Sarasota Livin'

I went to the Manasota Regional Neighborhoods Summit this morning not really knowing what to expect... I was very happy to find that it was the best neighborhood event I have been at. I will be writing more about this event as I digest it. If you missed this you really missed out.

The first session I attended was "Community Change, Redevelopment and
Infill" presented by Suzanne Gregory, Associate Director of SCOPE.



Suzanne is a great speaker and the study spear-headed by SCOPE is very well done and available on their web site.

Second was "Manasota, Growing Wisely By Design" presented by Dr. David Brain, Assoc Professor of Sociology at New College.





He talked about how cities are made up of neighborhoods and that zoning can be more of a problem than a cure. Neighborhoods are more of an ecology than an ordering of objects.

It was awesome having two local people with their skills working with us.

The keynote speaker John McKnight
the Co-Director, Asset-Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University gave a talk that focused on neighborhood assets.

Look and what you have and use it. If you only look for problems .. that is all you have.

Many great examples and very inspirational.


Michael Raposa - Director of City of Sarasota Neighborhood Partnership Office, John McKnight and Rhonda Moraca president of Arlington Park Neighborhood Assoc.