OUR VIEW | Change and hope

A major shoutout and congratulations go to the voters of Districts 2 and 3 in the city of Sarasota. 

They voted for change.

And now, even though hope is never a good strategy, let’s hope this change brings a lot of much-needed good to the taxpayers and the city.

Congratulations, too, to the victorious City Commission candidates —District 2 winner Liz Alpert and District 3 winner Shelli Freeland Eddie.

Their victories, at last, sent a strong message to City Hall. Those who voted no longer want the status quo, Old Guard ruling clique that seemed to stand against more than it stood for a positive, aspirational vision for the city.

Let’s also not lose sight that Alpert and Eddie, both  Democrats, beat two incumbent Republicans. That will rock both political parties.

While the party activists may have had a hand in Tuesday’s results, in the end, Alpert and Eddie’s messages and new perspectives resonated with voters.

This is a big, first step. 

There is hope for the city. 

THE FIRST CHANGE: 

show some urgency

City and county elected officials constantly squawk about a shortage of affordable housing in Sarasota. 

Along comes Sarasota entrepreneur Harvey Vengroff. He wants to build affordable housing — 700 to 800 units.

Vengroff is known for moving fast. He makes a decision and executes it. He doesn’t waste time yammering. 

He wants to build his apartment complex now. He’s ready.

But as reported in the April 30 Sarasota Observer, here’s what he is up against: 

“Vengroff is in for a lengthy process that necessitates several phases of public input. He’s slated to go before the city’s Development Review Committee this summer and hold a public workshop on the project in August. A formal application for the comprehensive plan amendment would be due later in August, at which point it would go to the Planning Board, City Commission and state for review.”

If all goes well, Vengroff says, that will take a year.

With all due respect, Vengroff could be dead in a year.

Where is the common sense? The sense of urgency?

We know. You have to follow the law. There’s a process. But here’s an entrepreneur willing to invest and risk millions of dollars of his own to build new housing at low, affordable rental rates, to fill a critical, unmet need. 

And yet, rather than take any initiative to speed up the process, the city and state will lumber along like a loggerhead turtle through the government’s choking, suffocating bureaucracy.

There’s an old saying: Capital flows where it is welcome. If, say, the city would speed up the development process for Vengroff; show a willingness to act with a fire-is-burning urgency; and clear the way for Vengroff to begin his project in less than a year, that just might send a signal to others that capital is welcome in the city of Sarasota.

This is a city, after all, that needs an expanding tax base to service a cash-starved budget. 

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED

In the category of “No good deed goes unpunished,” Larry Thompson and the Ringling College of Art + Design are Exhibit A.

Thompson and the college went out of their way to pick a site in Newtown, next to the college, to construct a 30,000-square-foot soundstage.

First, at an April 20 Sarasota City Commission meeting, a representative of a nearby neighborhood association expressed dismay and surprise that the project was moving ahead so quickly. 

Then a Newtown representative expressed dismay that the soundstage would have a coffee cafe, which would discourage soundstage employees from buying from Newtown merchants. Then came Barbara Langston, president of the Amaryllis Park Neighborhood Association. She actually had the nerve to tell city commissioners last week: “There’s no mention of funding for job programs.”

Job programs?

We’re slack-jawed.

Every smart city in America understands the economic potential and future benefits that sprout from an expanding world-class college or university. In Sarasota, though, they complain.