Historic Homes Tour

Borders Enters POD Market

Borders announced on Valentine's Day that it is now entering the "publish it yourself" independent publishing market with their new BORDERS PERSONAL PUBLISHING imprint. They will be working with Lulu and will also offer editorial support, book design, printing, e-commerce, and other features, for a fee, either bundled or ala carte.

One of the most attractive features of this program is this. Borders Personal Publishing books can also become eligible to be carried by Borders both online and ON THE SHELVES of hundreds of Borders stores. A recent press release stated, "By using the strength of its worldwide chain of bookstores, Borders is offering writers the potential of getting their work featured on the shelves of real bookstores -- a very attractive feature, compared to services that only make books available to order online. Basic prices start at $299 to $499."

For details, go to http://publish.bordersstores.com/?u-pub.

Heinrich’s German Grill

My wife and I stopped at Heinrich’s German Grill on Friday night. Apparently this place has been hiding right under my nose for close to a year now. My sister had mentioned it to me, and happened to be there with some of her friends as well. The interior is much larger and better lit than it looks from outside. The owner’s/chef’s are right behind the bar cooking up some wonderful home cooked German cuisine. They even hand out some peaches or cream puffs to my sister’s ~4 yr old daughter when she sits at the bar. I had Heinrich’s Superior Schnitzel and my wife had Potato Pancakes covered in goulash. My schnitzel came out wonderful, lightly fried with two eggs, green beans and bacon on top. A number of dishes come with bacon on top so I’ll be back to try those as well. I think my wife did better than me though as the potato pancakes were just unbelievably good. They have five or six good German beers on tap and I didn’t ask if they had anything else. I’m thrilled to find a nice German place in town. Now I can vary my nice bar meals between Heinrich’s and Shakespeare’s.

Be sure to check them out

Heinrich’s German Grill
8420 Lockwood Ridge Road
Sarasota, FL
941 355-5453.

ARTICLE RE PROS AND CONS-AMAZON SHORTS

Author J.A. Konrath (http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/) has an article over at http://writersdigest.com/articles/konrath_amazonshorts.asp
those of you with books for sale on Amazon might be interested in. Check it out!

Madeline Mora-Summonte
www.MadelineMora-Summonte.com

FOLLOW-UP MEETING SCHEDULED

City of Sarasota residents and business owners are invited to attend a follow-up meeting to discuss the “New Day in Newtown” initiative. The meeting will be held Sat., February 23, 2008 9am – noon at Booker Middle School cafeteria, 2250 Myrtle Street. Light refreshments will be served.

CITY AND REDS HOST KIDS CLINIC

The City of Sarasota is pleased to announce the 11th annual Kids and Coaches Sports Clinic will be held Sat., February 23, 2008 1:30pm – 3pm at Ed Smith Stadium, 2700 12th Street. Children ages 6 through 18 are invited to attend and receive major league instruction from Cincinnati Reds players and coaches. The clinic is free.

Tracking Inventories

  Take a look at these charts showing of the number of Sarasota homes and condos for sale, pending and closed. I ran them from May of 2004 to January 2008. This gives you a pretty good perspective of what is happening in the Sarasota, Flo...

From the February Issue of CONA

Why neighborhoods need better community planning in Sarasota County
by Ron Collins (Bee Ridge Association)

Changing the future land use or zoning on a parcel of land almost always pits David against Goliath. The landowner or option holding developer is usually deep pocketed and stands to receive a substantial gain if the change is approved. In the other corner is usually a large but loosely connected group of neighbors, each with only a small individual economic incentive to oppose the change. Modern economic theory holds that a large group of loosely connected citizens, each with small economic incentives, cannot successfully compete against an individual (or small group of) actor(s) with large economic incentives.

Even when the neighborhood group has sufficient economic resources to effectively compete with the development community, the playing field is tilted away from them. Neighborhoods groups have a difficult time finding local land use professionals that are willing to help them. Some professionals have a conflict of interest because they have recently represented or currently represent member of the development team.

Others decline because they either hope to represent the development team in the future or they do not wish to become known as antagonistic toward the development community.

Our group recently contacted over twenty transportation engineering firms located from Miami to Atlanta to help us review a transportation concurrency study before we found one that would.

Without balanced economic incentives and equal access to professional assistance, good ideas from the public cannot compete effectively against the private desires of the development community.

Planning staff spends most of their days reviewing rezoning proposals in close contact with the development community. The planners know their job is to serve the customer, who they most often see as the development team that brings the rezoning proposal to the agency. In fact, the quality of customer service delivered to development teams along with number of approved
rezones processed are often important metrics in a planner’s job performance review. So it is not surprising that the planners’ and development community’s interest tend to align over time.

Additionally, most planner contacts with the development community are with land use attorneys, transportation engineers, site planners, architects, environmental consultants, and other experts that the planners identify with as peer professionals, which further strengthen their bond.

Those experiences sharply contrast with the planners’ typical contact with the public. Dealing with inexperienced and uninformed citizens can be a burdensome distraction for the planners.

These encounters with the public tend to reinforce the alignment of the planners’ sympathies and interests with those of the development communities.

Our group recently tried to call planners’ attention to factual errors and rezoning petition deficiencies during a recent pre-hearing sufficiency review. Our attempts to present this information were rejected by several staff members who told us our efforts were simply antigrowth NIMBYism. After we presented our evidence at the Planning Commission Public Hearing, staff investigated our concerns, found them to be valid and scrambled to revise their recommendations prior to the Board of County Commissioners Public Hearing.

When the interests of government planning staff and those of the development community converge, the public suffers a great competitive disadvantage

[CONA is the Coalition of Neighborhood Associations - Sarasota County]

Two Quick Announcements

John P. Strelecky, the International Best-Selling author of The Why Café, and now a highly sought after Inspirational speaker will be the Keynote at Dahris Clair's Pasco/NPR Mini Conference at the New Port Richey library on April 6th. Through John's writings and subsequent appearances on television and radio, he has positively impacted the lives of millions of people.
In addition to being translated into seventeen languages and sold in over forty countries on all seven continents, John’s inspirational book has been distributed to employees of numerous companies including IBM, American Express, Boeing, American General Finance, USANA Health Sciences, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, and others. It has also been made required course reading at universities around the country.
With a full roster of workshops and activities, this is an FWA event worth marking your calendar for. Sunday, April 6th! Contact Dahris Clair for more information as to early bird fees and special rates for FWA members. dclair@verizon.net

Also, congratulations to our own Michael Durr on the publication of his new book "Your Brain, Your Future" This is an excellent exploration into the 'realm' of the power of critical thinking. Available on Amazon.com and Bbotw.com in addition to local bookstores.

CITY SEEKS INPUT FOR NORTH SARASOTA INITIATIVE

The City of Sarasota will hold a public forum Mon., February 11, 2008 at 6pm to discuss how to implement significant and sustainable changes within north Sarasota. The forum will be held at the Booker High School cafeteria, located at 3201 N. Orange Ave. The public, especially residents and business owners within the north district, are encouraged to attend.

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