Gainesville’s attorney recommended that commissioners rescind its plastic-bag and Styrofoam ban. Gainesville commissioners rejected their city attorney’s recommendation Thursday to rescind an ordinance that bans businesses from giving out single-use plastic bags and Styrofoam containers. The ban, which has been discussed for nearly a year, will take effect in January 2020. The 5-1 decision on…
Within the same week in June 2019, two Florida towns fell victim to ransomware and paid a little over $1 million to hackers to retrieve their data and regain control of their servers. “I would’ve never dreamed this could’ve happened, especially in a small town like this,” said the mayor of Lake City, one of the two…
The City of Coral Gables has the largest municipal fleet of electric vehicles (EV) in the state of Florida. The City currently has 51 electric vehicles with a goal of adding 20 more by 2021. During the recent Climate Mayors Summit in Honolulu, HI, Coral Gables was one of 127 cities and 15 counties from…
Mexico Beach was ground zero for Hurricane Michael, destroying 70 percent of the resort community’s homes and businesses with its Category 5 winds and 18-foot storm surge. Because its flood maps hadn’t been updated in 10 years, 80 percent of those structures were uninsured because FEMA placed them in flood zone “X” – areas that…
Big cities and big data tend to get most of the attention in publications and on industry panels. Rapid urbanization and the explosion of data are headlining trends. In reality, however, the United States is a nation of small towns. According to Census Bureau information, the median American lives in a city with a population…
