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Thursday's Afternoon Update
What you need to know about Florida today
Florida housing increases leave state with most cost-burdened renters in the country
Florida had three of the top six metro areas with the largest share of cost-burdened renters and five of the top 15, tying with California for the most markets with the highest share of cost-burdened renters. The Miami metropolitan area topped the list for places where people paid the highest portion of their household budgets for housing, followed by the Orlando area (No. 3), Cape Coral-Fort Myers (No. 6) and Daytona (No. 9), with Sarasota-Bradenton-North Port just outside the top 10 at No. 12. More from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Buttigieg rides Brightline and pledges federal funds for safety
The nation's top transportation official pledged federal backing for Brightline safety measures but stopped short of backing its expansion plans as he prepared to ride the privately owned passenger rail line from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg offered a reminder that his boss, President Joe Biden, is a longtime commuter rail fan who last year signed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill with about $66 billion earmarked for modernizing and repairing railways, including Amtrak, which has 19 stations in Florida. More from Florida Today.
Will your FPL bill go down with cooler weather?
South Florida finally felt a cool-down in October — upper 50s in Miami! And in June, the Florida Public Service Commission approved a $359 million reduction to FPL’s 2023 fuel costs. That means electric bills should be going down, right? Yes, but maybe not fast enough for you. More from the Miami Herald.
Orlando retail real estate execs' view of Spirit Halloween pop-ups has evolved. Here's why.
It's not hard to understand why retail landlords may have had an unfavorable mindset in the past toward having a Spirit Halloween pop-up in one of their vacant spaces. Consider the way pop culture has embraced memes and other humor around the stores. The historic Oct. 3 vote to oust former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy had barely concluded, for example, before users on X and other platforms were Photoshopping signage for a Spirit Halloween on photos of the vacated speaker's office. More from the Orlando Business Journal.
Pasco legislators bugged by plans for $37 million mosquito control complex
Michael Cox came to the annual meeting of Pasco County’s state lawmakers to tell them the mosquito control board he chairs is a good value and takes its responsibility to wisely spend taxpayers’ money seriously. He didn’t even ask for money, unlike many others at the meeting earlier this month. But Pasco legislators still had concerns about proposed plans to build a new mosquito control headquarters — specifically about the cost. More from the Tampa Bay Times.
Out of the Box
'Florida Man' meme rises to new heights: 2024 Florida Man Games coming to St. Augustine
If you haven’t been paying attention to news headlines within the past 10 years: “Florida Man” is not only the title of a Netflix series. It’s what we call the kind of person who would attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a hamster wheel or throw a live gator into the drive-through window at Wendy’s. If you’re that kind of person and have four other friends who are, too, you can apply as a team to represent your county in the Florida Man Games.
» More from the Palm Beach Post.
Profile
Soaring demand
Mike Sutton has never been so busy. The president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas and West Pasco Counties says his non-profit built 73 homes during fiscal year 2022-23. During fiscal year 2021-22, the nonprofit built 67 homes, up from the 60 it built the year before. But that’s still not nearly enough.
» Read more from Florida Trend.
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