Interesting article in the Urbanophile about suburbs transitioning into cities.
Congratulations to Ty Warner AICP
Ty has accepted a position as the first Executive Director of the newly formed Flint Hills Regional Council in the vicinity of Manhattan, Kansas, home of Kansas State University and Fort Riley Army Base, about two hours west of Kansas City.
Ty did a great job for the Chicago Metro area and for Will County. Good luck to Ty and his family as they open a new chapter in their lives.
Sarasota EDC Business Climate Survey
Not the greatest news from the Sarasota EDC Business Climate Survey. But I admire their courage in publishing the results.EDC shares results of Business Climate Survey in Sarasota County
A survey of business owners/managers in Sarasota County showed that dissatisfaction with the overall business climate is at an all-time high, growing to 84% in 2010 from 76% in 2008. The EDC commissioned the survey and presented the results today to the Sarasota County Board of County Commissioners.
"Businesses are continuing to struggle with the condition of the economy and finding more work," Baylis said. "There is some indication that we may have seen the worst, however, as fewer respondents thought the overall business climate was worse than two years ago. The change is small, but the trend is moving in the right direction." The top five business climate issues identified in the 2010 survey were:
. Affordability/cost of living (e.g. housing)
. Direct costs (e.g. cost of labor, energy costs and renting space)
. Taxes (e.g. income and property taxes)
. Workforce (e.g. availability and quality)
. Financing/insurance availability (e.g. commercial property insurance)
More (and better) news about Sarasota on the EDC Web Site
Shared Cars and Smart Phones
Interesting Article in the New Urban News about Shared Cars and Smart Phones.
My daughter uses a shared car program. She lives in near north Chicago. This program works very well in high density urban areas, and saves money, time, and the environment.
More Info:
Go Gators !!!
Go Gators !! My wife is a Gator from the University of Florida, so she welcomes a fellow Gator to our Neighborhood in Sarasota.
Go Gators !!
US near the Top of GDP Per Capita
An article in Wikapedia includes three lists of countries of the world sorted by their gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita, the value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year divided by the average (or mid-year) population for the same year.
The United States is near the top in all three tables. All of the countries ahead of the US are either city states like Lichtenstein and Luxembourg, or oil rich countries.
So the rumors of our demise are greatly exaggerated. We do have to get our Federal budget closer to balanced, however.
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