the 941

Scott Proffitt, one of the owners of downtown’s Main Bookshop, attended the City Commission meeting on Monday and offered his thoughts on the new lease Marina Jack negotiated with the City of Sarasota.

City investigates sweet deal for marina interests

The City Commission received the results of a review of the leases negotiated with Marina Jack, O’Leary’s and Mattison’s restaurants at  Monday’s Commission meeting and these results were mixed.

Where Mattison’s Restaurant was paying almost $17 per square foot (for those who have never understood this square foot thing, you take the rate per square feet and multiply it by the number of feet rented.  This is the annual rent.  Divide by 12 to get monthly rent and then the other issues are who is paying property taxes, water, common area maintenance, electric, etc…) Barry Abramson, of the eponymous Abramson & Associates, who performed this review, felt this was a “not unreasonable” rate.  Considering that much of Mattison’s is open space I would say that the City is doing very well indeed.

Marina Jack, on the other hand, pays 3 percent of gross revenues to the City of Sarasota, and pays no ad valorem taxes.  Go ask any restaurateur if they would be happy paying 3 percent of the gross sales in rent, much less no taxes.  On top of this, the lease is now extended to like 2047.  Who gets forty-year leases?  These are the deals that make citizens lose faith in government.  These arrangements are why the city is cash-strapped and having to let go of employees.  I would go so far as to question as to whether the city could go back and renegotiate, citing the mental competency of any commission who would agree to a forty-year lease.  I am well aware that Marina Jack (Jack Graham Inc.) would argue they have had significant capital expenditures (they built the restaurant) but they have been able to amortize that over the last forty years of incredibly favorable terms they received from the city.

To be fair, several current commissioners are questioning this truly unconscionable lease arrangement.  The most noticeable at this meeting being Kelly Kirschner who appears to be concerned over this situation and aware of the anger many taxpayers feel at the loss of significant revenue the city tossed away.  Whether anything can be done to ameliorate the situation is another matter.  Perhaps Jack Graham Inc will feel so guilty they will offer to change the terms of the lease out of civic duty?

Scott Proffitt has a little extra time on his hands these days while he is working on the repairs to his book store. Main Bookshop suffered severe damage when the sprinklers system went off a couple months ago. His “Inside Flap” column will be a regular feature on The 941 as long as he feels like writing it. 

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The numbers never lie. John McCain may appear to be close to Barack Obama in some national polls, but when you break it down by state and start counting electoral votes, McCain is headed for Mondale country.

• I would not have thought it possible, but the Republicans have hit another new low in their exploitation of 9/11.

• Television news have given up its last shred of respectability.

• Attorney General Michael Mukasey is asking Congress to subvert the Constitution.

• The rest of the neocons are not planning on giving up power anytime soon. Some are calling for George W. Bush to become president-for-life.

• Electronic strip searchs coming soon to an airport near you.

• Today in the GOP veepstakes from Robert Novak, Politico and The Washington Times.

• If you think the economy is bad now, some respectable people are calling for it to get much, much worse. Why? Something about$675 trillion in derivatives coming home to roost.

• Today’s small moment of sanity: a federal court has tossed the FCC’s fine against CBS for the “wardrobe malfunction.”

• Protest the war, get beaten by FBI agents. Sigh.

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Coming soon to a battlefield near you: paratrooper dogs. Really. We’re not kidding, though we wish we were.

• Europeans may thrilled at the prospect of an Obama presidency, but the man himself isn’t giving much time to continental journalists.

• If they are lucky enough to still have a job, most Americans can’t afford a vacation, but Europeans are flocking to Florida.

• How will the American TV networks handle their Chinese overlords during the Olympics?

• The speculation on potential running mates for Barack Obama and John McCain continues unabated. Yes, Hillary and Mitt are still in the running.

• A Vermont librarian, all 4-foot, 10 inches of her, stood up for privacy against a large group of cops - and won.

• Want to spend a frightening afternoon on the computer. Sit down and do a search for: REX 84.

• It’s time: Send Karl Rove to jail.

• As if the bad press from the Jena 6 wasn’t bad enough, violent racism continues in Louisiana.

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Mote Marine Laboratory to present first Eugenie Clark Award

The Board of Trustees of Mote Marine Laboratory will be hosting world-renowned oceanographer and explorer Dr. Sylvia Earle – a Mote trustee ? at a special dinner on Tuesday, July 22, at Marina Jacks, 2 Marina Plaza, Sarasota. The evening, organized by the Chairman of Mote’s Board of Trustees, Judy Graham, will begin with cocktails at 6 p.m. followed by a seated dinner at 7 p.m.

The highlight of the evening will be the presentation of the inaugural “Eugenie Clark Scientific Explorers Award” to Dr. Earle by Mote President Dr. Kumar Mahadevan and Dr. Eugenie (Genie) Clark, Mote’s founding director, whom the award was named after.

Former chief scientist of NOAA, Dr. Sylvia Earle is president of Deep Search International and chair of the Advisory Council for the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies. She was an Interim Executive Director of Mote Marine Laboratory in 1966 and is currently a member of Mote’s Board of Trustees and chairman of Mote’s Research Committee. Her research concerns marine ecosystems with special reference to exploration and the development and use of new technologies for access and effective operations in the deep sea and other remote environments. Dr. Earle has led more than 60 expeditions and logged more than 6,000 hours underwater, including leading the first team of women aquanauts during the Tektite Project in 1970 and setting a record for solo diving to a depth of 1,000 meters (3,300 feet).

The Eugenie Clark Scientific Explorers Award established for the extraordinary accomplishments, endless passion and exemplary goodwill of Dr. Eugenie Clark, the award is presented only to those who display similar qualities and characteristics in the advancement of science. Founder, first director and resident world-renowned scientist of Mote Marine Laboratory, Genie’s contagious love for life in the sea is continually passed on to people the world over.

In other Mote news:

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Scott Proffitt, one of the owners of downtown’s Main Bookshop, attended the City Commission meeting on Thursday afternoon and had some thoughts about what went down, namely the latest proposal for the redevelopment of Palm Avenue:

CITY CANS FOURTH PLAN IN TEN YEARS FOR PALM AVENUE PROJECT

Now, some people would say that the fact that the City has been unable to complete a satisfactory deal on the last three attempts says more about the City than about the various developers and their proposals.  And certainly our city has shown incredible ability to fail to take action on many issues in the past.  In this case however, the developer, Buck-Leiter Palm Avenue Development LLC, was changing the deal.  Chief City Planner Steven Stancel prepared an analysis of the changes that indicated the City might have to come up with an additional three million dollars.  There seemed to be a general consternation among some commissioners and staff regarding the transfer of the property to the developer along with having to front all sorts of expenses in a confusion of graphs and extrapolations in a fifty-year deal with the LLC.    Stancel bluntly said the current proposal was  “substantially different from the original proposal”.

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Congress was busy this week, working up a new Bill of Rights:

That was from the Onion News Network in case you were getting worried.

• And in the scary but true category, Democratic president candidate Barack Obama appears to be calling for a national police force as powerful and well-funded as the U.S. military. Do we really need a home-grown Stasi? He needs to come clean on this right away.

• More agitation about Bush’s crimes.

• The LA Times continues its “Countdown to Crawford.”

• But the good news is the ballot measure to rename a sewage treatment plant in honor of George W. Bush is going forward.

And since its Friday, we should wrap up with a little John Stewart.

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Why we are not likely to see war crimes prosecutions for anyone in the Bush White House, despite the desperate need.

• Nevertheless, Bush and Cheney have put a succession plan in place that sidesteps Congress should both of them be removed from office

• Despite its pleas for advice and need for rescue, the GOP is still hoping that Ron Paul will go away. Quietly.

• Newspapers stocks are deservedly in the tank, but it does not help that many buyers have been aggressively shorting, or betting the stocks will go even lower.

• Even McPaper is suffering.

• The scary rise of disaster capitalism.

• Criticize the Transportation Security Administration’s grossly bloated terrorism watch list, find yourself on it.

• Take a photo of a cop, get arrested.

• Plans are moving forward for the government to microchip all Americans. Why not just tatoo us like the Nazis did to the Jews?

• McCain: two gays only count as one parent.

• Time for the Mediterranean Union?

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A few weeks ago we did a story on the Sweded movie phenomenon. Little did I know that there is also a whole cottage industry that’s remaking movies using Lego figures. Here is a version of Raiders of the Lost Ark, a Raiders/Star Wars montage, a Star Trek reenactment and one great song, all played out with our little plastic friends.

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• Bombing wedding ceremonies in Afghanistan is not going to help us win hearts and minds. The U.S. has bombed five weddings recently. No wonder the Taliban is experiencing a serious resurgence. But this is what we get for squandering our military and intelligence resources in Iraq.

• John McCain is still wallowing in ignorance and still fighting the Cold War.

• Despite record high oil prices, President Bush is still not calling for conservation.

• Another problem with global warming that no one anticipated: an increase in kidney stones.

• Is Barack Obama an Oreo?

• Hillary Clinton’s new stump speech: The Republicans should apologize to America.

• President Bush has given the “amber light” to Israel regarding an attack on Iran. This is one step before a “green light.”

• We need to get this shouting, criminal idiot off the television:

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Mote Marine Laboratory has been caring for two pygmy killer whales, Dallas and Pete, for the last few weeks. One of the animals had another CT scan on Thursday and both are on the road to recovery and, hopefully, re-release into the wild. (Photo by Marc M. Ellis/Mote)

In other environmental news this week:

• Coral reefs are in big trouble. And not just from global warming, but from escaped farmed algae.

• New technology allows windows to collect solar energy for power generation. Yes, you can still see through them.

• How do we make air conditioners greener? This could save us a lot of money down here in the subtropical part of the United States.

• Stick this in you pipe and smoke it: your skin is producing marijuana-like substances.

• Further proof that Republicans really hate everyone: the government has again devalued human life, literally.

• Bush punts on global warming policy until the next president takes office.

• This looks like fun. Stupid fun, but fun nonetheless.

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