Sarasota Livin'

It's that time again... The 3 district seats for the Sarasota City Commission are all up for a vote. This year at least in District 2 and 3 (near where I live) they are lively races.

District 3 has Danny Bilyeu (the incumbent) and Kelly Kirschner - this race is all about the "vision" of downtown and the neighborhoods.

District 2 has four candidates with Mary Anne SerVian the incumbent and Denise Kowal, Dick Clapp and Andrea Daniels all with their competing ideas.

I live in district 2 so I will be choosing one of the four. I don't think any of them would be horrible for the city - that's good. It's just picking who will be best for the next term.

I attended a candidate forum today at Irving and Yale St in Avondale ... it was cool to have an outdoor event I could ride my bike to. There were 40-50 different people there over about 1.5 hours of discussion.

This is the neighborhood bordering Hudson Bayou ... none of the candidates was in favor of dumping raw sewage in the water (duh...)

Again I think the major issue is the fast pace of growth in and surrounding downtown. I don't think that will be as big an issue this term as last term as most of the "big" decisions are made even if the building has only just begun...

I love the unique neighborhoods in Sarasota and continue to work to make them better but I really like having a healthy downtown and don't have a problem with most all of what is there..

I think the big issue this term will be fiscal responsibility. With the police station and a new baseball stadium starting things off.. no one asked about these issues...