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.

Jobs for Sarasota

There are something like 3000 unemployed in Sarasota currently. Usually there are only a very few. Here are some jobs we should open up for them right now:

Neighborhood Police: 1 lieutenant, 4 sergeants, 110 patrolmen. Total 115. Patrol neighborhoods and respond to calls in small vehicles.

Transportation:

Neighborhood (electric) shuttle service: 156 shuttle drivers, 10 mechanics, 26 supervisor/dispatchers, electricians 10. Total 202.

Auto Safety/emission Inspection: 1 director, 1 staff, 1 clerk. Total 3.

Environmental:

Improvements to wastewater plant: 20 planning, 10 supervision, 100 construction. Total 130.

Brownfield cleanup: 1 planning, 10 supervision, 70 labor. Total 81.

Offshore Windfarm: 2 planners, 1 lobbyist. Total 3.

Invasive plant species elimination: 1 botanist, 10 inspectors, 2 enforcement, 10 gardeners. Total 23.

Wild animal control: 1 biologist, 10 trappers, 10 exterminators. Total 21.

Neighborhood clean-up: 1 supervisor, 1 staff, 26 inspectors, 26 crew leaders. 182 labor. Total 236.

Truck Safety/Emission Inspection: 1 director, 1 staff, 10 inspectors. Total 22.

Energy:

Offshore drilling: 2 planners, 1 lobbyist. Total 3.

Water:

Taste and odor improvement. 2 chemists, 1 mechanic, 1 lobbyist. Total 4.

Promotion:

"Buy Your Home In Sarasota Now!" Public relations supervisors 2, agents 63. Total 65.

This is 1000 jobs more or less, a third of what we need. However, as these people work they will spend their earnings in the private economy, which will then also add jobs or fill vacancies.