The first topic the Fort Myers mayor’s diversity council is set to discuss won’t be an easy one. It’s gentrification. Concerns have been raised because of a redevelopment project approved by the Community Redevelopment Agency on Seaboard Street in Fort Myers, an area near primarily black community of Dunbar. Residents are worried it could change…
A plan to build 126 affordable apartments off of Price Boulevard was chosen earlier this month by the state for financing by Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, and would be the first new complex of its type to be built in the city since 2005. The complex, dubbed Palm Port, would be built on 8.44 acres…
Working with about a $3.5 million budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year, the Palmetto Community Redevelopment Agency isn’t sitting still in planning for the future. With much of its funding tied up in existing projects, the CRA is still introducing new proposals for the coming five years. CRA Director Jeff Burton outlined the new initiatives…
Pinellas Receives $7.5 Million to Build State-of-the-Art Business Incubator in St. Petersburg “This investment by the EDA, along with support from Pinellas County and our partners at the City of St. Petersburg, will help launch the next generation of entrepreneurs in our community,” shared Commissioner Karen Seel, Chair of the 2019 Pinellas Board of County…
MILTON — Amid continuing debate and questions from citizens in Milton over the program’s future, Main Street Milton traveled to Orlando where they accepted awards for innovative practices and projects that contribute to the success of local Main Street programs. Main Street Milton was presented with two awards, the Honor Award, which highlight the very…
A transformation is now underway in Riviera Beach Heights that has been years in the planning. Facing a neighborhood that has been fractured by improvements to the state highway that dissects it, the CRA is creating safe passageways for our children to walk to school, implementing new designs to soften traffic, and connecting the neighborhood…
In an era when state and local governments are having a harder time than in years past filling jobs, some are turning to the “gig economy” to meet their labor needs, according to newly released survey results. The Center for State and Local Government Excellence released the findings from their latest workforce survey on Monday. A total…
Cities, counties and state governments turn to drones to help fight crime, combat fires and assist in rescue efforts. By 2018, at least 910 U.S. sheriff’s offices, police and fire departments, and emergency services agencies had purchased drones, an 82 percent increase from the previous year, according to a study by the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard…
Former longtime Gulf Breeze City Manager Edwin “Buz” Eddy has taken on yet another responsibility following his retirement two years ago. He was recently hired as a part-time administrative consultant by the City of Century, which has been going through some challenging times. The city of about 1,500 has a mayor and five city council…
Two years ago, Tacoma, Washington, declared a state of emergency over homelessness. With 1,300 people experiencing homelessness in the surrounding Pierce County, and hundreds of them living on Tacoma’s streets, officials kicked off a three-phase plan to address the issue. They deployed rapid resource pop-ups, such as hand-washing stations and portables, and worked to expand…
Several cities are experimenting with applying fees to parked e-scooters as means of managing the devices and helping to prevent an over-distribution of them on streets. Omaha, Neb.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Detroit are part of a three-month pilot organized by the parking technology platform Passport to assess parking fees when scooters are not being ridden.…
The FloridaMakes Board of Directors announced today that Florida manufacturers who received services through the state-wide FloridaMakes network have reported a combined total of over one billion dollars in measurable economic impacts and created or retained 6,953 manufacturing jobs since the program started delivering services in 2016. The FloridaMakes network is an industry-led initiative operated…
