ROUNDABOUTS, MOORING FIELD, BAD DECISIONS
Once again the city commission has made a major blunder in managing the bay front. It has used the blunt instrument of seizure law to rid the bay of unwanted moorings in favor of what probably will be the most unmoored-in mooring field in Florida.
Having boated for more than half a century and having enjoyed the freedom to moor wherever it was not a hazard to navigable waters, I see this as just another uncompensated "taking" of my and other’s public property rights as citizens. And I don’t like it.
There are better ways to handle the problems caused by a few errant boaters, such as inspections, annual mooring permits and policing the area on a regular basis and ticketing offenders. Of course that would be too simple. Better to nuke the problem out of existence than to target the real problem.
Bayfront connectivity has been in the news for years. As your June 25 editorial properly suggests, "What is the point in bayfront connectivity if there is nothing on the bayfront that one would want to be connected to?" A mooring field with no boats is like a road to nowhere, an airport with no airplanes and a swimming pool with no water. What is the point?
Addressing connectivity to a vanquished bay, the city commission seems unusually stuck on the European idea of roundabouts. It is talking of spending many millions of dollars to "fix" the problem of connectivity with roundabouts. I just don’t see it. How can a roundabout provide connectivity to the bayfront when these traffic devices are principally calming features? Pedestrians still have to cross the highway, and with a roundabout pedestrians would have to cross a much greater distance than the current four lanes and median on U.S. 41.
I have been to many European cities, small and large, that have roundabouts. As a motorist I do not like them because at peak traffic times the roundabout slows traffic in all directions and limits entry and exit for those in the left lane. As a pedestrian I do not like them because it is difficult to gage traffic that is coming from four directions at one time instead of two directions. The roundabouts the city commission is talking about will require stop signs or traffic lights at all four entry points if it is going to be moderately safe for pedestrians and cyclists.
This will do nothing more than create more frequent and larger traffic jams. Europeans use practical devices for pedestrian and cyclist traffic – bridges and tunnels.
While I personally would not like to see pedestrian bridges built over U.S. 41 and other places (they are too ugly), there is ample room for pedestrian tunnels. Growing up on Long Island, I found pedestrian tunnels were the rule to move beach-goers from the bayside parking lots to the oceanfront beaches on the barrier islands.
The counter argument that you cannot build tunnels in Sarasota because of the low water table, sandy soil or some other such absurd excuse has been disproven untold thousands of times domestically and globally. Tunnels would cost the city and the taxpayers less than a roundabout, would keep more property on the tax rolls, provide the ultimate in safety for pedestrians and cyclists and not interfere with normal traffic patters.
Let’s get the city commission off its European high horse and down to earth with tunnels for bayfront connectivity.
Robert (Bob) J. Frey
SCULPTURE GETS UNDESERVED KNOCKS
Reading all the recent letters about how poor a piece of sculpture "Unconditional Surrender" is has me mystified.
If you took a vote, 90 percent of our residents would say they want it. To both us and our visitors (need we talk tourist dollars?) it is the number one photo op in the city. People then tell other tourists about it, and on and on.
It does business day and night. I know: I live across the street from it. The people do not come to criticize the work. They come to take pictures with it and then show the pictures to family and friends.
If you want foolishness, take the nicest designed business tower in the city and line up ugly cars side by side and distort/ruin the view of it. Wait, we did that.
Besides becoming a "logo" and tourist must for the city, the sculpture is a personal point of pride for a group of men and women who gave their time, guts and lives so that we would be able to continue to enjoy our rights, including having art like this.
Shame, shame, you obnoxious artsy minority of our beautiful city. Maybe we should also kill the beautiful bay front view by putting docks in. Wait, we are doing that also.
Norman Schimmel
GUEST COLUMN RAISES NUMEROUS QUESTIONS
As a taxpayer in Sarasota County, I would like to respond to the June 18 Pelican Press guest column – "District meets challenges of reduced funding, enrollment" – by Caroline Zucker, chairwoman of the Sarasota County School Board.
At the beginning of her column, the chairwoman said that the district, with an operating budget of more than $400 million, "has been forced to make deep budget cuts."
As I appreciate her informative comments, I would suggest county taxpayers take the time to learn more about the school budget. Taxpayers interested can go to the district web site for more information. A good place to start is the Budget Facts section.
Moving on with what she mentioned [excerpt]: "74 percent of our funding comes from local property taxes."
This high percentage should cause pause or concern to any local taxpayer. Local taxpayers pay thousands in their property taxes to this school district every year. As we all agree, we must support our schools, but as expressed by the school chair, 74 percent of funding is "from local property taxes."
Did anybody – after reading that – wonder if our state reps can or will reform the system of funding our state’s 67 school districts? As property taxpayers suggest: Find a way to cap that funding so no more then a third should come from local property taxes. And if they in Tallahassee found a better way to do so, would this not be another way to stimulate the economy and help to promote a recovery in the real estate market/sales?
Since Zucker said, "The local school funding referendum in place since 2002 and up for renewal in 2010," presumably the school board does intend to have county voters once again decide if they want to renew the local surtax for another four years. Question: How many voters in 2002 thought the referendum at that time would be a one-time local tax question? Or maybe there is no such thing as a one-time tax.
If the school board does have intentions of another renewal referendum in the time ahead, would it pass in a difficult economy, post-recession, with local people still looking for employment? What about county residents as seniors/retirees, with many on fixed pensions or Social Security and average families struggling to make ends meat?
I would agree with the chair, who said: "... together we can face the challenges of reduced recourses and maintaining the excellence of our renowned school distinct in Sarasota County."
As we all can agree that improvements can be made, to do that we all should care to "listen and learn" from others. Could one suggestion be for a new independent community review with regard to past spending and to see if the district/board possibly overspent at times or perhaps spent too much on the NeXt Generation Learning plan/components? Let us not forget that discussing various opinions is part of the process of our democracy; that is why I continue to advocate that approach.
Maybe another suggestion would be to ask our school board members to embrace a community "Town Hall" informal type of meeting to discuss all concerns and listen to meaningful suggestions? Why do I suggest this? How many concerned citizens care or want to drive to a once-in-a-while regular school board meeting only to be allowed to speak for three minutes to the board? Can we do better? Yes we can!
It is a given that we have hard-working, great teachers/school staff personnel/administrators and a very good and caring schools superintendent. That along with the many millions (from all sources) in the yearly total school budget should translate into hard-working students, along with their parents’ involvement and motivation, becoming high achievers – -and, yes, many are and we congratulate them.
On that note, I do think we all should have a close look at all the 2009 FCAT scores of all grades and subjects tested. Are there major improvements being recently reported with our high schools? Have the high schools benefited from the voter-approved 2006 referendum renewal or the many NeXt Generation Learning Plan promises made to the community? Have some of our high schools dropped a grade or more? One news report which I read reported grade drops according to the Florida Department of Education Florida.
What is the bottom line? Nothing beats or can replace individual hard work, making the right choices and wanting to study for long hours. Of course, parents also have a role in the educational process. Yes, having great teachers with tax millions to support education goes a long way, but what is the rest of the story? The motivation and oversight of students by parents clearly play a large part in young people achieving good grades/test scores.
For those who continually say to local taxpayers/voters that they want extra local millions (as they did in 2002 and 2006 with the special 1 mill referenda, I say that cannot be the one and only solution to achieving better educational results. My suggestion is that our elected school board members lessen their emphasis on the changing levels of funding and more often advocate that students spend more of their time on study while asking for more participation/involvement by parents.
Make no mistake about it, the job market is very competitive, and those who have worked very hard will be the finalists for those employment positions. Students also have to work very hard while in high school to master all those subjects to prepare themselves for college work.
Finally, who has not heard that even in some poor Third World countries that many of those students get very high grades in subjects such as math, sciences and engineering? Well, how does that happen in those countries, their not having big budgets? Yes, we all know what the honest answer is: Lots of hard work by the students who are dedicated to their studies. Maybe they spend even more of their available time outside the classroom at a study hall-library reading and studying? So, I do agree with the chair that "together, we can face the challenges of reduced resources and maintain the excellence ...."
To meet those challenges, we all must expand our collective thinking regarding the many components/issues involved in education. That discussion should include the following: how our public schools are funded; looking at all spending in this and other school districts; what spending brings in the most return on investment for the benefit of our students; and what it takes to achieve better grades and test scores – which would be … the rest of the story.
Norm Lupo
July 2nd 2009 - 10:00AM