Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/190797
Sarasota News Leader October 11, 2013 OPINION The City Commission, by a 3-2 vote, caved in to their demands and removed all parking meters, forfeiting almost all of the taxpayers' dollars spent on those expensive meters. The angry mob carried the day. Page 92 own planning professionals and the Planning Commission … and thumbed their noses at the economic benefits Walmart might bring to a blighted portion of downtown (which, incidentally, is even more blighted today). Another victory for the angry mob. Then there was the proposal to build a Walmart Supercenter in the derelict Ringling The latest example of the City Commission's Shopping Center. The malleability comes store would occupy with the request of essentially the same The City Commission in general — restaurateur Chris footprint as the pre- and this majority in particular — has Brown to significantly vious establishments demonstrated a dismaying propensity to modify the exterior of there, would bring kowtow to every angry mob that shows up the old Kress Building, much-needed com- in the commission's chambers. which he recently mercial diversity to purchased with plans that section of downto open an upscale town and provide restaurant. walking-distance employment for some of the residents in the His architect designed New Orleans-style area. For these and many other reasons, the galleries to create an open-air second floor city's planning staff endorsed the proposal above the sidewalk. Had the design been and recommended approval, even finding that approved, it would have created some of the the store complied with existing zoning. most sought-after seating among downtown Later, the city's Planning Commission dining establishments, affording those lucky reviewed the request and agreed with the enough to sit there an expansive view of Five planning staff, approving Walmart's plans and Points and beyond. It also would have helped Brown create a new restaurant downtown paving the way for construction to begin. that would have raised everyone's game … Cue the angry mob. the proverbial rising tide that lifts all boats. Residents in nearby neighborhoods rallied against the proposal and stormed City Hall, Cue the angry mob. demanding that the City Commission override This time it was predominantly rich, elderly the Planning Commission and send Walmart retirees who live in luxurious downtown packing. condos who objected. Somehow, when they Once again, the City Commission caved in were considering their condo purchases, they to those demands, voting 3-2 to reverse their seized upon the notion that the center of a city