Sarasota Neighborhoods

I was just in Montreal. It is a city of great neighborhoods -- as is Sarasota as are most really good cities. I read this post on Planetizen - The Planning and Development Network... My Favorite American Neighborhood

by: Jay Walljasper
11 July 2008 - 11:47am

Last year Project on Public Spaces and I published the Great Neighborhood Book, which offers hundreds of ideas from around the world about making community improvements on issues ranging from crime prevention to environmental restoration. Since then almost everyone I meet asks: What's your favorite neighborhood?

I should have an answer ready. But each time the question arises, my mind starts wandering through the great places I've explored through the years. Is it the Plateau neighborhood in Montreal, where I became infatuated with cities years ago as a college student? Maybe Trastevere, the old bohemian quarter of Rome my wife Julie and I visited as newlyweds?

I recommend you read the full posting ... he goes on to pick a favorite that will surprise you.

I have been wondering what my answer would be.... I have been in lots of (not nearly enough) great cities ... I loved Montreal, New York, London, Rome, Chicago, Sacramento, Mumbai, Charleston, Savannah ..... I hear great things about Portland or Vancouver. I am pretty familiar with the neighborhoods in Sarasota we have some great ones...

If it can happen on Broadway in New York City it can happen anywhere.... enlightened city governments are remembering that cities are not for cars --- they are for people... and Mayor Bloomberg "just did it"

Going from 4 lanes of traffic to 2 allows a dedicated bike lane and more room for a lively "third space" environment with benches tables and chairs!!

Read the New York Times story here

In a surprising reshaping of the urban landscape, the city is creating a public esplanade along a portion of one of its most prominent streets, Broadway in Midtown, setting aside the east side of the roadway for a bicycle lane and a pedestrian walkway with cafe tables, chairs, umbrellas and flower-filled planters.

The esplanade, which the city is calling Broadway Boulevard, will run from 42nd Street to Herald Square. Scheduled to open in mid-August, it will change that section of Broadway from a four-lane to a two-lane street.

The Wall Street Journal coverage of Sacramento's Blueprint for Growth there is a good photo gallery and video embedded in the story...

Here is a good video on the topic from youtube..

City opposes Plaza Hotel plans

This article in the Sarasota Herald Tribune is one of the things I find confusing with our political / regulatory system. If the rules say you can build a "box" so big and it can be a hotel -- then a "person" (aka "evil, greedy developer") says ok I am going to build the box that size why do we need to worry about things like this... using the box for a 173 room hotel seems like it was "allowable" -- maybe not liked by some of the neighbors but "legal" -- so now why does it matter how those rooms would be used / owned? This seems like a "political" decision.

I can't see any way that timeshare "owners" with 2 week slots is "worse" than hotel stays. In some ways I see it as better, in that people are repeat visitors to our area. Seems the anti - density folks have another one..

Joe Moraca

By Roger Drouin
Published Saturday, June 28, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.

SARASOTA — The city ruled Friday that a time-share hotel-apartment building proposed in the Burns Square area is not a hotel after all, so developer Al Hochstadt will likely have to come up with something else to build there.
.....
If it were a hotel, the developer could have built 173 rooms in a five-story building.
But all that would change if the project is composed of time-share units, or spaces reserved for multiple owners for two-week periods.
Under one scenario, the city code would allow only 28 units on the land.
....

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The Relocalization Network was created in 2003 as one of the first initiatives of Post Carbon Institute. It developed as a response to individuals’ questions about how they could take action to address the implications of peak oil. We found that the most effective strategies are initiated at the community level. For this reason, Post Carbon Institute decided that establishing a network of Local Post Carbon Groups was the best way to provide concerned individuals with the support and resources necessary to coordinate effective action.

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