SARASOTA
Observer YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
VOLUME 12, NO. 42
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Sarasota remembers 9/11 PAGE 17
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2016
A+E
‘HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?’
To podiums and peaks INSIDE
Residents are using an unpopular downtown project to push for changes to the city’s development policies. DAVID CONWAY
YOUR TOWN
Amanda Morales
Ted Mallires
Ted Mallires uses meetings to practice piano The speakers vary at the monthly Republican Women’s Club of Sarasota’s meetings, but there’s one constant: Ted Mallires playing the piano. Mallires is the husband of member Carlene Mallires. He remembers his mother telling him to take piano lessons as a child, but he preferred winds instruments. He later realized she was right and took up piano after working as a high school band director in Michigan. He attends every meeting and uses the time as practice. “It’s such an easy audience,” Mallires said. “I don’t even think they’re listening, then someone will come up and ask for me to play a song they liked again.”
DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR
W
hen construction crews assembled the skeleton of the twin 18-story buildings that comprise the Vue Sarasota Bay development along U.S. 41, Eileen Normile started hearing her neighbors ask the same question again and again. “‘How did this happen?’” Normile said. “‘How could the Vue have been approved?’ That’s all you hear.” Normile, a former city commissioner, wasn’t alone. Other residents who have taken an active role in local governmental affairs got the same treatment. Criticism of the Vue, which includes 141 condominium units and 255 hotel rooms, has been loud as the city deals with the effects of an ongoing construction boom.
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TURTLE TRACKS AS OF SEPT. 10 TOTAL NESTS: 2016 2015 Lido Beach 170 95 Siesta Key 451 389 Casey Key 2,053 987 TOTAL FALSE CRAWLS: 2016 2015 Lido Beach 178 112 Siesta Key 1,326 403 Casey Key 3,243 941 Source: Mote Marine Laboratory
David Conway
Merchants fight paid parking plan Businesses could ask a court to block the return of Main Street meters. PAGE 5