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Sarasota News Leader March 1, 2013 Page 24 The following are planning questions, Yes, our city fathers and mothers built on a dealing with land-use issues certain cultural identity, and that has continued to thrive with new cultural aspects like A. Why does Sarasota not have the skythe ballet, the theaters, jazz club, and that line or the canals of a Fort Lauderdale? draws authors. Atwell: I think it���s multiple factors. You have Would you favor pursuing the proposed a community here that is multi-dimensional. Cultural District Master Plan? And it���s fairly recently that we���ve become so cosmopolitan. We didn���t get into that New Chapman: Yes. I think the arts and culture York high-rise kind of thing. Now people are are a significant factor in creating the goose discovering Sarasota. that laid the golden egg. It draws people who could live anywhere, who want to live in a [This is] when you get a mass of people acplace with a small-town atmosphere with trecustomed to compact living and [they] want mendous cultural amenities. [greater density of] units and bus [transportation] to get around. Most of our really important cultural assets are on the North Trail. ��� ��� ��� ��� ��� ��� The following are planning questions, dealing with land-use issues The following are planning questions, dealing with land-use issues A. Why does Sarasota not have the skyline or the canals of a Fort Lauderdale? A. Why does Sarasota not have the skyline or the canals of a Fort Lauderdale? Chapman: We took a different direction. We took the direction of arts and culture rather Holland: Many people don���t want Sarasota than just boating. We had people who came to to become like the East Coast. Because we���ve this area who really valued arts and culture, been protective of our small-town feeling, and including John and Mabel Ringling, Bertha because our zoning codes and our neighborPotter Palmer, and that helped us establish hoods have tried to protect and insure the our identity. growth has been not just rampant. We���ve got a community that is engaged and involved, and And then we had people like David Cohen, we���ve had good planning practices, and that���s who worked to develop the Van Wezel [Pera result of what we���ve done. forming Arts Hall] with [former long-time City Manager] Ken Thompson. That established a There is something different about Saradifferent kind of identify. Instead of just boat- sota. It is like the poem, ���Two paths diing and sun, we have that high level of cultural verged in a yellow wood and I took the influence in our area. And we have other eco- one less traveled by ���.��� A century ago, nomic opportunities. Arts and culture are [a] both were small villages. In the 1920s, $180 million-a-year economic generator for us they went hurly-burly crazy. But after in Sarasota. that, the divergence began to show. Fort