Sarasota Must Go Back To Paid Parking, Report Says

[kombuchaluchador]

Hot take: young people are not moving to Sarasota. A few are. But not enough to be a trend. It is still very much overwhelmingly retiree driven.

Which means that you might be right. There isn't as much of a need to live close to a city for jobs, etc. Slightly contradicting my last post.

You raise many good points, but the 18-34 population in Sarasota is still declining. Not sure why this forum seems to think otherwise.

But 2 things can be true at once. Paid parking is still going to happen. Many people go downtown for entertainment. Sarasota is touristy, etc. Parking downtown and at the beach will still become paid parking.

Sarasota is a tourist city and a retiree city. The out development is for retiree's, the urban environments are for tourists. That "elitist" "pretentious" planning is exactly what wealthy tourists from New York LOVE. So it will keep happening.

[Ladywithafan]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

Thx for the opinions thus far. I was hoping the City of Sarasota could use free parking everywhere w/in city limits as a competitive advantage to attract tourists, snow birds, diners, shoppers, businesses, ect.. from nearby communities.

I'd shift budget from "Visit Sarasota" and other sources (Bobby Jones Golf Course property, Mote Island property) to pay for these 2 recently built parking garages, and more.

I was hoping Sarasota would be better than the rest. With all the affluence, and money being spent on aforementioned, there's plenty of taxpayer cash and visitor cash to pay for parking. All the money spent by non City visitors should also supplement parking.

What about the bed taxes hotels charge? Insteady of giving that all to Visit Saraota, or Visit Florida, use some of it for parking.

When I visited Naples, visitors (snow birds) and residents there can pay for an annual beach parking pass/decal for a nominal fee. I went to an Art Fest there, and parked in the downtown 3 level garage, and it was free on weekends. I don't recall if they charged during the week, or not. I don't recall seeing any parking meters anywhere downtown Naples, and parking is at a premium there too.

I wish there was some other way to fund parking spots than meters, parking police, and issuing parking tickets..ugh! In an affluent part of Atlanta, the City outsourced all of this to a company who started booting cars for any and all violaters, then held the car ransom for a huge immediate payment. There were fist fights, and even people shot. Things got ugly.

With respect to "free parking w/in city limits as a competitive advantage;" no, not so much...meanwhile on Siesta Key, just try to park in the lot across the street from Captain Curt's & the parking lot Natzi will lunge at you.

Bed taxes from hotels does not go to Visit Sarasota or Visit Florida; it's a TAX and goes to the TAX COLLECTOR. Visit Florida and Visit Sarasota are both advertising platforms that are used by business to attract tourists. One of my Associations uses both and pay to use this source of advertising.

Naples charges for parking at the beach as does the east coast of Florida. Their meters work; not sure why no one in downtown Sarasota could get them to work right (google Saratopia episode one, " pay for parking," if you want to really get what happened when the first round of paid parking began downtown).

Would lmao to see boots on cars at the beach.

[beach43ofus]

I get confused when posters say Sarasota. I dont whether they mean the City of Sarasota, or Sarasota County.

I don't like mass transit. The concept is sound, but I have not seen it carried out affordably for taxpayers, or in a way that utilization is consistently high. California just scrapped a huge mass transit train system due to cost overruns. When I lived in the Atlanta area, I saw a lot of near empty busses and trains and MARTA lost Billions every year except during the Oympics. MARTA would be highly utilized for special events, ball games, ect.., and the train stop near the city core were busy, but as the trains left that core, and if not during a special event, they were mostly empty.

I dont know if I agree or disagree w/ kombuch due to his use of the word "Sarasota". I'd like to see posts say The City of Saraota, or Sarasota County. They are very different places w/ very different demographics.

Young people are moving to Sarasota County, but not the City. Most places South of Laurel Road all the way down to the Southern Sarasota County line (except for Old Venice, or the Venice Island) are trending younger. North Port especially. The West Villages are mostly retirees.

I predict old Venice, or the Island of Venice, Venice Beach particularly will experience a renaissance. 10 years from now, it will not be all old retirees who are 80+ anymore. It will be in the middle of a complete change. This has already begun, but its in very early phases.

[kombuchaluchador]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

I get confused when posters say Sarasota. I dont whether they mean the City of Sarasota, or Sarasota County.

I don't like mass transit. The concept is sound, but I have not seen it carried out affordably for taxpayers, or in a way that utilization is consistently high. California just scrapped a huge mass transit train system due to cost overruns. When I lived in the Atlanta area, I saw a lot of near empty busses and trains and MARTA lost Billions every year except during the Oympics. MARTA would be highly utilized for special events, ball games, ect.., and the train stop near the city core were busy, but as the trains left that core, and if not during a special event, they were mostly empty.

I dont know if I agree or disagree w/ kombuch due to his use of the word "Sarasota". I'd like to see posts say The City of Saraota, or Sarasota County. They are very different places w/ very different demographics.

Young people are moving to Sarasota County, but not the City. Most places South of Laurel Road all the way down to the Southern Sarasota County line (except for Old Venice, or the Venice Island) are trending younger. North Port especially. The West Villages are mostly retirees.

I predict old Venice, or the Island of Venice, Venice Beach particularly will experience a renaissance. 10 years from now, it will not be all old retirees who are 80+ anymore. It will be in the middle of a complete change. This has already begun, but its in very early phases.

NP's median age is 45.9 Moderator cut: link removed, competitor site


Only "young" when compared to the rest of Sarasota County. In most places in the country 45.9 is not young.

Not sure why this really matters in this discussion, anyway. As you rightly mention, among young people and older people, some want to live in more dense urban environments, and some want to live in less dense environments. Many of the top growth cities for millennials are car centric and sprawly. Jacksonville for example.

Sarasota traffic is really not terrible in the grand scheme of things though. It is just that parking is becoming more of an issue as more people decide to vacation here. Im not sure that Sarasota needs to consider mass transit, yet. The discussion is about paid parking.

Sarasota County has a variety of different living situations, which is awesome. If you want to live downtown, you need to be aware of the smaller roads, and more pedestrian friendly lifestyle. Paid parking is par the course.

[beach43ofus]

I do not believe Ladywithafan is accurate in stating this:

"Bed taxes from hotels does not go to Visit Sarasota or Visit Florida; it's a TAX and goes to the TAX COLLECTOR. Visit Florida and Visit Sarasota are both advertising platforms that are used by business to attract tourists. One of my Associations uses both and pay to use this source of advertising."

There's a 5% State of Florida component that does go to the state of Florida Tax Collector. However, there's ALSO a 7% component that goes to the Sarasota County tax collector. True, Sarasota County's 7% portion of the bed taxes do not flow directly into the Visit Sarasota's bank account, but it goes through the County's tax collector, and then the County allocates some portion of it to Visit Sarasota.

The total bed tax for stays of up to 6 months is 12% total 5% FLA + 7% SRQ.

There's a County Tourism Board that has an arm called Visit Sarasota County, and another entity called Visit Sarasota run by Virginai Haley. I'm not certain, but I've got to believe that Visit Sarasota (Virginia Haley's group) gets funding from the Sarasota County Board of Tourism.

Virgina Haley recently presented her groups annual financials in front of the Sarasota County Board of Tourism. Why would she be there presenting her groups financials unless her group was getting money from the County's 7% bed tax?

Is Visit Sarasota County and Visit Sarasota 2 different entities?

If anyone out there can shed more light on the funding sources for Visit Sarasota, please share.

[beach43ofus]

I cannot seem to get old timers around here to understand that the mailing address of Venice is trending MUCH younger than the City of Venice, or the City core of "condo-ville" where almost everyone is 80+ over along the beaches in Venice. Or, that the land mass North Port has could someday contain a city nearly the size of Jacksonville.

Head out to Eastern Venice (I call it New Venice) and you'll see families, school busses, temp classroom trailers at schools, basketball hoops in the driveways and all the signs of younger residents. Venice High School is busting out at the seams.

I can't agree with mega that the City of Sarasota is being challenged by the emerging areas in "tax base". I'm guessing the taxes generated in the City of Sarasota are much higher than the City of Bradenton, or North Port, Venice, Lakewood Ranch, the West Villages, or New Venice, because of The City of Sarasota's high aggregate property valuations & lucrative bed taxes.

The property values downtown are very high. Multi-million dollar condo's everywhere w/ 7 more buildings now under construction. The City of Sarasota's population density combined with sky high property values creates a tax generating beast. That's why I feel paid parking is a joke for the City of Sarasota to be implementing now when their tax revenues must be exploding with no end in sight.

[beach43ofus]

Originally Posted by gypsychic

Yes I agree. People just don't get it, especially those that don't live anywhere around here and haven't even visited lately. I am tired of arguing with them, it's just not worth it!

When the 2020 census results are released, the arguing will be over.

[Ladywithafan]

As the previous posts have gone "Off Topic"... here's a review re: paid parking:

The garage on St. Armands Circle is .50 per hour while on the street it's between .75 to $1.50. Not free to walk around the Circle anymore unless you know where the hidden spots are located; could be related to the tourist "browse". None of us have still figured out when there's a charge in any of the "open parking" garages as they seem to be "pop up" these days. I happened be at McCurdy's Comedy Club last night & park in a free "open garage". It took longer to get out of the garage than the time of the main comedian's monologue. The super seniors had no idea how to back out of spots; one next to me hit the bumper of the car across from his bumper & kept going. Another that parked next to the wall couldn't back out due to incoming traffic, creating a traffic hazard from departing to incoming - this was an area where a traffic circle would have come in handy.

Les McCurdy gave a nice talk on his experience moving to SRQ in the early 80's with respect to employment: back then, you either mowed lawns or had your lawn mowed, Fruitville Road had fruit trees & Sarasota was only accessible by Tamiami Trail.

Fast forward: If the area continues with the unaffordability, it will be seniors taking care of seniors as no one else will be able to afford the parking.