3 things of the future.

Three things Sarasota should change in the future.

 Sarasota can help the environment and in the same time not spending too much money by encouraging the people to do the work.  Sarasota should push the eco tourism spots, and support shops and local community by putting them on the tourism map for all to see. Restaurants that are supporting any kind of Eco-friendly movement (sea WATCH) should be freely advertised by the Sarasota County. People are the key to the development of a city, and only if they are willingly changing their life style can we ever have a better future. By supporting people that’s doing good work to help the ecosystem and advertising those stories, we can slowly turn the mind set of people in Sarasota in to eco-friendly puppet. Just like how any commercial or advertisements work, all it need is to deliver the same message to the people over and over again. Imagine kids growing up seeing those ads and commercial of happy and cool eco-friendly industry and business...that will be their idol.

One more thing that I think can really help Sarasota is more excitement, as that will bring even more and different type of tourism in to Sarasota. Maybe construct an island theme park with three casinos and a wild forest to adventure? Whatever it is, I believe Sarasota need to do whatever it takes to bring in more tourist as its one of Sarasota’s main income. More tourists means more money, and money means that the county can do more things that can truly help the environment…like building more eco-friendly houses and some better public transportation.   

Learning at the Learning House

Week 13 April 7 Thursday

At Florida House Learning Center

Today as a class we went to the Florida House Learning Center. I am still confused on why it is named like that; it makes it sounds like a school or something. We had a really detailed presentation on why we should go green and why eco-friendly housing is much better. The house looks traditional, and I think some modern design on the visual wouldn’t hurt…something that can catch people’s eye, perhaps painted all in green? So it feels like its cover in grass and vegetation. To be honest the presentation is a little bit too long, and I believe our professor can do a much more interesting presentation than they can. However I still appreciate they took the time to do all this for us. Some of the technique they are using is interesting, and it allows us to have a more in depth understand of how an eco-friendly house work.

When we arrived at the place the sun was still up and everything looks really nice, so I was hoping to do a little touring around the house and the garden. I was a little disappointed when we were not doing a tour around the house…anyway in conclusion it was still a unique experience and we should defiantly do more field trip like this in the future.

Farmers Market

Week 12 April 2 Saturday

This weekend we went to the Farmer’s Market in Downtown Sarasota. It is the first time I have ever been here, as I don’t normally need to do the shopping myself. It is really interesting to find there is a place like this in Sarasota, and everything look really unique. Mostly are vegetables, plants and handmade arts. Everyone looks really friendly unlike big shopping mall, and it’s good to know we are helping the Sarasota community by buying things from the source itself. It save our money, and allow those farmers and artiest have a better live…so why not? It’s also good to know the person that grow your vegetation or bake your bread, it somehow taste better when it become a little personal. The market also has many venders selling handmade crafts like clothing, jewelry, paintings and wooden crafts. It’s good to see all those creative independent artists making a living on their own, as we will soon be doing the same thing. Its place like this that hold the community together, and make us feel it’s our responsibility to make Sarasota a better place.    



Birds and Faces

Week 11, March 26 Friday.

This week I went to the Selby Gardens with some friends for a school project. To be honest, visiting nature and watching trees isn’t my most favor thing to do on a Friday afternoon, but this time there is something more interesting. The Rainforest Mask Exhibit from Costa Rica is here, and that’s our main goal of this tour. Those masks are really colorful and interesting, almost cartoony like. Most of them use birds and vegetation as main theme, and a face is hidden inside all those decoration. The face looks like African art, and it contrast with the colorful theme of the birds and vegetation. It’s almost scary to find those faces hidden behind, almost like a hunter is waiting for its target. Those masks are good example of traditional art mix with modern style and technique, and it’s a good addiction to the Selby Gardens…too bad the exhibition is only open till April 15.

Hyatt Regency

Week 10 March 19 Friday

This week due to some water problem with my apartment I have to move out for three days, so I decided to move to the Hyatt Regency for the weekend. I used to stay here for almost a month when I first came here for school, and it left a good image in my mind. It is really “empty” for a hotel this size and Hyatt is a well hotel too. Living there for three days I had never see another customers, and the floor feel empty. The view is great especially at night looking at the sea, and this makes me wonder why there isn’t any visitor here in this hotel? Perhaps is not time for the tourist season, but keeping such a large place running with not customers seems to be a big waste of money. The Regency itself is part of the “view” at night, and with this currently down hall economy I can totally see this place disappear in the future, and this is to say the tourism of Sarasota is only going to become worst and worst unless someone make a huge change that once again attract tourism. I don’t think we can still count on our nature beauty to keep the people coming anymore, as our environment is not getting better and Sarasota’s tourism is going down with it.

Late Afternoon Driving

 Week 9,  March 12 Saturday

Today we take a little drive to the Westfield Sarasota Square for some shopping. I never realize how far away it is until now, and this makes me ask the question why is everything so far apart in city like Sarasota? One of the reasons I can come up with is that America is a big country, and in order to fully use its land people need to build things apart. Building shopping area away from people’s housing is also good for reduce noise and increase living condition. When everything is so far from each other it increase of the population to buy car, which help to boost the economy…but in another hand that’s really bad for pollution. In some city like New York where everything is so concentrated together that actually make people to take public transportation, and in that perspective more concentrated city actually help to reduce air pollution. However even if 50% of the people living in concentrated city that don’t have car, the number of people that drive car is still larger than 100% of people living in a place like Sarasota with cars…not to say all the air conditions in the city like San Francisco. I am not sure where I am going with this thought, but this remind me of where I came from where everything is mix together, and you can go shopping next door…or go to the movie just by crossing the street. Perhaps the best condition is in the middle where you don’t need to drive too much but in the same time still keep a nice quite living condition.

Late Lunch

           Week 8, March 4 Friday

I come across the Seafood WATCH site, and its information and design really interested me. I can’t remember if I find out about the site before or after the presentation we had in class, but I do remember that the Sushi guide is what that catch my eyes. I love its simplistic design, and easy to use handbook style. There are many guide books out there with information about how to help our environment and ecosystem, but most of them are boring and hard to carry around. With the knowledge of this Sushi guide I bring it with me to a Sushi restaurant down town. What I find most interesting is that most of the Sushi under “Best Choice” I have never ordered it before (as Sushi), and some of my personal favors are under the “Avoid” zone…and most of the “Good Alternative” I have never heard of.  I didn’t ask the people working there if they had heard about the Sea WATCH or not because I think most of the cooks there don’t speak much English. I decided to avoid all the fishes listed on the guide, and try out some of the “Best Choice” …and the result is interesting to say the least.

I am not sure how many people will give up what they like to eat to help the world, and especially when you don’t come across Sushi every day. Normal people may be willing to buy change some normal eating diet base on the book when doing some weekend shopping, but it’s hard for them to change ordering food that they like when eating out unless their new favor food is in that “Best Choice” section.