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.

Sarasota Green Connection Event

Sarasota Green World Café
July 3, 2008

“Creating A Safe Lawn For Your Family”

Imagine rolling in a circle of deep lush green fragrant grass. Imagine not worrying about residual chemicals or invasive odors in your own yard – a place that should be your own private escape from the toils of your daily grind. Imagine your children and pets frolicking in a chemical-free paradise.

At the July Green World Café, listen to Safescapes offer advice on how to create your own “safe” haven, or let us do it for you. Heath Jorgenson, landscape design and consultant of Tranquillescapes, and Paige Taggart Long of Safescapes, have joined forces to create a dynamic duo that is out to revolutionize the way we care for our lawns. From the products other landscape professionals apply to the gas guzzling equipment that they use, Safescapes can offer alternatives that will give you peace of mind.

SARASOTA GREEN CONNECTION (SGC) INVITES YOU TO ATTEND THE JULY GREEN WORLD CAFÉ EVENT ON JULY 3rd, 2008 FROM 7-9 PM IN THE WHOLE FOODS MARKET WHOLE LIFESTYLE CENTER AT THE CORNER OF 1ST STREET AND LEMON AVE.

The Green World Café is brought to you by Sarasota Green Marketplace and is co-sponsored by Natural Awakenings in celebration of the Earth Charter. It is held the first Thursday of every month and is FREE and open to the public. Each event features a Sarasota Green Connection (SGC) Approved Business Owner or Friend. After the featured speaker, an interactive conversation takes place that focuses on one of the Earth Charter principles.

For more info visit http://www.earthcharter.org/ and to find other SGC Approved businesses, visit http://www.sarasotagreenconnection.com/.

Sarasota Green Connection is a division of Sarasota Green Marketplace.

Contact Mary Anne Bowie
Sarasota Green Marketplace
941.321.0424

Better Streets

Better Streets

Click on the above and you will find a web site describing a proposal for San Francisco to improve their streets.

Be sure to run the mouse over the street scenes to see what the same street could become.

Green space and trees make the difference. This is what Save Our Sarasota has been promoting for several years: save the existing trees and add more.

The visual change is amazing.

Downtown Greenspace Policy Update

In response to the overwhelming support for greenspace expressed by citizens, the City Commission reaffirmed its commitment to downtown landscaping by directing staff to draft changes to the Downtown Master Plan to reflect a commitment to greenspace versus the current hardscape focus.

Commissioners also asked representatives from resident, merchant and property owner organizations to work together on the landscaping design for the planned renovation of the Main and Palm intersection.

Your support through emails, attendance at meetings and phone calls has been instrumental in letting our Commissioners know how important downtown greenspace is to citizens. We are so grateful to each of you for your participation in these efforts.

Steering Committee
Save Our Sarasota

Cutting down nature to save nature

Here is a nice large pine tree in Laurel Park. It no longer exists.

Seems the developer of the property has a plan for a house with solar panels on the roof. The pine tree was deemed to be a hiderance as it would shade the solar panel.

Removal was the only option.

Thus nature was cut down and removed so we could save the planet....


[A similar action in California sparked worldwide attention recently.]

It’s a drought

The drought continues here in Sarasota – for the past two years we have had less than normal rainfall and our water supplies continue to be depleted.

At city hall a demonstration rain barrel project was recently put in place.

Stop by and check it out sometime.

Arbor Day 2008

Each year the city of Sarasota celebrates Arbor Day by planting a tree at one of the schools in the city.

This year an oak was planted at Bay Haven School.

First through fourth grade students attended the ceremony. The students helped with he planting and sang a couple songs related to trees.

Thanks to the City of Sarasota, including Public Works staff and City Commissioners for participating in the celebration.

Thanks also to the staff and teachers at Bay Haven for organizing this event - particularly to Principal Betsy Asheim-Dean, Art Teacher Deb Herbert and Music Teacher Kim Miles.

Our Sarasota School system and their teachers and staff are supported by the community and they provide an excellent education for our community's children. Thank you!

Ibis in the Yard

Have you seen flocks of Ibis roaming around he neighborhoods? Probing the grass and under plants for food.



The particular yard pictured above, has not had insecticides applied in years. There are likely to be numerous critters available for these native birds.

Sarasota's Fertilizer Regulation ordinances limit not only fertilizer but also require best practices for insecticides. This can give our native species more friendly habitat for foraging.

If you want to see these birds in your yard you might consider what you put on your yard.

Laurel Park Celebrates

A few weeks ago Laurel Park, one of Sarasota's most charming neighborhoods, received the news that they had been accepted as a National Historic District. They documentation for this designation was time consuming but a labor of love for all involved.

Congratulations!

On another note (pun intended), Laurel Park also recently had another of their "Tunes in the Park" neighborhood gatherings. Food, drinks, music and socializing were in abundance. Neighborhood social events like this build community.

Uniquely Sarasota

Anna's Deli is featured in the Pelican Press:

For almost four decades, Anna's Deli has had a simple formula for success: Make and serve sandwiches out of fresh, high-quality ingredients and don't skimp on the filling.



If you haven't been to Anna's, you should give it a try. In downtown Sarasota they are located on Orange across from City Hall.

Sarasota's unique businesses offer some of the best to our community. They contribute good products and services while improving or local economy.

Stop in and see them sometime.

Native Landscape

To Feed the Birds, First Feed the Bugs - This is the headline from a recent NY Times article. The article points out that birds evolved along with native vegetation. When the landscape is replaced with exotic vegetation, habitat and food for the birds disappears. Habitat for the bugs and the rest of the "eco-chain" also disappears.

The article is interesting a worth a read.

Changing Sarasota

Below are two pictures of the Payne Park area of Sarasota. The first picture shows what the park and surrounding area looks like today. The second is a postcard picture of the same area when the baseball field and trailer park were still there (about 1970?).

The area just east of Payne Park has been the subject of a proposed development for the last two years. Concerns about height, density and traffic have resulted in a number of changes to the original plan.

More recently a design charette was conducted to find "community consensus" concerning these issues. A description of the charette and the result can be found at School Avenue Charette website.

The process will continue to the Planning Board and the City Commission in the next month or so.

[The picture showing the current view of Payne Park is from the Charette website. There are other aerial pictures of this site also.]

Going Green

From the NY Times

February 7, 2008
In Many Communities, It’s Not Easy Going Green
By FELICITY BARRINGER

ARLINGTON, Va. — This urban suburb of Washington seems well-prepared for a leading role in the green revolution embraced by hundreds of the nation’s cities, counties and towns.

For decades, Arlington County’s development has been consciously clustered around its subway line. There is abundant open space to plant thousands of trees. Residents also seem eager to cut back on their own energy use.

Jose R. Fernandez, who moved here last year and works at the nearby national headquarters of the National Guard, chose to settle in Arlington because he does not need a car. “I can go anywhere on the bus,” Mr. Fernandez said, “or I can ride my bike anywhere.”

But even in Arlington, county officials are reckoning with the fact that though green is the dream, the shade of civic achievement is closer to olive drab. Constraints on budgets, legal restrictions by states, and people’s unwillingness to change sometimes put brakes on ambitious plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

Emissions are stubborn things. In Arlington, emissions per capita are now 15 tons annually and rising. In Sonoma County, Calif., the figure is close to nine tons. Arlington is not alone in bumping up against obstacles.

“We have been doing things like filling potholes and reducing crime since cities began,” said David N. Cicilline, the mayor of Providence, R.I., but energy efficiency requires “a whole new infrastructure to evaluate and measure.”

When Providence offcials pushed for new police cars with four cylinders instead of six, to save gasoline, there was pushback — unsuccessful — from police officers who preferred more powerful engines to pursue speeders or criminals. Cleveland’s plans to retrofit a local hot-water plant, produce new electricity and save tons of greenhouse gas emissions, molder in a file. It would cost $200 million, and there is no money — the tax base, left ragged by the loss of population and industry over the last two decades, has been hit hard again by the subprime mortgage crisis.

Nearly 1,200 miles away, in Austin, Tex., — a city that ranks high on any list of green strivers — some residents want to help but do not feel they can afford it. DeVonna Garcia’s family won an award for its beautiful outdoor display of Christmas lights — but she stayed with her old-fashioned incandescent bulbs, hearing that a friend paid $600 for energy-efficient lights.

Ann Hancock, the executive director of the Climate Protection Campaign, a nonprofit based in Sonoma County, a wine-growing area north of San Francisco, said that the county and its nine municipalities signed climate-protection agreements with enthusiasm more than five years ago, committing to bringing down greenhouse-gas emissions. Then they tried to figure out how.

“It’s really hard,” Ms. Hancock said. “It’s like the dark night of the soul.” All the big items in the inventory of emissions — from tailpipes, from the energy needed to supply drinking water and treat waste water, from heating and cooling buildings — are the product of residents’ and businesses’ individual decisions about how and where to live and drive and shop.

“They’ve seen the Al Gore movie, but they still have their lifestyle to contend with,” she said.

“We need to get people out of their cars, and we can’t under the present circumstances,” because of the limited alternative in public transportation, Ms. Hancock said. And the county’s many older homes are not very good at keeping in the cool air in the summer or the warm air in winter. “How do you go back and retrofit all of those?” she asked.

County governments are also finding that homeowners’ associations can be troublesome. Carbondale, Colo., would welcome people like Adam and Rachel Connor, who bought a lot in a subdivision outside town and made plans for a house with solar panels. But the homeowners’ association vetoed the proposal on aesthetic grounds. Such associations have rejected solar projects from Southern California to the Chicago suburbs to Phoenix, prompting at least two states to pass laws prohibiting such vetoes.

“Unrealistic and unreasonable expectations,” Ms. Connor said, “should not stand in the way of us taking climate change seriously and taking control of energy security with our own hands.”

Arlington, Providence and more than 300 other communities in the United States are members of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, which has developed software to help them determine the quantity of greenhouse gases their municipalities emit. They are still trying to figure it all out. Reductions and remedies are harder still.

Regional politics render ideas that are embraced in some cities unthinkable in others. In Burlington, Vt., and Berkeley, Calif., there are local laws requiring that people who are selling their homes upgrade the energy efficiency to meet current standards, whether by adding thicker insulation to the pipes, replacing the windows or putting in an energy-saving water heater. (The maximum amount to be spent is determined by the selling price of the house.)

Would the idea fly in, say, Cleveland? On a statewide level, “politically, it would be a non-starter,” said Andrew Watterson, the program director of Cleveland’s office of sustainability. “Legally, I’m not sure if we could do it” because of state limits on local taxing powers, Mr. Watterson said.

But Cleveland’s mayor, Frank G. Jackson, has backed the redevelopment of three old city neighborhoods in accordance with blueprints established by the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program (for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.) Mr. Watterson said he hoped this sort of project would encourage a reverse migration of families who seek livable, walkable communities.

Arlington County is not having a problem attracting residents who are partial to the idea of a green revolution. But in the outer sections of Arlington, the problem is aging houses with inadequate insulation and inefficient appliances.

“We have an old house,” said Kevin Clark, who is 41 and a professor of instructional technology at George Mason University. “We got double-paned glass. We could feel the air coming in through those nice wood frames.”

Between the $13,000 cost of that repair and the money for a new refrigerator and other appliances, energy efficiencies have cost Mr. Clark and his family about $18,000. Though they have cut monthly electric bills, he is not sure how much he is saving.

Among the county’s biggest roadblocks in its effort to reduce emissions are the strict legal limits on Arlington officials. The state government in Richmond has the final authority in setting building codes, for instance. Like Cleveland, Arlington cannot require a house’s energy systems be upgraded when the house is sold. And Arlington cannot require commercial builders to install more insulation and more efficient heating, cooling and lighting systems than the state does.

As J. Walter Tejada, the chairman of Arlington County’s governing board, said, “Sometimes I think that even when you’re sneezing you need to ask the Legislature for permission.”

Laura Fiffick, the director of the office of environmental quality in Dallas — one vehicle in four is a pickup truck in Texas — said, “How do you reach an individual citizen and tell them: Everybody makes a difference.”

She added: “A lot of cities have said, ‘We’re going to be carbon-neutral by 2020.’ To me, the idea is to figure out what emissions we are going to go after and what we can do and then set the goal. When you set the bar too high, it becomes demotivating.”
-----

As Sarasota moves toward a greener community, it is good to reflect on what is appening in other areas.

Great Cities

What kind of cities do we want to have?

Over half the world population now lives in cities, and while these cities are changing and growing at an unprecedented rate, there seems to be little discussion about what we want our cities to be like, or what the public realm can do to make cities great places to live. After all, it is the public spaces-squares, parks, streets, markets and public buildings-that define people's experience of any city. It is in these destinations where we most authentically experience a city, where we feel most connected to something larger, and where we participate most directly in the creation and preservation of culture.

Inevitably, these public spaces shape the stories we tell about cities; they reflect the character and personality of a city’s people; and they determine a city’s ultimate creativity and resilience. Increasingly, however, the growth of many cities is haphazard, and ignores the public realm, which is so important in people's lives. Many cities today, both rich and poor, old and new, are failing to reflect the needs, values, and aspirations of the people they are meant to serve.

This may be one root cause of the world's current social, environmental and economic woes. When people do not feel ownership over their community's public spaces, it affects how they view broader global concerns. For example, when the public realm of a city is challenged by problems like pollution, traffic, privatization, gentrification, and soulless monoculture, it sends a clear message that we are not in charge of our own communities. Efforts to reclaim and revitalize public spaces show that we can make a difference in our neighborhoods—and in the wider world.

Places all around the world—from Paris to Bogota to Hong Kong—are proving that improving public spaces can be a powerful way of creating cities. These cities realize that one of the major reasons people are attracted to a city is the simple desire to be around a wide range of people and communities. There are countless things that draw people to cities, from the desire to live in a neighborhood that fosters walking to a commitment to live in a more environmentally-friendly way.

The world’s great cities didn't happen overnight. They did not materialize because of any one visionary project or inspirational person. They are the cumulative result of people taking bold actions to make improvements. These actions, both large and small, helped cities evolve over time to become more desirable and livable. Throughout the upcoming year, PPS is initiating dialogue about what makes public spaces and cities themselves great - paying particular attention to the people who have taken bold actions to make good things happen. This Great Cities edition of the Making Places newsletter showcases the bold moves that are occurring in many cities today.

[From Project for Public Places - an excellent organization]

Historic Homes Tour

18TH ANNUAL SARASOTA HISTORIC HOMES TOUR
“PIONEERS IN THE PARK”

The Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation is proud to present the 18th Annual Historic Homes Tour on Sunday, March 2nd from 10 AM to 4 PM.

This year’s tour will feature six enchanting residences within the urban neighborhood context of Gillespie Park. According to Alliance President Christopher Wenzel “Neighborhoods are an important part of Sarasota’s historical setting and help to define our city’s character, beauty and unique identity".

Gillespie Park honors John Hamilton Gillespie, the first mayor of the town of Sarasota. It will be the location of the 2nd annual Gillespie Park Founder’s Day Celebration held in conjunction with this year's Alliance Homes Tour. This year, the Sarasota Trolley will be available to ride through the neighborhood between the featured houses. It will also stop at the Park so that tour goers can enjoy food, beverages, and various activities there. Visit the Alliance booth at Gillespie Park which will have information on upcoming events as well as Jeff LaHurd books for sale. A live auction will be held at the end of the day to benefit the Alliance. Auction items will include historic valuables and contemporary items as well as gift certificates to local businesses.

$20 homes tour tickets will be available for advance purchase starting February 20th at all Davidson Drug Stores; The Main Bookshop, 1962 Main Street; The Sarasota County History Center, 6062 Porter Way; Sarasota Architectural Salvage, 1093 N. Central Avenue; and Historic Spanish Point, 337 N. Tamiami Trail, Osprey. Tickets may also be purchased the day of the tour at any of the tour homes for $25.

From the February Issue of CONA

Why neighborhoods need better community planning in Sarasota County
by Ron Collins (Bee Ridge Association)

Changing the future land use or zoning on a parcel of land almost always pits David against Goliath. The landowner or option holding developer is usually deep pocketed and stands to receive a substantial gain if the change is approved. In the other corner is usually a large but loosely connected group of neighbors, each with only a small individual economic incentive to oppose the change. Modern economic theory holds that a large group of loosely connected citizens, each with small economic incentives, cannot successfully compete against an individual (or small group of) actor(s) with large economic incentives.

Even when the neighborhood group has sufficient economic resources to effectively compete with the development community, the playing field is tilted away from them. Neighborhoods groups have a difficult time finding local land use professionals that are willing to help them. Some professionals have a conflict of interest because they have recently represented or currently represent member of the development team.

Others decline because they either hope to represent the development team in the future or they do not wish to become known as antagonistic toward the development community.

Our group recently contacted over twenty transportation engineering firms located from Miami to Atlanta to help us review a transportation concurrency study before we found one that would.

Without balanced economic incentives and equal access to professional assistance, good ideas from the public cannot compete effectively against the private desires of the development community.

Planning staff spends most of their days reviewing rezoning proposals in close contact with the development community. The planners know their job is to serve the customer, who they most often see as the development team that brings the rezoning proposal to the agency. In fact, the quality of customer service delivered to development teams along with number of approved
rezones processed are often important metrics in a planner’s job performance review. So it is not surprising that the planners’ and development community’s interest tend to align over time.

Additionally, most planner contacts with the development community are with land use attorneys, transportation engineers, site planners, architects, environmental consultants, and other experts that the planners identify with as peer professionals, which further strengthen their bond.

Those experiences sharply contrast with the planners’ typical contact with the public. Dealing with inexperienced and uninformed citizens can be a burdensome distraction for the planners.

These encounters with the public tend to reinforce the alignment of the planners’ sympathies and interests with those of the development communities.

Our group recently tried to call planners’ attention to factual errors and rezoning petition deficiencies during a recent pre-hearing sufficiency review. Our attempts to present this information were rejected by several staff members who told us our efforts were simply antigrowth NIMBYism. After we presented our evidence at the Planning Commission Public Hearing, staff investigated our concerns, found them to be valid and scrambled to revise their recommendations prior to the Board of County Commissioners Public Hearing.

When the interests of government planning staff and those of the development community converge, the public suffers a great competitive disadvantage

[CONA is the Coalition of Neighborhood Associations - Sarasota County]

SOS - Saving Our Statues

St Armands has saved the statues.
This story began about 10 years ago when a Boy Scout, Adrian Zack was looking for an Eagle Scout project. Adrian was familiar with the statues on St Armands Circle (Harding Circle Historic District) and knew they had been neglected for a long time. His project grew out of this knowledge and he documented the statues and their condition.

Moving forward to 2007, Ed Pinto had recently moved to St Armands and he became interested in the statues. This was part of a desire to "restore" John Ringling's vision for St Armands. Based on Ringling's original landscape plan for St Armands Circle, Ed and others thought it would be a good idea to complete the long forgotten plans.

Further research on the statute, following Adrian Zack's original work, focused on the 16 original statues that Ringling purchased in the 1920's. These statues were classical design based on Greek and Roman art.

In early 2007, Ed and a number of "partners", the St Armands Residents Association, the St Armands Circle Association, the St Armands Business Improvement District, the Ringling Museum, the City of Sarasota, Sarasota County and the Community Foundation of Sarasota undertook the project to restore the statues and add new statues in a similar classical design.

On February 2, 2008 the statue project was dedicated. Today there are 33 statues, including 21 newly sculptured marble statues.

The partnership that included private citizens, businesses, non-profit groups, and local government resulted in a wonderful addition to Sarasota's cultural heritage.

A walking guide to the statues has been produced and is available at businesses in St Armands as well as public spots near some of the statues.

Take a walk around St Armands and get acquainted with this great new cultural amenity.

To see a video discussion of the Save Our Statues project click on Commissioner's Corner.

SOS Recommendations for City Greenspace Policy

Commissioners and Staff,

Thank you again for your actions and efforts toward making downtown more environmentally friendly and attractive and inviting to residents and visitors alike by placing an emphasis on greenspace.

A summary of our recommendations follows:

-Page IV-8.1 of our Master Plan should be changed to reflect a commitment to greenspace vs. the current hardscape focus.

-We are not asking for brick-paved areas where people congregate, such as along Lemon Avenue, to be converted to greenspace. These areas provide a venue for vital community events.

-Whenever possible emphasis should be on in-ground planting beds for environmental advantages and maintenance ease as well as aesthetics. Pots, which tend to have a colder, more sterile appearance, should be used only where in-ground beds are not feasible. Planting beds can provide a larger area of greenspace and a more lush appearance. Pots are problematic - if hooked to irrigation, they cannot be moved. If movable, they are higher maintenance without the irrigation.

--Existing in-ground planting areas should be retained even though there is currently no money for improving the plantings or maintenance. They should act as place-holders until funds - most likely private - are available for upgrades. Once paved over, they will never be returned to green.

-The proposed Main/Palm bulbouts should have roughly the same percentage of greenspace as is now in the sidewalk areas. This would provide space for additional cafe tables and more landscaping. Canopy trees should be planted to provide shade, ambiance and environmental advantages. Because of the significance of this intersection, a public meeting should be held to solicit citizen input.

-When restaurants such as the new pizza restaurant north of Epicure Cafe on Palm request the use of public ROW for tables, they should be required to provide and maintain significant, high-quality, in-ground planting beds and canopy trees (where possible) to the city's landscape specs. If their request would remove existing greenspace, they should pay to mitigate by converting nearby hardscape to greenspace. The neighborhood association should be advised of proposed changes and be allowed to provide input. -Window boxes should be encouraged wherever possible.

-Pervious areas such as Ringling Boulevard medians should not be hardscaped. When hardscaping is necessary for crucial safety concerns, it should be mitigated with new greenspace nearby.

-We understand the budgetary pressures the city is under and, accordingly, have tried to put forth recommendations that will cost the city little or no money. The request for additional greenspace would primarily affect new developments, such as the two Leiter projects on Palm, with the intent that they provide significant in-ground planting beds in the ROW in front of their buildings plus canopy trees, if possible, vs. primarily brick-paving with some flower pots. Also affected would be restaurants requesting to use public ROW for commercial purposes.

Many thanks again to the Commissioners for voting for the development of a Greenspace Policy and to the Staff for holding the excellent Greenspace Workshop, for all of their efforts and for continuing to solicit public input.

Steering Committee, Save Our Sarasota

School Ave Charrette

As part of the last Planning Board approval of Ron Burk's proposed School Ave project, it was determined that a charrette whould be held to determine what type of development would be suitable and compatable for this site.

A web site has been established to give details about the charrette. Please visit the site. If you have an interest you would be welcome to participate in this process.

Ranking Sarasota

According to that bastion of business, Forbes, Sarasota ranks 43rd as the best city for jobs in 2008.

We can now all breath a sigh of relief knowing our "recession" fears have been eased.

According to the article Sarasota's highest ranking (8th place) was in "income growth" and our worst ranking (86th place) was our cost of living.

If you are looking for the best palce for finding a job, you might go to Salt Lake City, Forbes #1.