EDC Launches Microsite

Kathy Baylis: Sarasota County working to transform economy now

'BIG, BOLD IDEAS AND THE PEOPLE to carry them out. Sarasota County has what it takes to turn this economy around. And it's happening now."

That's the over-arching message from David Sessions, chairman of the Economic Development Corp. of Sarasota County, in the introduction to the EDC's 2010 annual report.

Recently launched as an interactive microsite, rather than a printed publication, the digital annual report "provides fresh opportunities to showcase the work of volunteers, local governments, regional partners and staff who are all working toward the same ultimate goal: creating a more sustainable and prosperous community" — to borrow more of Sessions' words. MORE>>>

A few openings remain for new Civics 101 class

Some news about the upcoming "semester" of Civics 101 -- now's a good time to let people know who might be interested, it's filling fast:

Seats still open for Civics 101 

Sarasota County government’s popular Civics 101 program still has a few seats open for the session beginning March 10. 

Civics 101 is a 10-week program that introduces people to the operations and services of Sarasota County government. Each week, staffs from different county departments guide participants through a particular area, exposing them to the inner workings of county government. The classes give students a better understanding of how county government works, and allows them to build relationships with county staff. Sessions are offered at no charge in the spring and fall each year to Sarasota County residents and anyone working in Sarasota County. Twenty-five people are selected each term on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Applications are available here.

The course schedule is available here.

For more information about Civics 101, call the Sarasota County Call Center at 941-861-5000 or e-mail vfrench@scgov.net

A bracing call for support of the Bed Tax

Calling All Sarasotans (includes Business Leaders & Owners, Community Activists & Park Lovers, Elected Officials & Government Employees, Parents, Retirees, Athletes & Coaches, Seniors, Visionaries, and Rowing Aficionados),

WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE HISTORY AND WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!!!  Next week, (Thursday, September 16th, at 3 pm, 1660 Ringling Boulevard), the Sarasota County Tourist Development Council is discussing future uses for the Tourist Development Tax (TDT).  We are asking them to approve an additional ½-cent portion of the Bed Tax to help fund the Nathan Benderson Park.  This request is vital.  Once completed, this community park will improve the quality-of-life for both residents and visitors.  As a rowing facility, it will attract domestic and international rowers, their coaches and families, and tens of thousands of spectators year-round.  The rowing park will make dreams come true and add to the economic sustainability of our community.
PLEASE ATTEND THIS IMPORTANT PUBLIC MEETING.  To show our solidarity, we are asking that everyone wear lime green shirts, the universal color from this year's regatta season.  If you don't have a lime green shirt, we can provide you with one that proclaims our message,

"SARASOTA ROCKS, LET'S ROW."

 

For more information, please call me at 941-400-7333 or e-mail me atops@environeers.com .

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND CONSIDERATION.

 Sincerely,

 John Krotec

 Member, Regatta Organizing Committee

 Chairman, Fruitville 210 Community Alliance

 

Home and small business owner

 

Voter Turnout

Sarasota voters staying home today?

How can cities (or counties) use parks for economic development?

Public parks are often the "engine" that drives tourism in many communities. In a simplified tourism model, visitors use some mode of transportation to leave their homes and travel to attractions, which are supported by various kinds of services, such as hotels/motels, restaurants, and retailing.The attractions and support services provide information and promote their offerings to target groups they have identified as potential visitors.



Check out the briefing paper on how cities use parks here, or download the pdf here.

Additional Planning Meetings Scheduled

Sarasota County continues to seek input on major community issues 

 

Sarasota County Planning Services has scheduled two addition meetings to discuss major community issues that the county's comprehensive plan should address during the next seven years.

 

The meetings are scheduled for:

• 6-8 p.m. Thursday, June 10, Sandra Sims Terry Community Center, 509 Collins Road, Laurel
• 6-8 p.m. Thursday, June 17, Cooperative Extension Building, Twin Lakes Park, 6700 Clark Road, Sarasota

Each meeting will begin with the same overview presentation followed by a facilitated work session. The purpose of these meetings is to seek input from the public in identifying major community issues  that will steer the future direction of the comprehensive plan.

 

People who are unable to attend either meeting may supply comments or suggestions by sending an e-mail to ear@scgov.net. A short, online survey that seeks people's perspectives on issues facing the community is also available at the E.A.R. Web site.

Coolidge on the vagaries of "Economic Development in Sarasota

Belatedly noted: This article by MC Coolidge in Creative Loafing, entitled Face Reality - (for more context, see here):

We’re so gaga over the idea of attracting film and entertainment business to the area that several City Commissioners (in the name of “economic development”) were in favor of leasing the much-used (and not-a-dime-subsidized) Sarasota Municipal Auditorium to Ringling College for soundstage use for a measly $1 a year. Thankfully, for once, the audacity inherent in the request, coming as it did from a college well-known for being so well-endowed it would make Jenna Jameson blush, riled up taxpayers enough to squelch the idea.

Of course, that deal would have been small potatoes compared to the heaps of taxpayer dollars Sarasota leaders have already spent pursuing “economic development” crushes that haven’t returned the sentiment. Do I need to remind readers about the roughly $5 million our city and county commissioners spent in pursuit of the Red Sox — for a “deal” that was never anywhere near real?

...

If government is going to be involved in and spend money on economic development for businesses (which I’m not at all sure it should be doing anyway), then I’d prefer them to focus on finding ways to develop and enhance the businesses that are already here — right down to the truly small businesses and including the many creative-type sole proprietors (of which I am one) who support those businesses — and to support new businesses that are committed to coming here and staying here without being paid off to do so.

Rowing Regatta could be Big

From the local paper:

"We didn't understand the potential economic impact at the time," said Paul Blackketter, a project supervisor with Benderson Development Co., the real estate development firm whose retail, hotel and office properties surround the park. "We didn't understand rowing and what it could bring."

Benderson officials contend the accoutrements -- adequate retail and restaurants, hotels within close proximity, amenities such as museums and beaches -- will make the park the best in the U.S.

If some $40 million worth of amenities such as a boathouse, docks, improvements to Cattlemen Road and other upgrades are developed, as planned, experts say the park could become to rowing what London's Wembley Stadium is to soccer.

... Funded with federal stimulus dollars, $5 million from the county and a $1 million Benderson donation, the park and the road will be fully built out by early 2012.

Eventually, the park could host as many as 15 regattas a year, drawing some 200,000 people and pumping an estimated $40 million annually into the regional economy, company and county officials believe.

images from yesterday's warm-ups here.

Rowing at Benderson could have large economic impact

Via Mysuncoast:

SARASOTA - Athletes from around the world are already training here in Sarasota County, and by the end of 2011, Sarasota may become the premier rowing destination in North America.

If you're not a rower, what does that mean to you?  Money.

When the lake at Nathan Benderson Park is expanded to world-class rowing standards, leaders in the rowing world say it can attract regattas here that will bring in tens of thousands of people who'll spend several days and leave big bucks behind when they return home.

It's an amazing stroke of luck.

"Who would have thought a few years ago Sarasota could be a rowing destination?" says John Leeming, president of Sarasota Crew.

But it just happens that the 600-acre lake at the new Nathan Benderson Park -- a lake originally dug as a mining pit -- can become what some say would be the best world sanctioned rowing facility in North America.  It meets all the qualifications.  "It's a dedicated piece of a body of water.  It has no current, straight shoreline, good depth, great location for accessibility...local hotels and rest," says project manager Paul Blackketter.

Currently, the lake is 1500 meters long...not long enough for the world sanctioned rowing regattas.  But the county is already working on a project using federal stimulus money to extend Cattleman Road, which would increase the size of the lake to just under 2200 meters -- exactly what's needed in international rowing competitions.

This week, international leaders in the rowing world are in Sarasota, including the editor of Rowing Magazine and a representative from the Boston rowing facility.  Monday they told Sarasota County commissioners what a gold mine the county has with the lake.  "They are all thrilled by the fact that this course can be a 12 month a year rowing facility, and they are also enamored by our community and the access that they have to the intracoastal (waterway), which provides the long distance rowing venue for training."

And these experts say when the lake is expanded to required length, the county could attract more than 77 countries to world class rowing regattas.  And that would certainly have an effect on our economy.  "Tremendous effect.  An average regatta can attract over 10,000 people; ten regattas a year, you're looking a more than 100,000 people...huge economic impact."

The Florida Inter-collegiate Rowing Regatta is coming up at Nathan Benderson Park this weekend.  12 colleges from across Florida will compete for the state championship on Friday and Saturday.

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Hi-Speed Internet has support in Sarasota

SARASOTA COMMUNITY SHOWS SUPPORT FOR ULTRA HIGH-SPEED INTERNET

Sarasota, FL: A community effort is underway to bring an experimental ultra high-speed internet service to Sarasota, and you can show your support for it. Google plans to launch a test system in a select few locations in the United States for a fiber network with unprecedented speed. The experimental system would provide internet connections 100 times faster than what most Americans currently use, according to information released by Google.

Google is asking municipalities throughout the nation to submit information about their communities via a Request for Information (RFI), which will be used to determine where the experimental networks will be built. Civic groups can also nominate their community. A group of community leaders within Sarasota is working to provide the requested information to Google by the deadline Fri., March 26, 2010.

To learn more about the fiber network project visit here and here.

To show support for Sarasota becoming one of Google's test markets, become a fan of I Want Google Fiber in Sarasota on Facebook.

Jan Thornburg
City of Sarasota
Public Information Officer
941-954-2613
941-650-9693 (Cell)
941-954-4113 (Fax)

Economic Recovery Forum Video is back online

After some rejiggering, the county's server is working again, and the full video of the Forum can be seen here:

http://scg.co.sarasota.fl.us/videos/recessiontorecovery.asx

Perhaps water could be cheaper in Sarasota

This is small beans, but, still. -

Every month I receive two water bills from the county - one for water used, the other a fractionated finance charge, which is the same each month, and will be the same until, at some infinite future point, it's paid off.

I pay both bills online. The one that's the same - $15.09 - every month, I have set as an automated payment - the bank just kicks out a check in that amount every month. As in: no bill necessary. The county could save itself the labor and materials of sending out the paper bill, the return envelope, and the envelope containing both. It could all be done digitally, with an end of year statement, again, digital, or, up to you, it could be paper, if you prefer. But no, apparently that's not possible in Sarasota County. The people who pay their bills pay more, I'll wager, because we are paying for all the dead trees used to send us redundant information, month after month.

Just had to vent. Back to "the Arts."

Sarasota Business Today

Sarasota County focuses on economic development with ‘Sarasota Business Today’ news program

Sarasota County has launched a new public service news program called “Sarasota Business Today.” The program focuses on a spectrum of county economic development initiatives and local businesses, with the theme of: “Live. Work. Learn. Play.”

More here

Link to Taped Forum

A file of the televised Economic Recovery Forum that took place on Feb. 2, 2010 can be found on the county's website here:

http://scg.co.sarasota.fl.us/videos/recessiontorecovery.asx

See here for a stab at live blogging of the conversation, and other previous posts on this blog for more context, documentation.

Forum in the news

A brief story about the Economic Recovery Forum in today's paper:

Prescription for Sarasota County: a new economy

Post-Forum - a couple more questions

Since the forum discussion leaned rather heavily on the arts, on design, and on messaging (marketing, tourism, etc.), it seems worthwhile to consider what it takes to become an arts center, as opposed to an artsy and cool place.

With that in mind, a question I submitted - rather late in the forum, which doubtless received many during its interesting 90-minute discussion, was this:

Many upscale communities across the US lay claim to being "artsy" or significant places where art is made. How does Sarasota - or any wannabe arts center - establish objectively that they really are special?  

That's a sort of philosophic aspect of the matter, but one that needs to be addressed. There's also a more pragmatic question of what sort of commitment a community is willing to make to the Arts.

It seems to me that a community that makes quality art needs to make it possible for folks without a great source of income to live, work, find the necessary materials, tools, and ultimately audiences. In New York City, where I used to live, the pattern was that artists would take over a decrepit neighborhood, create workplaces, as they did in SoHo, TriBeCa, and the East Village - and then, as they became "cool places," attracting bistros, galleries, bars, restaurants and real estate mavens, the actual artists were priced out of being able to live there.

SARASOTA ECONOMIC OUTLOOK 2009–2010

Below is the conclusion to Prof. Grimes' study of the economic outlook for Sarasota:

CONCLUSION

Sarasota County’s economy has entered its worst economic episode in memory. The unemployment rate in the county, which historically has been below the national average, now exceeds the unemployment rate in the nation as a whole, and it’s expected to get worse before improving slightly in the second half of 2010.

The county’s economic troubles can be traced to the construction-and-real-estate-related boom between 1995 and 2005, which inevitably has led to a construction-and-real-estaterelated bust. The nation has followed a similar path, but the amplitude of both the boom and the bust has been much greater in Sarasota. We anticipate that there will continue to be job losses in Sarasota County in 2009 and 2010, but the losses in 2010 will be minimal, partly because we have assumed that the much-discussed economic stimulus package, especially its infrastructure spending portion, will mitigate some of the job losses in residential construction activity.

The good news is that there has been some employment growth in the high-wage, higheducational-attainment industries in the county, even during the first two years of employment decline. We expect that employment will continue to grow in these industries (health care, professional services, and corporate headquarters) over the next two years, but that these gains will be too small to overcome the job losses resulting from the construction bust and the weak economy overall. Job opportunities for people with relatively low levels of educational attainment will be scarce.

We are forecasting that the unemployment rate in the county will continue to increase through the first half of 2010, when it will peak at 9.3 percent, after which it will begin to drift down slowly.

The county has some great assets to promote future economic development. These include its natural beauty and weather, its recreational opportunities, and its arts community. There is already a sizable and reasonably healthy white-collar employment base in the county. These assets are a magnet to attract up-and-coming industries.

Among such opportunities is a group not usually thought of as an industry, that is, affluent retirees. It is fortunate that so many of them have gravitated here on their own, but there should be no slacking off of efforts to keep them coming.

At the same time, it is important to recognize the county’s liabilities, especially the fact that it is geographically isolated from most of the country. This will make it difficult to attract manufacturing companies to this area, an observation supported by Sarasota’s very low share of manufacturing employment that is not related to construction. In fact, it would be difficult to imagine a less geographically hospitable place for manufacturing than coastal southern Florida, except for Alaska and Hawaii. Economic development efforts should be directed elsewhere.

The most important factor in determining any area’s economic prosperity, at least as measured by the income of its residents, is the level of educational attainment of its work force. Sarasota County needs to become single-minded in its efforts to attract highly educated residents and the industries that seek to employ them. We believe Sarasota has the assets to do so.

A few questions for the Economic Recovery Forum

We'll post some potentially useful questions about the Forum and for Forum panelists here as we get them. Here are a few preparatory inquiries:

1. How was the panel composed? I.e., who decided whom to invite?
2. Was the EDC invited to participate in the Forum? If not, why not?
3. Has Univ. of Michigan economist Donald Grimes (a panelist on the forum) done any work on Southwest Florida that we can access? 
4. If so, you have a link or reference?

Context: Sarasota Employment and Wages by Industry

Click on image to enlarge:

via Enterprise Florida

Can the Arts replace Construction as an Economic Engine in Sarasota?

From the HT:

Among the participants is University of Michigan economist Don Grimes, who warned local officials early last year that the construction industry would never again become Sarasota County's dominant economic force. Grimes suggested local governments and the business community concentrate on developing other promising sectors, such as the arts.   

Questions abound: How do the Arts generate wide employment? What sort of jobs would become possible? Does the success of an arts-driven economy depend upon the quality of the art? If so, how does a locality ensure quality in its arts? How much of a role does marketing play in the image of a community as a "happening" place in the Arts? How does the Sarasota EDC (Economic Development Corporation) fit in?

For reference, here's a community profile of Sarasota County, with an employment breakdown by industry, provided by the EDC.