Tim Sukits

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  • Is Pete Theisen’s plan for a Sarasota elevated rail system crazy, genius, or crazy-genius?

    Feb. 20, 2009

    The major push behind City Commission candidate Pete Theisen’s campaign is his idea for a countywide elevated rail system. (I touched on it last week.) If brought to fruition, the plan would include 24 platforms spread throughout the area: all over downtown Sarasota, out to Lido Key and possibly up to Bradenton and down to Venice. He actually wants to build retail space beneath the monorail and have a fleet of golf-cart-like people movers to get residents from their homes to the train stops. This would be done to clear up traffic congestion and to create thousands of jobs. He plans to seek federal money to fund the project should he get elected on March 10.

    A number of people I talk to, including other candidates, automatically dismiss the idea as far too costly and altogether unnecessary. I’ve talked to some people who actually laugh out loud before moving on to another subject — one that they think is more realistic. But is the elevated railway really that crazy or is it just too progressive for some to envision?

    I talked to Clark Davis, the general manager of Public Works Planning for Sarasota County, to find out what he thought about the idea and its feasibility. “My initial analysis is that it wouldn’t be cost-effective,” says Davis, speaking more seriously about the plan than anyone I’ve encountered before (aside from Theisen, of course). Using statistics and the costs of other cities’ monorail systems, information he found on lightrailnow.org, Davis puts the project into perspective for Sarasota.

    According to the website, the construction of elevated railway systems costs about $120-$180 million. Per mile. Davis took the average and figured that a relatively straight monorail system spanning the 30 miles from Venice to Bradenton would cost roughly $4 billion to build. To put that into perspective, if you took all the transportation dollars that are received from local, state and federal governments for Sarasota and Manatee Counties for one year, you would be able to build roughly one mile of elevated railway. That is without spending any money to resurface roads or maintain bridges.

    Basically, Davis feels that the population of the Suncoast is simply not dense enough to merit the need for such a rail system. As good as Theisen’s intentions are, he might want to look into less pricy ways to fix our transportation problems. Maybe look into light rail. According to lightrailnow.org, it is much cheaper. “One hundred years from now, Pete is going to get on that train,” says fellow City Commission candidate Robin Harrington. “He’s a visionary. I hope he can hang around. I think he’s just a little early. It shows some creativity though, that’s for sure.”

  • How Sarasota’s dire unemployment numbers are driving our upcoming city elections

    Feb. 13, 2009
    Rick Farmer

    Perhaps to no one’s surprise, a look at Sarasota’s recent economic trends doesn’t paint a pretty picture.

    The unemployment rate for Sarasota County in December was 8.1 percent and approached 9 percent last month, higher than the current U.S. rate of 7.6 percent and Florida’s average of 8.1 percent. The shedding of government jobs has dropped the Sarasota Police Department down to 1990 levels and the Post Office plans to make major cuts soon. The Herald-Tribune has cut 40 percent of its work force in three years and countless smaller businesses have been forced to lay off workers or close altogether.

    Only two short years ago, Sarasota’s unemployment rate was 3.2 percent, and companies were having trouble finding qualified workers. Not anymore. And that issue is driving next month’s city commission elections. Nine City Commission candidates think they have solutions — we must choose two.

    Current city commissioner Ken Shelin — the only official running for reelection (the other open seat belongs to Lou Ann Palmer, who is retiring) — names economic recovery as the most important issue facing the city, and recently initiated an effort to develop a downtown improvement district. He also wants to expedite other road, water, sewer and bridge infrastructure projects that the city has planned. His favorite project on the shovel-ready list is changing the stretch of Fruitville Road from 301 to 41 into a more residential, pedestrian-friendly street with wider sidewalks and more landscaping.

    Shelin also wants to get Whitaker Gateway Park rolling. It would involve buying up some of the privately owned bayou north of Newtown and developing it as a recreational and environmental resource. “We can’t do much about the foreclosure rate or credit availability in the banks,” says Shelin, “but we can do certain things like taking vacant foreclosed property, rehabbing it, and putting it back on the market to create jobs in the construction industry and also some economic activity in the real estate market.” Shelin has seen Sarasota’s job loss firsthand. He himself had to make some cuts: A Florida state law requires cities to keep a balanced budget.

    Pete Thiesen
    Pete Theisen

    That same law could pose a problem for Pete Theisen, a retired acupuncturist who refers to himself as the “anti-growth” candidate. Theisen, 64, boasts his plans for a community-wide elevated railway. “The city might not pay for it,” he says. “This is the time of hope and change.” He plans to build the railway with federal money or develop a private partnership with the train company. He believes transportation is the city’s biggest problem, and that new public/private infrastructure would speed along economic recovery. His plan also includes a fleet of people movers to get residents from the neighborhoods to the train or bus stops. He then wants to pursue a car manufacturer, like Toyota, to build a plant east of I-75 which workers could be transported to — via the railway, of course. Theisen also wants to create 1,000 government jobs, including 100 positions for new police officers.

    If that plan isn’t forward-thinking enough for you, you might vote for Rick Farmer, the self-described “progressive” candidate. Farmer, 46, is a computer engineer who is taking a play out of the Obama campaign handbook. He is all about unity, transparency and green, sustainable jobs. He wants to post the city’s budget on the web and considers himself a fiscally conservative liberal. His goal is to shape a stronger accord between Sarasota government officials, neighborhood associations and normal citizens, as well as between the city, county and state.

    “The future of Sarasota is sustainable jobs, knowledge jobs, to make the city attractive to young people,” Farmer says. “When people graduate from Ringling, we need to make it attractive so they want to stay here. They can’t think of it as a retirement community. That was the old Sarasota; we have to look ahead.” Farmer also believes that it is very important for the commission board to hear input from the community as often as possible and thinks the controversial commission expansion question that will also be on the March 10 ballot — the provision would also create an elected mayor position — is an “assault on the city.” (Shelin is the only candidate who supports the measure.)

    Paul Caragiulo, 34, is the youngest of the five Caragiulo brothers, who co-own the restaurant that bears their name. He wants to work with city interests to develop a consensus on what the community wants, holistically, moving forward into the future. He believes people focus on minute details too often instead of looking at the big picture. “I have a young family,” says the “young professional” candidate, “I’m here not to retire but to earn a living and to hopefully live in a very culturally vibrant society, and I think that people like me are underrepresented.”

    Caragiulo believes that government has the power to augment economic recovery, but often impedes it instead. “I can’t believe the trouble they gave Ringling over the expansion that they needed, I mean that’s just a no-brainer to me,” says Caragiulo. “I think with the academia there is an opportunity for jobs. Go to Ringling and New College, these people are leaving here to work for companies like animation and things. What can be done to entice these industries to come here? We have locked ourselves into this thing where we are so reliant on hospitality, which is great, but that is reliant on something else — you have to have disposable income for these businesses to survive.”

    On the other side of the spectrum is the “years-of-experience” candidate Terry Turner. Although never a public official, 68-year-old Turner has been a senior executive in a number of private companies ranging from a small software development company to Fortune 500 companies. He has also served on numerous corporate and community boards. He spent a number of years teaching financial economics at Berkley before moving to Sarasota in 1997.

    Turner believes the city is facing serious problems and the commission needs serious leadership. “I think we need to look beyond the budget and think about what the economy should look like after we get through this crisis,” says Turner. “We need to focus more on sustainable economic activity in what have traditionally been our core strengths: tourism, eco-tourism, health services and the visual and performing arts. Most of the job stimulus is going to have to come out of Washington, but we can do things here like focusing more on hiring locally and contracting locally. We need to be more vigilant about making sure that the terms of contracts are enforced and contractors are hiring locally. We need to develop the mindset that we need to help our citizens.”

    Job creation is complicated, politically contentious and absolutely necessary. No matter which of the candidates we end up electing to the City Commission, they better figure out how to create a lot of work. And do it quickly.

    We’ll have more on the March 10 City Commission elections — and the four candidates we haven’t had the chance to talk to yet — over the coming weeks, right here on The 941.

  • Concert Review: Budapest Festival Orchestra blows people’s minds

    Feb. 6, 2009

    After seeing shows from backstage and the lighting booth, I finally got a chance to catch a performance at the Van Wezel from the actual seats. The venue is a truly unique hall that kind of made me feel like I was in the inside of a sea shell. The celebration of pastels is purely Florida yet strangely neutral. It’s no wonder so many types of shows fit well in the hall.

    The performance I had the pleasure of attending was the Budapest Festival Orchestra, and i will have to guess that they effectively blew people’s minds. Conductor Ivan Fischer was a charming host and preceded each piece with background stories about Hungarian folk music and how it has evolved. The audience seemed to encompass a huge Hungarian population and most of the talk I could hear before the show involved words absent from my vocabulary. Fischer’s accent rounded the vibe out with a wholly Eastern European feel.

    The orchestra played a number of powerful pieces from Brahms and Liszt, but the highlight of the night was the father and son violin duo of József Lendvay Sr. and Jr. It was incredible to really hear the differences between the old traditional folk style of father and the new classically-trained style of son. The pair rarely play together, so it made for an intimate family gathering that the audience felt a part of. It was made all the more astounding at the end of József Lendvay Junior’s solo when he broke out with a string of jaw-dropping virtuosic runs – the kind only seen in the world’s most accomplished musicians. All together, the evening made for a very enjoyable mix of traditional European flavors, calming melodies and world-class talent.

  • Obama Wants Americans to Serve Their Communities, So I Suited Up and Spent a Morning Hammering Down Shingles

    Jan. 9, 2009

    I ascend a ladder and step onto a roof covered with black paper still wet with morning dew. Kneeling, hammer in hand, and with a pouch full of roofing nails slung around my waist, I nail down shingles flush with the roof edge.

    This morning, the Habitat for Humanity crew is split up into pairs, one person tacking on a shingle and the next following up to nail it off. My partner and I polish off a row, and I move on to find a new helper: 86-year-old Bill Weiss. When was the last time I worked side-by-side with a man 60 years my senior? Never, I realize.

    It’s the kind of encounter that only community service can bring.

    Habitat for Humanity is just one of many service organizations dedicated to helping out the less fortunate. And many of these organizations should be getting a boost in volunteer numbers very soon. Next week, in fact.

    In 1994, Congress transformed the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday — which falls next Monday — into a national day of community service. The incoming Obama Administration has created a nonprofit that will work to help aspiring volunteers organize service projects on a scale never before seen, and they’re launching it on the very eve of Obama’s inauguration.

    If you’re wondering how you can dig right in and help, there are a number of websites that highlight different service needs and ways to get involved. USAService.org is a new website established by the Obama Administration that allows users to post their service events online or find existing ones in their neighborhood. It’s kind of like MySpace, but with fewer photos of last night’s raging kegger, and more information about community organizing.

    Charityguide.org, meanwhile, is on a mission to inspire flexible service — they call the approach “volunteering on demand.” The site provides a list of service opportunities categorized into the time commitments they will entail. If you only have 15 minutes, you can donate your ponytail to Locks of Love or your clothes to Goodwill. If you have a few hours, you can volunteer at the Salvation Army or start a food drive. If you want to take a service vacation, you can volunteer for AmeriCorps or the Peace Corps.

    When I sat down to think about what I could contribute, I decided Habitat was the way to go. The nonprofit kicked off in Sarasota in 1986 and, since then, has built 185 new homes in Sarasota for people who otherwise could never afford them. I signed up to work in Jordan’s Crossing, a Habitat neighborhood on the corner of Fifth Street and Rhodes. Volunteers were just starting to roof the 79th and final home of the neighborhood. Coincidentally, the owner of the house I find myself crawling all over is the sister of the owner of the first house ever built in Jordan’s Crossing, back in 2002.

    The house is dubbed “Cinderella’s Castle.” The name comes from the fundraising effort that began last year, when five women pledged to find 100 women to each donate $1,000 to reach the 100 grand it takes to sponsor a new Habitat home. These women are known as “fairy godmothers,” and they show up at the site often and work on the house when they can.

    But Habitat isn’t just a charity. Potential homeowners have to earn it. The down payment is set at $1,600; buyers can organize a payment plan if they don’t have the money upfront. After the purchase, they take over the mortgage, with monthly payments comparable to nearby rentals. Owners have to put in 300-500 hours of sweat equity, which means people often help build the house that will shelter their very own families. If the owners are more apt to hammer their thumb than the nail, they can find a number of different ways to help out in the Habitat office or outlet store.

    Volunteers can serve in these ways too. The office always needs help with paperwork; people can bring snacks to workers during breaks; and, besides donating money, you can donate furniture and other household and home improvement items. Kids under 16 have to be part of a group to get involved, but many church groups, Boy and Girl Scout troops, and school organizations volunteer to help paint and landscape the houses. From October to April, a group from Fun and Sun brings home-baked goodies on Thursdays for the volunteers. Lucky me. I happen to have signed up for a Thursday shift.

    Grimy after a couple hours of labor, I trudge down from the roof for the 9:30 snack break. Before heading back to work, Manager of Volunteer Operations Janet Pederson points out one of the homeowners helping for the day and asks him to say a blessing. The man explains that he’s just arrived in the United States from Cuba; before he left, the Cuban government took all of his possessions, down to the forks and knives in his kitchen drawers. He thanks the 40-or-so assembled volunteers and tells them that, thanks to their kindness and hard work, he now has more than he ever could have imagined in Cuba. “This is my country now,” he says in broken English, “and I love this country because we are truly free people.”

    The man has quite a story to tell. But, when you spend time on a Habitat project, you hear amazing tales like it every day, and that’s why I’ll be coming back. We would all do well to answer the Obama Administration’s call to service, not only next Monday, but for a lifetime.

  • Top 11 Stories I Want to Write in 2009: Job Watch

    Dec. 31, 2008

    11. Job Watch
    I believe the most important story to cover in our current economic situation is the job market. With numerous huge construction projects — such as The Proscenium and Benderson’s hotel on Main and Orange — possibly in the pipe for Sarasota, the city needs to make sure these jobs are going to Sarasota residents who are having trouble finding work. I plan to talk with the people involved in hiring for these projects to make sure these new jobs pump money back into our community.

  • Top 11 Stories I Want to Write in 2009: Dude, where’s my apartment?

    Dec. 30, 2008

    10. Dude, Where’s My Apartment?
    My first apartment in the Sarasota area may not be standing for too much longer. Doubt circles The Proscenium project right now, but somehow these big ideas usually come to fruition sooner or later. If it does, my beloved apartment will lie right in the building’s merciless path of destruction. I plan to keep the public updated on what will happen to my place as the project develops.