You would think we’d get it by now. Are our collective memories that short?

Just three years ago, a toxic red tide bloom along our regional shorelines devastated our tourism economy, degraded our quality of life, and killed our sealife. Also in 2018, a different but noxious blue green slime spoiled the fresh waters on both coasts and created another “Floriduh” headline.

But here we are again. Making international negative news when the Piney Point industrial site in Manatee County literally spilled over into a crisis. The effluent plume from this phosphate processing waste dump will linger in Tampa Bay for months, possibly fueling another red tide outbreak and destroying local sea life.

And it only gets worse. A model wetlands-redevelopment project planned for Sarasota that would restore wetlands and improve water quality going into Phillippi Creek and Sarasota Bay was denied funding by our own local representative on the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

When are we going to learn? Our local waters are our Blue Economy. But some of our recent actions and policies treat them like our blue dumping ponds.

Protecting and restoring environmental water quality is one of the most important things we can do to maintain and improve our region’s coveted quality of life. The recreation, tourism, fishing, and real estate for which we’re known all depend on healthy waterways. Tax revenues from these activities fund the infrastructure, roads, schools, parks, beaches, and social services that we expect and rely on. Clean water is not only an environmental issue for our region. It is an economic issue. It is a health issue. It is an equity issue. It should not be a partisan issue.

So, where was the leadership in preventing the predicted and preventable disaster at Piney Point? Where was the leadership in supporting the proactive wetlands redevelopment at Bobby Jones Golf Course? The tax dollars that will be spent to fix the first missed opportunity will dwarf the money that should be invested in the second. Our priorities are upside down.

At Gulf Coast Community Foundation, we are doing our job. We recently released a science-based “water quality playbook” detailing 43 activities our community can do to reduce nutrient pollution entering our natural waterways, remove excess nutrients already there, and build the capacity and resilience to sustain these improvements.

Our playbook is free and available to all. Admittedly, it is deep with details and focused on systemic strategies—wastewater treatment plant upgrades, stormwater management improvements, better water-quality monitoring, large-scale land conservation. But every one of us can learn from it and take an active role and personal responsibility for advancing its solutions.

Here are a few ways how:

• Advocate for and then support local governments implementing the playbook’s activities.
• Learn and practice proper fertilizer application, including your commercial landscaping contractor.
• Plant native plants that require less irrigation and fertilizer.
• Promote no-mow vegetative buffers around your neighborhood’s stormwater ponds.

Now, as leaders and as citizens, we need to get on the same team. And then we need to do our jobs.

Our community has a decades-long commitment to improving water quality, including pioneering efforts in fertilizer management, storm water management, seagrass restoration, and watershed land conservation. We have achieved and benefitted from collaborative successes to safeguard Sarasota County’s natural resources and water quality. But with decades of growth and development has come excess human-based nitrogen pollution that could push our ecosystem past a tipping point of impairment.

Together, we can correct mistakes of the past and implement solutions that continue to set us apart for the right reasons.

Mark Pritchett is president and CEO of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation. 

When President Joe Biden was candidate Joe Biden, he was very clear on his position on affordable housing. Local and state regulations were an affordable housing problem that also led to other problems in climate change and transportation. No one should be surprised that President Biden, within his first six months in office, has called on Congress to pass significant policy on affordable housing.

President Biden is trying to get his affordable housing policy passed in the American Jobs Plan. The White House fact sheet on the Biden proposal for the American Jobs Plan calls for $213 billion towards affordable housing. This ask coincided with a significant policy statement,” It pairs this investment with an innovative new approach to eliminate state and local exclusionary laws, which drive up the cost of construction and keep families from moving to neighborhoods with more opportunities for them and their kids.”

The plan elaborates on how this should unfold: “For decades, exclusionary zoning laws – like minimum lot sizes, mandatory parking requirements, and prohibitions on multifamily housing – have inflated housing and construction costs and locked families out of areas with more opportunities. President Biden is calling on Congress to enact an innovative, new competitive grant program that awards flexible and attractive funding to jurisdictions that take concrete steps to eliminate such needless barriers to producing affordable housing.”

This is a dramatic federal policy statement for local governments. But the President has been consistent on this policy, that was first introduced during the Obama Presidency, and was adopted by Biden in his campaign. There is no actual implementing language to this proposal yet, but President Biden has been clear about wanting this legislation to pass this summer.

Make no mistake about it, eliminating exclusionary zoning means that a diversity of housing types will co-exist, multi-family mixed with single family housing. What this translates to is an increase in density, which must occur for the Biden policy to be effective. 

In an NBC article published just after the American Jobs Plan was unveiled, it was reported that this idea has bipartisan support in Congress and that a bipartisan group of Senators and Congressmen and Congresswoman have drafted recent legislation to do what President Biden is calling for. According to the NBC article written by Jonathan Allen, This bill “would create a grant fund of $300 million a year for cities, towns, and counties that remove regulatory zoning and land-use barriers to the construction of affordable housing.”

America is on the precipice of a new dawn on federal affordable housing policy and local zoning and land use regulations. Local governments need to begin to prepare for this new policy and neighborhoods need to understand that change must happen and density must increase to begin to effectively tackle the growing problem of affordable housing.

Christine Robinson is executive director of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation. 

Image from Pixabay

The pathway to completing a higher education is not always a straight line. Most students need a nudge here and there to make them aware of the opportunities or assistance available to keep them moving forward to graduation.

I recently talked to two students at the State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota, who are positive examples of willingly accepting a boost to enhance their education and career prospects.

When SCF started its Get Credentialed, Get Noticed! rapid credentialing campaign in Fall 2020 we knew the effort would be great benefit to individuals who were out of work and in need of a short-term program to get employed again. We have been pleasantly surprised, however, with how much this effort has benefited existing SCF students.

SCF’s short-term workforce certificates and industry credentialing programs prepare students for direct entry into the local workforce. We partner with regional employers to ensure our programs meet their needs and effectively prepare students for jobs that lead to careers.

SCF started the “Get Credentialed, Get Noticed!” initiative thanks to a grant of almost $500,000 from the Florida Department of Education’s Rapid Credentialing Economic Recovery & Prosperity Initiative. Scholarships and support are available through the grant and Florida Power and Light donated $229,000 to provide laptops to students to remove the technology barrier many face.

As we ramped up our focus on rapid credentialing through the grant, we were able to streamline our internal processes for awarding college credit certificates within SCF’s Associate of Science degree programs. Many certificates are embedded within these degree programs and we were able to identify students on track to earn certificates and make them aware of the opportunity.

Ericca Thomas and Kate Kinney are two of those SCF students notified that based on the courses they had completed and were currently taking they were not only eligible to earn certificates but could also receive a laptop through Florida Power and Light’s grant. Both are extremely grateful for the laptop, which has made it possible for each to continue taking online courses.

Ericca is completing the Business Operations and Business Specialist Certificates this spring as she continues her pursuit of a Business Administration and Management Associate of Science degree. She told me that “in addition to increasing my knowledge within my field and improving my marketability with employers, this boosts my confidence and spurs me on to fulfill my academic and career aspirations.”

Kate has already earned her Associate of Science degree at SCF and is pursuing a Public Safety and Emergency Management Baccalaureate degree. She recently shared her story with the Herald-Tribune. An aspiring lawyer, she is completing the Business Specialist Certificate this spring, but plans to earn more because she sees the value to bolstering her professional skillset. “The program is easy to understand, and the resources and funding are there to make sure students have access to everything they need,” Kate told me.

Our focus at SCF is to provide the services that wrap around the support provided by the grants from the state and FPL so students like Ericca and Kate have everything they need to focus on their education and careers. Thanks to our staff’s outreach program, more than 400 students will earn one or more of SCF’s rapid credentials in the 2020-21 academic year. It is just the nudge these students need to find a rapid pathway to success.

Dr. Carol Probstfeld is president of State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota. 

The Florida Department of Health in Sarasota County DOH- Sarasota is notifying the public of elevated levels of red tide along the coast of Sarasota County. Some people may have mild and short-lived respiratory symptoms such as eye, nose and throat irritation similar to cold symptoms. Some individuals with breathing problems such as asthma might experience more severe symptoms. Usually symptoms go away when a person leaves the area or goes indoors. 

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ITNSunCoast Offers Free Rides to eye care appointments for seniors aged 60 and up and visually impaired adults in Sarasota and Manatee Counties. If you’ve been putting off your eye appointments due to transportation concerns, reach out to us at (941)364-7530 to find out how you can take advantage of this opportunity and learn more about the services we provide. 

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