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Sarasota | Opinion

    By
  • Matt Walsh
  • March 18, 2020
Support local businesses

Great advice: ‘Calm breeds calm.’ But one of the best ways we can help beat COVID-19 is to do what Americans always do — fight back. Do what you can to keep our local economy healthy.

  • Sarasota
  • Opinion
    By
  • Guest Author
  • March 14, 2020
Letter to the editor: Doctors Hospital releases first COVID-19 patient

The Sarasota hospital has discharged the first Florida patient with COVID-19 and has cleared all involved physicians and employees to return to work.

  • Sarasota
  • Opinion
    By
  • Matt Walsh
  • March 12, 2020
Make a law and voila!

Sarasota city commissioners once again defied logic. While supporting the smart move to allow residential uses in commercial zones, they spoiled the idea with counterproductive regulations.

  • Sarasota
  • Opinion
Kerry Kirschner, former Sarasota mayor and executive director of The Argus Foundation, died March 4.
    By
  • Matt Walsh
  • March 12, 2020
The back of his boxing robe would have said ‘Sarasota’s Champion’

Kerry Kirschner died March 4.

  • Sarasota
  • Opinion
DeSoto Hotel (right), Courtesy of Manatee County Historical Resources
    By
  • Columnist .
  • March 12, 2020
Gillespie Day

March 10 celebrates Sarasota's golf-loving first mayor.

  • Sarasota
  • Opinion
Sarasota Suncoast Academy is one of 12 charter schools in Sarasota County.
    By
  • Adrian Moore
  • March 4, 2020
If charter schools are 'not as good as advertised,' why are families flocking to them?

Charter schools provide greater benefits than a report appears to show.

  • Longboat Key
  • Opinion
    By
  • Matt Walsh
  • February 26, 2020
He should be fired

FDOT is not the one to blame for the traffic backups on the Ringling Causeway. The city is. It controls the timing of the projects.

  • Longboat Key
  • Opinion
    By
  • Matt Walsh
  • February 19, 2020
How not to make law

Although the idea of merging FSU and New College came as a shock, it is worth exploring. That should have been done before drafting a bill. Lawmakers often forget they are the servants, not kings.

  • Longboat Key
  • Opinion
New College has become a top producer of students who earn prestigious fellowships. They have awarded 74 Fulbright Fellowships to their students over the past 15 years.
  • By Sen. Joe Gruters and Reps.Wengay “Newt” Newton, Will Robinson, Margaret Good, Tommy Gregory and James Buchanan
  • February 18, 2020
My View: New College is a premier institution, let's not break it

Bill in Tallahassee would make Sarasota college part of FSU system.

  • Longboat Key
  • Opinion
  • By Ken Shelin
  • February 13, 2020
My View: City lacks leadership in development issues

Commissioners, Planning Board members aren't experts on land-use.

  • Sarasota
  • Opinion
(Courtesy rendering) The Bath & Racquet Club property proposed buildings up to five stories tall adjacent to some single-family homes, a scale residents called unacceptable but city planners endorsed.
    By
  • Matt Walsh
  • February 13, 2020
The vision-less continues

We knew how the Bath & Racquet Club proposal would go — Sarasota’s own ‘Groundhog Day.’ At least Mayor Ahearn-Koch, a no voter again, has this right: The process needs to change.

  • Sarasota
  • Opinion
    By
  • Adrian Moore
  • February 6, 2020
Vacation-rental regulations come down to local control versus state preemption

With so many cities going too far with regulations, state control makes sense. If you don’t like vacation rentals, form an HOA.

  • Sarasota
  • Opinion
    By
  • Matt Walsh
  • January 29, 2020
Islanders to city: Fix 41-bridge backups now

Call city commissioners, and demand they do more to eliminate the backups. Their inaction is hurting the economy.

  • Longboat Key
  • Opinion
    By
  • Matt Walsh
  • January 23, 2020
Another tee shot goes 'OB'

Taxpayers are expected to subsidize the Bobby Jones Golf Club in the current fiscal year.

  • Sarasota
  • Opinion
    By
  • Matt Walsh
  • January 23, 2020
The pressure is on, Mote

With the Sarasota County Commission agreeing to front $20 million to Mote Marine for its aquarium from bed taxes, the bigger challenge is yet to come: proving its vision is real.

  • Sarasota
  • Opinion
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