LABELLE — Hendry County commissioners learned recently that due a grant of $600,000 to the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, owners of possibly environmentally damaged private properties in Hendry, Glades and Collier counties can apply for aid to clean up the hazards. According to a staff report presented to the Hendry board on July 16:…
Delray Beach is having an identity crisis. It’s transformed into an art and nightlife mecca in the last decade. Now the city is in turmoil over how to sustain the change. It could be the Las Olas Boulevard of Palm Beach County. Or it could drive out what makes it a South Florida hotspot: popular…
There have been several recent high-profile ransomware attacks that have cost Florida local governments hundreds of thousands of dollars. And they are becoming more common. To help combat these attacks, the Florida Local Government Information Systems Association (FLGISA) is offering multiple webinars over the next few weeks to discuss ransomware. The in-depth training will include…
Your downtown experience just got a little brighter. Recently, the City of Tallahassee, along with the Downtown Improvement Authority, LeMoyne Arts, KCCI and the “Girls Can Do Anything” campers from the Oasis Center for Women and Girls, covered up a retaining wall with a colorful art mural. The once bland wall at the downtown Food…
Aileron Investment Management (“Aileron”) announced today that it is opening Phase 1 of its Grand Central Apartments (“Grand Central”), a 280-unit class A apartment community in Fort Myers, FL. Phase 1 consists of 104 resident units, clubhouse and pool, which will open for occupancy within the next 30 days. The complex will be fully complete…
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…
No one enjoys paying for parking tickets, but Las Vegas is now accepting a new currency that might take some of the sting out of paying the fines. The Las Vegas City Council has approved a month-long plan that allows parking tickets to be paid by donating school supplies, according to a press release from…
When the city of Columbus, Ohio, submitted its bid to become Amazon’s HQ2, city officials rolled out the usual fanfare: an assortment of tax incentives, promotion of its major educational institutions and real estate deals. But the hallmark of its proposal was a pitch to create a smart city by “embracing the reinvention of transportation…
