Greetings, I'm Back - I confess, I took a little bit of vacation from City Hall. August is typically a good month to do that, though there is plenty happening even in August any more. Here at the city right now we're still working the spring training issue, trying to bring a new SPD headquarters into focus soon, and any number of other things.
But for now, before that vacation spirit gets away from us completely, and recognizing that this is the time of year when many Floridians travel, I'm going to ask this question - In your travels this summer, what did you see or learn about somewhere else that you think would be useful for us, or that we could replicate here in Sarasota? I'll start with an example; I was in Jackson, Wyoming which is a very high-transient place with many thousands of tourists passing through or staying in a very small town every day. One thing they do better than we do is provide public restrooms downtown. Other than at the bus transfer station and down at Island Park, I don't believe there are others here. Actually they probably have about that many as well, but serving a much smaller downtown.
What have you seen this summer that you think we could learn from?
But for now, before that vacation spirit gets away from us completely, and recognizing that this is the time of year when many Floridians travel, I'm going to ask this question - In your travels this summer, what did you see or learn about somewhere else that you think would be useful for us, or that we could replicate here in Sarasota? I'll start with an example; I was in Jackson, Wyoming which is a very high-transient place with many thousands of tourists passing through or staying in a very small town every day. One thing they do better than we do is provide public restrooms downtown. Other than at the bus transfer station and down at Island Park, I don't believe there are others here. Actually they probably have about that many as well, but serving a much smaller downtown.
What have you seen this summer that you think we could learn from?
posted by Michael McNees at 5:13 PM
7 Comments:
Milwaukee and Sarasota are not really a good comparison. See the descriptions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee,_Wisconsin vs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarasota%2C_FL
Obviously, Sarasota does not have the population to support our own major league team. (We barely support our minor league team.) I disagree that we don't support what is really our own team, the Tampa Bay Bucs. Get out to a local sports bar or go to a game and you will be amazed how many Sarasota folks are season ticket holders. We had a PGA Senior Tour event here in the past, but again, people forget that even though Sarasota is big in area, it does not have that large a population and is dominated by the nearby real metropolitan area of Tampa/St. Pete. We're too close to Tampa to have our own major events as any event big enough to be called a major event would be held in Tampa and then Sarasota ends up being too nearby to repeat the event here. We're lucky to have some national acts for entertainment that come through here, e.g. The Bluesfest. So, it's unlikely you will see a PGA Tour even in Sarasota as there is one in Tampa. It's why I suggested in another post that part of the Ed Smith project be some tennis facilities so maybe we can attract a tennis tournament. Tennis is something, (between Bolliteri, The Colony and professional players that live here), that Sarasota could put itself on the map with.
If the Quay project ever gets done, I think that will help bring the population closer to the water. It will probably kill a lot of downtown businesses, but we'll see what happens there. It would be nice if the city did allow some commercial development along the bayfront as has been suggested in the past. I don't mean a convention center, but just some shops and amenities that would encourage people to be on the bayfront.
matt k: You are welcome to ignore what I said. I suggest you take a look at http://www.sarasotaneighborhoods.org/ as you seem to think Sarasota only has two neighborhoods with commercial and residential space. As far as golf, there already is a PGA tour event in Tampa. There will never be a PGA Tour event in Sarasota because of that, (except maybe a senior tour event if corporate money could be found to underwrite the cost. Several hundred thousand dollars.) You'll notice I did mention tennis. You can't hold a major tennis tournament on open public courts. You need a facility that can accommodate grandstands for the main court, additional courts for preleminary matches and vending for food and sourviners as you would have in a stadium. Where do you propose this tennis tournament be held? Hockey? Someone tried to build a hockey arena in Lakewood Ranch. At the time that got underway there was also talk of building a hockey arena at the Sarasota Fairgrounds. When the Lakewood Ranch facility began, that was the end of it for the Fairgrounds as there is no way to have two minor league teamss in two small markets adjacent to each other. You saw how well the facility in Lakewood Ranch worked out. Bayfront Park is not the only waterfront park in Sarasota. Besides which, when 4th of July happens you get thousands of people there without the parking at Marina Jack, so that is possible to do. There is also the 10th street area near Van Wezel, (of course any large event would interfere with anything going on at Van Wezel), as well as Ken Thompson Park on City Island. There used to be events at Ken Thompson until greed took over and St. Armands merchants scheduled their "arts" event on the same day causing huge traffic jams. Now, because of that, the City will not allow any non-marine related large events to be held in Ken Thompson Park. Bye bye festivals on the water there, except for the boat show. Downtown festivals? There are a ton and they are not all repetitive like the "art festivals" held in St. Armands and on Siesta Key. There is also the Farmers Market held every Saturday, which kind of makes it difficult to have any other weekend event on Lemon & Main. Then again, you run into the greed situation. The merchants on Main St. want to get a financial benefit from any festival that closes Main St. They're not happy with just getting tons of people downtown. They also want the money from things like beer sales. Except they are not willing to put up the money to cover the expenses of a large event. (Ever price out the cost of large tents, live music, insurance?) Without 2/3 of the businesses agreeing, you can't close the street. So, now you're back to needing another location to hold the event(s).
I really like the sidewalks in SanFrancisco. They use some sort of mica or glass in their concrete that shines so they sparkle instead of a dull concrete color. Our city is very small and the sidewalks could use some creativity to make them more attractive instead of the current bubble gum designs. Why not brick all of our sidewalks in the shopping areas? How much could that cost? In addition Sarasota needs much better pedestrian cross walks or at least more attractive as well. We are trying to build a walkable city are we not?
Darren:
Replacing the sidewalks with brick would cost millions. Not to mention the disruption to the adjacent businesses. Obviously you can't put the brick over the existing sidewalks as they would be too high, so the existing sidewalks would need to be jackhammered out. Wow. What a mess for months for some minor asthetic gain. Ideally, some business owners who are proud of their business would own or share a pressure washer and clean the sidewalks. It amazes me how many businesses don't even sweep the sidewalk in front of their own business. When the palms are dropping seeds in some areas, that mess gets tracked into their stores. A few minutes work would make a big difference.
Regarding your guest column in the HT today (9/13): Well said.
Is this blog still active? Did Mr. McNees simply take his award, given in large part for having this blog, and then dump it? Are the issues involving Ed Smith and the Van Wezel too hot to handle and discuss publicly?
Hello SRQ, I missed you too. See above!
Post a Comment
<< Home