The 2020 hurricane season is here and is expected to be a busy one. We’ve already had three tropical cyclones and it’s still June! Forecasts are unanimous in calling for an active season: seven to ten hurricanes, with most of them likely to occur after August 10th. Cold waters across the eastern tropical Pacific ocean…
Category: Tallahassee Community
Protests and Pressure: Why is Trump Responding to the Black Lives Matter Movement Now?
Today, Donald Trump is scheduled to sign an executive order on police reform. According to senior White House officials, the order will create a database to track police officers with histories of misconduct and use federal monies to incentivize police departments to meet higher standards on the use of force. The order will not address…
George Floyd and the Future of Police Misconduct
This piece first appeared in The Beacon. The death of George Floyd at the hands of a cop with a history of excessive force complaints has spurred protests, demonstrations, and riots across the nation. Unfortunately, the violence some protesters have unleashed on these cities is likely to exacerbate existing cultural and political schisms, making meaningful…
Research Spotlight: Creating more Sustainable Communities through Planning
For the past several decades, urban planners have been promoting transit-oriented development (TOD) as a paradigm for building sustainable communities. TOD involves building compact, mixed-use, and walkable development around transit stops. This type of development ostensibly provides a place where one can live without a car while maintaining easy access to goods and services. In…
Take Lessons of Empathy beyond Pandemic, into the Classroom
This piece first appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat. COVID-19 has thrown higher education into an unprecedented period of uncertainty. Funding sources, school openings, grades — each facet of the system is under a microscope. As another crop of seniors make way for a new crop of freshmen in the fall, the lesson to learn and…
Research Spotlight: Citizen Engagement and Municipal Marketing in the Sunshine State
Florida cities have yet to fully realize the usefulness of marketing as a strategic tool for achieving municipal goals, but the future is promising. Cities realize the necessity of marketing and branding efforts. In the near future we may be bombarded with more branded images as cities continue to experiment with marketing activities. Strategically, cities should use these marketing efforts to keep us engaged as citizens and connected with our local government in order to achieve their own goals.
COSSPP Faculty Impact on Scholarship: Influence at a Glance
As the spring semester comes to an end, we want to take a moment to celebrate the accomplishments and influence of faculty in the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy. This series of graphs produced by Dr. Jim Elsner offers a glimpse of the amazing work taking place in the College of Social Science…
Five Principles to Improve Your Virtual Work Space after Coronavirus
This piece first appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has led to massive, overnight shifts in higher education and in the broader workforce. Millions of students and workers in Florida and throughout the U.S. are now forced into online learning and virtual work. Unfortunately, remote work and learning carries its own burdens….
Policy Pub: Beyond Redevelopment – Urban Planning for Racial Equity
On any given day, you can drive around Tallahassee and see new construction everywhere. Development is often an indication of a city’s success and growth. But who gets left behind in this progress, and how can urban planners work toward social and economic justice for every citizen? Continuing Policy Pub’s focus on how national, even…
Policy Pub: Generosity in Hurricane Michael’s Wake
Hurricane Michael hit Florida’s Gulf Coast in October of 2018 as a category five hurricane. The storm leveled communities to the West of Tallahassee, damaging homes, displacing residents, crippling some industries, and leaving piles of debris behind. In its wake, I set off to study how civil society – nonprofits, religious organizations, and less organized…
Wicked Problems, Wicked Solutions 