Is it just me, or are others seeing scarred ground where there used to be buildings? What the heck?
Would it be too much to ask for the owners of the newly vacant land to plant some simple native plants and trees so it doesn't look quite so bare? That is, if they couldn't have been bothered to fix up and use the property they bought rather than tearing it down, for heaven's sake! It isn't going to be "developed" any time soon, in case you didn't know!
I am at a loss to fathom why some of the tear-down permits were granted anyway. The Quay? Did The Quay even last 20 years? Nice location, lots of parking. Did they really try to solve the problems? I wonder?
I know, they wanted to tear it down and build mega buildings that would add gridlock upon gridlock. Why not 100 stories rather than a mere 10, as long as there are fire stairways and sprinklers? Now they blame the community for not liking the gridlock idea? However, that obsolete mindset has brought us to where we are. The worst gridlock ever, and record unemployment.
This isn't to say that we won't develop something new in Sarasota some day, just not now. Let's try flowers and trees for a while. Please?
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Stop "Growth", End Gridlock, Save Sarasota!
This is a good time, maybe the best time, to stop "Growth". It is already stopped anyway so what's the big deal? How can we "hurt" those who are already dead? We can help them come back to life if we redirect their interest into something not so boom/bust.
Suppose we were to insist that from now on infrastructure and building be coordinated? Not just on paper, not just with smoke and mirrors, but really!
Let's get the hard numbers that the traffic problem is solved, on paper and on the ground, already achieved, before any more building is approved. Let's get all the water, power and sewer issues ahead of the curve as well. These projects alone will take up the efforts of a great number of our currently unemployed.
It is no accident that gridlock and sales deflation have coincided. Who wants to buy anything in a place where they can't move freely? It is excessive development that has killed real estate sales more than anything else, stop it now!
Suppose we were to insist that from now on infrastructure and building be coordinated? Not just on paper, not just with smoke and mirrors, but really!
Let's get the hard numbers that the traffic problem is solved, on paper and on the ground, already achieved, before any more building is approved. Let's get all the water, power and sewer issues ahead of the curve as well. These projects alone will take up the efforts of a great number of our currently unemployed.
It is no accident that gridlock and sales deflation have coincided. Who wants to buy anything in a place where they can't move freely? It is excessive development that has killed real estate sales more than anything else, stop it now!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Toilet Water in your Tap?
I used to work for a guy who was fond of saying "All the water that ever was still is, matter cannot be created or destroyed - only changed from one form to another". If that is true, the water in your tap has been in someone else's toilet.
That wouldn't be so bad if the water was treated more thoroughly, but it seems that it isn't. I think it tastes terrible, smells and I know it rots out the faucet in a year.
Why? There are a number of explanations. "They" insist that the water is "safe", that the taste and odor really, really don't matter. Then you see "them" buying bottled water and lugging it into their homes, or investing in home water systems. Safe indeed.
If it dissolves a faucet in a year, what does it do to your body?
My Jobs proposal includes some people to work on this problem. We need to solve it.
That wouldn't be so bad if the water was treated more thoroughly, but it seems that it isn't. I think it tastes terrible, smells and I know it rots out the faucet in a year.
Why? There are a number of explanations. "They" insist that the water is "safe", that the taste and odor really, really don't matter. Then you see "them" buying bottled water and lugging it into their homes, or investing in home water systems. Safe indeed.
If it dissolves a faucet in a year, what does it do to your body?
My Jobs proposal includes some people to work on this problem. We need to solve it.
Toilet Water at the Beach?
Every now and then, usually after a real downpour, we hear that the wastewater plant has discharged some raw sewage in the bay. Raw Sewage in the Bay?
I propose that we do what we have to do to make that NEVER happen again. The no emission project will not only clean up our water but it will also generate a few jobs.
This is to say nothing of the rude jokes that seem to circulate about Sarasota every now and then. Toilet Water at the Beach?
It seems to me that a holding tank sufficient to contain twice the largest overflow we have ever had would be a good starting point.
I propose that we do what we have to do to make that NEVER happen again. The no emission project will not only clean up our water but it will also generate a few jobs.
This is to say nothing of the rude jokes that seem to circulate about Sarasota every now and then. Toilet Water at the Beach?
It seems to me that a holding tank sufficient to contain twice the largest overflow we have ever had would be a good starting point.
Wind Power
It is an old idea. Ships have been wind powered for more than two millennium. The dutch use windmills for pumps and mills. California has had wind generated electricity for quite a while.
Even Teddy Kennedy has, uh, weighed in on the issue. He was against it in his backyard, even though he wouldn't be able to see it from his home. Something about environmental and navigation hazards. The navigation hazard I can see if there are people operating boats who also drink to excess, as Teddy has been known to do. The environmental angle has not been explained, however, as far as I know.
Perhaps drunken boating should be outlawed? Oh, it already is!
I favor an offshore wind farm for Sarasota as a nice source of clean power, a source of tax revenue and a place of employment for a number of Sarasota workers.
Even Teddy Kennedy has, uh, weighed in on the issue. He was against it in his backyard, even though he wouldn't be able to see it from his home. Something about environmental and navigation hazards. The navigation hazard I can see if there are people operating boats who also drink to excess, as Teddy has been known to do. The environmental angle has not been explained, however, as far as I know.
Perhaps drunken boating should be outlawed? Oh, it already is!
I favor an offshore wind farm for Sarasota as a nice source of clean power, a source of tax revenue and a place of employment for a number of Sarasota workers.
Once there were Brownfields . . .
I have always been a minimal lifestyle person. I get my stuff as hand-me-downs, garage sales, closeouts and clearances. If I have to shop a store I try Wal-Mart first. However, it is a ten mile trip to Wal-Mart no matter how you do it.
I was excited to think that there was going to be a Wal-Mart super center on Dr. Martin Luther King at 301. However, the plan fell through and the super center went somewhere else.
It was bad for me because I had been wanting to shop there. It was even worse for the 400 plus Sarasota people who had wanted to work there.
The deal fell through because the city-owned land used to be a dump, and is now a "Brownfield" - someplace that harbors some pollution, but is not bad enough to qualify for "Superfund" remediation. Rats!
In my jobs proposal I suggest that we clean up EVERY Brownfield in town, just in case someone wants to develop something there that will open up 400 plus jobs. Let's be ready.
We don't have to do the clean up in the most expensive way possible. A lot of soil pollution can be removed at a relatively low cost by planting vegetation that will draw the pollution into the individual plant's bodies and then disposing of the vegetation as biomass for ethanol production or as hazardous waste. Since this might take a few years we should start now.
I was excited to think that there was going to be a Wal-Mart super center on Dr. Martin Luther King at 301. However, the plan fell through and the super center went somewhere else.
It was bad for me because I had been wanting to shop there. It was even worse for the 400 plus Sarasota people who had wanted to work there.
The deal fell through because the city-owned land used to be a dump, and is now a "Brownfield" - someplace that harbors some pollution, but is not bad enough to qualify for "Superfund" remediation. Rats!
In my jobs proposal I suggest that we clean up EVERY Brownfield in town, just in case someone wants to develop something there that will open up 400 plus jobs. Let's be ready.
We don't have to do the clean up in the most expensive way possible. A lot of soil pollution can be removed at a relatively low cost by planting vegetation that will draw the pollution into the individual plant's bodies and then disposing of the vegetation as biomass for ethanol production or as hazardous waste. Since this might take a few years we should start now.
Can Transportation Save Sarasota's "Growth"?
It is most likely that ONLY transportation can save Sarasota's "Growth".
For those unfamiliar with the discussion, "Growth" as used here means new buildings. Typically, old buildings are torn down to make room for the new buildings. Often, even usually, the people using the old buildings for homes and businesses have to find other places, if they even can.
There are a number of folks in Sarasota called "developers" who build new buildings in large batches, generally tearing down old buildings in even larger batches. They like to think of themselves as the leaders of the community and tend to claim that what they do is the only thing Sarasota can do to have jobs. Sometimes they are even right.
However, there are side effects to all the new buildings. Traffic is the most noticeable. It is getting quite inconvenient to get around in this town! The traffic from the new high capacity buildings has to use the same old low capacity streets and roads.
Recently a large project was approved that anyone could see would add hundreds of car trips per day. A city planner, always helpful, came up with the great idea that adding a bus stop to the plan would solve the problem of all those car trips! The project was approved, of course.
Was the planner kidding? Was the bus stop suggestion a, ahem, "favor" for the developer? I am not in a position to say, but the bus stop idea leads to a larger than one bus stop plan that might be Sarasota's road to recovery from the traffic problem.
What if, what if you didn't need a car in Sarasota?
If you don't have a car now in Sarasota there are a whole list of places you can't reach and a multitude of jobs you can't get to. People visiting Sarasota rent cars at the airport!
Suppose our public transportation was so world class that we would prefer it to owning cars and driving ourselves? Wouldn't that be wonderful?
What if you could put your cell phone to your ear and have a shuttle meet you in any neighborhood in the city that would take you to a nearby destination for a little change? What if you could go on that same shuttle to a bus stop if you were heading to a more distant place, and another shuttle would meet you at the destination bus stop to take you directly to the building you were going to?
This is what I was writing about in my "Jobs for Sarasota" article. This would not only make a car unnecessary for a lot of people, it would open up some 200 good jobs. Eventually the traffic would be abated and the developers could start developing again?
The county could expand on this by contracting with the taxi companies to flesh out the hours that the bus system is not running with a reduced taxi rate for bus card users. I understand that this sort of system is already up and running in Phoenix AZ.
We need not worry about the bus capacity if more people ride the buses. The county has a full set of new buses and also still has all the old buses that they sometimes use as spares. With a little maintenance attention and a few new drivers the county could quickly double the bus service.
Yes, I know a lot of people prefer cars, and it would take a while to adopt the fewer cars idea. The alternative is more roads, but that takes a long time because so many agencies are involved and it is very expensive because you have to buy so much prime road front property. We can build the world class public transportation system much sooner.
We could have this in operation yet this year.
For those unfamiliar with the discussion, "Growth" as used here means new buildings. Typically, old buildings are torn down to make room for the new buildings. Often, even usually, the people using the old buildings for homes and businesses have to find other places, if they even can.
There are a number of folks in Sarasota called "developers" who build new buildings in large batches, generally tearing down old buildings in even larger batches. They like to think of themselves as the leaders of the community and tend to claim that what they do is the only thing Sarasota can do to have jobs. Sometimes they are even right.
However, there are side effects to all the new buildings. Traffic is the most noticeable. It is getting quite inconvenient to get around in this town! The traffic from the new high capacity buildings has to use the same old low capacity streets and roads.
Recently a large project was approved that anyone could see would add hundreds of car trips per day. A city planner, always helpful, came up with the great idea that adding a bus stop to the plan would solve the problem of all those car trips! The project was approved, of course.
Was the planner kidding? Was the bus stop suggestion a, ahem, "favor" for the developer? I am not in a position to say, but the bus stop idea leads to a larger than one bus stop plan that might be Sarasota's road to recovery from the traffic problem.
What if, what if you didn't need a car in Sarasota?
If you don't have a car now in Sarasota there are a whole list of places you can't reach and a multitude of jobs you can't get to. People visiting Sarasota rent cars at the airport!
Suppose our public transportation was so world class that we would prefer it to owning cars and driving ourselves? Wouldn't that be wonderful?
What if you could put your cell phone to your ear and have a shuttle meet you in any neighborhood in the city that would take you to a nearby destination for a little change? What if you could go on that same shuttle to a bus stop if you were heading to a more distant place, and another shuttle would meet you at the destination bus stop to take you directly to the building you were going to?
This is what I was writing about in my "Jobs for Sarasota" article. This would not only make a car unnecessary for a lot of people, it would open up some 200 good jobs. Eventually the traffic would be abated and the developers could start developing again?
The county could expand on this by contracting with the taxi companies to flesh out the hours that the bus system is not running with a reduced taxi rate for bus card users. I understand that this sort of system is already up and running in Phoenix AZ.
We need not worry about the bus capacity if more people ride the buses. The county has a full set of new buses and also still has all the old buses that they sometimes use as spares. With a little maintenance attention and a few new drivers the county could quickly double the bus service.
Yes, I know a lot of people prefer cars, and it would take a while to adopt the fewer cars idea. The alternative is more roads, but that takes a long time because so many agencies are involved and it is very expensive because you have to buy so much prime road front property. We can build the world class public transportation system much sooner.
We could have this in operation yet this year.
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