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".