SHARE:
Thursday's Daily Pulse
What you need to know about Florida today
› Melbourne airport records second-highest passenger count in history in 2023, topping 740,000
Melbourne Orlando International Airport hosted 747,691 total passengers last year, including inbound and outbound flights. That's the second-highest total since Melbourne's original airport debuted in 1928. MLB's all-time record: 755,723 total passengers in 1990.
› A Tampa Bay bar is among James Beard Award semifinalists, but no restaurants
The 2024 James Beard Awards semifinalists were announced today, and just one Tampa Bay spot is among them. Webb’s City Cellar, a tasting room at Green Bench Brewery in downtown St. Petersburg, is a nominee for Outstanding Bar. The spot serves craft beer, cider and wine in a cellar-like space right next to Green Bench’s main brewery in the city’s Edge District.
› ‘Demolition by neglect’ fells historic Miami building long designated for protection
One of the oldest standing commercial historic landmarks in Miami-Dade County, the 122-year-old DuPuis Medical Office and Drugstore in Little Haiti, has been demolished after partially collapsing. Though the long-vacant 1902 building, best recognized for its sidewalk arcade, has been a protected historic site since 1985, the city of Miami’s building official ordered what remained of the structure torn down on an emergency basis for safety reasons after two sections of the roof fell in on January 8.
› Construction costs as part of plan to save live oak in downtown Gainesville exceed $600,000
The cost for work on Southeast First Avenue in downtown Gainesville as part of a plan to save a 40-year-old heritage live oak came in at more than double a number floated last April. A work order signed Dec. 13 by City Manager Cynthia Curry with Watson Construction Co. lists a total construction price not to exceed roughly $608,000.
In case you missed it:
