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ENGLEWOOD — Last summer, Sydney Martin spent much of her time putting together the "Celebrate Englewood's Pioneers Labor Day Parade and Family Festival."
This summer, she wants to tackle a different project.
Martin, owner of The Artist Colony, has been working with local businesses and sponsors to add color and interest to Dearborn Street through wildlife sculptures. These will include a heron, two sea turtles and a dolphin.
Businesses and sponsors can select and purchase a sculpture from more than 30 artists who have signed up to paint a design or image, decorating them for the two-year display. After the two-year commitment, the sculpture owners can relocate the work of art, donate to a charity for auction, or purchase it for permanent display on the street.
Martin, along with Community Redevelopment Agency board member Kim Parks, brought the project up during Monday's monthly CRA meeting.
"We have 15 business committed to purchasing a piece to put on Dearborn Street, and we have 10 pending," Martin said. "I'm asking the board to consider supporting the installation."
Currently, the CRA has a fund that's dedicated to art projects such as the Sculpture Garden located on Green Street near the corner of Dearborn Street. There's $10,000 in the fund, according to Parks.
"If you've been to other towns that have done it, like Venice and Osprey, and bigger cities like Nashville, Tennessee, with the guitars and things, but the idea is to create some art, or even more color and beauty to the Dearborn Street area," Parks said. "It's a great photo op, and it gets a lot of artists involved."
Shop and restaurant workers were up early Wednesday, cleaning up after torrential overnight rains that stranded cars, seeped into stores and forced the closure of St. Armands Circle for several hours.
The National Weather Service recorded 5.35 inches of rain in a six-hour period at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.
A station in Siesta Key has reported nearly a foot of rain with many locations over 5 inches, the weather service said.
The St. Armands Residents Association reported major flooding in residential areas overnight, causing anxious homeowners to report in.
“I sat on my front porch and watched car after car create gigantic waves,” said one homeowner quoted by the association. “People seem to think this is fun and games and enjoy creating these waves. It’s not fun and games for the business and property owners."
The sun began peeking through clouds at daybreak Wednesday. By 8 a.m., Sarasota Police were reporting that only a handful of side streets were still closed in the St. Armands area. Abandoned and disabled vehicles were being removed from the road near North Boulevard of the Presidents and North Washington Drive.
By 9:30, employees of Alvin’s Island on St. Armands Circle were almost finished with cleaning up the sidewalk outside the store. Edwardo Diaz and Yenifer Aries were shoveling up debris and pebbles that were washed from planters on the sidewalk.
“We fought the water,” Diaz said, adding standing water rose to the bottom of the display windows. “Every car that went past, the water went onto the glass,” he said.
Water did seep inside the store, but no damage was done, he said.
Across the circle at the Columbia Restaurant, tables and chairs normally on the sidewalk were stacked inside. Workers were pressure washing the sidewalk. Owner Casey Gonzmart Jr. was using a squeegee to push water into the gutter.
He said as the water reached the building Tuesday afternoon, the decision was made to shut down.
“The water started creeping in and we said ‘No more service.’” Water rarely gets this high, he said. "Other than last year's hurricane, I can't remember it getting this bad."
Jeff Houck, the vice president of marketing for Columbia Restaurant Group which owns the Columbia Restaurant and Cha Cha Coconuts next door, said both restaurants will be closed today to finish clean-up.
“It was a lot of rain,” he said, adding customers shouldn’t have to dine with mud and debris underfoot. “We want to do it the right way,” Gonzmart said. “We’ll be open for lunch 11 a.m. tomorrow.”
Retired trial lawyer Michael Karp spends his week reading and watching the news. Whether it's politics, international issues or local news, you can bet that Karp knows the low-down on the matter.
Being from the Bronx, he isn’t afraid of a little confrontation, but his background also allows him to be open to differing opinions.
That's why he's the moderator for The Paradise Center’s Thinking Out Loud. The discussion group allows Longboaters a safe space to talk about current events and political issues going on around the world.
Karp said being a discussion group moderator fell into his lap. He was meeting weekly with a group of men at the Senior Friendship Center and encouraged them to use the time to talk about world issues. Each time the group met, people would bring something new to talk about. Karp took it upon himself to keep the conversation going.
Word got out about the discussion group and then he was approached to start another one. This group focused on the topic of aging and gave people a chance to speak about their experiences and coping mechanisms related to the subject.
Now Karp is the moderator for four discussion groups a week around the Sarasota area. He's started to see this as his purpose in life.
He said he doesn’t want to waste his retirement doing nothing in his house. Leading these groups keeps his mind fresh, allows him to give back and learn from the community.
Former executive director of The Paradise Center Suzy Brenner also heard about Karp’s group and thought it would be a unique addition to Longboat. He has been hosting Thinking Out Loud on Mondays weekly for three years now.
Judge rules to dismiss defamation lawsuit against Battie
The judge rules that Sarasota City Commissioner Kyle Battie was acting in his capacity as an elected official and is immune from civil action for comments made about resident Kelly Franklin.
Sarasota City Commissioner Kyle Battie’s motion to dismiss a civil defamation suit filed by resident Kelly Franklin has been granted by Judge Stephen Walker of the 12th Judicial Circuit Court.
On Wednesday, Walker issued his ruling dismissing all five counts brought by Franklin, stemming from a Jan. 16 City Commission meeting at which Battie based a discussion on what Franklin called a hoax social media post portraying her as a racist.
Rent across the United States is nearing record highs; however, the opposite is true here in Florida and the Tampa Bay region.
This is according to a recent report from Redfin.com. Researchers said May 2024 was the second month in a row with nationwide asking rent increases, reaching highs not seen since October 2022 and only slightly below the record. The average rent in America climbed to $1,653 in May.
Washinton, D.C. reportedly saw the largest increase in rent prices compared to last year with an 11.1% higher rate. Four other metros also saw double-digit increases, Redfin's report said.
However, several Florida metros and other cities in the Sun Belt region actually had the largest year-over-year decreases.
Jacksonville for example saw a 10.1% decrease in May 2024 compared to May 2023. Miami and Orlando's metros also saw decreases at 4.2% and 4%, respectively.
But what about Tampa? While a smaller decrease compared to Jacksonville's, the year-over-year rate still dropped 5%.
Researchers say the reason rent prices are falling in the Sun Belt is partly because more apartments were built in the region than in other parts of the country due to demand brought by the number of people who moved here during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now that the housing boom fueled by the pandemic has largely ended, property owners aren't seeing that same demand from newcomers and rent prices are cooling down as a result.
“Demand from young renters remains high, as many of them are opting to stay put rather than contend with an increasingly unaffordable homebuying market,” Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari said in a statement. “But so far, rent price growth has been limited because there are enough new apartments to meet demand, even in the busiest time of year for the rental market.”
Redfin researchers say rent prices are cooling in the Tampa Bay region due to plenty of apartments and houses available and fewer people looking in the rental market.
So what can the "average" Florida renter expect to pay for an apartment or home? Looking at reports from Zillow and RentCafe, the average rent in the Tampa Bay area sits around $2,000. The further away from Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota you go, the more likely prices will be lower.
The construction boom during the height of the pandemic in Florida included both new builds for apartment buildings and houses. Because of the surplus of homes and lessening demand from potential homebuyers, Florida's housing market is cooling faster than anywhere else in the U.S., Redfin said in a separate report.
North Port in Sarasota County is reportedly the fastest-cooling housing market in the nation right now (with a median price per square foot down 1.2% year over year). That makes North Port just one of four metros where price per square foot fell annually. More than 42% of sellers in the city are dropping their asking prices, up from 36% one year prior.
The reason for the cooling housing market is believed to be in part tied to the frequency uptick of natural disasters in addition to the surge in new construction, skyrocketing insuring costs and the selling price of houses.
Report finds Tampa housing market one of the fastest cooling in the nation (Video)
After years of a scorching hot housing market, a new report labels the Tampa region as one of the fastest-cooling housing markets in the country. The report from Redfin measured year-over-year changes from April 2023 to April 2024. Redfin looked at changes in home prices, price drops, inventory, and the share of homes that sell within two weeks. North Port came in first place, followed by Tampa and Cape Coral. In fact, six Florida cities rounded up the top 10. Lakeland listed at number 9. The report cited an increase in natural disasters, a surge of new construction, high insurance costs, and rising home prices as the reasons markets on the West Coast of Florida are rapidly cooling.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Charlotte County Commissioners voted to restart the bid process for the Burnt Store Water Reclamation facility expansion project after costs exceeded expectations.
The project would expand the facility’s output from .5 MGD to 2.5 MGD. The bid that was before commissioners was submitted by the Poole & Kent Company for $178,922,100, which commissioner Ken Doherty would total the cost of the project to over $200 million.
“It's showing a total of about $210 million, well good grief the engineer’s estimate in the original budget was a little over I believe $89 million,” said Doherty.
Commissioners heard a presentation about utility rate increases and the impact rate hikes and an increased connection fee would have to pay for the expansion project, among others.
Downtown Sarasota businesses bore the brunt of Tuesday’s downpour, which saw 5-10 inches of rain flood the streets.
Restaurants on St. Armands Circle and Siesta Key sustained some of the worst flooding. Siesta Key restaurants The Cottage and The Hub Baja Grill have announced they were closed on Wednesday.
The inclement weather left restaurants like Mattison’s City Grill at 1 Lemon Ave. deserted. Darryl Dillon, the restaurant’s general manager, said water crept into the outdoor patio for the first time in a storm that wasn’t a hurricane.
“Nobody was out,” Dillon said. “I stepped out of my car into a foot-and-a-half of water.”
Flooding causes downtown Sarasota restaurant to think more about hurricane season
Restaurateurs in downtown Sarasota herald outdoor seating as a highlight of their businesses, with bayfront views and mostly pleasant weather adding an extra dimension to the dining experience. But when the rain and the wind hit, that option disappears.
Matt Hess, one of the owners of El Melvin Cocina Mexicana at 1355 Main St., said the outdoor option is a vital piece of the restaurant’s puzzle — which also includes live music and open accordion doors.
“It’s huge,” Hess said. “We want to make sure that that invites people to walk in.”
New College of Florida is moving to renew its contracts with local hotels and build temporary portable housing units as it continues to face a housing crisis on campus from the closure of dorms and an influx of student-athletes driving record enrollment.
In a unanimous vote of the Finance and Administration Standing Committee on Wednesday, New College authorized President Richard Corcoran to negotiate a new contract with Home2Suites, a hotel less than a mile north of campus, to renew its use of more than 100 rooms to house students for the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 semesters. The committee also approved funding three portable modular housing units that would house 132 single beds near the Dort and Goldstein dorm buildings.
The contract with Home2Suites is expected to total about $3.88 million, while the three portable housing units would cost New College $3 million, according to the board agenda.
The need for additional beds for students comes as the college finds itself in an "oversubscribed" situation, according to the board agenda. New College faces a housing crisis on campus as it shut down Pei Dorm buildings due to mold concerns, and has seen record enrollment because of its launch of an athletics department.
Our roster of June events in Sarasota and Manatee counties heats up this Father's Day weekend with a variety of indoor and outdoor activities for the entire family, as well as some just for adults.
For those seeking air-conditioned activities, we have the annual Summer Circus Spectacular at The Ringling as well as the return of ReptiCon in Sarasota.
The latest edition of the weekly Summer Movie Nights at CoolToday Park in North Port features an action film that Dad should appreciate, especially when paired with a ballpark beer and hot dog. Additionally, there's the Dad's Day Block Party at The Mall at UTC in Sarasota.
While Juneteenth isn't until Wednesday, we have the free Juneteenth Arts Festival also occurring on Father's Day. Continue reading for more information on all of these events.
Please contact the venue or organizer before attending any events due to the heavy rainfall expected. As of Wednesday, it was forecasted "to continue across portions of the Florida peninsula during the next few days," according to the National Hurricane Center.
Additionally, all events for Big Gay Weekend have already been postponed.
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