5A: Identifying Local Opportunities

1. Title: Orlando Airport adds shuttle buses to ease growing waits by workers at parking lots

Link: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-orlando-airport-worker-buses-20180910-story.html

Description: The Orlando International Airport is adding 40 shuttle buses and training new drivers in order to facilitate faster commute times for employees waiting for shuttles to the airport from the employee parking lot.

Problem: The problem is that the workers were waiting too long in the employee parking lot because there were not enough shuttles to take all of the workers to the airport for their shifts.

Who has the Problem: The workers of Orlando International Airport are the ones who have this problem since they are the ones who were forced to wait inconvenient amounts of time in the employee parking lot waiting on too few shuttles to take them to their locations at the airport.



2. Title: Spectrum apologizes; please update us sooner next time

Link: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/tv/tv-guy/os-et-spectrum-apologizes-give-updates-sooner-20180910-story.html

Description: Spectrum, part of Charter Communications, is a cable and internet service provider. Over the weekend, many people in the Orlando area lost service and were unable to watch television or get connected to the Internet. Customers who tried to get in touch with Spectrum to see what the issue was received an automated voice message that notified the customer that Spectrum had a high volume of calls and would not be accepting any more for the time being. There was no update on the interruption of services on their website either, for those customers that did have internet service and were checking for others who did not. Spectrum offered the following apology, “Spectrum is aware of the issue and apologizes for the inconvenience of the disruption of our services.

Problem: The problem was that many Spectrum customers experienced an interruption of their cable and internet services throughout Sunday and continuing into early Monday. Spectrum also failed to communicate effectively with those customers experiencing the interruption in services.

Who has the Problem: Certain Spectrum customers experienced this problem.



3. Title: City to explore open-container law for UF game days

Link: https://www.gainesville.com/news/20180908/city-to-explore-open-container-law-for-uf-game-days

Description: The city of Gainesville is looking into having open container laws instituted on game days along with soft closing for bars at midtown and downtown in order to alleviate the crowds of people who all leave the bars at the same time. The open container law would apply to University Avenue and the bar closing times would be extended to 2:30am while the cutoff for alcohol being served would remain at 1:45am. Both issues affect financial decisions for businesses along with safety issues for patrons and those consuming alcoholic beverages. By possibly instituting these new rules, arrests could be cut down along with traffic late at night near midtown and other high-volume areas. Also, by keeping the last call time at 1:45am, people now have a chance to close their tabs or pay the bill at a reasonable pace and do not have to worry about long lines in order to do so.

Problem: The problem in this article is arrests and fines related to open containers on game days in Gainesville along with issues over paying bar tabs and getting home safely while leaving with massive crowds at people when the bars have a hard closing at 2:00am.

Who has the Problem: The students of UF and residents of Gainesville can all be affected by this problem and all may have to deal with it.



4. Title: Feces-filled sewage flooded the streets. The city did nothing for 10 days, records show

Link: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-gardens/article217790205.html

Description: In Opalocka, Florida untreated sewage leaked into flooded streets for ten straight days while officials said nothing about it. The city has been in a state of government declared emergency for the last two years, but the sewage leak is a dangerous new development. This has led to a serious health hazard and a massive public relations issue for city officials. The sewage leak also got into local businesses which naturally affected their business as a whole. City officials say the problem lies in the 50-year-old piping that lays beneath the city. Storm drains are also wildly inefficient, leading to frequent flooding regardless of the sewage pollution.

Problem: The problem is the sewage leaking into the water which is affecting not just overall public health but also local businesses in the area who are seeing a decrease in business as a result. City officials have yet to come up with a quick fix. Long term solutions figure to take two years minimum to complete.

Who has the problem: City officials and all residents of Opalocka are affected by this problem. Areas affected include health, financial, and local government.



5. Title: Construction Company tried to hide that it cheated workers out of 111,000 in pay

Link: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article218097995.html

Description: A Florida metal framing construction company owes over 100 employees over 100,000 dollars in pay. They did not pay overtime and tried to use shady bookkeeping methods throughout.

Problem: A construction company did not pay their employees what was rightfully owed to them.

Who has the Problem: The workers have this problem since they were not paid fairly at all.