Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/112475
Sarasota News Leader March 1, 2013 Page 21 single-family houses with children and don���t care a hoot about a downtown noise ordinance because they have to go home at night because they can���t afford a babysitter. what that looks like. That���s Manhattan density. For Sarasota, there is not the will of the people to be Manhattan. My guess is, if you want to live in Manhattan, it would be a lot easier to move to Manhattan than to try to make SaraI think this is an interesting exercise, but we sota into Manhattan. in this city have been deluded by this whole idea that if we create a supply, there will au- I was talking with my building manager, and tomatically be demand. That hasn���t really hap- he said we���re 10 years away from occupying pened. What has happened instead is oversup- all the office space that���s available in town. ply and lack of economic development due to That���s a depressing thought. speculation. Where the big development is happening in We have these big, glitzy projects that are sup- this community is in the single-family neighposed to alter the total downtown experience: borhoods. You go to those neighborhoods, Pineapple Square; we had the Irish-American and it���s unbelievable what���s happened. project [after the demolition of The Quay]; ��� ��� ��� we had the [unbuilt] Proscenium; we had the [unbuilt] Atrium. All of those do not exist. Do you support Paul Caragiulo���s efforts What exists in their place is a lot of empty, to reevaluate the noise ordinance? underused space. That is a drag on our economy rather than a benefit. Holland: Yes, I do, to reevaluate the noise orIn fact 24/7 Wall St. had a report about best- dinance. I don���t think there���s anything wrong run cities and worst-run cities. They looked to periodically reevaluating most things. We at foreclosure rates. They found cities that have a growing dynamic downtown, with the weathered the recession better were the ones greater vibrancy of downtown. I wish I���d atthat very much controlled supply based upon tended those meetings [Caragiulo hosted], but I had knee surgery. the demand. A lot of the people now proposing 200 units per acre, or increased density downtown, didn���t live here when the [New Urbanism advocate Andres] Duany Downtown Master Plan was developed. They didn���t live here when we dealt with the density bonus before. They didn���t live here during the Downtown Residential Overlay District. They���re brand new to town, and they���re the newest, fashionable big thing. But we���ve been through all of this before, and not too long ago. I understand there is a consideration of entertainment districts, i.e., the Rosemary District. I love to go to Mattison���s [restaurant at the intersection of Lemon Avenue and Main Street] and listen to the music. I���d love to see some of that noise, energy, music in the Rosemary [District] because the residential [area] is not as affected. You remember the years we tried to figure out what to do with the Rosemary. None of the ideas gelled the way we thought they might. One of the candidates is proposing 200 units It���s a little bit of an open palette still, that you per acre density, and I don���t think he knows can do some things that can harness some of