Sarasota Livin'

I still am a registered Republican... but it seems I keep supporting Democrats in this race.... Laura Benson had a decent chance of getting my vote. But all of the negative mail I have gotten these past few weeks has really turned me against her and the State Republican party and all of the out of town groups paying for this junk mail.

Sell me what you have .... don't make up things about the other guy .... when I get 3 mailers just today telling me the evils of Keith Fitzgerald it is just stupid...

Do you know he is a double dipping, career politician, illegal alien supporting, no border fence, income tax loving, democrat that wants to raise my daughters college tuition 40%????

Anyway I am going to vote for Keith Fitzgerald because I don't believe any of that crap...(except he is a democrat)

OK this is the best video of the presidential campaign ... but it still won't get my vote. I can't vote for Sen McCain because of his love of nuclear power plants (and a few other things) ... what's wrong with him ... even just thinking about it only as "targets" for some group of "nut cases" is enough for me to be against more nuclear power and if I hear "drill baby drill" one more time...

Karl Roves maps say Obama is going to win (slide the bottom bar to the right)

Gallup says that 59% of "my group" is for Obama and only 36% for McCain.

Even Colin Powell is voting for Obama -- he certainly has "cred" with me...

I had already decided this because I have followed the work Jono has done for Sarasota county for many years and I am very happy he lives here.

But Carolyn Mason just made it easier for me. I do think the items that she has on her side of the list are important but I think Jono will do a much better job. So if I think green building and controlling sprawl ... I am thinking Jono as worked a long time on those issues and knows them well.

Montreal is my new favorite city.... at least in the summer festival time.... it's a beautiful, urban, green, cosmopolitan, chic, diverse, shopaholic ..... and more city.

Planetizen -- EcoDensity Approved in Vancouver

After two years of intensive dialogue and debate, education (in all directions) and idea-development, Vancouver's concept of EcoDensity has been translated into Council-approved policy and actions.
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The final outcome - Unanimous Council support for the EcoDensity Charter (there are three political parties represented on Council, and the City is going into an election later this year, so this unanimous support is significant). The Charter is now in effect as Council direction relative to everything we do.
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FAQ on the Vancouver EcoDensity Planning Initative

EcoDensity is about how density that is well-designed, well-located, and carefully-implemented provides a powerful tool to improve environmental sustainability, affordability, and livability. The questions and answers below reflect this approach.

I pulled this shopping cart out of a ditch in my neighborhood during our "clean up" day. What was really weird was it came from a supermarket a few miles away.

Yes I returned it.... I hope someone cleans it...

OK we are "fat and happy" "livin' large" ... for now ... read how we compare to other areas in Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of Metropolitan America yes what you heard is true we don't rank very good .... certainly part of our deal is being a newer more surburban area --- cars and roads -- drive to get the house you want. We are 82nd out of the top 100 -- higher numbers being worse...

Trends. Metropolitan Sarasota’s per capita footprint from transportation and residential energy use increased 29.56 percent between 2000 and 2005. The average per capita footprint of the 100 largest metro areas and of the nation increased 1.1 percent and 2.2 percent during this time, respectively.
The transportation portion of Sarasota’s per capita footprint increased 58.6 percent between 2000 and 2005, compared to an increase of 2.4 percent in the 100 largest metro areas. The residential portion of Sarasota’s per capita footprint decreased 3.4 percent between 2000 and 2005, compared to a slight decrease of 0.7 percent in the 100 largest metro areas.

Lets see how bad will it hurt when the price of driving continues to increase like crazy...