Tallahassee

North Florida’s lower-income residents can get free help with their taxes this spring. Eligible individuals and families making $54,000 a year or less can sign up for an appointment now.

Local preservationists are working to survey a historically black neighborhood that’s feeling pressure from developers. The project could help residents protect the area from new construction.

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum says it’s wrong to make cities choose between “security and compassion” when it comes to immigration. The rising Democratic star and potential gubernatorial candidate is pushing back on a Presidential Executive order.

Tallahassee’s homeless population can expect more space, more help and better accommodations when a new shelter opens in April. A new facility on West Pensacola Street is a major improvement over the city’s main homeless refuge.

A new development is springing up on South Magnolia Drive near the Florida Lottery. The proposed site will soon be home to a few new fast food restaurants and other shops. But at least one local group say the development is a lost opportunity in the ongoing quest to learn more about the Spanish explorer, Hernando de Soto.

A Leon County circuit judge has agreed to expedite his hearing of a proposed Tallahassee ethics initiative a group is trying to place on the November ballot. Citizens for Ethics Reform is asking the City Commission to approve the measure before the judge rules next Friday, as they outlined in a letter to city officials this afternoon. 

Tallahassee may have finally hit its “student housing” peak. But it’s leaving non-students, and others with fewer options for where to live. Now  some city officials say the glut of student housing could lead to a transformation of the city’s housing market.

If you’re not a college student, options are limited when it comes to housing. Something Will Butler, President of the company that developed the College Town business center on Gaines street, acknowledges.

An art show opening with a reception Thursday evening, July 10, features some of the city of Tallahassee’s most talented staffers. This year’s TOWNSHOW art exhibit is the largest since the city held its first one 10 years ago.

More than 100 artworks by more than 50 current and retired city employees line the walls of City Hall. City HR Program Coordinator Annette Pearce is on the exhibit committee. She says TOWNSHOW—that’s a play on “Tallahassee’s Own Show”—surprises people every year.

After taking somewhat of a pause in the process, the city of Tallahassee is about to take steps toward creating a new noise ordinance. The issue is scheduled to be discussed at City Hall later this month.

Several times this year, Tallahassee police have responded to noise complaints in the urban midtown neighborhood of Levy Park.

Neighborhood resident Erin VanSickle says, “They expressed frustration that the city did not have and does not have a noise ordinance."

More so than any city in the nation, Tallahassee gained the most "compactness" from 2000 to 2010. That distinction comes from a University of Utah study looking at which cities "sprawled" the most during that time.   

The study by Shima Hamidi and Reid Ewing suggests a goal for cities across the country is to grow more businesses and neighborhoods inside of city lines to  fill in gaps, rather than develop farther from the city center, known as sprawl.  

It’s what’s on the inside that counts.

Because of the rare cold weather in Tallahassee, Florida State University canceled classes Wednesday, much to the delight of students, many of whom ventured outside -- buttoned up from head to toe -- to catch a glimpse of their first snowfall and snap shots of frozen fountains.But, when a group of students arrived at one fountain, they were sorely disappointed. Instead of a still and frozen body of water, they were greeted by the sound of rushing water.

Tallahassee residents are saying goodbye to their two-sided recycle bins as workers replace dividers with new lids this week. City officials hope to encourage more recycling by doing away with the need for sorting.

A forklift unloaded pallets from a big rig on Tallahassee’s Southside Monday morning as city Solid Waste Administrative Services Manager Rita Taylor looked on.

“They’ve just gotten a shipment of lids in and they’re taking them off and putting them in the warehouse," she explained.

The state of Florida is finalizing plans for a Russian Heritage Month scheduled for January. Event organizers say they hope it promotes peer-to-peer understanding among Russians and Americans.

Florida Department of State database analyst Eman Vovsi is from Russia. He came up with Russian Heritage Month as a way to honor Russian contributions to Florida. But he says he hopes it does more than that.

Take a quick drive around Tallahassee and you’ll see a lot of construction. It’s the construction of new big box stores and businesses, new housing developments and home renovations, and even new improvements at the Tallahassee airport. The city is changing. It’s an issue the WFSU News team considered in its week-long  series “How’s it working in Tallahassee.” We follow that up with a conversation on Perspectives with Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce President Sue Dick, Interim Director of Aviation at the Tallahassee airport Jay Townsend and Owner of Water Works Don Quarello.

It’s a good time to buy a house in Tallahassee—if you have cash or if you’re willing to take on a little risk. Patrick Darden's business is all about weighing risk and reward. He's looking for a diamond in the rough, and  he’s found it: in the heart of downtown Tallahassee.

"Assumeably, there’s a home from everybody at the right price," he said.

A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau shows poverty rates in college towns are greatly skewed. And numbers in two of Florida’s college towns are among the nation’s most inflated.

The report shows Tallahassee and Gainesville have the country’s two most inflated poverty rates for cities of more than 100,000 people.  The reason is the large student population in both places. Take students out of the calculation, and Tallahassee’s poverty rate falls about 12 percent. Gainesville’s falls about 16 percent.

Tallahassee City Commissioners are considering a ban on hiring smokers in order to help stem a five-million dollar budget shortfall. But, Tallahassee wouldn’t be the first city in Florida to make such a move.

Smoking cigarettes can lead to heart disease, hypertension, cancer and depending on where you live in Florida, unemployment. Tallahassee City Commissioner Scott Maddox said smokers present a higher health care cost to the city and it’s not fair for taxpayers to subsidize a bad habit.

Within about two weeks of being posted, a rap video featuring Tallahassee has gotten more than 20,000 views. 

Andrew Mannheimer is a southern boy from Tallahassee who loves his home town so much he’s sticking around to get his Ph.D. in sociology at Florida State University. He works there now as a co-teacher for a class on sociology and hip-hop.  And in his free time he raps.

The first Christmas celebrated in what would become the United States was likely in Tallahassee, according to historians. The Florida House of Representatives is considering officially recognizing the site of America’s first Christmas, a move the Senate took last year.

The first Europeans to spend Christmas in the New World, historians speculate, would likely have been Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto and about 600 of his men and servants. De Soto had set up camp in an Apalachee Indian village, just down the street from the current-day state Captiol.

Some Tallahassee middle and high school students had the opportunity to participate in Florida's legislative process Monday. A lawmaker asked for their ideas as he prepares for the legislative session.