Latest news with #CityGovernment
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lakeport unveils first ever city park
LAKEPORT, Texas (KETK) – The City of Lakeport in Gregg County opened up the first city park in their history on Saturday. Annual CAST for Kids brings fun fishing back to Lake Gladewater Lakeport is a city to the southeast of Longview in Gregg County that was founded in 1965. Ever since then, they've never had a city park. Their new park cost around $500,000 to build and is located at 207 Milam Road, near the City Government Building on Estes Parkway. 'We want the whole community to be involved. And they are here, the community is here,' said Lakeport mayor Johnny Simmons. 'We got people in the surrounding area, not only from the city of Lakeport but the surrounding area to support this, this effort and things are great right now.' The grand opening of the park started at 10 a.m. on Saturday and included a ribbon cutting, raffle prizes, food and ice cream. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Boston late-night food truck program to launch this summer
This week, food truck owners have the chance to take part in the city's new late-night food truck program. Mayor Michelle Wu says it's going to provide food trucks the opportunity to utilize public sites designated for late-night service. 'My very first efforts in city government working under Mayor Menino focused on improving the restaurant permitting process and launching food trucks in Boston,' said Mayor Wu. 'Fifteen years later, I'm excited to continue creating opportunities for our food businesses and to make our city vibrant, welcoming, and fun. I encourage interested food truck operators to register for the lottery for a chance to operate at a late-night location this summer and fall.' The seven sites are located near hospitals, universities, and nightlife districts. In order to take part, food truck owners must participate in an online lottery, which is happening on Friday, June 6, at 4 PM, and owners must sign up for the lottery before Wednesday. The Office of Nightlife Economy will announce the list of locations and food truck operators after the lottery in June. The Late Night Food Truck season will take place throughout this summer and end in the Fall. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
The Star
20-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Star
AI helps tackle traffic carbon emissions in Buenos Aires
BUENOS AIRES: On weekday mornings, commuters from Buenos Aires' northern suburbs come thundering in from the highway, only to grind to a halt at a string of traffic lights along the Ruiz Huidobro Avenue, a broad thoroughfare connecting important routes into the Argentine capital. These drivers may not realise it, but since October, a tiny change using artificial intelligence (AI) means they have been stopping less. City traffic officials tweaked the traffic light cycle at Tronador Street so it matched that of Melián Avenue, four blocks northeast, and staggered the cycles between them. That adjustment was the suggestion of Green Light, a Google project that uses AI and Google Maps driving trends to make smart recommendations to optimise traffic flow. In doing so, it cuts the carbon emissions and air pollution associated with stop-start traffic. As a result, drivers along that stretch of road are making 14% fewer stops while saving 2,339 hours of travel time and 6,987 liters of fuel annually, according to figures provided by the Buenos Aires City Government. A 2016 study in the journal Environmental Science: Processes And Impacts found pollution at stoplights can be up to 29 times higher than in free-flowing traffic. This, Google said, means making AI-based recommendations to optimize traffic light cycles constitutes a major opportunity to cut down on carbon emissions as dozens of cities around the world aim to eliminate their net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and become net zero. Green Light is live at more than 70 intersections, and "early numbers indicate the potential to reduce stops by up to 30% and reduce emissions at intersections by up to 10%," wrote Kate Brandt, Google's chief sustainability officer, in 2023. Since 2021 the Green Light project has been implemented in 17 cities, including Rio de Janeiro, the Indian cities of Kolkata and Bengaluru, Abu Dhabi, Manchester, England and the US cities of Seattle and Boston. Each location comes with different challenges, according to Matheus Vervloet, Green Light's product manager. "In India, traffic management is the responsibility of the police," Vervloet said. "So even if you go into the traffic engineering department, they're all uniformed policemen, which is different from other parts of the world. You see more hierarchical decision making.' In Germany, meanwhile, the project can face delays because of internal bureaucracy, he added. "They go through a lot more processes before making changes," he said. "In other countries, it's quicker." Shaving off seconds Changes are often minute, involving adjustments of just a second or two to traffic light timings. In a complex network such as city traffic, larger adjustments, like changing a traffic light cycle to 90 seconds from 30, can have unintended consequences. Drivers may change their routes, meaning the stoplights Google is analysing become irrelevant, Vervloet said. "If you have a small change, you're likely not going to have a big behaviour shift," he said. Skeptics point out that even highly optimized smart stoplight systems are still geared around drivers' behavior and attitudes. "Measures taken so that cars don't have to stop typically have the opposite effect: they make people more interested in driving," said Laura Ziliani, an independent transport and urbanism consultant previously based in Buenos Aires. She said she believes cities should discourage driving by implementing measures such as slower speed limits and costlier road tolls. The City of Buenos Aires is gradually building more public transport. Mayor Jorge Macri recently announced plans for a new subway line, and a new electric bus started operation in May. But many people drive in from distant suburbs far beyond the city limits, according to Pablo Bereciartua, Minister of Infrastructure and Mobility at Buenos Aires City Government. "Any large metropolis – New York, Madrid, Paris, London – has metropolitan railways that are proportionally more effective than Buenos Aires. They work better and transport more people," he said. "Those people don't use their private cars because they come by train," he added. In the meantime, he argues, a significant proportion of commuters are limited to driving – and projects such as Green Light can help reduce the environmental impact of those cars. Buenos Aires officials would like to extend the use of Green Light and other smart stoplight technology along more main roads into the city, according to Bereciartua. This task, he noted, is complicated because the routes on the other side of the capital's ring road are the purview of Buenos Aires Province. Vervloet noted that cities still need to build out their public transport and cycling infrastructure to tackle emissions. But while they do that, he said, Green Light is a low-cost alternative. It is free for cities to use and does not require installation of equipment such as sensors. "Maybe 10 years from now, a project like Green Light is not going to be necessary anymore," he said. "That would be a success." – Thomson Reuters Foundation
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tensions rise in St. Martinville over Lawrason Act
LA (KLFY)— The possibility of a new form of operations for St. Martinville City Government is beginning to cause conflict between city leaders on if it should stay the same or move in a different direction. The new form of operations is called the Lawrason Act which according to Mayor Jason Willis, will establish a distinct role between the sitting mayor and council members. 'It stops all the confusion,' Willis said. ' (it) lets everybody know the job when they come with it, because I won't be the mayor forever. That council won't be the council forever. When the next group comes in, next mayor, comes in, it's going to be the same rules applied.' Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Willis said out of 304 city towns and villages in Louisiana, 248 are under the Lawrason Act. Willis believes it is time to move forward with a new way of operating and said the Lawrason Act is the way to go. St. Martinville District 1 Councilman Mike Fuselier is a council member who disagrees. He believes it will give the sitting mayor too much power which can cause major issues. 'We've always had a special challenge that our founders gave us.' Fusilier said. 'I think it's a privilege to have it. We can amend it. We can change it. Unlike the last act where the state kind of dictates all those changes.' Both Fuselier and Mayor Willis spoke on the tension spreading on social media and asked the community to do their research and do what they think is best for the city. 'I have been personally attacked too.' Fuselier said. 'That is just part of politics. I'm passionate about what I do. We all have our beliefs, and we live in a country where we can voice those opinions. And I just advise everybody to go vote.' 'That has to stop because we supposed to be a team,' said Willis. 'At the end of the day, what is pass or not? We still have to work together for the betterment of this city.' The election will be held on May 3 where voters can decide whether or not to adopt the Lawrason Act. Who is FSU shooter Phoenix Ikner, son of Florida deputy? Pennsylvania senator asked child 'pornography' question during civics competition 'I thank the Lord': FSU student describes escape from campus shooting Tensions rise in St. Martinville over Lawrason Act Athlete of the week: Laila Badger Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
