What’s the plan?

Year-round Sarasotans enjoy the pace of summer. But although it is more relaxed, you still hear residents asking: What’ s the grand plan to head off the coming traffic crisis?

By Observer Staff
| 9:00 a.m. June 2, 2016

Sarasota
Opinion

Summer is settling in, and the pace is slowing. Traffic counts are noticeably down. You can get where you want to go without road rage.

Even so, the year-round residents are still talking. You still hear it at every gathering: “They better do something about all of this growth.”

Overtime update

Last week, we reported two bills are pending in Congress that, if approved, would nullify President Obama’s new overtime rules, which are scheduled to go into effect in January.

The new rules, you recall, would require all employers to pay overtime to all employees who earn less than $47,476 a year — even if they are managerial employees. Today, the threshold is about half that.

After our report went to press, we heard from U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan. His outlook for nullifying the new rules was not cheery. As he told us: Even if the House and Senate passed either of the two bills, “Obama would veto them,” Buchanan said.

“The only way to stop the rules is to elect a Republican president and keep the Republican majority in the Senate and then repeal the rules in the first 90 days of 2017.”

Sarasota Mayor Willie Shaw said the same thing when he was sworn in last week to his third consecutive term as the city’s ceremonial mayor. “Growth … has to be addressed.”

“All of this growth.” The tone you hear makes it seem like the city is exploding with uncontrolled growth.

Yes, the number of construction sites and cranes around the downtown core are extraordinary by historical measures of the past 20 years. But the number of cranes also can be countered to an extent with numerical facts. Between 2010 and 2015, the city of Sarasota grew at about half the number of people and half the rate as, say, Bradenton and North Port:

Bradenton: +5,091, +10.3%
North Port: +4,941, +8.6%
Sarasota: +2,966, +5.6%

For Sarasota, that’s roughly 593 new residents a year in the city limits. Hardly runaway growth.

Those numbers, of course, are looking in the rearview mirror. The concern is what is to come.

From our perspective, this growth is welcome. It reminds us of the conclusion Adam Smith made in the late 1700s: “The most decisive of the prosperity of any country is the increase of the number of its inhabitants.”

Many Sarasotans, of course, cringe and wince at the thought of Sarasota becoming more populous. But guess what? The long-term trends (the next 10 years) are undeniable and unstoppable:

Florida will continue to attract more people, largely retiring baby boomers.
Sarasota will continue attracting its share, likely an increasing proportion of its share. Sorry, folks, but the word is spreading.
And more people — in particular the millennials through Generation X (20s to 40) — are desiring urban living. (The Rosemary District, after many years of predictions, is emblematic of this.)

Add it altogether, and these trends should be sending a cherry-bomb-like message to the city’s governmental leaders: City residents are waiting anxiously for the grand strategy and action steps that will be taken to address the coming traffic crisis in the city’s downtown core. And roundabouts are not the answer.