Business Owner: Murals Make 'Burns Square Look Like The Ghetto'

Burns Square business owners are meeting with Sarasota City Manager Tom Barwin tonight to discuss their complaints about the Sarasota Chalk Festival.

Updated Nov. 30 10:55 a.m. Another year another mural controvery in Sarasota. Burns Square business owners will meet with Sarasota's city manager tonight to vent about the Sarasota Chalk Festival. A select group of business owners have a meeting scheduled with City Manager Tom Barwin at 5:15 p.m. in City Hall to discuss their complaints about the popular festival — creating a second year of complaints about the murals. L. Boutique owner LeeAnne Swor had some strong words about the appearance of the historic neighborhood's new murals in an email to Burns Square residents copied to the City Commission.  "The neighborhood looks terrible and it is our prime season The holidays are here…and Burns Square looks like the ghetto," Swor wrote."I …

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Roundabout headaches finally over for Sarasota businesses

After six months of barricades, roadblocks, and construction, the intersection of Ringling Blvd. and Pineapple Ave. in downtown Sarasota is open for business.

Burns Square Parking Lot Now Open

Burns Square parking lot is open again and Sarasota city has added more on-street parking spaces on Ringling Boulevard near Palm and Pineapple avenues.

A Michael Saunders parking lot once closed due to disrepair is now open for the public's use again in Burns Square. The City of Sarasota is offering free parking for the next six months in the surface lot at Laurel Street and Orange Avenue adjacent to the Burns Square Business District area. There is no hourly limit, but overnight parking is not allowed. Residents have wondered about the lot recently, as a chain blocked cars from entering. Michael Saunders wanted to sell and improve the lot, but instead the city decided to re-lease the lot and improve it to help get the business district through the Ringling roundabout construction. The intersections of Ringling Boulevard/Palm Avenue and Ringling Boulevard/ Pineapple Avenue are being …

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Burns Square Parking Lot To Re-Open For Free

Sarasota City Commission voted Friday to lease a parking lot from Michael Saunders and improve the lot to give relief to Burns Square area. The lot will be a free lot.

Sarasota will soon have a free parking lot available again in Burns Square. The city commission voted 5-0 Friday to enter in a six-month lease with Michael Saunders for its parking lot between Orange Avenue and Laurel Street in Burns Square to provide parking options while the Ringling and Palm Avenue roundabouts are being built. Business owners have said the construction prevents customers from easily getting to their shops and they have seen a drop in sales, WTSP reported. Saunders will be paid $6,000, or $1,000 a month, for the lot. That bundled with improvements to the lot will cost about $15,000, said Deputy City Manager Marlon Brown. The money will come out of the Tax Increment Financing Downtown Redevelopment account. Staff had …

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Burns Square Parking Lot Could Re-Open

Sarasota City Commission will consider leasing a Michael Saunders-owned lot on Laurel Street for six months to provide parking to the Burns Square area.

Sarasota City Commissioners will consider a proposal Friday to upgrade a parking lot on Laurel Street and lease it for six months to provide relief to the Burns Square area during construction of two roundabouts. The lot in question is owned by Michael Saunders Company and has been closed because deterioration. The lot and is for sale, as Patch reported in December. The proposal in front of the commissioners Friday would: •  lease the Laurel Street Parking Lot from Saunders Family Limited Partnership LLC for six months • have the city repair, resurface and re-stripe the lot and maintain it for six months at a cost of no more than $10,000; • install temporary pay stations to offset the cost of the $18,000 parking lot lease. The money would …

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Sarasota and the Arts

3-D Chalk Artist Kurt Wenner Comes to Sarasota

The 'father' of Pavement Art will give a series of lectures and demonstrations during the upcoming Sarasota Chalk Festival

The 4th Annual Sarasota Chalk Festival will begin Nov. 1 and continue through Nov. 7 in historic Burns Square. The theme this year is ‘Pavement Art Through the Ages’ and the world-famous guest artist Kurt Wenner, the ‘father’ of 3-D street art, will be on hand to create art as well as offer seven public lectures. Wenner is credited with being the innovator of 3-D pavement art, also known as chalk art, street painting, and 3-D sidewalk art. In 1982, while studying classical architecture and perspective, Wenner combined geometry with drawing and classical design principles and started creating 3-D art on the streets. Shortly thereafter, 3-D street painting became popular and today artists emulate Wenner’s 3-D works world-wide. The following …

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