- December 3, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
At Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, the first impression arriving passengers receive at the bottom of the escalator to baggage claim is a kiosk extolling the virtues of one of Sarasota’s prime attractions, St. Armands Circle.
A large map at the display locates all of the shops, boutiques, restaurants and other businesses that are, under normal circumstances, ready to greet visitors.
But circumstances are far from normal after the one-two punch brought by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, evidence of the twice-flooded St. Armands Key still prominent with largely dead landscaping and grass, and several boarded up storefronts.
On a mid-November afternoon when St. Armands Circle would ordinarily be teeming with seasonal residents and vacationers, parking was plentiful and the sidewalks sparsely populated as only a handful of restaurants and stores have reopened.
Some merchants are starting to put finishing touches in their space before bringing in inventory, hoping to capture at least a portion of the season’s revenue. Others have given up altogether.
So have some residents.
“My neighbors on each side of me and across the street, their houses are essentially abandoned, so the neighborhood itself is still hurting,” said St. Armands Residents Association President Chris Goglia, who lives on North Washington Boulevard. “One lady is renting an apartment in St Petersburg. A family on the other side of me with two young boys who went to school in Sarasota, I've heard that they have a rental property in Siesta Key that they’re living in now."
That stretch of North Washington looks like the storm passed through only days ago. Debris remains piled up beside the road. Downed trees remain where they fell. Landscaping shredded by Category 3 winds is decaying and grass that was covered by seawater is brown and crusty.
Overall, it little resembles the tony enclave St. Armands residents and visitors have come to know, the eclectic collection of vintage single-story homes — which took the worst damage — intermixed with newer construction raised above flood level thanks to modern building codes.
Just a few blocks away in the business district at St. Armands Circle, dead, twisted plants and dead grass bely the normally lush environs, although some merchants have planted anew outside their handful of reopened storefronts.
Like the rest of the residents and business interests of St. Armands, Goglia said his road to recovery is gradual.
“Every day I do a little bit more, and it’s coming along,” he said.
In his capacity of residents association leadership, Goglia remains in constant communication with city leadership, most recently sending an email to city commissioners and management about the need to address St. Armands aging infrastructure and chronic water pumping failures that have become more evident over the past two years.
The circle and surrounding neighborhoods have been plagued first by rain-driven flooding from Hurricane Idalia in 2023, and this year’s Tropical Storm Debby followed by the storm surge events of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Although the most robust pumping system is likely ineffective against storm surge, floods from heavy rains have been frequent.
Goglia urged city officials to revisit its complete street concepts for St.Armands, which in part upgrades the utilities infrastructure there.
“St. Armands Circle is a historical, economic and tourism asset of the City of Sarasota. The city's own website calls St. Armands a ‘jewel of Sarasota,’” he wrote. “But, after two years of flooding events and a direct hit by a CAT3 hurricane, we know that St. Armands Key has serious stormwater management problems that have finally contributed to gutted homes and shuttered businesses.
“The jewel is tarnished.”
The city owns the stormwater management system at St. Armands, but it is maintained by Sarasota County via interlocal agreement. Goglia asked the city to place on the agenda of an upcoming meeting the drainage Issues, specifically requesting commissioning an independent engineering study to include:
“The County's maintenance appears to be reactive,” Goglia wrote. “We’re asking for a proactive inspection. Are the drain pipes clogged? Do the black-flow preventers allow seawater through? Do the generators need to be raised? Do we need more surface drops and/or bigger pipes?”
Also, Goglia requested the city resurrect the non-funded St. Armands Key complete streets project, a $45 million-plus endeavor that would address underground and surface upgrades. The project was tabled because of cost and duration, requiring 10 years or more. It is also is currently not in the state funding pipeline.
Goglia’s plea was heard and, at Monday’s City Commission meeting, was addressed by Commissioner Kyle Battie.
“We're doing the downtown master plan (update), and that being said, I think it behooves us as a commission to do one as well for St. Armands Circle,” Battie said. “That is our economic and tourism engine and I think we need to have a serious, robust conversation about that. We know what's happened with these storms out there and the devastation it has caused to a number of businesses. They're not millionaires, just mom and pop shops that won't be able won't be opening.”
Not all is gloom and doom. Most of the restaurants have re-opened while repairs remain underway at others, but the foot traffic of shoppers is lacking where holiday shopping is normally in full swing. Plans for installing the holiday tree in circle park and the annual tree lighting event have not been announced.
According to a city spokesperson, crews with the Parks and Recreation Department are in the process of removing all the dead vegetation from Circle Park and medians. Those areas will be mulched and annuals will be planted within the next two weeks, and sod will be replaced early next next year as crews work around events.
Slowly but surely, St. Armands will be revived.
Until then, Goglia likens the general state of St. Armands residents as matriculating through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and, finally, acceptance.
“I know for myself, I'm in the acceptance stage,” he said. “This is going to take a while, and it's going to cost money, and we're going to get through it.”
Although Sarasota is his primary residence, Goglia was at his winter home in Rhode Island when Helene struck, driving here a week earlier than planned to survey the damage to his elevated home. It was built seven years of resilient materials, so other than losing a vehicle it was more a matter of cleanup, which he had not yet completed before having to evacuate for Milton.
“I think a lot of residents are angry. They feel that some municipal entity has let them down,” he said. “They don't know if that's the city or that's the county because this is all very confusing, but we have we had over a year of repeated flooding at St Armands and nothing's been able to be done about it.”
Many neighbors, he said, are still in the depression stage. Owners of the older single-story, ground-level homes are awaiting availability of contractors to repair their damages. Others who have had recently made renovations, he said, have priority from their contractors while others languish.
“I'm hearing from some people who are giving up and they're going to put their property on the market at some point, but I feel that that's the minority,” Goglia said. “I feel that most people are going to restore, and in some cases they might knock down and rebuild. It depends on your their circumstances. There are plenty of people out here who work and are going about their lives. There are still people out here with young children who go to school.
“I think people are starting to get used to the fact that everything doesn't look as pristine as it always has.”
