Tree Memorial for Janice Green

Dear Save Our Sarasota supporter,

We sadly lost our SOS founder, Janice Green, on February 7, 2009, after a long illness.

Janice asked us to plant a black olive tree in Bayfront Park in her memory. Her first SOS project was saving the black olive trees on Main Street.

We are working with the City through their Legacy Tree and Bench Program to fulfill Janice's wish. The cost to purchase and plant a tree plus install a memorial plaque is $500. If enough funds are collected, a second tree will be planted.

If you would like to join in this tribute to Janice, please send a check payable to the Sarasota City Parks Foundation, specifying that it is for the Janice Green Memorial Tree Fund to:

Sarasota City Parks Foundation
1900 Main Street, Suite 301
Sarasota, FL 34202

All contributions are tax deductible.

In approximately six weeks when the City is ready to schedule the planting, invitations to the celebration of Janice's life and her contributions to a better Sarasota will be sent.

Thank you for your participation in Save Our Sarasota.

Sincerely,

SOS Steering Committee


P.S. If you would like information about the City's program to memorialize friends and family with trees and benches in public parks, you may contact Nancy Kelly with the City at 954-2612.

For information about the Parks Foundation, contact Dr. Larry Miller, Chair, at 504-2774.

Political Committee Contributers

The current Sarasota City Commission election has featured the negative attacks generated by members of Sarasota's land use and business community. This Political Committee, named "Citizens for a Better Sarasota" has attacked candidate Terry Turner.

Turner received the highest vote total in the general election and is now in a runoff wih the next two highest vote receivers.

Contributions to Citizens for a Better Sarasota – 8/21/2006 – 3/05/09
------------
$18,500 - Piero Rivolta
Lancaster Partners
M&R Sarasota Development
Parkway Collectors Extra
Rivo at Ringling
Rivolta Yachts

$11,000 - John Cox
Half-Acre Construction

$11,000 - Frederick Derr
Frederick Derr & Company

$11,000 - H.R. Foxworthy
Retired

$11,000 - Donald McDonough
Wm. F. McDonough Plumbing

$10,000 - Robert Flanders
Quality Walls Enterprises

$10,000 - Walter Mills
W.G. Mills

$6,000 - Tom Dabney
Beneva Retail Assoc.
Gateway Investors
Gulf Coast Property Serv.
Tuttle Retail Assoc.
University Retail

$6,000 - Abel Band
Law firm

$5,000 – Sen. Michael Bennett/Rep. Ronald Reagan,
Citizens for Housing and Urban Growth PAC

$5,000 - William Dooley
Dooley Mack

$5,000 - Stanley Mueser
Retired

$5,000 - Donald E. Murphy
D.E. Murphy Constructors

$5,000 - F. Fred Pezeshkan
Kraft Construction

$5,000 - Donald Powers
Rusty Plumbing

$3,000 - David Sessions
Willis A. Smith Construction

$3,000 - Robert Soran
Marina Jack, Inc.

$2,500 - David Bustard
JDCK Operations

$2,500 - Fred Starling
Fred M. Starling

$2,500 - Charles Wilson
Charles H. Wilson Construction

$2,000 - Dr. Mark S. Kaufmann
Developer

$2,000 - Sam Norton
Norton Hammersley, PA

$1,500 - Brian Turner
Hi Hat Ranch-Florida Premier Turf

$1,250 - Charles Nebec
Vision Homes of SW Florida

$1,000 - Kathryn Angell Carr
Abel-Band attorney

$1,000 - John King
Contractor

$1,000 - Michael Moulton
Realtor-Michael Saunders

$1,000 - Jeffrey S. Russell
Abel-Band attorney

$1,000 - Ronald Shenkin
Hunters Creek of Sarasota

$1,000 - Jon F. Swift
Jon. F. Swift, Inc.

$1,000 - Anthony Abate
Abel-Band Attorney

$500 – Jay Turner
Hi-Hat Ranch – LBJ Ranch

$500 – Richard Turner
Hi-Hat Ranch – RET Montana

$300 - Charles Githler
Real estate

$50 - Thomas Christian
Abel Band Attorney

Treasurers

9/1/2006-12/31/2006 Christine M. Mayer
12/31/2006-3/5/2009 – Frederick M. Derr

Consultants

The Nolan Group
Bradenton, FL

Barcelo & Company
Jacksonville, FL

Negative Campaigning

Two recent campaigns in Sarasota were noted by the increased activity of negative campaigning by political committees.

One election considered a city charter amendment that would change to an elected mayor with tow added commissioners and increased powers given to the mayor. During the final two weeks of this campaign, the proponents of the amendment began a series of negative attacks targeting the current mayor (a ceremonial post, selected by the five commissioners for a one year term).

The amendment was soundly defeated.

The other election was for two at large city commissioners. Eight candidates entered the race and one candidate was targeted by a political committee (Citizens for a Better Sarasota, composed mostly of developers and related land use business people). This campaign failed as the targeted candidate (Terry Turner) garnered the most votes.

Sarasota Herald Tribune editorials have decried the negative attacks. However the negative attacks by the developer group continues in the runoff election.

The Pelican Press has urged voters to "cast only a single vote for Terry Turner" as a way to show the "bullies" that are behind these negative attacks that their tactics will not work in Sarasota.

It is also important that those contributing to these attacks be held accountable for their actions. A future column will list the contributors.

Janice Green, SOS Founder, Dies

Janice Green, one of Sarasota’s most prominent advocates for better city planning and design, died peacefully February 7, 2009 at her home in Cherokee Park, Sarasota, Florida.

A few days before, on Monday February 1, 2009, the City Commission of the City of Sarasota, Florida, recognized Janice, as they stated :"on behalf of the citizens of our community. She has worked faithfully and given generously of her time and efforts in all she has accomplished. She has been a "longtime active member of both the National Historic Trust and Florida History Trust" and as a member and former officer for Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation who spearheaded local historic designation for Cherokee Park entry walls. She ran for public office in her hometown of Norwalk, Connecticut before moving to Sarasota where she specialized in significant historic homes during her real estate career, and as the founder of Save Our Sarasota, a grassroots activist organization promoting saving trees, preserving green space and public land … Lou Ann R. Palmer, Mayor and Ken Shelin,Vice Mayor, and Commissioners Richard Clapp, Fredd "Glossie"Atkins and Kelly Kirschner extend their appreciation to her."

Janice will long be remembered by the city as the dynamic founder in 2004, of Save Our Sarasota, a movement to counter the downtown encroachment of "urbanization reflecting a signature of concrete." From her early interest in assuring community beauty she gathered together over a hundred like minded members to mobilize the city to maintain the simple tree lined street against encroaching arcades which, she reported, "turned the downtown public sidewalks and airspace into private property." Always a creative and courageous leader she spearheaded a social and political movement that continues to receive the attention and respect of city and business and neighborhood leaders.

Hers was a long history of active leadership in community design begun four decades ago in Norwalk, Connecticut with the formation of an earlier group she called the Association for Better Community Design. ABCD was similarly devoted to improving the architecture of local public buildings including schools, firehouses, and other facilities. With Janice as its chair that group also lobbied both the city and state for many changes. There she who helped replace a high suspension bridge across the Norwalk River with a lower more graceful silhouette. In that lower Fairfield Country city she was so respected, not only in those areas, but also as President of the Norwalk League of Women Voters, that she was asked to run for the elected office of State Representative.

In Sarasota, where she moved with her husband three decades ago, she became a successful realtor, initially with Mt. Vernon Reality and most recently with Michael Saunders & Company. She was a member of the First Church of Christian Science in Sarasota and served as Chairman of its Board of Directors.

Janice is pre-deceased by her husband, William Carleton Green, and her son, Mitchell Green. She is survived by her sister, Sara Crosby of Sarasota, her nephews Carl and Herbert Crosby of Sarasota and Winfield, Missouri, and her sister-in-law, Barbara Hunter, of Madeira Beach.

In lieu of flowers, Janice has requested that everyone "plant trees".

Neal Pierce Column on City/Surburb

Pierce's column is particularly thought provoking this week. I was asked to post it:

"BACK TO THE CITY" -- IS THIS THE MOMENT? August 24, 2008
by Neal Pierce

City or suburb? For decades that's been the choice for most Americans. Suburbs have been the hands-down winners -- by the millions, we've rushed to the urban edge.

But could we be on the cusp of an historic "back to the city" shift? The case is building.

Alan Ehrenhalt, executive editor of Governing magazine, says we're in the midst of a "demographic inversion."

Check such cities as Atlanta and Washington, he suggests -- they're beginning to resemble historic Vienna or Paris, the centuries-old pattern in which the people of means chose to live near the vital city centers, while the poor were left to live in the less expensive outskirts.

Atlanta, for example, is seeing so many better-off whites move in that its decades-old status as a predominantly black and low-income city may soon be reversed. Conversely, suburban Clayton and DeKalb counties are already registering black majorities while simultaneously serving as immigrant gateways.

A parallel switch has been under way in Washington, D.C., for several years as young professionals have poured into neighborhoods such as the 14th and U Street corridors that were an epicenter of the 1968 riots. Chicago has registered sensational gains in downtown living. The same phenomenon is being registered continentwide -- strong on the West Coast, even cropping up in such Sun Belt cities as Charlotte and Houston.

Why this shift, now? Industries, with their smokestacks, noise and pollutants, have largely disappeared from city centers. Random urban street violence, the scourge of urban life in the 1970s and '80s, has subsided dramatically.

And, writes Ehrenhalt in a recent New Republic article, today's youth, bored by the cul-de-sac world they grew up in, are the cutting edge of the new population move: "It is striking how pervasive the pro-city sensibility is within this generation, particularly among its elite."

The cities' revival is even broader -- not just young singles and married couples but "mingles" (unmarried and gay couples) and "jingles" (ex-suburban empty-nesters), notes William Hudnut, former Indianapolis mayor and Urban Land Institute senior fellow.

There's a big cautionary note here -- we're not about to witness abandonment of the suburbs, or rapid movement back to all our city cores. "But we are living," Ehrenhalt notes, "at a moment in which the massive outward migration of the affluent that characterized the second half of the 20th century is coming to an end."

So what are the affluent and their middle-class friends seeking? "Walkable urbanism" -- places with convenient

Read the rest of the column here.

City Hall Landscape Honored as Florida Friendly Yard

From Jan Thornburg – City Hall

Sarasota, FL: To see firsthand what a quintessential Florida Friendly Yard looks like, take a peek at City Hall, 1565 First Street. The City of Sarasota was notified yesterday its City Hall landscape achieved the highest recognition level for Florida Friendly Yards. The recognition was awarded by environmental experts at the University of Florida extension office in Sarasota County.

The City achieved the "Golden Oak" recognition level, the highest of three levels, by assuring the landscape protects our natural resources. The landscape demonstrates to the public that serious environmental issues, such as storm water runoff, water shortages, and disappearing wildlife habitats, can be addressed without sacrificing attractive landscaping. "We wanted to showcase the plantings at City Hall as an educational tool because it is a public space that receives many visitors," said Michele Mician, Neighborhood Coordinator who oversees green initiatives for the City of Sarasota. Some of the techniques used at City Hall include:

• Planting more native species
• Recycling grass clippings
• Collecting rainwater and using it to water plants
• Using drip irrigation
• Avoiding fertilizers and pesticides
• Positioning trees and shrubs to improve the building's cooling capacity
• Planting low maintenance plants
• Providing cover for wildlife
• Purchasing plant materials from local native plant stores
• Positioning plants according to the principals of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED)

Moving forward with green initiatives is one of the City Commission's top five critical priorities. In October 2007, the Environmental Management Task Force, comprised of City employees, was created to oversee sustainability issues within City government. "The landscape department includes a master gardener whose expertise helped make the garden bed at City Hall Florida friendly," said Neil Gaines, a Public Works employee who is a member of the EMTF.

In addition to the Florida Friendly Yard, visitors to City Hall can also see a set of rain barrels, which capture rainwater. Ultimately, that water is used to irrigate plants and flowers at City Hall through a drip system.

For more information about green initiatives visit http://www.yourgreencity.sarasotagov.com/

The Greening of Main

From an article in today's SHT concerning the proposed downtown green policy:

The intersection of Main Street and Palm Avenue has been due for a makeover for more than four years, with as much as $130,000 set aside to install plants, brick and benches.

But for those same four years, the project has been mired in debate.

On one side, members of the downtown group Save Our Sarasota want more trees and plants. On the other side merchants and some downtown residents prefer an urban look with more brick and fewer plants.

But everyone agrees Main and Palm is a key intersection, and ought to be a model for other intersections.

Now, after several failed attempts at compromise, city officials have appointed a committee to break the stalemate.

The five-member group -- which consists of a property owner, a restaurateur, a gardener, a downtown condo resident and a person who has lobbied in the past for more greenery downtown -- will have its first meeting Tuesday to talk about improvements at Main Street and Palm Avenue.

.................

Janice Green, who voiced concerns about an earlier plan to spruce up the intersection, hopes that the committee will come up with something more palatable.

"There has to be some greenery so you don't feel overwhelmed," Green said. "Even New York City has lots of trees on the east side.

"Green is chairwoman of Save Our Sarasota, a group that has lobbied against several proposals to make downtown more urban.

"Let's see what they come up with," Green said. "So far, SOS is very pleased with what is going on. I think it is a wonderful first step."

Carol Reynolds, also a member of Save Our Sarasota, will serve on the committee.