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Sarasota News Leader October 11, 2013 OPINION Page 93 would be a quiet place to enjoy their twilight years. The shock of actually finding it rather noisy in the center of a bustling downtown has been a source of constant irascibility for them. Chris Brown's request out of hand. And a cowed majority of the commission dutifully voted, 3-2, to do just that. The Sepulchral Set downtown had scored yet another victory against normal human activity along Main While most of us might spend our evenings at Street. home watching television or reading books, Brown's proposal certainly was unusual these downtown denizens like to stand on the and unprecedented. However, it marked a balconies of their luxury high rises, iPhones freshness of vision that sadly is lacking in in hand, and hope that some of the ambient downtown. Had it been approved and built, noise drifting up to them will trigger their sound-meter apps. Then they can call the the restaurant would have set a new standard police — anonymously — and complain about for quality dining in the city. the noise. Alas, it ran afoul of the angry mob … the true They feared a popular restaurant in the heart force that governs the City of Sarasota. of downtown, particularly with a balcony for The nation currently is in the grip of a conal fresco dining, would generate too much stitutional crisis because Congress, which noise and disturb their early-evening slumber. has the approval of only 5 percent of the Of course, they also objected to Brown's archi- people, is blithely ignoring the wishes of its tectural choice, claiming that a Bourbon Street constituents. style would look out of place in the downtown area … apparently not seeing the irony of how Meanwhile, the Sarasota City Commission even more out of place huge steel-and-con- seems to bend whenever a strong wind blows through City Hall. crete monoliths are in our city center. So the angry mob stormed City Hall and Surely, for the sake of progress and good govdemanded that the City Commission reject ernance, there must be a happy medium. % The Sarasota News Leader No-Nonsense Reporting