An opinion article on the proposed Wal-Mart in the Ringling Shopping center, submitted by Sarasota resident Greg Bowdish.

We here at SRiQ just can’t get enough of Walmart. Sure, they’re an easy target, but it’s one with hard lessons for Sarasota and how we think about development. There are too many conversations that take place in hushed tones: “Ssshhhh — traffic.” ”What … ssshhh, how many stories?” “Don’t say the ‘D’ word or people will get upset … sshhhhh.” Well, we are gonna take these on, because we can either talk about hard planning issues or get rolled by ‘em. And Walmart just rolled into town. So, let’s start [...]

It’s tough getting readers up-to-speed on urban design — but luckily Walmart, urbanism’s favorite whipping boy, provides a decent crash course right here in Sarasota. Walmart is going to plop down two stores within our urban fabric: a smaller “neighborhood” store at the corner of Myrtle and US-41 on the North Trail and a “small Supercenter” at Ringling and Lime on the edge of downtown. It was not supposed to be this way. These two areas were supposed to be higher-density, mixed-use places close to downtown where the decisions to drive, [...]