re: Gainesville as a college town

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Eastern Gainesville is probably a good place to avoid...go north and it gets backwoods redneck pretty dam fast...

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Why is Eastern Gainesville a good place to avoid? You have no qualms shitting in the faces of nasty, white rednecks with impunity but, for some reason, seem reluctant to identify the type of people that one would want to avoid in Eastern Gainesville. Why is that?

1) Can't beat the academics
2) Think a traditional college town but with some South Florida flair (about half of the students come from South Florida).
3) Party life is great. Smart hot girls are a plus.
4) The bar scene is decent, but still room for improvement.
5) The further you get from campus, the less of a college town it feels (that probably goes for anywhere, though).
6) Plenty of places to go on weekend trips.
7) Of course sports, tailgating, and all that goes with being a perennial contender in the SEC for the big 3 sports.
8) It won't be a mistake

I lived there for several years. I have friends there and visit regularly (pre-covid).

Gainesville is a great college town. UF has 50K plus students. The junior college there (Santa Fe) has another 20K students. The place is built to support the 70K student plus the 20K or so employees. It has everything you could want in a college town. It is also not only a college town anymore. There is a great entrepreneurial community and emphasis. But, that University has EVERYTHING. It is one of the top major universities in every category from academics to sports to majors to arts to social life and everything in between. It has been named the number one place to live by Money Magazine. UF has all kinds of academic accolades, research, medical school, vet school, engineering, business etc and etc, and yet, earns number one party school as well. You really can't do much better. And for free? It is a no-brainer.

What is to really consider? Free ride at a good public university. You can have a great experience at any Southern flagship university. What are your other choices: Stanford, UCLA, Yale?

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When I go back I feel like the city is “growing up”. The downtown has greatly improved and much trendier now than it used to be. Midtown is going through revitalization, even the Archer Road area is much nicer. Not to mention the university itself is about to embark on $2 Billion in campus improvements over the next 5 years. UF is soon to be a top 5 public school, can’t go wrong!

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Lived there from '06 to '09 and drove around town last Aug for the first time since then. Just the development around University and 10th shocked me

Not a UF alum, but an Aggie that spent a little over decade in Gainesville but recently left in 2019. Gainesville isn’t a bad town, it’s your typical college town. Uber liberal bastion surrounded by conservative communities. My last straw there was students out protesting calling me a Nazi for simply wearing a hat designating me an Afghanistan Veteran. But for the most part, it isn’t horrible, have access to some great springs and float trips in the area. Utilities are ridiculous so make sure you find a place with a low utility bill history. To put that in context, at one point I had a 900 sq ft apartment where I regularly spent around $400 for utilities and now have a place that is 2200 sq ft in Missouri and spend far less on utilities