Opinion: Set Realistic Goals for Gainesville’s High-Tech Future

Do you know what Gainesville really needs on its march to become Innovation City? More food trucks.

OK, that’s a simplification. But it is one of the “baby steps” that Jim O’Connell says the city should take as Gainesville continues to nourish and grow its own start-up tech culture.

O’Connell is the director of UF Innovate. His job is to “push patents out the door,” to channel the fruits of faculty research into new companies and new jobs. And to keep as many of them as possible here in Gainesville.

“I have roughly 400 people working in UF Innovate | The Hub who have to go someplace else to eat lunch,” he says. “We need a food truck park, and right now there are no guidelines on how to create that.”

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