Sarasota Livin'

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Red Mars (Mars Trilogy)

I gave in to a "good deal" -- I got this book free as a "Kindle Edition" - I don't have one of Amazon's cool devices - but I have the Kindle application on my IPhone ... so now I have read most of this very interesting book on the small screen of my phone.

It's really not that bad reading on the IPhone -- if the page were as big as the Kindle I think it would be just fine... but I still like paper books better.

Back to the book.... It's a very interesting story on several levels .. first it is the future story of the exploration / settlement of Mars that's a good story -- the details of the space flight and the surface of Mars are great (I don't have a clue how accurate it is).

Level 2 is the story of the "first one-hundred" this is the group of the original settlers on Mars -- if you lived with 100 people first for months on a ship then years in a very small "town" you would have lots of personal stories... it is well told.

Level 3 is most interesting to me - the political philosophy of the settlers. Think about what type society a small well educated group of scientists would build towards if they were "way out there" - think the colonies and England when it was a month away by boat... This is what I think keeps the story going. Of course it's a trilogy - get the first one free and you have to buy more ... I just ordered the second book -- on paper!!!

"It is not necessary to change.
Survival is not mandatory."
- W.E. Deming

From their press release this is a very important project for our area.....

03.03.2009 - VENICE, FL (March 2, 2009) – Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice is pursuing a partnership to create what could be the largest urban solar-energy project in the country. A solar facility constructed on land that the Foundation owns in Sarasota County could generate an estimated 40 megawatts of clean, renewable electricity, or enough to provide power for about 4,800 homes. The Foundation announced its plan today at a luncheon featuring New York Times columnist and best-selling author Thomas L. Friedman.

“Gulf Coast Community Foundation’s courageous Board of Directors envisions this opportunity as a catalyst for renewable energy technology and applications in Sarasota County and our surrounding region,” said Teri A Hansen, president and CEO of Gulf Coast Community Foundation. “The Foundation’s mission is to improve the quality of life in the communities we serve, and investing in clean, renewable energy will generate economic benefits while helping to preserve our environment and secure our energy independence.”

At the event, Ms. Hansen also read a letter from Governor Charlie Crist. “Congratulations on your historic announcement today,” she quoted from the letter. “When it comes to solar energy policy, I often remind our fellow Floridians that Florida is the Sunshine State. We must take action to encourage the development of technology that utilizes our abundant and renewable gift.”

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Life and Death in Shanghai

Whenever you start to feel like your life is tough you should read this book. It's the story of a woman that lived through the "cultural revolution" in 1960's China. Years in jail because her family had been wealthy in the past and she had worked for a "western" company.

She would never admit she had done anything wrong so they kept her in jail and kept demanding she admit her guilt. I liked this book it's not whiny and gives good insight into what was truly a crazy time in recent history.

Well how do you explain this one? I see signs of mechanical things on eerth? Is that an atomic blast and what about the blue dudes arms? The duck / horse in the grass is natural so is the tree ... maybe it's maple syrup or turpentine dripping.

We went hiking this morning at Oscar Scherer State Park - not a great place to hike due to sand road trails - but we had a good time anyway - it was overcast and not hot ...

This was my first time realy seeing the Legacy Trail in action - it runs through the park. There were lots and lots of bikers on a Sunday morning. What a great deal...

I am not running for City Commission and even if I wanted to it's too late to qualify. But I wanted to respond to some questions that I saw in an email from Jon Susce...

Reliable sources are reporting the three key issues that all nine candidates will be forced to address and unable to “duck” are the following:

1) for or against the referendum question

2) for continue growth centered around high densities (favored by downtown interests and the construction industry) or for a knowledge based type of development like high tech, high paying jobs

3) Traffic issues like spending $millions$ connecting bayfront to main street and for or against gutting concurrence.

Question 1
I like the idea of an elected mayor - there I said it - I didn't really come to this conclusion until this year after talking with some of the supporters of the referendum.

My experience has been that many many things take more than a year to get through the "process." So not having anyone with the ability to "push" for a project in a strong way makes lots of projects flounder in a mix of too many projects that aren't going anywhere. Maybe having a "real" mayor will help that.

I don't like the fact that the supporters didn't think through the increase in "at large" commissioners - I would have preferred adding a new "district" commissioner for each - so 8 commissioners and a mayor.... maybe that is unworkable

Question 2
I think density is a good thing in the right places - and downtown is the right place -- I think we should regulate the building size and location -- not the number of units that are inside of it - I don't want a downtown full of tall (15 story) buildings but a neighborhood full of 4 story mixed use buildings with lots of density is fine with me - also I am not worried about the number of parking places included. If someone builds a building with too many units and no parking and can't sell them .... well that takes care of the parking problem.

If you think that density and "knowledge / creative" based development are opposites you better think again.... you won't get knowledge / creative workers without the urban amenities that come with density.

Question 3

Concurrency doesn't add any value in a urban area -- we should be focused on stopping sprawl in areas where it will never support the cost of infrastructure. I don't think building more bigger roads will solve any problems... now if concurrency means that we need to add mass transit of some sort that is good - but mass transit requires density to make it viable.

As far as spending millions to connect the bayfront to main st -- I am fine moving the designation of US 41 to follow 301 though downtown. Then lower the speed limit and increase the length of the red lights this will make it more pedestrian friendly.