Laying Bricks in Laurel Park

A neighborhood improvement project organized and sponsored by the Laurel Park Neighborhood Association drew many volunteers that put bricks back onto the street to restore the street to it’s 1920’s look.

The bricks had been reclaimed from city projects that required removal. The neighborhood association had worked with the city to save bricks for eventual replacement. This was the day for replacement.

Bricks needed to be cleaned, laced on a prepared bed, tapped into place and sand swept into the space between the bricks.

It was a good day for preserving the neighborhood character.

By: RTC

Benefits of Green Space

From Parade Magazine:

Publishing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the authors studied the medical charts of more than 345,000 people in Holland, noting each person’s address and how close it was to a park, garden, or other green space.

People living near a green space had lower rates of 15 out of 24 diseases, including asthma, diabetes, intestinal complaints, and back and neck problems. The links were strongest for depression and anxiety. For example, people whose environment was 90% green were significantly less likely to have an anxiety disorder than those living where it was only 10% green (18 out of 1000 vs. 26 out of 1000).

The Dutch study is the first large-scale look at the relationship between green space and health conditions to rely on medical data rather than individuals’ perceptions of their health. The researchers urge urban planners to “take the amount of green space in the living environment into account.”

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".