Nathaniel Sperling for Gainesville City Commission (District 4)
Nathaniel Sperling, Candidate for Gainesville City Commission (District 4)
A hearty hello to all who peruse this website! Before introducing myself, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Don Marsh, the owner of Alachua Voter Guide, for allowing my fellow candidates and myself to post on his blog.
My name is Nathaniel Sperling and I am a candidate for Gainesville City Commission (District 4). I am a recent graduate of the University of Florida (BA in History) and, before that, Santa Fe College (when I attended, it was still Santa Fe Community College) and am currently discerning a calling to the Catholic Priesthood. I have lived in Gainesville virtually my entire life and, for me, this was a nice city to grow up in. When I was younger, my paternal grandparents moved here and, several years later, my father’s brother and sister-in-law moved up here with their two children. For my grandparents, may they rest in peace, they sought closeness with their family and a nice place to retire, while my aunt and uncle were looking for a nice place to raise young children. This city has been good to us, providing a wholesome and nice place to live for my family, and as a, electorate-willing, city commissioner, I would like to help make Gainesville a city we can all call a wonderful home.
Today, we live in troubling economic times. As a city commissioner, I would work hard to get people back to work at good pay and full hours and also to help those who have suffered the most in these hard times. In terms of addressing these two important issues, it is not so much about what our local government needs to do, but what it needs to stop doing. Instead of capriciously standing in the way of our business community and charitable organizations, we must cooperate with local businesses and charities to make Gainesville a more prosperous and compassionate city. It is shameful that a pregnant woman or a young child would be turned away hungry from St. Francis House because they happened to be unlucky number 131 under an arbitrary special-use permit that limits St. Francis House to serving 130 meals.
Our city government must be more fiscally responsible and generally more responsive to the needs and concerns of the community. In terms of the first issue, local families and individuals, myself definitely included, are having to tighten their belts in response to harsh economic times. Why should our local government be any different? We must go through the budget carefully and determine what this city really needs versus what it may want–in better economic times, we can seek to address these ‘wants’. Many would argue that it is this lack of fiscal responsibility that has led to a recent hike in property taxes at a time when people have less money to spend and homes are much harder to sell. It is shameful enough when a family must choose between putting food on the table and getting proper medical care, but it seems downright criminal to then tack on fears of losing their home or business on top of everything else.
Besides being more responsible in financial matters, local government must be more responsive to the populace. Sadly, much of the problem is due to low voter turnout; for instance, in the 2007 District 4 elections, only 9.2% of registered voters actually voted. Regardless of whether I win or lose the election, I really want to see more people get involved in local issues: learn about the candidates, mark your calendars (March 16th, 2010) and go vote (or get an absentee ballot and vote that way). Obviously, I would prefer that people vote for me, but in the end, I think it is important that people just actually vote. I would rather lose the election because a well-informed majority of the electorate has examined the issues and the candidates and decided that one of my opponents would do a better job serving this city than win the election due to majority apathy. The city commission can do its part to promote greater involvement by being open and willing to listen fairly to all viewpoints. My door will always be open. During the campaign and, if granted a victory by the voters, future term as city commissioner, I look forward to getting to know my fellow citizens, to hearing their concerns, issues and desires, and working towards solutions that benefit as many people as possible but are fair to all. Deep down, I think most of us want what is best for the community, although we may have different conceptualizations of the ideal.
For more information on my candidacy, please check out my campaign website (www.nathanielsperling.com) and my Facebook group (Nathaniel Sperling for Gainesville City Commission (District 4)). Also, if you have not gotten a chance to read it, you can find the Gainesville Sun article on my candidacy (special thanks to Megan Rolland for taking the time to meet with and interview me) here: Recent UF grad runs for City Commission.
If you wish to contact me, I can reached by phone at 352-214-3170 (if I do not answer, leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as possible) or by e-mail at nathanielsperling@yahoo.com (this e-mail is checked multiple times per day). If you wish to mail me anything the old-fashioned way, my address is 405 NW 19th ST, Gainesville, FL 32603. I look forward to hearing from you. As I said, my door is always open (please call first if you wish to meet with me in person though, but I would greatly welcome such personal meetings).
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving.
