October 2020 - Gift Catalog



The Ringling Museum Was a Gift to the People of Florida


My report are on the sites below. I am spending time learning more about Economic Development in the region. Our efforts have been curtailed by the Covid-19 situation.

I am proposing a new project hat I would undertake and would like the Board's permission to develop. In the past I have often prepared a Gift Catalog for my communities. The idea is to promote the notion of giving gifts that will improve and enhance our community.


In Sarasota we have numerous examples of gifts that have substantially enhanced our region and helped our tourism industrty.  Selby Gardens, The Ringling Museum and Benderson Parks are great improvements for our region that were gifts by individuals. There are a number of great public art sculptures that have been donated. And at the less expensive end are park benches and trees, often donated with a plack to memorialize a loved one.  When we made our last trip to Israel our Sister Cities members purchased trees and planted them in the hills.

I explain how I would do this at: http://giftcatalog.blogspot.com/. I would develop the program on a blog, with a one page printed summary. I would approach the City of Sarasota to make sure they were open to receiving gifts and to get their thoughts about what gifts they would like to receive.

Some examples of photos of gifts that I took today.


https://sarasotasistercities.blogspot.com/


https://economicdevelopmentreports.blogspot.com/


https://sarasotasistercitiesdevelopment.blogspot.com/




I will market our services using our Blog, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook pages. The blog will be the main focus, and we use the other sites to expand our reach.

Blog sarasotasistercities.com

Twitter twitter.com/#!/SarasotaSisterC

LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/sarasotasistercities

Facebook facebook.com/SarasotaSisterCities

Email sarasotasistercities@gmail.com

Our Economic Development Strategy is on the blog.


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For assistance in locating or expanding your business in Sarasota or in one of our Sister Cities contact:

Craig Hullinger
941 312 1032










August 2020

Part of economic development is the careful planning for the future of the area.  Some parts of the City Comprehensive planning effort over the years is included below and on: 



The first Comprehensive Plan for the City of Sarasota was prepared in 1925. You can read it on this link.

https://www.sarasotafl.gov/home/showdocument?id=4691




Click on the links below to read the current Comprehensive Plan


Sarasota City Plan 2030

Comprehensive Plan


Chapters

 

Population Estimates


_______________________________________________

New SSC Video Proposal

The use of videos is becoming much more widespread for spreading our message and for membership recruiting. Youtube has actually overtaken Facebook as the most widely used social media platform and Facebook has more videos all the time. Sarasota Sister Cities has been taking and posting more videos at: videossarasotasistercities.blogspot.com. 


All of our videos are amateur efforts except the one we did in 2014 which is the first one on our Video Blog and also at: https://vimeo.com/460972881.  We post our videos as we make them on our Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, Blogs, and Pinterest Platforms


Our professional video is still very nice but a bit dated. Shaun Greenspan, the son of SSC Members Betty and Richard Greenspan, did a very nice job on this video. I asked Shaun to give us a price for updating it - my thought is he would splice in some new content with Toni introducing it. Shaun tells me that technology has moved forward substantially and that it would be very difficult to make new footage added to the old video that would look professional. Gloria also thinks it would be best to do a new video. Shaun says it would be best to produce a new video and has given us a quote for $3,500. Shaun has discussed videotaping our Board in front of Sarasota Sculptures and beginning the video with aerial photography of our Bayfront and City. Click to view the proposal.  Board Members have suggested that we incorporate many of our SSC Photos in the Video.


I request that the Board discuss this issue to determine if we are interested in going forward. Thank you for your consideration.

___________________________________

More Info About Sarasota Sister Cities

We have a great deal of information about Sarasota Sister Cities online.

The following addresses are used by Sarasota Sister Cities
Web...............sarasotasistercities.org 
Email........... sarasotasistercities@gmail.com

The following blogs were used by Sarasota Sister Cities. Some of them are still in use today, others are of value for the history of the organization.

Sister City Blogs


Sustainable Economic Development


Newsletters

bridgestotheworldssc.blogspot.com


Photos


Communication / Social Mediavideossarasotasistercities.blogspot.com


Miscellaneous

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Minutes of our previous two meetings are on


https://minutesssc.blogspot.com/





Report April 20, 2020

During the past woo months we attended the 2045 Transportation Plan - Vision 2070 Plan for Manatee / Sarasota MPO. We wrote comments on the plan, with an emphasis on the Economic Development portions of the plan. We made those comments to the MPO and to the County Board Commissions. Our review and comments are listed below and on this site: http://sarasotamanatee.blogspot.com/

An Nicely Presented Plan


The MPO and consultants presented four alternative versions for the Vision 2070 Plan. Participants voted with their cell phones on components of the plan.

The plans were well developed with excellent presentations. The plans noted that transportation, land use, and economic development all needed to be coordinated.

The region is growing by 10,000 people each year and that growth is projected to continue. The MPO has about 800,000 people now with 500,000 more people projected by 2070. If that rate continues the metro population will double to 1,600,000 by 2100.


My Recommendations
1. Add a north south road. The plan as shown does not add a major north south road during the next 50 years. This means that future growth must be accommodated by the existing Rt 41, Rt 301, and I-75. This would result in very bad congestion.

The plan should include a new major north south road east of I-75. The right of way should be identified and slowly acquired. The road right of way should be very wide - enough to permit a major road with substantial natural landscaped side and center medians. It should have room for possible rail and utilities including power lines, sewer, water, and gas.  The road right of way should also be wide enough to provide substanail open space and environmental corridors, connecting to our major natural areas. 

This effort should be a Statewide effort, essentially planning for a major corridor paralleling and to the east of I-75. The lowest cost and least politically difficult time to plan for and acquire the right of way when the land is distant from sewer and water and is still valued as farmland. It is much more expensive if we wait until development requires the acquistion and development of the new road and it has to be acquired close to developed areas.


2. Add a road connecting the islands to the mainland. Congestion on the three roads connecting the barrier islands to the mainland is increasing. The MPO should study a potential fourth connection on the University Parkway alignment. This connects the barrier islands to a major road with connections to the Airport and I-75. The road should be a parkway with wetland and park space on both sides of the road connection, providing a beautiful waterfront drive connecting our most important amenity to the rest of the region.

3. Develop a grid road extension plan. The plan does not identify section line roads to be connected, extended and realigned. This is critical. The MPO, the Counties, and the municipalities should work together to create a detailed map showing all proposed new completions of the grid and all realignments. 

The connections do not have to be built until they are needed but they should be incorporated into all municipal and county comprehensive plan maps so that they can be created when the area is developed. And of course putting them on transportation and land use maps help ensure that developers understand what is planned and helps local governments to not forget to get the right of way when the area is developed.







More info at:  http://www.sarasotasistercities.com/



Sarasota Sister Cities Sites

The following addresses are used by Sarasota Sister Cities
Web...............sarasotasistercities.org 
Email........... sarasotasistercities@gmail.com

The following blogs were used by Sarasota Sister Cities. Some of them are still in use today, others are of value for the history of the organization.
Sister City Blogs

Sustainable Economic Development


Newsletters

bridgestotheworldssc.blogspot.com

Photos

Communication / Social Mediavideossarasotasistercities.blogspot.com

Miscellaneous
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