Pelican Press 5.1.14

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YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.

FREE • THURSDAY, MAY 1, 2014

NEWS

DIVERSIONS

The Jewel condo prepares to break ground downtown. PAGE 4A

PoetryLife strives to spark a resurgence of poetry education. INSIDE

OUR TOWN

plan c

SPORTS

Sarasota baseball sails to win in game for district title. PAGE 15A

by David Conway | News Editor

Citizens weigh paid parking As the city’s parking division develops a management plan, it involves a resident-led committee to carefully consider all options and give input to avoid missteps of the past.

Courtesy Photo

Barbara Frey, president of Alliance Française of Sarasota; Jane Passman, program chair; and Dr. Amy Reid, featured speaker

+ Des bonheurs Members of the Alliance Française of Sarasota heard from New College professor of French Dr. Amy Baram Reid at a luncheon Thursday, April 10. The luncheon was held at Ocean Blues Restaurant and Reid, who is a leading authority in Francophone literature and translation, explored the themes of Véronique Tadjo’s “Far from My Father.”

Members of the city’s Parking Advisory Committee are not eager to talk about paid parking, because the thrust of their work is focused on much more than that. Still, as the group works on the development of a citywide parking management plan, it wants one thing to be clear: It wants to avoid

the missteps of the past. “We didn’t educate well,” city Parking Manager Mark Lyons said of the failed attempts to institute paid parking. “We weren’t in the community as strongly as we could have been during that implementation.” “Whatever happened last time,

it didn’t happen in an orderly fashion,” committee Vice Chairman Tom Delong said. “You had meters all over the city in places they shouldn’t have been.” For Lyons, tasked with producing the comprehensive parking strategic plan, the Parking Advisory Committee is a tool to make sure

previous errors don’t recur. Rather than bring in a consulting firm and hold a couple of charrettes to gain public input, the advisory board is taking an active role in offering input throughout the process. The Parking Advisory Commit-

SEE PARKING / 2A

HOP TO IT

SEE OUR TOWN / 14A CAMPAIGN AGAINST SUMMER HUNGER All across Sarasota, residents and organizations have been donating to All Faiths Food Bank’s Campaign Against Summer Hunger, which ends Saturday, May 10. The Hyatt Regency Sarasota will be lit to read “fight hunger” through the end of the campaign. To donate, visit allfaithsfoodbank.org or SkipALunch.org. Drop off non-perishable food items at Goodwill locations or fire stations in Sarasota County.

GOAL: $500,000 matching challenge

$322,645

POUNDS OF FOOD COLLECTED: 113,717 GOAL: 600,000 POUNDS

10

MAY

Number of weeks remaining: 1

Harriet Sokmensuer

Cara Sheyner, Lily and Ella Brucksieker watch others hop at The Gan at Temple Sinai’s Hop-a-Thon Monday, April 28. The preschool’s annual event raises money forthe Muscular Dystrophy Association.

DOWNTOWN

by David Conway | News Editor

DID pushes to preserve historic property As the only occupant of Palm Avenue’s DeMarcay Hotel building prepares to leave, the city’s Downtown Improvement District expressed concern about the structure’s future. The Downtown Improvement District doesn’t know exactly what’s planned for a historic building on Palm Avenue, but it’s already looking into its options for preventing those plans from going forward. On March 18, the DeMarcay

Hotel building, located at 33 S. Palm Ave., was sold along with the Roth Factory Cigar Building, located at 30 Mira Mar Court. The two properties, sold for $2.75 million, combine to form 8,643 square feet of land adjacent to the high-rise building at 1350 Main St.

The building’s previous owner, Peoria, Ill.-based Palm Avenue Partners LLC, sold the building out of bankruptcy to Barrington, Ill.-based XAC Developers LLC. The property still has a site plan, approved by the city in 2006 and valid until Oct. 1, that allows for

the development of an 18-story mixed-use building with 39 residential units. If the sale of the DeMarcay Hotel and the site plan piqued the interest of the Downtown Im-

SEE HOTEL / PAGE 2A

INDEX Opinion.................8A Classifieds ........ 13B

Cops Corner....... 12A Crossword.......... 12B

Permits................ 9B Real Estate.......... 8B

Sports................ 15A Weather............. 12B

Vol. 44, No. 40 | Three sections YourObserver.com


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