Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/84916
Sarasota News Leader September 28, 2012 projects. We don't have a definitive plan with projects attached to it." QUO VADIS? If the Newtown CRA is to be meaningful, it has to make changes in residents' lives. Over the years, the City of Sarasota poured millions into Newtown. The community has more side- walks, curbs and gutters than any other neigh- borhood in town — and less street flooding. It has security cameras blanketing entire blocks, plus working streetlights and new schools (not a city responsibility, but nevertheless); the list of improvements is long. Unemployment and crime rates remain high. It is noteworthy that no chain restaurant ex- ists along Washington Boulevard between 12th Street and Northgate Boulevard (what would be 44th Street); nor along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way (formerly 27th Street) from Washington Boulevard to U.S. 41. Such restaurants exist in other African-American communities throughout the nation, but not here. "My focus is on the [MLK] corridor and com- mercial," said Alston. "Is this intended, this process intended to re- place the CRA plan?" asked Mark Huey, who is also the director of the Economic Develop- ment Corp. of Sarasota County. "Yes," said Alston. "A revised and updated plan." Huey said, "A corridor plan won't function as a CRA plan because it is narrow. But I think you are on the right track with an action-ori- ented plan." Advisory Board Member Margaret Esaw sug- gested using colleges and their students to facilitate community engagement in build- Page 28 ing a plan with specific projects. "It would be cheaper than $50,000," she said. "Anything that requires money, we have to first engage the consultants and then vote on it here," said Alston. "Then we have to take it to the City Commission sitting as the Commu- nity Redevelopment Agency board." Huey made a motion for Alston "to develop a scope for a strategic action plan for Newtown that would guide development of a detailed [tax-increment financed] budget". The process would include a combination of market anal- ysis and engagement as well as community engagement. The motion passed unanimously. What does it mean? Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is the meaning of Huey's motion. Just another study on the shelf? An opening for residents citywide to talk about Newtown's future? Or a smaller, more nu- anced look at what $2.1 million might buy? Right now it's an open door to ideas small and large, from developers and the business community; from chain stores and mom-and- pop entrepreneurs; from universities to local foundations — and especially to Newtown residents. If whatever is produced has community con- sensus, it will be hard for Sarasota City com- missioners to resist it. But if the effort fails to produce a hopeful and ambitious plan, the time and money will be wasted. The clock is ticking. In 2016, the great down- town CRA "gold mine" closes for good. No more siphoning to the Newtown CRA. In the next four years, the CRA will either learn to walk and run or fall on it face. The stakes are high.