Sarasota Livin'

I am not running for City Commission and even if I wanted to it's too late to qualify. But I wanted to respond to some questions that I saw in an email from Jon Susce...

Reliable sources are reporting the three key issues that all nine candidates will be forced to address and unable to “duck” are the following:

1) for or against the referendum question

2) for continue growth centered around high densities (favored by downtown interests and the construction industry) or for a knowledge based type of development like high tech, high paying jobs

3) Traffic issues like spending $millions$ connecting bayfront to main street and for or against gutting concurrence.

Question 1
I like the idea of an elected mayor - there I said it - I didn't really come to this conclusion until this year after talking with some of the supporters of the referendum.

My experience has been that many many things take more than a year to get through the "process." So not having anyone with the ability to "push" for a project in a strong way makes lots of projects flounder in a mix of too many projects that aren't going anywhere. Maybe having a "real" mayor will help that.

I don't like the fact that the supporters didn't think through the increase in "at large" commissioners - I would have preferred adding a new "district" commissioner for each - so 8 commissioners and a mayor.... maybe that is unworkable

Question 2
I think density is a good thing in the right places - and downtown is the right place -- I think we should regulate the building size and location -- not the number of units that are inside of it - I don't want a downtown full of tall (15 story) buildings but a neighborhood full of 4 story mixed use buildings with lots of density is fine with me - also I am not worried about the number of parking places included. If someone builds a building with too many units and no parking and can't sell them .... well that takes care of the parking problem.

If you think that density and "knowledge / creative" based development are opposites you better think again.... you won't get knowledge / creative workers without the urban amenities that come with density.

Question 3

Concurrency doesn't add any value in a urban area -- we should be focused on stopping sprawl in areas where it will never support the cost of infrastructure. I don't think building more bigger roads will solve any problems... now if concurrency means that we need to add mass transit of some sort that is good - but mass transit requires density to make it viable.

As far as spending millions to connect the bayfront to main st -- I am fine moving the designation of US 41 to follow 301 though downtown. Then lower the speed limit and increase the length of the red lights this will make it more pedestrian friendly.