Sarasota Livin'

Saturday morning about 10:45 Rachel and I did another walkability test for SRQ Magazine. We parked on Pineapple Ave in front of Burns Court (we tried to park near Towles Court but failed to find a legal spot.

We started the walk by going to Burns Lane looking at the wonderful little places that all seem to be being renovated or are recently renovated. Most everything was still closed when we went through.

Walking back up Pineapple is pretty nice we stopped in several shops. A favorite of mine is the Sarasota Trading Company. It was clear this was not going to be a speed hike.

Eventually we made it up to Ringling Blvd. and turned right toward Towles Court. Ringling is not a pedestrian fun street. The sidewalks are fine and it’s not too overgrown on the sides but there is nothing to keep your interest. Fun to walk streets provide retail windows for walkers to enjoy looking and bring out other walkers. Ringling Blvd is currently a driving street composed of a series of individual office buildings with landscaping and parking lots. We made it to Links Ave without passing another walker.

Turning down Links Ave and then Adams to

Towles Court brings you to one of the nicest places in Sarasota. This “artists” colony is full of old (at least old looking) cottages that are “live work” units. There is sculpture and art everywhere with lots of big trees for shade. Several restaurants where also just opening. Not many of the art shops seemed to be open yet but there were people walking around browsing. Lets hope the developers in the area understand what makes the spirit of Towles Court work. It is not the new “galleries” that were built just off Osprey Ave along Morrill St. They just don’t have the “funky charm” of the older smaller buildings.

We got a little confused and started walking down Morrill St (its funny that the County Administration Building doesn’t have sidewalks ... just parking lots) and then Laurel St before we walked back down to Oak St. Laurel Park is really nice to walk in. The older homes have lots of character and it seems most of the redevelopment fits in.

Back on track walking along Oak St we find that there are several sections of sidewalk that are pretty narrow due to overgrown shrubs / trees but this is still one of the best walks in Sarasota. We really enjoyed the older apartment buildings we saw. Especially the

Spanish Oaks Apartments (built in 1926) with what seems to be one of the few gated, usable courtyards in Sarasota.

Once we made it back to Orange we were hungry and thirsty and just had to stop at “Citrus” the really cool little café at the intersection of Pineapple and Orange near the fountain. We had a nice table outside where we enjoyed a great lunch and “home made” lemonade. This gave us the energy to make it the couple of blocks back to our car after window shopping on the East side of Pineapple Ave.

Overall we rate this the best walk of the 3 we have done even if we didn’t make it to the bayfront. If you like shopping the only comparable walk would be around St Armands.