Learning from Sarasota

[Metro Jacksonville]

Learning from Sarasota



Discovering successful urban redevelopment strategies from our cultured sibling in SW Florida..

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/81

[calder yates]

This from the University of Michigan Press:

http://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/0472109782-06.pdf

Page 11 of the pdf: \"Elderly [Floridian] migrants desire to live in homogenous communities such as Sarasota, where minorities are excluded by the high property values and scarcity of multifamily housing near upscale seashore developments.\"

Page 27: \"Sarasota has the most highly segregated Hispanic population in 1990 and also the most segregated black population.\"

Page 33 of the pdf: \"The mechanism for racial segregation along Florida\'s Gulf Coast has been high-end housing development. Sarasota\'s small black population is more segregated than in almost any other county in Florida and more so than in the state as a whole.\"

[Lunican]

Are you saying that Sarasota should not be used as a model?

[calder yates]

Not at all, I just wanted to make sure that a post titled \"Learning from Sarasota\" has some mention of big problems for which Sarasota is nationally known. As a college student who lives in Sarasota 9 months of the year, I see many of those successes you mention and many of those successes\' unexpected ramifications and I hope Jacksonville does learn from them.

[thelakelander]

Can you elaborate on the negative ramifications of letting the private sector develop, picking trash off the streets, having well design public spaces, more afforadable parking rates, etc.?  I know the community is not the best thing since sliced bread, but how do you see the social-economic problems (many which we unfortunately deal with locally today) affecting these downtown development issues?

[calder yates]

I wasn’t clear. I didn’t mean to imply that these public and private developments in Sarasota have caused gentrification. I mentioned the gentrification in the hopes that Jacksonville will also learn from this element of Sarasota’s urbanism.

To name just one example, Sarasota’s housing dislocation. As a rule in gentrification, low-income residents are displaced farther from the CBD. And no matter where they move, displacees usually pay a higher rent. (Apgar and Kain’s Housing and Neighborhood Dynamics: A Simulation Study, LeGates and Hartman’s “The Anatomy of Displacement in the United States.”) And then we see articles like this one in the newspapers:

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/061606/met_22126600.shtml

Economic segregation greatly worsens economic inequality and as economic divisions divide populations along already stratified racial and cultural lines, urban politics become more polarized and divisive. Some argue that such situations create \"political crises\" in urban landscapes, whatever that means. Many of the public and private sector developments you mention are great but perhaps there’s neglect in the ramifications that come with rising property values, rent gaps, displacement, etc… I’m all for free parking and more public spaces. I’m also for keeping Jacksonville neighborhoods unpretentious, affordable, and socially diverse.

[thelakelander]

I agree.  We need to find away to keep jacksonville\'s urban neighborhoods affordable and socially diverse.  Right now, we\'re struggling to do this, as well as stimulate retail in the core and enhance the area\'s image to the general population.  Better parking and well designed parks (we don\'t need new ones, if we can\'t maintain the existing ones) we help on one end (downtown retail/image), but there\'s still a need to educate leaders on the positives of having a cultural and economically diverse core.

[Chris McGarry]

Having grown up in Sarasota and now living in Jacksonville as well as being a City Planner/GIS Analyst by trade, I would like to add some additional information to the mix.

A lot of the gentrification issues you both mention are valid but I believe other factors help contribute to it in Sarasota.  Sarasota County has an urban growth boundary that mainly follows Interstate 75.  Anyone driving down I-75 will see Big-Box Retail and other development on the Western side of the road and celery fields and cow pastures on the Eastern Side (there is some less intense development).   "Subdivision Ready" land was available for development on the Western Side on the interstate until about 15 years ago.  Around the same time a confluence of events occured:

*The City steped-up its work on its downtown plan (reconnecting the downtown core to the bayfront [which had been cut of by US-41], Turning Main Street from One-Way back to Two-Way, repaving Streets, etc..)
*The city redeveloped Island Park on the bayfront
*Available easily-redevelopable land on Siesta Key and Longboat Key for High-Rises became scarce.
*The City Hired Andres Duaney (of Seaside Fame) to work on its new Master Plan and Zoning Code (Around 1998-99)
*The Mass Brothers Closed and a very wise developer decided to turn it into a 20 Screen Movie Theater
*In town living as become a popular choice for many segments of the population
*Interest Rates Dropped and Development everywhere was red-hot.
* ETC...

Sarasota already had a nice core district as well as St. Armands and Osprey Village, thanks to Ringling, and Palmer, and others, but it literally exploded with growth once all of these factors collided (In the early 90s there was an article in a local magazie where someone said that you could light off a cannon after 5pm and not bother anyone).

As far as the gentrification issue is concerned I believe that, in part, there is literally no where for someone to move.  In typical suburban growth patterns (at least in Florida) it seems that subdivisions lead to new subdivisions which lead to newer mega-planned super subdivisions and as people "upgrade" the whole population moves up or side-to-side.  This for the most part has not happened in Sarasota.  When you "run out" of land and the area remains desireable the result is what you see here.  There is no path out for many people because the path is full of people.

I am absolutely glad that Sarasota is a progressive as it is with its planning.  I think some of the city's and county's decisions 20 years ago are still seen in the development of downtown Sarasota today.  I absolutely agree that this has had the unintended consequence of leading to very stratified areas and a complete decimation of affordable housing.  Even so, I would say it is a better model to look at than the Suburban Sprawl of its Neighbors Bradenton and North Port which have other class and race issues to deal with as a result.  

Whomever can help Sarasota with these issues is much smarter than myself, but I think the dynamics of the city are well worth studying.

I will say as a relatively new resident to JAX one thing that I believe the city needs to do is UN-engineer its streets.  Everything here is a weird pseudo-connector/expressway/thoroughfare (Roosevelt Ave., The entire south bank of downtown, the Arlington Expressway, the Hart Bridge Connector Roads, MLK Expressway, etc...).  Learning to drive here is a test of patience, some areas are truly maze like.  

Very interesting to see this section.  Thanks!

Sarasota 1973 - 1998
Gainesville 1993 - 1997
Celebration FL 1998
Atlanta 1998 - 2000
Naples FL 2000 - 2003
Tallahassee 2003 - 2004
Jacksonville 2004 - Present

[thelakelander]

Thanks for the input Chris.

[Chris McGarry]

I also forgot to mention that the City of Sarasota has building height restrictions (~20 floors).  I personally believe this helps create a more walkable city.  Taller buildings typically require more parking, service entrances, lobby space, and lanes of roads to handle the vehicle traffic etc...  By limiting the height of a building you A) help reduce the canyon effect that some cities experience, and B) create a more pedestrian oriented space.  I realize that you can have very tall buildings and be fairly pedestrian friendly (New York, Tokyo, etc...) but that scale requires a much better mass transit system than is available in most cities.  This will allow number of people necessary to support that size of building without needing the car-oriented ephemra that completely negates pedestrian orientation (no matter how hard you try there is some impact).