joemoraca's blog

No Meetings Tonight!!

Submitted by joemoraca on Wed, 2005-02-02 20:22

Stayed home and watched the state of the union address. I like personal savings accounts.

Spent some time sending invitations for the CCNA City Commission Candidate Fourm on March 5th and getting the agenda ready for our February meeting this Saturday morning.

2005 People of Vison Awards Dinner

Submitted by joemoraca on Tue, 2005-02-01 20:48

We went to a nice event to honor the presidents of the 4 local colleges

New College - Gordon Michalson
USF - Sarasota - Laurey Stryker
Manatee Community College - Sarah Pappas
Ringling School of Art - Larry Thompson

Links to are all on this page

I hope the event raised a lot of money for Prevent Blindness Florida (pretty pricey tickets...) Lots of people for a Tuesday night. We were at the USF Sarsaota Alumni Table.

Neighborhood Action Strategy - Jan 31st

Submitted by joemoraca on Mon, 2005-01-31 19:46

Arlington Park Neighborhood had another NAS meeting today. The focus was public works and services. Meeting was pretty well attended as usual -- about 30 people. The main speaker was Duane Mountain he has worked for the City of Sarasota for over 30 years.. he really is a good guy that works to get things done - I was on the Parks board serving with him... good to see someone that loves what they do.

We started off with everyone introducing themselves and what they like about the neighborhood. I always enjoy hearing that... mostly location, location, location - old homes with character / tree cover / safe / the park itself -- and ... rising property values (no one said that out loud...)

Sarasota really is a great place to live.

Sarasota Celebrates Diversity

Submitted by joemoraca on Mon, 2005-01-31 07:44

We went to the Sarasota Embracing our Differences art show at the bayfront.. I was impressed how good the art work was.

Sarasota is really pretty diverse culturally.

Fun Reading - City of Sarasota EAR

Submitted by joemoraca on Sun, 2005-01-30 16:43

After seeing several comments about the City of Sarasota EAR -"City staff have completed a first draft of the Evaluation and Appraisal Report, which will be discussed by the Planning Board and City Commission at workshops in February and March 2005 and again at public hearings in June, July, and October 2005." I thought it time to personally review some of the changes to these documents. This is not fun reading but there are nuggets you need to be aware of. ..... for my neighborhood there is discussion of US 41 / Tuttle and we should be adding Webber street... my previous post was an example of what is discussed.

Arlington Park NA has a small victory or..

Submitted by joemoraca on Sun, 2005-01-30 14:35

Jan 22, 2005 a group of Arlington Park NA members went to the City of Sarasota Planning Board to ask the board to not support two rezonings in our neighborhood.

We found that the more intensive one was withdrawn after the planner saw we would not support the change. The property owner wanted to rezone 3 single family homes and build 5,000 sq ft of office space and 7 small apartments with 43 parking spaces ...

The second project was still there it was less intrusive but more obnoxious. The owner was poorly represented by a planner and lawyer that ignored the neighborhood and thought that the owner had a right to have the land rezoned because he wanted it..... during the meeting the owner proved he hired "like minded" people and all three really exhibited the butthead approach ....

Sarasota is one of the Top 10 Digital Cities for 2004

Submitted by joemoraca on Fri, 2005-01-28 15:52

"The Center for Digital Government and the National League of Cities (NLC) developed the survey this past summer and invited more than 600 city mayors, managers and chief information officers to participate. The survey grouped cities into four population categories: 250,000 or greater, 125,000-249,999, 75,000-124,999, and 30,000-74,999. Officials responded to a set of 24 questions and ranked their jurisdictions according to a four-point scale, providing Web site addresses and background data for final verification and validation."

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