{"id":30652,"date":"2023-02-28T14:48:50","date_gmt":"2023-02-28T19:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=30652"},"modified":"2023-02-28T14:51:21","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T19:51:21","slug":"is-lakelands-status-as-a-top-boomtown-pro-and-con","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/02\/28\/is-lakelands-status-as-a-top-boomtown-pro-and-con\/","title":{"rendered":" Is Lakeland\u2019s status as a top \u2018Boomtown\u2019 Pro and Con"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While being a \u2018boomtown\u2019 has its perks, it can also have its challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A study released by Lending Tree<\/a> ranked Lakeland as the nation\u2019s third biggest \u2018boomtown,\u2019 citing housing growth, median earnings, and new employer identification numbers<\/a>, which signifies the start of new businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have great city services. We have great open public spaces, many parks that people enjoy<\/a>. I\u2019m not surprised at all to hear that Lakeland has made the list as number three boomtown in the country,\u201d said Shawn Sherrouse, Lakeland\u2019s city manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City leaders must balance the cost of providing services with the need demanded by growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrying to utilize the tax base that we have now without increasing taxes any more than necessary, trying to keep our electric utility rates competitive is always our focus but with growth, oftentimes comes a little bit of pain and some of those increased costs to provide those services are part of the equation,\u201d Sherrouse said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the city, the population of Lakeland has increased by 20,000 since 2010, and nearly 5% since 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not surprising that we were able to bounce back quicker because we weren\u2019t as rooted in tourism like many places around Florida may be, but we\u2019re more diverse in manufacturing and logistics and other types of industries,\u201d said Katie Worthington Decker, senior vice president of the Lakeland Economic Development Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study shows a 118% increase in new entrepreneurs in Lakeland in 2020-2021 compared to 2018-2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEither you were forced into entrepreneurships through layoffs or many of us did those quality of life evaluations and decided wouldn\u2019t it be great to be our boss? So it\u2019s interesting to see that 118% growth in entrepreneurship,\u201d said Worthington Decker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decker works out of Catapult, an incubator for entrepreneurs that offers resources and programs for start-ups in Lakeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lakeland Regional Health continually ranks in the top two busiest ERs in the nation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polk County is having to re-examine how it supplies water<\/a> for its residents and businesses in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traffic congestion is also a sore spot for residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s gone from a nice little town to huge. You can\u2019t get across town in less than 30 minutes and that\u2019s if you know the shortcuts,\u201d said Stephen Debats, who has lived in Lakeland for 61 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Issues are not enough affordable housing units in Lakeland nowhere to put tiny homes. Also, issues with the homeless.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While being a \u2018boomtown\u2019 has its perks, it can also have its challenges. A study released by Lending Tree ranked Lakeland as the nation\u2019s third biggest \u2018boomtown,\u2019 citing housing growth, median earnings, and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[4646],"class_list":["post-30652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-is-lakelands-status-as-a-top-boomtown-pro-and-con"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}