Follow-up: Keeping Payne Park Skate Park Open

photo source Found this article from the Pelican Press on Dan Giguere, who we mentioned in the last post, and the future of the Payne Park Skate Park. We at Laurel Park Management think that Payne Park as a whole and the Skate Park in particular have been...

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Escape to Margaritaville Without Leaving SRQ

There are just those days when all you want to do is have a drink with some friends, eat some fresh fish, and watch the sun sink into the ocean while a steel drum band taps out a friendly rhythm. Thankfully, you don’t need to go to Kokomo or even Key West to get away from it all. Nestled on the southern edge of Island Park just a stone’s throw from Marina Jack, O’Leary’s Bar & Grille is Sarasota’s local tiki-hut ticket to paradise, a favorite haunt of residents and visitors alike.

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Sarasota’s Evolving Downtown North: A Follow-Up

On the heels of last week’s post about Gillespie Park, we’d like to share an article on the area from SRQ Magazine. Downtown Sarasota—including Main Street, Laurel Park, Gillespie Park, the Rosemary District, and all the surrounding neighborhoods—has been in flux for decades. After it boomed it busted, and just twenty years ago it seemed our deserted downtown core might be down for the count. But a number of determined locals refused to let it die, and downtown Sarasota today is a beautiful (and increasingly bustling) place to live, work, and play.

We at LPM understand that change of any sort is never easy, and that all too often changes in neighborhoods (particularly when made by developers) pave the way for gentrification and price out the very people who remained committed to those neighborhoods through the tough times. Change of this sort can line the pockets of a few, but it rarely makes a neighborhood a truly better place.

That said, change is inevitable, everywhere and always, and can be a tremendously positive thing. After all, it wasn’t long ago that our charming Historic Laurel Park neighborhood was less than savory. Gillespie Park and the Rosemary District are vital downtown neighborhoods with their own distinct mix of characteristics and their own distinct futures. Just imagine what they can be—not as imitations of Laurel Park, but as the best and most fully realized versions of themselves!

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Discovery Days Preschool is Accepting Applications!

If you live in Sarasota and have preschool age children, you might want to look into Discovery Days Preschool. Admittedly, we at Laurel Park Management are biased—Discovery Days is owned and run by LPM owner and operator Devin Rutkowski’s wife, Marian—but Discovery Days really does offer a little piece of heaven for the little ones (and more than a little peace of mind for the big ones). If you don’t believe us, go check it out for yourself!

Located in downtown Sarasota’s historic Laurel Park neighborhood at 1773 Morrill Street, Discovery Days Preschool offers a quality education in a safe and nurturing environment. Established in 1992, Discovery Days is set in a small, private, 1930s school house. Discovery Days is nationally accredited, and offers limited class sizes led by skilled and caring teachers.

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Is Adaptability More Important Than Art in Architecture?

There are all sorts of debates about architecture. Should houses in a neighborhood all look similar to give the area a sense of cohesion? Is a diversity of styles more desirable? Is the architecture of the past best? Should architecture be more concerned with the future instead? Is architecture about art? Functionality? A building’s relationship to its surrounding environment? Its climate? All of the above?

Sarasota residents love to engage in hearty debates about our fair town/city, and issues surrounding architecture and development are always hot button. Our own neighborhood, Laurel Park, has seen sweeping changes over the past several decades, and is constantly working to find the right balance of development and preservation, of urbanism and village life, of past and future.

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What Gloom and Doom?

The Bradenton-Sarasota housing market showed no ill effects from the expiration of federal homebuyer tax credits, with sales of previously occupied homes hitting their highest point since the building boom, according to figures released Thursday.

A total of 1,068 existing single-family homes changed hands in June, the most since August 2005, the Florida Realtors trade association said. It also was the fourth consecutive month of 1,000-plus sales, something that also hasn’t happened in five years.

“That’s just absolutely phenomenal,” said Cindy Greco, the Manatee Association of Realtors’ president and an agent with Wagner Realty.

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Featured Property: Silva Court Cottages

Some years ago, undocumented in the annals of history, five small wood frame Old-Florida cottages were moved adjacent to the Silva Court Studios apartment buildings. Altogether they provide four studio apartments, two 1BR/1BA cottages, and a 2BR/1BA bungalow, all lovingly restored.

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