We Are the UNA; Prepare to be Assimilated

The University of North Alabama is getting another new parking lot. We read the article this morning with anticipation. The university stressed that this should help improve relations with its neighbors, and goodness knows we get mail from homeowners near the college complaining of students blocking drives, interfering with regular navigation, and just all round bad behavior. Yes, this looked good...until...

Until we read to the end of the article and a university spokesperson mentioned the college's plan to purchase two houses in the 200 block of West Irvine Avenue in order to connect the new parking lot to an existing one. Three homes dot the landscape on the northern side of the 200 block, and the university already owns or rents 216 which currently houses something called UNA's Outdoor Adventure Center.

What of the two farther west? According to property records, they have private owners. Do these owners want to sell? There was no mention of any current negotiations, only that the university wanted the two houses...in the long term. 

It's fine to make plans, but to voice these plans publicly is unwise, not to mention rude. How would you feel if UNA suddenly announced in the TimesDaily that it wanted YOUR home?

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Just earlier today, someone (we're guessing a UNA student or recent grad) posted a comment to our blog. We couldn't approve it because of language, but the gist was that Florence was nothing without the university. Yes, the university was so much more important than Florence City Schools. The college should be allowed to just take what it wanted. 

While that particular battle is over, our mail/comments ran 90% in support of the City of Florence and the school board. Perhaps the most humorous comment from that period came from a former city candidate who said we didn't support the city of Florence when we supported the City of Florence. Note the capital "C." It still doesn't make sense, does it?

We have a pretty good idea that if the university should somehow spontaneously combust, it would be unfortunate, but Florence would go on. Sorry to have to be the one to tell you that, snowflake.