5A – Identifying Local Opportunities
First Local
Opportunity:Title: Tampa
Bay man stuck paying for deceased wife’s medical alert and security service
Description of
Story: A 71-year-old man’s wife died, but he is stuck paying the $45 a month
bill for her medical alert and home security service. The company keeps billing
him despite him requesting to cancel it, and since his wife signed the
contract, it is now void with her death.
Description
of Problem: Companies taking advantage of seniors, and unfairly taking money because
the person is older and does not know how to fight them legally. The contract
is void but the company refuses to stop charging the man, despite the service
not being needed anymore, due to the wife passing away.
Description
of who has the problem: The senior citizen man has the problem in this story. This
shows that senior citizens are taken advantage of by companies and need ways to
protect themselves and fight back.
Second Local
Opportunity:
Title: Tampa
already prepping for 2021 Super Bowl
Description
of Story: Tampa is already preparing to host the 2021 Super Bowl. Local, State,
and Federal legal forces are working together to plan for this event, and
ensure it runs safely with no threats.
Description
of Problem: Communicating news to the public has been an issue with important
updates regarding safety being delayed, along with the dozens of law
enforcement agencies working together not properly communicating with each
other, leading to the duplication of equipment and response capabilities occurring.
This results in wasted time and money of police resources.
Description
of who has the problem: Those in attendance of the Super Bowl and in the areas
around where it is occurring are affected due to them not being able to get
important information when needed. Law enforcement agencies have the problem
due to them not being able to communicate.
Third Local Opportunity:
Title: City
of Tampa to discuss single-use plastic ban.
Description
of story: A environmental group called Rise Above Plastics, is trying to ban
single use plastics on all City of Tampa property.
Description
of Problem: There are four billion floating microplastic particles floating in
the water of Tampa Bay, so efforts are needed to be taken to find a way to
reduce the pollution of the bay. Banning single use plastics and finding
alternative products could be a step in the right direction of slowing this
pollution.
Description
of who has this problem: Everyone who live on Tampa Bay and utilizes this bay
as a resource. The bay provides food for thousands of people, and this plastic
pollution can find its way up the food chain.
Fourth Local
Opportunity:
Title: Tampa
crews uncover 37 dump trucks worth of possibly illegal waste in pipe on
Manhattan Avenue.
Description
of Story: Old pipes used for water and wastewater systems have been improperly
maintained, resulting in a back up of thousands of pounds of waste being stuck
in them.
Description
of Problem: There is no ways to prevent debris from entering these pipes. Much
of this debris consists of grease, sand and flushable wipes. There currently is
no way to filter this out so crews have to clean 1,500 miles of pipes. They can
only work in fifteen-foot sections and on one to two pipes at a time, and if
not cleaned can result in wastewater overflow.
Description
of who has the problem: The City of Tampa and cleaning crews for the city
currently have this problem. People in these areas also have the problem, due
to their tax money being used for this, along with wastewater overflow in badly
affected areas.
Fifth Local
Opportunity:
Title: Tampa’s
fifth Super Bowl offers small businesses a get-in-the-game opportunity
Description
of Story: The upcoming 2021 Super Bowl in Tampa will result in millions of
dollars in contracts to vendors. The NFL is working to include vendors from a
variety of demographics, including business owned by women, minorities,
veterans and LGBTQ groups.
Description
of Problem: Many locally owned companies cannot compete with big chain brands.
This is true within the catering world, where companies owned by underrepresented
demographics cannot compete and get big contracts for events like the Super
Bowl.
Description
of who has the problem: People who own small local companies have this problem
with competing for contracts with big chain brands. This is especially true
with small local companies who are owned by underrepresented groups such as
those apart of women, minorities, veterans and LGBTQ groups.
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