Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/98836
Sarasota News Leader December 14, 2012 Page 14 on Dec. 11 to the Downtown Improvement District. ���We are promoting the discussion: What constitutes unreasonable sound?��� Fanning said. ���Should we create different districts? Should we set standards for enforcement? These are all important issues.��� city to take action on noise. The rock and roll concerts on Fridays and Saturdays were memorable, but the sound bounced off an office building wall and went straight into Sarasota���s new downtown condos full of new downtown condo owners. ���The residents��� main concern is we avoid a discussion that leads to a we-versus-they proposition,��� added Fanning. ���We have other important issues downtown.��� John Vetri is the property manager at 50 Central. ���The people who live here, the residents, deserve the right to use their property,��� he said. A contingent of residents from the Plaza at Five Points Condominium (aka 50 Central) also showed up at the DID meeting to share their thoughts on an entertainment district downtown. Vetri suggested moving the boundaries of the entertainment district away from his building. Faye Beloff noted things are already a bit loud. ���There was dancing in the street at 2 a.m. outside Smokey Joe���s [on Main Street],��� she said. Caragiulo is planning a second town hall meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 19, in the City Hall Annex. ���We need to modernize the noise policy,��� he said. ���We need effective enforcement and realistic appeals. This is going to be a long process; there���s a lot to change. We���re juggling science, the First Amendment, how to enforce.��� ���What is a special entertainment zone?��� asked David Eckel, who then said, ���I don���t want to live in a special entertainment zone. Don���t In politics, timing is everything. Next March, spoil it at this particular point.��� city voters will elect two at-large commissionIronically, he and the others live above a bois- ers. Caragiulo is not running this time, but terous nightclub called the Ivory Lounge at 50 candidates could take up the noise issue ��� Central. But because all the noise is inside a pro or con ��� and keep it open for discussion. building, the noise ordinance does not apply. Caragiulo could be betting full-time residents are tired of a sleepy downtown and ready to The proposed entertainment district would amp it up. That might give him support on the be bordered by Fruitville Road to the north, commission to make a change ��� or vice verWashington Blvd. to the east, State Street to sa. the south and Central Avenue to the west. The Plaza at Five Points would be at the western One thing is certain. Not all of the 3,000 anonyedge of the zone. mous potential complainers who live in downtown condominiums are registered to vote in WILL ANY FOLLOW? Sarasota. Just look up any summer evening It has been a decade since the Lemon Coast and see who is home. While the rooms are (aka ���the downtown beach bar���) forced the empty, the noise ordinance lives on. %