Sarasota Livin'

South of the Suwannee Blog has a pointer to another blog urban cartography that links to two articles in Philly1.com Weekly Press that I am blogging about (I am dizzy ..) anyway read some of these links.

Let the malls have the national retail chains. Downtown Sarasota needs to keep a strong mix of local retail / nightlife / food places.

Unrelated to this topic (maybe) the City Commission at their meeting tonight discussed a proposal from a group to provide expertise on our tree canopy - currently 15% of the city has tree cover. Seems pretty low to me. I love big oak trees.

A little later in the meeting Mote Marine was making an offer to help study the pollution levels in Hudson Bayou. These are both important issues and things that help to make Sarasota great. We have alot of very smart people here.

Further evidence of that came from Commissioner Shelin's report on the Life Sciences Cluster development work being done on the Sarasota County Economic Development Plan

"Planning for Sarasota County's Future Economy

We believe that Sarasota County is a special place. Our county offers a high quality of life and is consistently rated as one of the best places to live or start and grow a business. Yet, we also have our share of economic challenges that must be addressed if we are to continue to experience the type of quality development and stable tax base that provide services to all segments of our population, and supports our community's schools, parks, infrastructure and cultural amenities."

In more City Commission news it seems Sarasota Bay is becoming a big practice track for the go-fast boat group... City staff is looking at clamping down on 140 mile per hour racing in the bay. It is very loud and seems to go on frequently ...