After nine years of a (sadly) ever-growing display of tombstones honoring the US soldiers who died in the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Gainesville Veterans for Peace chapter and community volunteers will not be putting up the “Memorial Mile” display on NW 8th Avenue in 2016.
The reason is the City of Gainesville’s decision to eliminate the grass strip along the south side of 8th Avenue to widen the sidewalk. This came after the decision to not have NW 8th Ave be single traffic lanes with a center median and bike lanes, and revert to a higher speed two lanes each way, a curb-to-curb cars and trucks speedway.
To many people involved in Gainesville’s annual Memorial Mile Project, that grass strip had become a sort of sacred ground They feel it was painful to see it torn up.