I don’t know if this is a good logo for Sarasota or not but it’s all I could find today. My brother, Mark, lives in Birmingham, AL and emailed me yesterday to point out that Sarasota is a “mean city.” So I did some checking and you can read a story about it here. Basically some homeless advocacy group claims that the city’s anti-lodging ordinance makes it the meanest city in the country.
What I’m very impressed with is the fact that the Sarasota City Manager, Michael McNees, is blogging and has already written about it. You can see his post here. Responding to the story he writes:
We tried to engage this agency in a conversation over the actual state of the issue here in Sarasota, but they did not respond to me at all. If they want to label us “Most Persistent City in America in Adopting a Practical as Well as Constitutional Ordinance to Protect Private and Public Property from Destructive Trespass” then I’d say we’d gladly be #1. But Meanest City? Please.
I would say that it is hard for any of us who have secure roofs over our heads, optimal mental health, and regular employment to understand the extent of what is meant by this article. Moreover, we have at least one classmate among us who has been homeless in Sarasota for a number of years and who heads up one of the “homeless camps” in town. If this person (whose name I will not mention here out of respect for his privacy) were willing and able to talk to us and give us some insight into his situation – that is, what has happened to him over the last 30 years that has led to his being a permanent fixture among Sarasota’s homeless – perhaps we would be better able to make judgements about whether or not the city deserves the title.
Comment by Nancy Tatom — January 16, 2006 @ 12:02 pm
I’ve received a couple of emails notifying me of the same thing. I think it’s an interesting story and I don’t have all the facts.
I don’t think you can judge a city and the people who live there though by one thing like this.
I’m looking forward to a return visit this year!
Comment by Chuck — January 16, 2006 @ 8:50 pm
I agree with you, Chuck. An entire city with its citizens and various residents cannot be judged by such a designation.
Comment by Nancy Tatom — January 17, 2006 @ 6:10 am
A Sarasota police officer made a great point in his letter to the editor of the Sarasota Herald Tribune, though. He stated that the reason we have transients coming here is due to al the free services they receive. These include meals, dental care, haircuts, job placements, rides to those jobs, free medical care, bicycles, and flu shots. It is when they sleep out in the open, and use the nearest non-moving object on which to conduct their bathroom business(and by this I don’t mean brushing ones teeth), that the City is taking measures to correct the situation. The people who do live or who are tourists here should feel able to sit on a park bench to watch the beauty of a sunset without finding a person sleeping on a bench. Sad for our former classmate, but there is also a reason the City takes measures. Look at the men in Ft Lauderdale (homeless men) who were killed recently. Sarasota doesn’t want that happening here, so I suppose we are protecting as well as rousting the homeless.
Comment by Pati Beardsley (Gudemann) — January 18, 2006 @ 4:44 am