OUR VIEW | The city with no vision

It’s the vision thing. Sarasota city government has a titanium mental block when it comes to vision. No vision to aspire. No vision for what could be. No vision to take bold steps to rise to the next level.

So it was, once again, when the Sarasota city planning board in February and the City Commission last week rejected Ringling College of Art and Design’s request to vacate a portion of Old Bradenton Road.

In the larger scheme of affairs, you probably can consider this instance minor, hardly worth noting in the history of this city and the thousands of zoning decisions rendered over the century. But it so aptly demonstrates what happens here to so many with vision when they encounter so many without vision.

First, let’s note there were three exceptions in this saga — city planning board members Chris Gallagher, a prominent architect; and Robert A. Lindsay, commercial pilot and son of the founder of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune; and City Commissioner Suzanne Atwell. They were three of 10 decision makers who voted in favor of vacating the street to help Ringling College. Lindsay and Gallagher, in particular, were standouts. They get it. They have vision. More on them later.

For the majorities and city staff, it was all about rules and process and comp plans and zoning standards and government manuals: 

• “Transportation Action Strategy 2.8”

• “Transportation Action Strategy 6.6”

• “Pursue traffic calming as REQUIRED precedent …”

• “Maintain benefits of existing street grid …”

• “Whether the proposed vacation is in the public interest.”

And on and on. You know the drill: Everything starts with: “No. It’s in the manual.” It’s never: “Let’s see if we can figure out way to make it happen and make it a win-win.”

City planning staffers did their jobs ably and competently. They showed planning board members and city commissioners what the city’s laws and rules require, prohibit and permit. And on paper, they added up the checked-off boxes ultimately to recommend to the decision makers the city should keep that portion of Old Bradenton Road that bisects Ringling College’s campus.

“Certainly we want to support their growth and their place in the community,” said one of the city planners. “We think we can do that without vacating the road.” She offered the standard government line: “We like you, but … it’s in the manual.”

This was in spite of compelling arguments from Ringling College. Starting with Ringling College President Larry Thompson. As a prelude to his lawyer and planning consultant’s detailed, technical arguments, Thompson provided context, noting the college’s amazing growth and astonishing accolade over the past 15 years. During Thompson’s tenure, Ringling College of Art and Design has become an MIT or Stanford or a Lexus or Audi in the international arena of art and design schools. It’s the only institution in Sarasota we can think of that has achieved world-class standing.

And, Thompson informed them, the school is building on that momentum. It will continue to grow into a full-fledged college campus. It’s no longer the unknown, two-building art school on North Tamiami Trail.

If those listening had any sense of vision, Thompson clearly planted a tree, not a seed, right in front of their faces.

Then came the compelling reasons for vacating the street. Foremost: safety of the students. 

Starting next Friday, Ringling is breaking ground on its 22nd Century library, on the east side of Old Bradenton Road. It will be a 24/7 library and student union-like center where students constantly will be crisscrossing from one side of Old Bradenton Road to the other.

Thompson told city officials he worries daily about the safety of students as inattentive motorists barreling north on Tamiami Trail veer off on Old Bradenton Road at 40, 45 and 50 mph, cutting through the exact spot where the library and even more students soon will be (see map).

In truth, Thompson’s team told city officials, that short stretch of Old Bradenton Road serves primarily as a shortcut, not as a primary street that eases capacity from Tamiami Trail.

What’s more, Ringling lawyer Dan Bailey noted, the request to vacate is not a precedent. The city has vacated numerous streets over the years to help create campus settings at Booker High School, Sarasota Memorial Hospital, Selby Gardens and the airport. 

To the point of serving a public interest, Ringling’s representatives noted the school and its students’ interests were just as important as those motorists cutting through Old Bradenton Road.

But the arguments were all for naught. “It’s contrary to the way I read the comprehensive plan,” said planning board chair Vald Svekis. Said Jennifer Ahearn-Koch: “The college has great value to the community … “I see nothing in our standards to support the vacation of that street.”

The “standards.”

To their credit, though, planning board member Robert Lindsay and Chris Gallagher made valiant efforts to persuade their colleagues to reach beyond their restrictive minds.

Said Robert Lindsay:

“I’m not hearing any thought of the longer term. I’m hearing: ‘Protect my shortcut I like to use now and then.’ … I’m hearing a very short-term view…

“The college is a community in itself. We’re ignoring that and taking the archaic view that this is all about moving cars …

“This will affect the city and Ringling for the next century. We’re talking about drivers being inconvenienced for a few minutes a day. But it affects the Ringling College and city for at least the next century… 

“I don’t like the fact we’re sending a message to the school and its donors that it is a low priority for the city and we’re not willing to spend a few bucks and fix some of thse other roads that is a problem there and allow them to consolidate that campus.

“It’s important that we think about this longer term. As far as public benefit, the public’s long-term benefit is the success of this important city instituttion. And that makes the community more successful, more economically successful and more attractive and all of those things give the city the money to do things like improve roads and other things.

“At the end of the day, we’re talking about a bunch of short-term considerations and ignoring the long-term of the importance of the institution to the city … and the city to manage its future. 

“The road network is not engraved in stone. It can be moved and reconstructed by the people. Roads are not built to last centuries. They’re built to be convenient. It has outlived its usefulness.

“We need to take a longer term view of it.”

Chris Gallagher: “I agree with Bob’s longer-term view.”

Solutions to consider: 

• Re-vote on the request;

• Ringling College purchase the street.

Ringling College of Art and Design is a rich diamond mine. If handled and mined properly, as Larry Thompson has shown, it will produce many more creative diamonds for decades to come. The city of Sarasota should do what it takes to keep that mine growing and producing. Vacating a tiny stretch of Old Bradenton Road would be a small, but visionary step.