Pray for new role models

We will survive … We made it through Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson and the Civil War.

Surely we can make it through whatever and whoever are next.

The people of the United States are far bigger and better than any one individual in the White House.

But out of this tragedy and travesty of the 2016 presidential election, let’s hope and pray that it serves as a lasting lesson to all current and future elected officials and office seekers: lifelong integrity, morality and propriety matter.

With the swearing in of every new elected officeholder, so help them God, they pledge their behavior in office to be that of role models of honesty and decency.

St. Armands’ champ

For a guy from New Jersey, Marty Rappaport broke the mold. You know the stereotype: the gold-chained, pushy huckster.

Mind you, Rappaport certainly was no pushover himself, and you can find people who have done business with him who will vouch that he is a shrewd, tough entrepreneur and negotiator.

But when it came to the health, vitality and future of St. Armands Circle, Rappaport for the past 30 years was its uncontested champion. Not in words, but in his actions. No one in that period worked harder for the benefit of Sarasota’s No. 1 retail and tourist center.

Rappaport recently announced he has sold his property interests on St. Armands and would be stepping down from the St. Armands Business Improvement District, the taxing district he birthed.  

Sure, Rappaport had a self-interest as a St. Armands property owner. But instead of sitting back as a sideline complainer, Rappaport poured his heart, energy and persistence into making St. Armands Circle a better place for all — property owners, merchants, shoppers, surrounding residents and visitors.

The parking lot behind the Met; redesigned medians; new landscaping; the statues; and one day soon, a new parking garage. All of these physical enhancements are the result of Rappaport leading efforts among St. Armands property owners and merchants and Sarasota city officials.

But he also brought people together. Rappaport was among the organizers of the St. Armands landowners, merchants and residents group. 

Thanks also to Rappaport’s efforts, St. Armands Circle became the first retail district in the state to form a Business Improvement District, which taxes property owners to raise funds for improvements. Rappaport served until recently as its unpaid administrator and chair.

We saw Rappaport at work. Deputy City Manager Marlon Brown of Sarasota was correct when he told the Longboat Observer that Rappaport always approached the city with an attitude of how the city and the improvement district could work together, not with demands of what the city could do for the Circle.

“I don’t think there’s a single person who has done more for St. Armands than you,” Gavin Meshad, current chair of the improvement district, told Rappaport. 

For sure Rappaport can stand alongside the Circle’s founder, John Ringling, for his lasting contributions.

Another study? 

So the Florida Department of Transportation has budgeted up to $1.5 million to study barrier island traffic. 

Hey, we’ll make a deal. We’ll  do the study for half the amount, and we already can tell you what the results will be:

There is not enough road capacity to accommodate all of the cars trying to leave the islands at peak hours or trying to motor through and around St. Armands Circle.

Everyone has known this for at least three decades. And numerous studies already have said the same thing. What’s more, some of the studies — in particular, a 2007 study by the Center for Urban Transportation Research at the University of South Floria — have made sensible recommendations to improve the frustrating conditions. 

But no one does anything.

Talk, talk, talk. Study, study, study.

This next round — not expected to begin until January — likely will be no different. 

What’s the point?

Perhaps state and island officials might go back to that 2007 study and use that $1.5 million to implement  some of its sensible suggestions:

• At Gulf Drive and Cortez Road: “Add an additional lane on the south leg of the mini-roundabout, and extend it up to the intersection where the outside lane becomes a right-turn only lane.”

• “The major recommended strategy to alleviate traffic congestion at St. Armands Circle is to establish North Adams Drive and Madison Drive as an alternate route …”

Taxpayers, residents, visitors and businesses don’t need another study. They need tangible actions … traffic managers in the streets at peak times; redirecting traffic to alternate routes; public campaigns to discourage driving during peak traffic times; tapping local transportation funds to add turn lane capacity at key intersections.

Season is here. But still no plans or strategies to address the urgency.