Going Green: The Rise of "Clean" Foods

Parks and Rec: The Origins of Three Gainesville Parks

Story and Photos by Zahra Khan Standing on a path trimmed with wiry grass, you stare out across the dark water and watch as it ripples in the subtle breeze. The wind caresses your back as it passes you, determined to show you more of the preserve’s beauty before the day’s light fades away. The blades of cattail grass sway in its cool touch and whisper against each other, secrets that are unfathomably old, back to when these wetlands were first created. It’s a wonder, you think, how natural gems like this came to exist, how they came to be protected. The sun dips below the horizon as it bleeds its farewell colors into the sky and you smile. It’s a good way to spend the day. Gainesville’s natural treasures aren’t secrets at all – they are divided into 30 public nature parks. Whether you’ve visited some or all, the history of how they came to exist in the community may surprise you.

Morningside Nature Center

There are histories embedded in the foundation in each of Gainesville’s parks, and Morningside Nature Center is the city’s first municipal nature park, according to Sally Wazny, Nature Center Education Supervisor for Gainesville’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department.

It’s also the only park that incorporates its past in its present. The Living History Farm on the property immortalizes the everyday life of 1870. Set in a specific year rather than a decade, the center offers a unique seasonal experience to witness costumed volunteers operate the farm as they would’ve between the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era, according to Wazny.

In the late 1800s, the land was used for turpentining and hosting naval stores. Government ownership of pieces of the land exchanged hands until 1964 when the city bought 278 acres intended for its current recreational purpose. In the '70s, the farm expanded to include an 1840s single-family cabin with a kitchen, a schoolhouse and an heirloom garden and barn with crops and animals native to the area and the period, according to Wazny.

Other structures were built to match the preexisting dwellings that originated from North Central Florida. An example would be the Half Moon Schoolhouse from Half Moon, Florida, keeping in line with the original architecture and locality of the buildings. If not for the acquisition of these structures for the farm, Wazny said, they would have likely disintegrated to hovels where they originally stood, unrestored and uncared for.

Sweetwater Wetlands Preserve

Water connects everything we do, from being the source of life to connecting lands and enabling travel and recreation. Sweetwater Wetlands Preserve is no exception. Its wetlands are home to alligators, deer and about 250 bird species, according to the Sweetwater Wetlands Park website. But preserving vital ecosystems wasn’t always the city’s priority.

According to the website, in the 1930s, ranchers dug a ditch to drain part of Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park to expand dry land for cattle grazing. This caused the dehydration of over 1,300 acres of wetlands. The ditch merged Sweetwater Branch Creek to a lake that is connected to the Floridian Aquifer that provides the city with water. Eventually, it was infiltrated with an excess of nitrogen from urban runoff, effectively making it unusable. In response to new state regulations, city entities engineered a way to fix multiple problems with a single solution: Sweetwater Wetlands Preserve.

The preserve serves as a natural water filtration system and an economically friendly way to restore water to the lost wetlands in Paynes Prairie and it’s

32 The Origins Issue all available to the public. Ironically, Sweetwater gets its name from the Sweetwater creek, serendipitously named before the subsequent natural water purifying system, according to Geoff Parks, Nature Operations Supervisor of Gainesville’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department. This is unlike San Felasco Park, which is traced back to American Indians of the area mispronouncing “San Francisco,” according to the Florida State Parks website.

San Felasco Park

When a landowner was federally charged with drug trafficking and attempted murder in the early 1980s, he fled the area and abandoned his land, which is now known as San Felasco Park. Sometime before the fugitive landowner, the preserve was utilized by American Indians for thousands of years. Artifacts discovered at the site indicate that people occupied the land since at least 8,000 B.C., according to the Florida State Parks website.

The land was transferred a few times among federal departments until it was put up for auction when Gainesville community members feared for its future, according to Parks.

“A lot of these things were acquired from ordinary people thinking it was a good idea,” Parks said. “So people advocating for a piece of land being protected like San Felasco... it is a park because people went to the senator and said, ‘look this is going to be on the market, we’d love to protect it.’”

Now a 7,360-acre preserve, San Felasco is home to rare mature forests and serves as an exquisite example of one of the few closed-canopy woodlands remaining in the state. The nature park serves the public with a picnic and education pavilion, playground, restrooms and boardwalk trail, according to the Florida State Parks website.

“Ordinary people,” Parks said, “if they set their minds to it and work together, can do things like that, to protect our water quality and to provide recreational opportunities for our children and our families and ourselves.”

Gainesville’s Nature Parks

The parks are located as far east as Gum Root Park at 7300 NE 27th Ave., and as far west as Split Rock Conservation Area two area codes over at Southwest 20th Avenue, according to the City of Gainesville Nature Parks map. Here is a list of municipal parks you can go visit at your leisure:

• 29th Road Nature Park • Alfred A. Ring Park • Bivens Arm Nature Park • Boulware Springs Nature Park • Broken Arrow Bluff Nature Park • Clear Lake Nature Park • Cofrin Nature Park • Colclough Pond Nature Park • Cone Park Southwest • Duval Park • Flatwoods Conservation Area • Forest Park • Four Creeks Preserve • Green Acres Park • Greentree • Gum Root Park • Hogtown Creek Floodplain • Hogtown Creek Headwaters Nature Park • John Mahon Nature Park • Loblolly Woods Nature Park • NW 34th Street • Palm Point Nature Park • Possum Creek Park • Split Rock Conservation Area • Springtree Park • Sugarfoot Prairie Conservation Area • Terwilliger Pond Conservation Area

Inside the Gainesville Restaurants That Fell Victim to 2020

Story by Molly Chepenik

Photos by Melissa Hernandez De La Cruz

Mark Newman remembers throwing his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary party, his son’s engagement party, jazz shows, birthdays and countless winetasting nights at Leonardo’s 706.

When Leonardo’s 706 closed in late 2020 after 47 years of business, Newman, one of the restaurant’s owners, was left with memories and gratitude.

“There’s no reason to dwell on things that didn’t happen or should have happened,” Newman, 71, said. “I am very fortunate.”

Although Newman is lucky he was able to close his restaurant’s doors and remain financially secure, a lot was lost by having to shut down a place that was special to so many.

2020 saw many Gainesville restaurants close for good due to the coronavirus and other businessrelated reasons. Some local favorites that closed in 2020 include Leonardo’s 706, Larry’s Giant Subs, Daybreak Pleasant Street, The Swamp Restaurant, Civilization and Felipe’s Mexican Taqueria.

According to Bloomberg, one in six restaurants had closed permanently or for sustained periods of time by the beginning of December 2020. Many will never forget the good food and good times had at these Gainesville eateries, including their past owners.

Newman said the Gainesville food scene is changing with the corporate world taking over the restaurant business. More chains are dotting the city’s streets.

“We cared about employees and customers. It was a real place,” Newman said. “Thank God there are still some independent places left.” Newman moved to Gainesville in 1976 and met Steve Solomon, the original owner of Leonardo’s. He approached Solomon with a gourmet magazine and asked if he was interested in making California pizzas, but Solomon turned him down at first. Solomon invited Newman to be a “rent-a-chef” for parties at the restaurant and eventually offered Newman a partnership. Newman was 38 when he started at Leonardo’s.

“The best part is the beginning. That’s when all the magic and ideas come together,” Newman said. “We were making ricotta tortes and olive appetizers – things people never saw before.”

He reminisced on the days when Gainesville High School students would line up out the door at lunchtime, and pizza went for 95 cents a slice.

“The best thing about it was that it became a part of the community. We knew the people so well that we had memorial services there,” Newman said.

He remembers working 16-hour days and going to play tennis for an hour or two after work with the restaurant staff. Newman still hasn’t lost any of that energy. Retired now, he wakes up early to bake and do yoga.

Sarah Whitfield, the last owner of Larry’s Giant Subs on University Avenue, jokes that she is also retired. She is now spending her days as a gym trainer and a baker. Whitfield, now 34, started working at Larry’s when she was a freshman at UF and instantly fell in love with the sandwich shop.

In 2004, Whitfield would visit her friend working there twice a week. She would try to memorize the huge menu. When it came time for her to get a job the next semester, she knew Larry’s was the only place she wanted to work.

“By my junior year I was working 60 hours a week,” Whitfield said. “My life was school and Larry’s, and I’d run between them.”

34 The Origins Issue When she went to put in her notice so she could work full time at a camp in Ocala, she broke down crying to her manager. He told her she could still come in on weekends. She decided to work at her full-time job and commute to Gainesville to work at Larry’s. Eventually, her boss asked her to buy Larry’s in 2016, and she agreed. In 2019, a property group purchased the land in Midtown where the last Larry’s in Gainesville stood, and the shop had to close by May 2020.

“Maybe we let it be the end of an era,” Whitfield said. “But I hope people don’t forget and have moments where they wish they could have Larry’s.” “We just wanted to have a neighborhood breakfast restaurant where we could pour coffee and say hello,” Sneed said.

She sees Gainesville’s restaurant business changing, but she thinks change is good, and she’ll never forget the people she worked with and served.

“I loved that there were people who loved it as much as I did. I could still tell you some people's orders right now,” Whitfield said. “I miss seeing everyone’s faces every day. The beautiful thing is that people do adapt and move on.”

On the other hand, Michael Sneed decided to close his breakfast restaurant, Daybreak Pleasant Street, because he didn’t want to come in contact with people during the pandemic.

“I’m not doing anything so important that it’s worth the risk,” Sneed, 44, said. “People are getting sick. What’s it worth to have someone get sick and die? Fourteen dollars for a plate of breakfast?”

When Sneed decided to open Daybreak, he was unhappy working in consulting and sales for U.S. Foods – he knew his passion was cooking. His wife, Patricia, said they should start a restaurant, and they found a building that would seat 24 people in a quiet Gainesville neighborhood called Pleasant Street. Daybreak was one of the only commercial buildings surrounded by homes.

Sneed decided to permanently close after months of being shut down, but he still wanted to serve food safely. Daybreak Pleasant Street has been transformed into Pleasant Street Pizza, where food is available for takeout only.

“Panic and depression settles in when you lose something you’ve been working on for so long,” Sneed said. “I just wanted to do happy food, so we landed on pizza.”

Sneed plans to open Daybreak in a new, larger location when it is safe. Like many, the Sneeds are excited to go back to normal dining one day.

“It’s all about people being happy,” Sneed said. “You see people relieve any frustration they’re having when they’re eating a good meal.”

Sneed is confident the finances will work out later. For now, he wants the community to prioritize safety.

The Origins Issue 35