Sustainable Sarasota: Sell a Car, Buy a Bike (part one)
{image source} Anyone who's read this blog from its inception knows that we at Laurel Park Management are big supporters of bicycles and the folks who ride them. To clear up a quick issue of nomenclature, I tend to use cycling when I mean higher speeds, longer...
Last chance to see Animals Out of Paper
{image source} Tomorrow at 2pm the Banyan Theater Company will host the final Sarasota show of Animals Out of Paper, the award-winning play by Rajiv Joseph. Here's the description from This Week in Sarasota: Using the Japanese art of origami as a metaphor, Animals Out...
Sustainable Sarasota: Is Old the New Young?
{image source} NEW YORK (AP) — America's cities are beginning to grapple with a fact of life: People are getting old, fast, and they're doing it in communities designed for the sprightly. To envision how this silver tsunami will challenge a youth-oriented society,...
Do We Need a Moral Operating System?
[ted id=1162] Following up on the last post, the one about cities adopting a set of guiding principles, we'd also like to share this video from TEDtalks by Damon Horowitz. The entire talk is just over 15 minutes, and is well worth watching. Horowitz, a Silicon Valley...
Should Cities Have Guiding Principles?
{image source} A friend sent me a link the other day to an article about the Dutch city Almere, a new city built on reclaimed land near Amsterdam. I'd read about Almere—a fascinating place from an urban planning and development point of view—before, but now I...
“Very Walkable” Laurel Park receives an 85 from Walk Score
{image source} Walkscore.com, the top online evaluator of a neighborhood's walkability, has given Laurel Park a rating of 85 out of 100, good for 3rd place (mere percentage points behind downtown and the Rosemary District) among Sarasota's 31 ranked...
Hawkins Court: A Diamond in the Rough
Some places just feel right. The buildings, the street, the proportions, the trees, the aesthetics, the uses—in some places they all converge to create little nuggets of urban perfection. Certain medieval Italian vias and French boulevards come to mind, but so do many...
Sustainable Sarasota: Going Green by Going Back to Basics
{image source} We at Laurel Park Management aren't out to save the world. We know that task is a little tall for a rental management company. Like most of you, we're trying to do our jobs well and support our families. But that doesn't mean we can't be conscious of...
Study: All American Problems Could Be Solved By Just Stopping And Thinking For Two Seconds
CHAPEL HILL, NC—A study published Thursday by psychologists at the University of North Carolina concluded that all American problems—from stuck jacket zippers to the national debt—could be solved if citizens just stopped, took a deep breath, and thought for two...
Memorial Day in Sarasota
{image source} It always feels a little strange to say Happy Memorial Day, since it is, after all, a day of remembrance of those who gave their lives. But even with such somber undertones it is certainly a day of celebration. Whatever your politics, the men and women...
What to do in SRQ
{image source} You mean, besides the Arts & Crafts fest downtown, the triathlon on Siesta Key, or just good old-fashioned beachgoing? 🙂 Well, yes. We thought we'd let you know about two great offerings on tap in and around Sarasota over the next couple days—one...