It’s been a little over three weeks since a heated debate broke out between Micanopy residents and officials at a town hall meeting. These weeks have raised questions about the town’s ordinance regulating pennant flags, equal enforcement and whether the place that’s believed to be Florida’s oldest inland town is …
Read More »Growing, growing, gone: Marion County residents bemoan development surge
The air in McPherson Complex Auditorium in Ocala, once stale with bureaucracy, surged with something much more urgent upon the introduction of Item 7. Items 1-6 on the Marion County Commission planning and zoning agenda – ensnared in traps of technical jargon and dusted with mundane details – didn’t hold …
Read More »Gainesville’s first trans minister makes a mark through social justice initiatives
The Rev. Christe Lunsford knew from a young age they had a spiritual calling. After growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, Lunsford, now 55, began seminary preparatory school at 19 years old. But when they came out as transgender, they were met with opposition that pushed them away from organized religion …
Read More »After Hurricane Ian, sowing hope
Editor’s note: Katie Delk is a 2022-2023 Florida Climate Institute Fellow reporting a series of articles about the impact of climate change on Florida’s farmers—and how they are adapting. Robert McMahon, in his faded denim jeans and straw hat, edged to the roof in a boom lift, three cows shuffling …
Read More »A tale of two cities: How two Florida towns are handling the tiny home movement
Want to live in a tiny house? Barb Diaz suggests marking off an 8-by-20-foot area in your garage – or some space similar – and living in it for 24 hours. Put a TV in it. Put a dresser in it. Set aside an even smaller space for a “bathroom.” …
Read More »‘It’s Wakanda’: Inside a Gainesville public charter school defying the achievement gap
The school's students, nearly all Black, earned the highest learning gains in the district and outperformed the county's white students on the state assessment.
Read More »Watershed: A lake named Alice
Blooms and bureaucracy imperil the University of Florida’s landmark campus lake.
Read More »Watershed: Wellspring
Water quality concerns in rural Florida leave some families with groundwater wells dependent on bottled water in one of the most water-rich parts of the United States.
Read More »Watershed: Loving Florida, losing Florida
Florida’s pristine waters are its calling card for tourists, who are now returning to the state in record numbers. But what happens when crushing numbers of visitors harm the natural environment that draws them?
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