Back to the Basics

Another letter to the editor zeros in on Sarasota’s unsolved issues. Without focus, energy and determination these issues will continue to cut into our quality of life. Kind of like Rome burning while Nero fiddled away.

Sarasota’s infrastructure needs attention and dollars, affordable housing must be addressed, traffic and the specter of round-abouts loom heavily, where did our small town feeling go?, are 18 story buildings consistent with human-scale vision?, will we continue recent improvements to Sarasota Bay or will it again face increased pollutants from our denuded, concreted and paved over city-scape?, will we shut off the remaining views of the bay with skyscrapers and plug the gaps with parking structures?

We too hope that our leaders buckle down and address the basic issues. Then they need to take a long look at what the residents want our city to be. Yes, we have pressures, not the least being more people wanting to live here. We realize that this makes the problem doubly difficult - if not managed well, more people create more issues. Maybe more backbone and less caving in to, or compromising with, developers is needed.

We need a course correction. For a while last year we were noted as having more high rise construction cranes than any other Florida city. Not too many resident were happy with this distinction. We soon may have more than any city in the southeast US. I know we are popular, but are we easy too? We need to move from the fast lane, address the basics and regain some of our lost quality of life.