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Civic-Branding Agency Hopes To Redefine Miami

Emily Michot
/
Miami Herald

  Binsen Gonzalez almost left Miami, but he received funding for his idea just in time.

“I was about to leave for San Francisco because I felt like there wasn’t something right for me. And then one of my mentors was like if you don’t see it, make it happen.”

That mentor happened to be former Mayor Manny Diaz. The Knight Foundation awarded Gonzalez a $75,000 grant last week for his digital civic start-up idea called Our City Thoughts.

It's a website and a branding non profit agency where, Gonzalez says, the bottom line is social good.

“Our biggest mission for Our City Thoughts is really to redefine Miami.”

The website will feature videos and stories about Miami-Dade County Millennials, young people working to improve the community.

Gonzalez counts himself as one of them. He grew up in Miami since age 3, and wants to rebrand his community.

Listen to his story above.

Karen Rundlet worked as television news producer for a long, long time in cities like Atlanta, New York, and Miami. Not once during that period did she ever say words like "action" or "cut." Seven years ago, she joined The Miami Herald's newsroom as a Multimedia Manager. She built the company a Video Studio, where sports segments, celebrity reports, and interviews with heads of state have been shot and produced. In 2010, she also began producing a business segment for WLRN/Miami Herald News radio and writing business articles for www.MiamiHerald.com. Karen calls herself "a Miami girl with Jamaican roots," (practically a native) having lived in the city long enough to remember when no one went to South Beach. She spends her weekends with an Arsenal Football loving husband and a young daughter who avoids skirts that aren't "twirly enough."
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