After years of working as a consultant lobbying elected officials, Alexandra Coe says she got the bug to run herself. After an unsuccessful attempt to run for Sarasota County Commission without party affiliation, she’s now eyeing a special election to represent state House District 72. This time she’s running as a Republican, but still hoping to buck the system. “I’m not interested in politics to become a career politician,” she says. “I do have this make-the-world-a-better-place disease I can’t seem to shake.”

A trained anthropologist and sustainability consultant, Coe has worked with the United Nations on crisis programs around the world, and also been involved in local education efforts about the agricultural economy. Should she be elected to the Florida Legislature, she hopes that expertise will help the state deal with environmental issues. “I understand what is and isn’t climate change and global warming,” she says. “Florida’s environment is our economy. It supports tourism and the second economic engine that we have: agriculture. We need people in Tallahassee who understand the science behind environmental policy.”

She also expects issues like health care to become critical as new directives come from Washington, D.C. to the state capital, and wants to champion women’s issues from a seat in the House.

Long involved in Libertarian politics, Coe says she left third-party politics in part because of disenchantment around the 2016 election cycle. She had been among attendees at the Libertarian National Convention last year, when presidential candidate Gary Johnson emerged on second ballot.

Coe says she’s had an eye on this legislative seat for sometime, really since former Rep. Ray Pilon announced he would not run for re-election in 2016. But she stayed out of that contest, fresh off her county-wide run in 2014, and Alex Miller ended up winning the seat last November. But Miller resigned the seat earlier this year; Coe heard about the impending special election while traveling in Europe and decided to file for the seat after she returned home. While she did not qualify by petition, Coe says she’s raising money this week to pay the qualification fee. Candidates must qualify by noon Friday.

Coe right now faces Republican James Buchanan in a Dec. 5 Republican primary. Democrats Margaret Rowell Good and Ruta Jouniari have also filed, as has Libertarian Alison Foxall. The special election is set for Feb. 13. 

Sarasota’s most dedicated policy wonks gathered last night at The Francis in Downtown Sarasota to hear “A Comprehensive Review of Mobility, Transportation, and Local Congestion.” It says a lot about our community that more than fifty interested community members, as well as current and past city commissioners, were eager to spend their evening learning the nitty-gritty of such arcane subjects.

The program was the first in a series of six called Grid Un-Locked, organized by the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce and supported by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, Tablesiede Restaurant Group, and SRQ Media. The guest speaker, Demian Miller, a principal with transport and community planning firm Tindale Oliver, held forth for nearly 50 minutes on a wide range of related topics. It was the first installment of what Sarasota Chamber President Kevin Cooper described as a “six class course” designed to turn community members into experts.

Miller warned the audience that it was going to be detail heavy. He covered the ranking system for the average travel speeds of throughways--designated “A” through “F”--which can be a bit misleading as it does not reflect the same pass/fail judgment as school grades. Participants learned details about the pneumatic hoses that they drive over on occasion in the road and how data gathered from them is used to evaluate traffic patterns, including the particular information of how high a spike is expected during “rush hour” traffic for a given street. Miller shared the interesting tidbit that traffic intensity is judged based on the 100th highest hour from any given year. This 100th hour system caused some concern in the audience as questioners wondered if a seasonal community such as Sarasota might be incorrectly evaluated by the method.

Perhaps most surprising was the fact that the amount of traffic on the roads in the Sarasota area has increased far less than you might think. Traffic is driven in large part by both population growth and the economy. Nationwide traffic per capita has been depressed for the past decade and has only recently seen a fast increase as the economy has rebounded.

The population of the City of Sarasota over the past twenty-five years has grown less than 1% percent a year, while the population of Sarasota County has grown less than 2% per a year over the same period. Florida has grown at nearly twice that rate with some counties averaging as high as 5.5% per year. The growth of the city population, even over such a long window of time, has been relatively incremental. The faster-growing surrounding county has increased by about 30%.

“The point I make, and it is something that most of you probably know intuitively," says Miller, "the changes in traffic around the city, particularly when you get up around the interstate, are probably more about what’s happening with the government in the unincorporated part of the county or other cities in the county than what’s happening within [the city of ] Sarasota. You’ve got what you can control and that should be your main priority, and you’ve got what influences you and that should be your number two priority.”

Another unexpected piece of information is that fully half of all traffic slowdowns and delays are the results of car accidents and the post-accident period of traffic disruption. The single best thing that city drivers could do to keep everyone moving smoothly is to not hit each other. Easier said than done, but it is an area that traffic planners take seriously as they explore ways to improve traffic safety with techniques like adjusting the timing of traffic signals, and using visual signifiers to help drivers not miss important signs and traffic markings. A tip Miller shared with attendees is that when you see a traffic signal with an unusually large yellow frame surrounding it, it is probably that way because many drivers before you have crashed their way through that intersection. Approach with caution, be safe, and keep the streets flowing smoothly.

If this deep-dive on traffic and transport has caught your interest, reserve your seat at the remaining five events in the series by visiting the Greater Sarasota Chamber’s events calendar. 

Click here for future events,

Three candidates on Monday qualified via citizen petition for an upcoming special election in state House District 72. Republican James Buchanan, Democrat Margaret Good and Libertarian Alison Foxall all collected more than the required 305 signed petitions from registered voters within the district, according to Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Ron Turner. The deadline to qualify by petition was Monday at 5pm. Two other candidates, Republican Alexandra Coe and Democrat Ruta Jouniari, have also filed for the seat. Candidates may still qualify by paying a filing fee of $1,781.82 for partisan candidates and $1,187.88 for candidates running with no party affiliation. The deadline to qualify through the fee is Friday at noon. A primary election, if necessary, is scheduled for Dec. 5, with the special election set for Feb. 13. 

Eight Williams Parker attorneys have been selected for inclusion in the 24th Edition of The Best Lawyers in America. The attorneys named to the 2018 list include Charles D. Bailey, Jr. (Land Use and Zoning), John T. Berteau (Trusts and Estates), Ric Gregoria (Trusts and Estates), Michele B. Grimes (Real Estate Law), J. Michael Hartenstine (Real Estate Law), William M. Seider (Real Estate Law), James L. Turner (Real Estate Law and Trusts and Estates) and E. John Wagner, II (Tax Law). Selection to Best Lawyers is based on a rigorous peer-review survey comprising over six million confidential evaluations by the country’s top attorneys. Because no fee or purchase is required, being listed in Best Lawyers is a singular honor. All eight Williams Parker attorneys selected have previously been named to the annual list. 

Williams Parker

Centauri Insurance, a Sarasota-based property and casualty insurance provider operating across nine states, was recently ranked #99 among the Business Observer’s 2017 Gulf Coast Top 500 companies reflecting a 28-percent growth from the previous year’s listings. The Business Observer annually ranks the top 500 companies from Polk to Collier County by their gross revenues. This year's ranking is based on 2016 gross revenues which topped $151.6 million compared with gross revenues of $118.3 million in 2015, which previously earned Centauri the #102 spot. Centauri has achieved this recognition for the past four years due to their financial strength, solid performance and continued growth in the insurance industry. To provide needed space to accommodate its consistent pattern of growth, Centauri recently completed construction of a new 30,000-square-foot facility, which now houses its corporate headquarters in Lakewood Ranch. 

Centauri Insurance

Neal Communities, southwest Florida’s premier, private homebuilder, is debuting a new two-story floor plan, the Independence, at Indigo, a gated, island-resort style community in Lakewood Ranch. At 2,104 square feet, the Independence is an open design that features three bedrooms, three-and-a-half bathrooms and a two-car garage. The layout has a gourmet kitchen, a large island and a cafe-styled dining space. A large walk-in closet along with two sinks, walk-in shower and water closet complete the master retreat. Flexible space options for the plan include an additional bonus room, extra bedroom and bath as well as an outdoor kitchen. 

Neal Communities