You Choose the Subject - I often wish this format allowed the readers of the blog a change to post a new topic and get comment from me and others. So here's your chance; tell me what you want to read about, and I'll post new topics to cover them - within reason of course! What's on your mind, either that's new or that you haven't seen the answers to yet?
posted by Michael McNees at 5:03 PM
9 Comments:
Once the State Street lot is closed for construction of Pineapple Square, (assuming it goes through), downtown merchants will no longer enjoy my patronage. I and a group of friends meet at least weekly downtown and we all park in that lot. Take those hundred or so cars in the State St. lot and the Church lot and put them in the other very limited available parking on a Friday evening and good luck. And no, I don't want to have to deal with some centralized valet parking system being discussed. I pass many other fine bars and restaurants on my way to downtown.
And what's the deal I read about in the Pelican Press that the developer was offering no money down and 10% off to downtown merchants in order to build contract numbers?
srqblogger - My job is to take the policy direction of the City Commission and make it work. In this case, that means to be sure that the parking needs of the Taste of Asia and other existing restaurants are addressed as we go forward. I've said more than once here that it is not my place to second-guess the Commission after the fact, rather to see that staff provides adequate information and makes appropriate recommendations during he decision-making process.
I'll also say that our Commissioners are highly accessible should you wish to share your thoughts with them, and I'm certain each would be more than happy to defend his or her own decision making process on any issue.
mercator - good question, watch this space for a new question to be posted.
beamer - thanks for the easy questions! but seriously...most of what you've asked requires fairly long answers, but I'll start with the first one for now. No development is required to build parking for more than what our codes require for their project. In the case of the Second Street/100 Central garage, the city paid to construct 300 additional spaces. That is what's proposed for Pineapple Square, that the city would pay to build 350 more than required by our code.
activist, we're already well down that road - our Parks and Envirinmental Advisory Board has looked at the issue already, and the City Comission made the whole thing one of this year's legislative priorities for the city.
I may not have been clear above, when I said "parking beyond what our code requires", I meant what is required for the specific uses within that project, with any thing over that considered "public" in this context."
srqblogger: No, I'm talking about the residential condos, not the commercial space.
To Mr. McNees: What are the requirements for parking under the current code? I'm pretty sure the County code requires 1 parking space for every 50 square feet of dining and waiting space for a restaurant with, (I think), more than 100 seats. Those 350 spaces you're talking about, those are not 350 more spaces than what is currently available is it? As far as I know, in the Main & Lemon area, besides the State St. and church parking lot behind the Gator Club, the only other nearby lots I can think of are across from the bus station on Second and the Whole Foods garage. Even with the former two lots, the latter two are often full or close to full, so the closing of State St. and the church lot will be quite a loss. Add on all the additional square feet of retail, dining, etc. proposed for Pineapple Square and you need a lot more parking. I can imagine the developers coming back to the City down the road crying poverty once plans are finalized for Sarasota Bayside, (Quay), and all the high-end retailers and businesses planned for that project. They will probably have tons of parking and will draw a lot of business from downtown. I can't see people shopping or dining there and then getting in their cars to search for a parking space around Main St. and I don't expect people to walk across 41 to get to downtown from there.
Here's a subject to discuss, and if blogger.com has the ability to have a poll online, maybe you can do that. The State Legislature recently passed a bill that will allow local governments to approve allowing dogs in outdoor dining areas. Currently, except for service animals, animals are not permitted anywhere food is served. That is the US food code and was Florida law. I think allowing different food codes from municipality to municipality is a dangerous precedent. After the Governer signs the bill, local governments can enact laws that allow restaurants to admit pets in outdoor areas -- if they choose to get a permit. This being illegal hasn't stopped the practice at Sarasota restaurants in the past, so I'm not sure if whether the Sarasota passing such an ordinance will make any difference. Personally, I don't want to dine alongside dogs, outdoors or not. Dined at Barnacle Bill's the other night and looked outside to see my server playing with a customer's dog. I don't know whether or not she washed her hands before returning to work, it's not something I really want to have think about when dining, but after seeing her having her hand licked and patting the dog, well, you get the idea. I will not be going back. I've also seen dogs in Mattison's downtown. One woman even had her dog sitting on a chair eating off the table. No thanks. I'm curious to hear what others think of the subject. And before anyone starts gushing over how their dog is a member of their family, sorry, dogs are not people. You can actually go out to dinner and leave Fido at home.
gulfer - You covered a lot of ground with the first post, and it's pretty hard for me to address all of those issues in this format. You obviously have a copy of the city budget, you are welcome to make an appointment and come in to my office to have your questions answered. I can say that we are constantly looking at internal functions, particularly during the budgeting process.
You're correct about my efforts not to accumulate reserves in the Central Stores fund, we're better off lowering those interfund charges. Finally the discussion of City Hall window replacements has to do with improving the building's hurricane resistance. When we proposed the interior renovations nearly three years ago, we pretty much exhausted the available funds doing what we're now nearly finished with. The obvious answer to your question is yes, upgrading the windows would be cheaper had we bid it a couple of years ago, but we can say that about everything we do this year, or about any year for that matter. We kept the scope of the project down as much as possible to stay within the money available.
Beamer, you've got me on this one, I don't know anything about it. Unless there's some use in our composting operation I'm unaware of, I don't know of anywhere we use a significant amount of natural gas, if any, so don't know where we might find savings. Am I missing something?
Gary - Verizon has been in conversation with Sarasota County for some time, and only recently let us know they would be looking for a franchise in the city (I didn't the term "Fios TV" and had to look it up to answer your question.) We will most likely engage a franchise expert to work with the staff and City Attorney's representative in negotiating a franchise agreement, likely to be consistent with what the county does.
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