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Sarasota is going to be short a few more units of housing thanks to a Virginia-based group sticking its long nose where it did not belong.

Not too many blocks from Creative Loafing’s offices here in the Rosemary District, Planned Parenthood is building a new regional operations center and clinic. Part of Planned Parenthood’s deal with the city to build the center was that a couple of smaller buildings had to be constructed as a buffer for the center’s parking lot. Planned Parenthood had struck a deal with Habitat for Humanity to sell the land for a nominal fee ($10) so it could be used for affordable housing.

But as is so often the case with Planned Parenthood, right-wing nutjobs began pounding on the bars of their cages, demanding that Habitat, a religious organization, break its deal for the property.

Never mind that the city would lose three valuable housing units in the downtown area. Never mind that Habitat was gaining building space for next to nothing. There was a political point to be made. Planned Parenthood must be stopped, the good of the community be damned.

The Virginia-based group of nutjobs that stopped the deal is called the American Life League. It has made a lot of preposterous allegations against Planned Parenthood here in Sarasota, but these sorts of groups are never interested in the facts.

Sarasotans should be dismayed at how quickly Habitat caved to this outside pressure and should demand that the deal be put back on the table. Planned Parenthood is going to have its new center; the city may as well get some affordable housing from it.

Embarassing item #2 is from Bradenton:

Faced with a serious budget shortfall, Manatee County closed one of its environmental departments this week, firing most of the employees.

So if you live in Manatee County, as I do, and you care about clean water and clean air, too bad, the county no longer cares about those basic items.

The county, of course, put a positive spin on this disaster, claiming that some of the workers would go to another department, and that the move would greatly streamline operations. The county even had the brass nuts to assert, in an article in the Herald-Tribune, that having fewer employees watching the environment might actually improve environmental programs. Really? How?

I’d also like to know why environmental programs are the first to take hit here. Surely there was some fat in the county administration that could have been cut before slashing services that actually affect people’s quality of life?

Ask the commissioners at their next meeting. I doubt you’ll get a straight answer.

You can send the commissioners a note protesting their action by clicking on the links below:

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