List lobbyist produces mixed results

APRIL FOOLS — Wondering how Longboat Key earned a distinction as one of Florida’s sexiest islands? Why Sarasota was dubbed one of the nerdiest cities in America?

It didn’t happen by chance. Encouraged by the uptick in tourism when the area first started appearing on Internet rankings, Visit Sarasota County got approval from the county to hire a full-time staff member tasked with lobbying for Sarasota’s inclusion in various rankings.

Although the tourism group says the lists have brought positive attention to the city on a national scale, the intense focus on making as many lists as possible has produced dubious results. In addition to the city’s questionable presence on some lists — including Time Magazine’s “10 cities developers love” and the Buzzfeed article “19 cities that easily solved their homelessness problems” — other lists may bring more negative attention than anything.

“Some people might see the headline ‘13 cities with unfixable structural traffic issues,’ and say, ‘We don’t want to be included in that article,’” the list lobbyist said. “But those are the cities that are falling behind. All publicity is good publicity.”

Hopefully you made it to the end of the article, so we can say, Happy April Fools' Day! This story is not true.