Election night produced good news for Republicans in the region and state. The GOP flipped a House district red an election cycle after suffering an embarrassing loss, defended a Congressional seat despite Democrats recruiting a seeming star, and kept the Sarasota County Commission an all Republican-board.

Sarasota and Manatee county voters both favored President Donald Trump’s reelection, helping keep the state in the President’s column even as the outcome of the national race remained unclear.

Republican Fiona McFarland beat Democrat Drake Buckman in Florida House District 72, taking 54.67% in a district Democrat Margaret Good won in a 2018 special election and defended in the mid-terms.

Meanwhile, Good’s ambitions were higher office were cut off as Rep. Vern Buchanan handily won an eighth term in the House.

“It’s very humbling and I’m very appreciative of the voters in this area,” Buchanan said. He ultimately won with 55.6% of the vote to Good’s 44.4%, expanding his margin of victory over his nearly 10-point victory over Democrat David Shapiro two years ago.

“That’s a big vote of confidence. We ran a campaign on what we have gotten done with 22 bills signed into law. All of those ideas came from the local community.”

Meanwhile, Sarasota County Commissioner Mike Moran won about 56% of the vote in his District 1 seat to secure reelection. Nancy Detert also won reelection in District 3 and Ron Cutsinger won the open race in District 5. In Manatee County, Republicans James Satcher and Kevin van Ostenbridge both won district elections as well.

One upset of the night came on the Manatee County School Board, where Mary Foreman unseated Dave “Watchdog” Miner after winning 59.2% of the vote in a runoff.

At the city level, quite a few new faces will appear at local daises.

City Commissioner Liz Alpert defended her spot on the Sarasota Commission, beating former Commissioner Terry Turner, but Commissioner Willie Shaw lost to challenger Kyle Scott Battie in District 1. In another win for Republicans, Erik Arroyo won a surprising victory in open Sarasota District 3 race over Dan Clermont in a somewhat partisanized race.

Gene Brown won the open Mayor’s race in Bradenton. Pamela Coachman won a Ward 5 seat. Shirley Groover Bryant won reelection as Palmetto Mayor and Sheldon Jones won a Commission seat there.

Brian Kelly won a seat on the Venice City Council. David Ionatti, Barbara Langdon and Debbie McDowell won spots on the North Port board. 

Photo by Max Goodman: Vern Buchanan wins an eighth term in Congress.

Last weekend's AIA Florida Gulf Coast Design Conference encompassed a straight-forward yet multi-faceted message of 'Designing With Vision' this year. As such, the elite group of architectural members recruited industry namesake Jonathan Glancey, Hon. FRIBA — acclaimed British architectural critic, journalist, author, curator, radio and television broadcaster — as this year's speaker to expound on the topic at hand. While the annual awards for the ceremony was held at The Art Ovation Hotel, Thursday, October 29, Glancey presented and spoke via Zoom from his homebase in the UK. "I would have liked to have brought myself, but because travel is difficult at the moment I pre-recorded my conference talk from a studio in a former USAF fighter base at Rendlesham not far from home in Suffolk, some eighty miles north of London," he shares. "This is where a UFO supposedly landed in 1980. It was reported by senior American and British air force officers and, unexplained, the incident is known as 'Britain’s Roswell.' So, this is as good a place as any to think about Vision, how we see our world and our place in it through architectural eyes, the theme of this year’s Sarasota Design Conference." 

SRQ: What is architecture to you, and what do you think is important for architects to recognize about their profession and trade? 

Glancey: Architecture is a marriage of art and science, technology and craft, economics and what’s possible with available resources. It’s also about landscape, place, politics and ecology. To create worthwhile and special architecture isn’t easy, so it’s important for architects to stretch themselves to think of ways we can get the very best from the profession and to convince clients and politicians to support that.  

Can you touch on how you discussed the Conference's themed thread this year 'Designing With Vision' in your virtual presentation? 

At a time when we aren’t free to travel, we can look closer to home for architectural inspiration. Although my talk toured imaginative architecture from around the world, and through the centuries, it’s really about place, how we respond to the places around us with imagination, intelligence and sensitivity. I want to think about the role grand architectural visions play in shaping architects’ work and in the great sweep of buildings around us. But, I’m very wary of architectural vision on a grand scale. If we stop to look carefully at what’s around us – the turn of a stair, the play of light and shadows in our homes, the extraordinarily rich life, structures and patterns in our gardens, on our balconies, we might learn even more that’s worthwhile for architecture than from grand plans, abstruse theories, the latest design techniques and see architecture not as something imposed from above but as complementary to the natural world and our place within it. 

What do you hope attendees took away and gained from the Conference? 

To look afresh and to question, even for a moment, their architecture, their world. 

Photo courtesy of AIA Florida Gulf Coast

Read Jonathan Glancey's full bio here.

Community members who have legal questions are invited to take advantage of free consultations with attorneys from Gulfcoast Legal Services at Goodwill. The attorneys will meet potential clients at no cost, for up to 30 minutes, to determine if they are eligible for services in the following legal areas: family, housing, immigration, elder, consumer and/or victims of crime. The consultations will take place on Thursday, November 12, 10am-3pm at the Community Connection office on the Goodwill Manasota Corporate Campus (2705 51st Ave. E., Bradenton). 

Pictured: Gulfcoast Legal Services representatives at a recent event at Senior Friendship Centers

Click here for more information.

The annual Gulf Coast Safe Streets Summit (GCSSS) is a collaborative effort between the Florida Department of Transportation and six metropolitan planning organizations: Forward Pinellas, Hernando/Citrus MPO, Hillsborough MPO, Pasco MPO, Polk TPO, and the Sarasota/Manatee MPO. In it's third year running, this year's Summit will, like many other large gatherings, be held virtually for the first time. The four days, November 16 – 19, 2020 will consist of various educational seminars and sessions ranging from public involvement techniques to bicycle and pedestrian design best practices. The GCSSS will bring together national speakers, public officials, technical staff, sister counties and community partners to elevate Sarasota/Manatee MPO's efforts on how to design and implement safe and equitable transportation facilities for all modes of transportation. Registration for the event is open until November 9.  

Register for the Gulf Coast Safe Streets Summit here.

First 1,000 Days Sarasota has launched a digital parent portal (www.first1000dayssarasota.com) for families to instantly connect with community resources and access brain-boosting activities for their babies. Families can sign up free-of-charge to ask for parenting education, healthcare, food, financial assistance, and other resources vital in laying a strong foundation for their child. Case managers on the other end act as a family’s personal concierge for support. “Raising a baby is hard even for the most well-connected families,” says Teri A Hansen, President|CEO of Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation. “This system provides an equitable platform for all babies to receive fair and just delivery of support. This is the biggest gamechanger to human services I have seen since arriving on the Gulf Coast.”

Click here for more information.

The Venice Symphony will present a series of four free virtual concerts beginning in November 2020. These 30-minute concerts will be led by Music Director/Conductor Troy Quinn and feature socially-distanced musicians. “These virtual concerts are an opportunity to get up close and personal to the music and to the musicians,” said Quinn. “The works that we are playing are fun and intimate, we can take off our ties and cut loose a little bit. It also provides an opportunity for the musicians to be showcased and illustrate the virtuosity of their playing in a concert that will last forever.” 

For more information, call 941-207-8822.

Click here for more information.

The Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee is pleased to welcome Barbara Mazer to its Development team as its Chief Development Strategist. Federation CEO Howard Tevlowitz said, "Barbara is exactly what we’ve been searching for.  Her extensive background in development and her emphasis on data-driven fundraising and communications make her an excellent addition to our team." 

For more information, call 941-371-4546.

Click here for more information.

Joseph McElmeel, Chairman and CEO of executive search firm Brooke Chase Associates, Inc. is pleased to announce the successful recruitment by its Executive Recruiter, Rick Mohrman of Francisco Davila as Agility Onboarding and Acquisitions Manager for Hardwoods Distribution, Inc. 

Click here for more information.

The gals of The Woven Home Collection bring rattan bookcases and bamboo coffee tables to bohemian bargain hunters. 

Click here to read the full article in SRQ's November 2020 edition.