Arlington Park Neighborhood Action Strategy - City of Sarasota

INTRODUCTIONThe purpose of the Neighborhood Action Strategy (NAS) is to create a sense of safetyand investment through improving the overall quality of life in the Arlington Parkneighborhood. The expected outcomes of this NAS include:• a decrease in the number of criminal incidences coupled with a greater perceptionof safety among residents;• enhancing infrastructure and appearance while reducing health and safety-relatedcode violations;• establishing and maintaining a vision of what residents want the neighborhood tolook like in the future; and• reports of overall neighborhood satisfaction by stakeholders.The NAS is a comprehensive and participatory effort to develop an action plan for theneighborhood by the neighborhood, with assistance from the City. The effort iscomprehensive because it deals with all aspects and elements of the neighborhoodand because it consults with all the stakeholders in the community, including propertyowners, renters, and businesses. The City’s role is to facilitate a dialogue betweenthese private interests, ascertain the concerns and desires of the neighborhood as awhole, and directly report the needs of the stakeholders to the appropriate Citydepartments. Because the NAS emerges from the expressed needs of theneighborhood, stakeholders play a key role in determining what is included in theaction strategy. Citizen participation is crucial, not only to articulate the wishes of theneighborhood and to decide what must be included in the strategy, but also to cultivatethe spirit of volunteerism, pride, and personal investment necessary for long-term,sustainable neighborhood improvement.The current condition of a neighborhood is the sum of past and current choices. Thework of revitalization is to influence future choices so as to achieve a desiredneighborhood vision. It is not enough to say that the City will “invest inneighborhoods.” Without a rational way to identify individual neighborhood strengths,weaknesses, and opportunities, broad allocation of City resources to all theneighborhoods would likely be too dilute to improve any one neighborhood swiftly.Information gathered that explicitly expresses the needs of the neighborhood, such assurvey results and issues raised at NAS forums, justifies the immediate need toimplement the Arlington Park NAS.Below are the general goals of the NAS:• Identify, protect, and enhance existing neighborhood characteristics which residentsand property owners value and wish to preserve.• Identify aspects of the community which property owners wish to avoid in the future.• Create a list of community projects the Arlington Park neighborhood can support.• Secure adequate funding for implementation of recommended actions.Arlington Park Neighborhood Action Strategy 9