Honoring Mr. Downtown: Residents push for tribute to Paul Thorpe

For someone new to Sarasota, it’s hard to reconcile the bustling heart of the city with how long-time residents describe downtown as recently as the late 1990s.

Today, storefronts are filled and cranes dot the sky. Most complaints hinge on the idea that it’s too crowded — too much construction, too many events.

Residents like Barbara Strauss know how far Sarasota had to come to reach this point.

“This was a Podunk town — it really was,” Strauss said. “I grew up on Siesta Key. You didn’t want to go off the Key.”

A long list of residents, officials and business owners played a part in transforming the city, and downtown in particular. Ask the people involved in that transformation, and one name stands above the rest: Paul Thorpe.

“He’s Mr. Downtown,” said City Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch, invoking the informal title commonly bestowed upon Thorpe. “He’s really the one person you can point to and say, ‘Because of this guy, we really managed to turn this downtown around.’”

At this point, it’d probably be easier to name the downtown institutions Thorpe didn’t have a hand in forging. But, if you insist on doing it the hard way:

The downtown holiday parade? Check.

The New Year’s Eve Pineapple Drop? Check.

The Sarasota Farmers Market, the Fourth of July fireworks, the Downtown Sarasota Alliance? Check, check, check.

Thorpe, 91, has largely stepped away from his many leadership roles, though he still serves as a valuable source of insight and institutional knowledge. Even in his later years, the shadow of his legacy is overwhelming.

Strauss and other people who have gotten to know Thorpe don’t want that legacy to ever fade. That’s why, on Monday, they’ll ask the City Commission to memorialize Thorpe’s name for generations to come.

They want the city to name something after him as a testament to the work he’s done since moving here in 1969. They’re not sure what, exactly. A street? A park? They’ll leave it for the commission and community to decide, but they want something done as soon as possible.

Any uncertainty is a sign of just how quickly everything is coming together. Strauss approached Deputy City Manager Marlon Brown with the idea less than two weeks ago. He told her the best ways to persuade the commission to take swift action, including packing the chamber with as many supporters as possible.

Finding a roomful of people to support Thorpe won’t be difficult.

“A lot of people credit Paul Thorpe for them becoming the person they became,” Strauss said. “This man has influenced so many people’s lives, and we love him for that.”

One person who lists Thorpe as a mentor is Pat Calhoon, a city parks employee in the 1970s. That’s around when Thorpe founded the Downtown Association and organized the first holiday parade. After getting to know each other professionally — Thorpe served on the city’s parks board — Thorpe persuaded Calhoon to get involved with King Neptune Frolic, an organization that put on events throughout the year.

Even for city officials, Thorpe was the go-to resource for insight on how to improve downtown.

“He was the one who could read the pulse,” Calhoon said. “You wanted to get Paul’s reaction to an idea before you really rolled an idea out.”

It was immediately clear Thorpe had a vision for an active, walkable downtown. But Calhoon also came to know Thorpe as a compassionate man. Despite his strong beliefs, he was as willing to listen as he was to speak.

The two had fallen out of regular contact in recent years, but when the Sarasota Herald-Tribune wrote an article about Calhoon’s cancer diagnosis, Thorpe was one of the first people he heard from.

“He said ‘Listen, I dealt with this,’” Calhoon said. “‘Let’s get together for lunch and we can talk about it.’ That’s the kind of person he is. He just immediately reached out.”

“The guy is a worker. He’s not only got the knowledge, but he digs in and he gets stuff done.” — Barbara Strauss

Strauss, whose production company organizes the Sarasota Blues Festival, found a kindred spirit in Thorpe. The two worked together on events like the inaugural downtown New Year’s Eve celebration in 1999. Strauss admires his ability to follow through on the ideas he shares, and to get others to buy in. Those qualities were on display during that first pineapple drop.

“He was in his 70s,” Strauss said. “He was out there with us from 6 in the morning until 4 in the morning, helping collect money. The guy is a worker. He’s not only got the knowledge, but he digs in and he gets stuff done.”

Strauss figures he could use another reminder that people greatly value him — not only as a figure in Sarasota’s history, but also as a person. She recalled a moment during a 2013 party she threw in his honor, when Thorpe told her he heard the city would be naming a street after him. His excitement was palpable.

It never came to be, but that memory has stuck with Strauss. She wants to finally make the concept a reality in honor of someone who’s done so much for so many. Those close to Thorpe say his motives were never self-serving, that he didn’t set out to one day have a slice of the city bear his name.

“You knew in your heart when you talked to him, there wasn’t a hidden agenda,” Calhoon said. “It was all about what was right for our community.”

He just did it because he was trying to help. And that, his friends say, is why it’s so urgent that the city returns the favor and shows its gratitude for the man who earned the nickname Mr. Downtown.