Gainesville Mayor addresses crime after unsolved homicides

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) - Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward said crime remains a top priority for city leaders following two homicides last weekend.

“I always worry about violent crime, always,” Ward said. “That’s a thing that we think about and work on every single day.”

Two people died in Gainesville in the past week. Jaheim Karon Black, 17, died in a shooting on Northwest 6th Street, and Ricky Morrow, 53, died in a stabbing on Northwest Third Street a few miles apart.

Crime trends

“Gun violence is actually on the decline,” Ward said. “We had a couple stabbings, we had a drowning, we’ve had lots of different kinds of violent crime, but many of them happen inside the home.”

The two homicides bring the total number of homicides in Gainesville this year to at least five, which is already more than all of last year.

At the McRorie Community Garden, site coordinator Jamie Swick said the garden aims to be a safe space for people.

“This garden is focused on love and belonging which is sort of a little more in the middle of the hierarchy of needs, so that’s why kindness, compassion is what we’re focused on,” Swick said.

“Making sure that this community really personifies kindness and compassion is like critically important,” Swick said.

Ward said the city is dedicated to having more discussions about crime, especially when it comes to domestic violence incidents.

Family homelessness

Ward said city staff and county leaders want to start focusing more on doing work for family homelessness.

Ward said the city has focused on getting individuals off the streets, but it is harder to see if a family is struggling.

This push is in response to a request from the Coalition for Homeless and Hungry, asking city and county staff to start doing more work for these families.

Both Ward and Alachua County Commissioner Ken Cornell sent letters to school board member Thomas Vu about combating homelessness, asking if any vacant schools could be a place to help people who are homeless.

“It is easy to see individual homelessness. You know, that is a thing that people see in our community, so we’ve been working on that diligently and succeeding in many ways to help individuals get out of homelessness for a very long time in this community,” Ward said. “Family homelessness, child homelessness, is much harder to see.”

At this week’s city meeting, commissioners appointed Cynthia Chestnut to be the city’s representative to work with organizations trying to combat homelessness.

Ward said there will be more meetings in the future.

DEI law response

Ward said the city is committed to inclusion as Florida’s new diversity, equity and inclusion law is set to start in 2027.

The legislation will prohibit counties and municipalities from funding or supporting DEI programs.

Ward said the discussion surrounding DEI is a never-ending culture war.

He said the city will continue to have its equal opportunity charter, making sure federal and state laws are followed.

When the law takes effect, Ward said the city will follow it and change the name of its DEI office, but it will not take away from how diverse the city is.

“Gainesville is a diverse community. We are absolutely a diverse city. You can look around and see that that’s the case,” Ward said. “We are a city that believes that equity matters, equitable justice matters, equitable ownership of our community resources matter.”

Tallahassee and Leon County officials are considering a lawsuit to stop the new law.

Downtown construction

Construction of a $4.5 million streatery in downtown Gainesville is affecting some business owners.

The space is designed for pedestrians.

Ward said he encourages people to visit downtown even with the ongoing construction, but the city will work to make it easier for some of the businesses affected to stay open.

Construction started last month. Businesses like Loosey’s and The Bull have signs out to reassure people that they are open.

The owner of Loosey’s said he thinks it is up to business owners to let people know they are open, but he cannot tell if business is slow due to the end of the college semester or the construction.

Ward said the city will provide resources to businesses leased from the city.

“We’re in the process of working on lease abatements with them to help make it a little bit easier for them to stay in business,” Ward said. “We’ve got signs up all over downtown to promote those businesses on the streatery and remind people they’re open.”

Ward said business downtown is usually slower during the summer, making it more important for people to visit the different businesses.

Construction is expected to continue through October.

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