A case for Brody and Hyde

Each election is a referendum on candidates’ visions for the present and future. The runoff election for two seats on the Sarasota City Commission is certainly that.

And if you’re a Sarasota city voter, this is your opportunity to have a say in that vision. 

To be sure, the three candidates vying for two seats — Jennifer Ahearn-Koch, Hagen Brody and Martin Hyde — have distinct visions. While the candidates likely would think it to be shallow and superficial to categorize them with one-word, political labels — liberal, conservative; Democrat, Republican — in a nonpartisan election, there is no denying this election, like all elections, is indeed partisan.

Just so you know: Ahearn-Koch and Brody are Democrats; Hyde is a Republican. And the truth is those political affiliations indeed signal much about their visions. In fact, if you created a scale that went from left-liberal to moderate to right-conservative, the three candidates would fall into place: Ahearn-Koch on the left; Brody left-moderate; and Hyde right.

Nevertheless, to borrow a line from President George H.W. Bush, “it’s the vision thing” that matters. And in Sarasota city elections, that typically means where the candidates stand on economic growth and development.

To be sure, their views on fiscal matters (taxes, spending) and public safety are important. But predictably, you never hear a City Commission candidate say anything other than he or she favors fiscal responsibility and support for police and firefighters. Those are every candidate’s priorities, and certainly that’s true in this instance.

But in Sarasota, the overarching factors that ultimately determine an election are the candidates’ vision for economic growth, population growth and development. Everything in a city flows from those three issues.

For the past half century, ever since the City Commission of the early 1960s, which developed Bayfront Park, the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall and a vision for a vibrant Main Street, the bloodline of city commissioners has been decidedly resistant to growth and development.

Many newcomers might find that hard to believe, especially now with all of the construction cranes bobbing in the sky. But if you catalogued the history of city commissioners, the majority of them have worked to hold Sarasota back, that it is,  always should be and always will be a small town. Indeed, the city slogan is “where urban amenities meet small-town living.”

Ironically, that slogan is exactly what has fueled much of the downtown and county’s growth. You meet them all the time — newcomers who have settled here because of the city and region’s less congestion (vis-a-vis their big, urban homes in the Northeast) and Sarasota’s cultural amenities. And in no time, these newcomers become infected with Florida Syndrome: “I’ve got mine; don’t let it grow anymore.”

But this is Florida. And all those elected city commissioners and voters who want strict limits on growth and development keep trying to block, slow down or stop what they cannot: Florida will continue grow no matter what. No one can stop it.

Their efforts have consequences — many unintended negative consequences  Here are several:

• Acute shortage of unaffordable housing. This is simple supply and demand. When the regulatory regime is so oppressive and restrictive and supply of developable land is short, the cost of housing rises out of reach, except for wealthy retirees. 

Just look at the prices of the condos rising downtown and the starting rents of apartments in the Rosemary District. Rarely do they start below $1,200 a month. Or browse the internet: One-bedroom apartment rates within five miles of downtown typically range from $1,500 to $2,290 a month, according to Rent Jungle, which tracks rental rates nationwide. In Jacksonville, the range is from $610 to $1,130 a month.

The high cost of housing hurts the poor, working class and young professionals the most.

• Brain drain, lack of career-advancement opportunities. This is so acute that the region’s colleges have teamed up with the Gulf Coast CEO Forum, an organization of 100 CEOs, to formalize connecting businesses and students to help stem the flow of graduates out of town. Ask any employer in Sarasota. He or she is near desperation finding local, skilled labor. In surveys, college students repeatedly have cited a lack of opportunity and housing costs as primary reasons for leaving Sarasota.
• Traffic congestion. Unaffordable housing means those that do have jobs in the city likely live outside the city and must drive to work. Low density in the city means more cars on the roads.
• Fewer choices and higher costs for everything. Everyone likes the ideas of no traffic and fewer people. But they come at a price. To quote Jane Jacobs, author of “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”: 

“Big cities are natural generators of diversity and prolific incubators of new enterprises and ideas of all kinds … The diversity that is generated by cities rests on the fact that so many people are so close together, and ... contain so many different tastes, skills, needs, supplies and bees in their bonnets.”

Or, as Friedrich Hayek described the results of population growth: “We can be few and savage or many and civilized.”

We’re not advocating for unbridled, laissez-faire growth and development. Although that would be preferred to the regulatory labyrinth in City Hall, we know that is politically and practically unrealistic. 

But for every Sarasota city voter who is a parent or grandparent or under the age of 40, we’re assuming you want Sarasota to be a place where your children, grandchildren and you can thrive and prosper; where they and you have job opportunities to climb the economic ladder; and where they and you are able to live in decent, affordable housing. 

If this is your vision, the makeup and direction of the Sarasota City Commission must change. Your vote next month can take a leap toward doing that.

The status quo must end. The historical chain of commissioners whose vision prescribes a stifling and costly regime of regulations must be broken.

Two of the three candidates can do that — Brody and Hyde. They share a vision for the future that is not focused on a negative — e.g. STOP!, the organization Ahearn-Koch founded that wants to subject property owners to more layers of unnecessary and costly public hearings, among other government mandates.

Brody is less strident than Ahearn-Koch on growth and development. But his campaign message holds a special appeal. He has practical priorities: affordable utilities; sustainable infrastructure; and top-notch public safety. More important, at age 34, he represents the next generation and a new generation of emerging leaders in the city. It’s time for new thinking.

Hyde is a long-time business owner. The commission sorely needs that perspective and experience. And while Hyde is a newcomer to political campaigning, he has been a city resident, taxpayer and observer of City Hall for nearly 20 years. As one who leans toward a libertarian philosophy — “I think I should decide how I live, not the government” — Hyde readily accepts (and does not fight) the reality that Sarasota will continue to grow. His perspective is one of an entrepreneur: Growth is not a negative challenge, it is a positive opportunity.

To move the city of Sarasota forward… We recommend: Brody and Hyde.