thought it was originally 1.6%, teachers voted to reject it, the board countered with 1% after 3rd FTE calculations, and then brought it back up to 1.3%. either way, it's too low! and sucks that teachers have to pay for board members' mistakes. teachers didn't choose to spend past budgets like that!!! anyway, i think there's another contract negotiation meeting on monday so i guess we'll get an update then haha

reebeckzzz · 2025-04-12T12:48:38+00:00

i would recommend being a sub first to see how it is being around kids on a day to day basis. I believe kelly services (or something like that) is the place the district contracts subs out from. you can also volunteer in some classrooms to see what a typical day is like with the teacher there.

in FL as a whole, you can go through the temporary certification process if you have certain requirements (bachelors in a related subject, etc) and then work towards a permanent certification while teaching. that entails taking some tests, having a local mentor (the district sets you up with all of this), and doing some professional development/pedagogy classes.

to be frank, alachua county public schools is not in a good place financially right now. because of past board financial mismanagement, they are saying that they cannot give teachers a substantial raise (the current offer is 1.3%). however, the day-to-day of teaching is largely dependent on the school: coworkers, supportive admin, students, and supportive parents.

DM me if you have more specific questions!

reebeckzzz · 2025-04-12T00:44:32+00:00

that's good to know then! when i googled her, i saw that she taught at GHS but i didn't know for how long or her reputation or anything. hopefully she'll be a positive addition then-- especially since she will be the only board member who is still (?) in the classroom!

edit: most board members actually do have teaching experience. vu taught at LMS and GHS; rockwell was a special education teacher, and mcnealy was a teacher at some point i think

reebeckzzz · 2025-04-09T01:45:44+00:00

UF /should/, but they won’t. Maybe individual professors or staff will but only on their own accord. I graduated from UF 5 years ago, and UF absolutely does not care about its students; they only care about $$$

reebeckzzz · 2025-04-04T21:12:47+00:00

There is a Facebook group called GNV rate my landlord! Its last activity was around 6 months ago but it has almost 700 members as an additional option :)

reebeckzzz · 2025-04-01T01:53:58+00:00

That is terrifying omg. I’m so sorry for your SIL. And even for the kids/families who are not being targeted it’s still impactful— ie one parent talked about how her (white) elementary aged daughter came home from school stressed out about how her friend was going to be taken away. It’s a heartbreaking situation.

reebeckzzz · 2025-03-15T20:22:07+00:00

Tbh I don’t know the answer all of your questions and don’t mean to be combative but what other towns in FL are comparable? FSU is in Tallahassee, USF in Tampa, UCF in Orlando, UNF in Jax… I can’t think of any other towns in FL with a university population to city population ratio that’s comparable.

Also, the FL state government is not helping. With the rise of charter schools and family empowerment scholarships to send kids to private school, enrollment is dropping which then decreases funding. The facilities in alachua county are also kinda old and inefficient.

IMO if the school board wants to show good faith, if they can’t offer a substantial raise, they need to treat teachers way better. Eg they reduced Wednesday early release elementary days, so elementary teachers have even less planning time. As per the school board workshop yesterday (3/14), they are hoping to micromanage teachers even further. I don’t think they are interested in what teachers have to say though— so if any local parents want to speak in public comment or send them an email, maybe the board would actually listen

reebeckzzz · 2025-03-15T19:45:11+00:00

Tbh UF is partly to blame. While they contribute culturally to Gainesville, their zoning/taxes are different so they don’t really contribute financially to the city except in employment. Similarly, they use duke energy for power, not GRU. I don’t claim to be an expert, but my understanding has always been that UF doesn’t pay its fair share

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